After an embarrassing 24-10 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, the Pittsburgh Steelers sit at 7-5 and are currently the top wild-card team in the AFC. If the season ended today, they’d be in the playoffs, but they still have five games left. After dropping a game to the 2-10 Cardinals, no game is assured, and the rest of Pittsburgh’s schedule isn’t all that easy. They have three road games and also host the 2-10 Patriots and 6-6 Bengals at home, and Cincinnati is coming off a big road win against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Monday Night Football. NFL analyst Kay Adams said this can’t be the year Mike Tomlin lets things fall apart down the stretch.
“Gonna be a rough road though,” Adams said about Pittsburgh making the playoffs. “They still have to go on the road, Indy, Seattle, Baltimore down the stretch. You don’t want your playoff hopes to hinge on a Week 18 [game] at the Ravens. You just don’t. It’s not pretty, it’s not cute, I do not love that for you. I do not love that for you Steelers. Do not let this be the year that Tomlin thing unravels in all of that. Coach Mitchell Trubisky up, let the amazing Coach of The Year candidate that you are, let the GOAT that you are, Tomlin, and get it done.”
With QB Kenny Pickett sidelined for at least Thursday’s game and probably longer, it’s going to be the Mitch Trubisky show under center for Pittsburgh. While Trubisky hasn’t been super impressive when he has started for Pittsburgh — he holds a 2-3 record in five starts last season, with one of those losses coming to the Patriots in Week Two of last season — Pickett wasn’t lighting the world on fire, either.
While Trubisky likely will not be an upgrade, he can be a game manager like Pickett was. If he can avoid turning the ball over (which has been a major issue for him), the Steelers’ run game has gotten going and defense is among the best in the league. Pittsburgh can still win with Trubisky similar to how it won with Pickett and can stem the tide until Pickett is able to come back from his ankle injury.
It’s also not ideal, as Adams points out, that the Steelers end their season with a road tilt against Baltimore. At 9-3, the Ravens lead the AFC North, and while the Steelers did beat them at Acrisure Stadium, dropped passes by Baltimore played a key role in that win. It’s not going to be an easy matchup for the Steelers, and it would be ideal if they can take care of business beforehand and not have their playoff hopes hinge on that matchup.
We’ll see if Tomlin and the Steelers can get back on track for New England. If they can’t, there’s going to be serious questions about this team and its leadership.
