Boy, have I got exciting news for you. As it turns out, no matter what else happens, the Pittsburgh Steelers still control their playoff fate. After checking with certain well-placed sources, losing to bad teams doesn’t actually count as double losses, so they’re no worse than the other four. And if the Steelers were to run the table and finish 11-6, they would be postseason bound.
But the last people who should be thinking about that are those in the locker room. And that’s what CB Patrick Peterson has been trying to make clear to the younger players who are trying to see the forest when they need to be worrying about the trees, so to speak.
“We just have to control what we can control and that’s winning ball games”, he said following Thursday’s loss to the New England Patriots, via Teresa Varley for the team’s website. “Having a young team, you have guys always asking you about playoff implications and things like that”.
Will it completely undermine the Steelers’ chances of winning games if players are wondering what needs to happen in order for the team to make the playoffs? No, probably not. But the only thing that matters is winning the next one, because if you don’t do that, it’s all for naught.
“Let’s win our games”, Peterson said. “At the end of Week 18, we’ll see what we have to play after that. Just want to get guys in the mindset of focus on what we can control and make sure that we master the process as we go through the process week in and week out to get those Ws and earn the right to get that playoff berth”.
The best way to go about making a run is by winning the first game. After that, you can move on to the next and the next and the next. If you’re worrying about what’s going to happen a month from now, you’re not devoting everything you can to what’s happening right in front of you.
That’s just a bit of the perspective Peterson is trying to share with his younger teammates, who may be more used to playing under the college ranking system. And it’s not as though there is any less impetus to win the next game if they need help to ultimately get into the playoffs, so in that sense, it really doesn’t matter.
The Steelers have made the playoffs in two of the past three seasons, just missing the cut in the final week of the 2022 season. Unfortunately, they got no further than the opening round, and frankly, there isn’t much optimism of them getting any further should they manage to make it again this year. But you can worry about that after the next game. And the next, and the next, and the next.
