I don’t know how many players in the locker room are smiling, but I do know that the Pittsburgh Steelers are facing adversity. Dropping three games in a row as they chase a playoff spot, their backs are squarely against the wall. Hope is rapidly fading, as are the remaining games in the season. But one thing that isn’t going anywhere is the brotherhood, it seems.
“I truly believe that it is. I really do”, CB Patrick Peterson said after yesterday’s loss, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s YouTube channel, when asked if he believes that the buy-in among the players in the locker room remains strong. On the matter of if the locker room had been lost, he said, “No, not at all”.
“It’s just us kicking our own self in the butt”, he reiterated. “Once we figure that out, obviously, I know we have three games left, we could be really dangerous. But guys really still believe in one another. It’s just a matter of going out there and getting the job done”.
That’s not likely to happen, if we’re being realistic, but for as poor as the body language was on the field, at least those who spoke to the media after the game genuinely seemed to remain together and bonded as a team.
“I haven’t given up on this team, and everybody feels the same way”, rookie CB Joey Porter Jr. said after the game, via the team’s website. “It’s definitely a learning moment”, RB Jaylen Warren shared in the wake of the loss, “but we’re doing it together. QB Mitch Trubisky also said he believes that the buy-in remains strong.
Then again, we didn’t hear from RB Najee Harris after the game as he seems to decline interviews following most losses—quite possibly for the better. As best I’m aware, we didn’t hear from WR George Pickens, either. And we didn’t hear from S Minkah Fitzpatrick, who had some of the harshest words for his teammates that I recall an active member of the Steelers saying in recent memory.
One thing I will say is that head coach Mike Tomlin does have a history of keeping teams together. Things fell apart at the end of the 2019 season, but before that, following a 1-4 start, he kept that team going with a rookie undrafted quarterback and got them to 8-5 before the bottom fell out. An 0-4 start in 2013 still ended in an 8-8 season.
Some of these teams may quite frankly be bad, but they don’t give up. Not last year’s team, either, which was 2-6 in the first half of the season but turned things around and went 7-2 the rest of the way. These are largely the same players, albeit without QB Kenny Pickett for the past two-and-a-half games.
The players and even the coaches have been asked about “the buy-in” a lot this season amidst their struggles. They’ve never seemed to question it, internally, even if some have questioned their effort. But is it still? How would we know?
