Over the many twists and turns of this season, the Pittsburgh Steelers somehow managed to avoid losing consecutive games all the way until Week 13 and 14. There were some ugly losses in the mix, but the team always managed to bounce back with a win the following week. Now, the team is trying to figure out how to move forward from back-to-back losses. These losses weren’t against great teams, either. The Arizona Cardinals and New England Patriots were each 2-10 entering their games against the Steelers.
RB Najee Harris spoke to the media after practice on Wednesday and was asked if the team could learn from these losses.
“I think there are some things that winning teaches, but there’s some things you can only learn with losing,” Harris said in a video posted on the Steelers’ YouTube page. “That’s resiliency, it can use as motivation. It’s seeing your mistakes. It’s keeping you humble in a way.”
The Steelers have certainly been humbled. They did something no team has ever done in losing those back-to-back games to 2-10 teams and sent the media into a frenzy about head coach Mike Tomlin’s future.
This is also just a few weeks after the firing of offensive coordinator Matt Canada mid-season. The team was riding a high after putting up their first 400-yard performance in years against the Cincinnati Bengals the first week without Canada and then immediately took not one, but two gut punches in a matter of five days. If there was ever a time to reflect and look inward in an attempt to right the ship, that time is now.
“We experienced the taste of defeat,” Harris continued. “We experienced the taste of not making the playoffs last year. So I think that we need to carry that over this year and know that these last four games are important to us.”
Despite all of the media chatter about the “Steeler Way” eroding, the players are all saying the right things. They are treating these last four games as playoff games, as they should be.
A road trip to Indianapolis to play the Colts will likely play a huge role in deciding the team’s playoff fate. With a win, the Steelers are very much in the thick of things. A loss would likely put them out of contention. It is time to take those lessons from the losses and put them to use.
