When the 7-6 Pittsburgh Steelers meet the 7-6 Indianapolis Colts on Saturday, it will be a battle between two teams fighting for their playoff lives in a crowded AFC playoff picture. On his All Things Covered podcast, Patrick Peterson said the game will feel like a playoff game.
“You lose, you go home,” Peterson said. “I told the guys today after we got let off our last meeting, after we get off the field, I said, ‘Man, if you haven’t ever been in a playoff game, this will feel like one Saturday.'”
It’s a sentiment that safety Minkah Fitzpatrick agrees with, telling reporters, including Chris Adamski of TribLive, that it’s a playoff game “in his eyes.”
The Steelers need to come out and treat it like a playoff game. It can’t just feel like one, they have to play like it is one. In their losses to the Arizona Cardinals and New England Patriots, they came out flat. They didn’t execute and got behind early and couldn’t recover. If that happens on Saturday, their playoff hopes are as good as gone.
That starts with coaching, and Mike Tomlin and the rest of the coaching staff have to have the team ready to compete from the opening kickoff. Anything else would be inexcusable. Even though the Steelers are a banged-up bunch, with quarterback Kenny Pickett out, so are the Colts, who lost their starting quarterback in Anthony Richardson earlier this season. In fact, most of the AFC is dealing with injuries, so that can’t be any sort of excuse for the Steelers.
They have to be prepared, they have to execute, and they have to win. If they fail to do so, this will go down as one of, if not the worst, stretch in Mike Tomlin’s tenure and a failed season. A win changes their trajectory, and at 8-6, they’ll have a shot at making the playoffs and continue to control their own destiny.
The game is in Indianapolis, which doesn’t make things any easier, but after the way the Steelers played at home over their last two games, maybe a change of scenery will be beneficial. They won at Lucas Oil Stadium last season, haven’t lost to the Colts since 2008, and despite Pittsburgh’s recent struggles, it’s a winnable game on Saturday. They just can’t afford to put themselves in another early hole and try to dig their way out of it against a Colts team that’s better than their prior two opponents. If they do, it will be another very long week in Pittsburgh.
Watch the full episode of All Things Covered with Peterson and Bryant McFadden below.
