After the Pittsburgh Steelers dropped to 7-7 following a 30-13 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, the team fell to 10th in the AFC playoff race and faces a real uphill climb to make the postseason. While they were alive in the playoff race heading into the game, former NFL safety Kerry Rhodes said that the Steelers have been down “for a while.”
“A lot of fluke wins happened throughout the season that kind of kept them afloat. And so you see the record 7-4, which could easily be 4-7, even at the point they were,” Rhodes said on Fox Sports Radio. “They’re done. And I think it’s catching up to ’em. And now I think the season’s officially in the can. They will finish below .500 this year.”
The Steelers were outgained in their first 10 games of the season, but they managed three come-from-behind wins in the fourth quarter and played good enough defense to keep scores low with the offense doing just enough. After a 13-10 loss to the Cleveland Browns in Week 11, the team fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada and the offense looked instantly improved, putting up over 400 yards for the first time since 2020, in a win over the Cincinnati Bengals.
But that was evidently a mirage as Pittsburgh has been a mess offensively over its last three games. Really, after losing to the Arizona Cardinals and losing QB Kenny Pickett in Week 13, that was the end for this team. Pickett wasn’t great when he played this season, but QB Mitch Trubisky has been such a disaster over the last two games that it made Pittsburgh miss Pickett. The offense just hasn’t been able to do anything, while the defense has been decimated by injuries and gotten torched by tight ends and the opposing run game during the Steelers’ three-game losing streak.
It’s another season that looks likely to end without a playoff berth, and there have been far too many of those lately in Pittsburgh. It’s not acceptable, and while the Steelers still have slim playoff hopes, I don’t think anyone is confident this team can win out and sneak into the playoffs. In fact, as Rhodes said, the prevailing thought is that this could be Mike Tomlin’s first losing season as, at 7-7, the Steelers could easily drop two of their final three games. It has the makings of a long offseason in Pittsburgh as this franchise tries to figure out its quarterback situation and how to get back to its winning ways.
