If you rewind the Steelers’ season roughly five weeks, things didn’t look great. The team was coming off its third consecutive loss, two of which were against teams that finished the season with four wins apiece.
The doomsday crew, myself included, were talking about a complete overhaul in Pittsburgh anticipating the team losing out. Head coach Mike Tomlin came into focus with many asking the question if he had lost the locker room.
And according to Steelers running back Najee Harris, that was never the case.
“We had our losing streaks, we had our rough times, but like any other thing in life we just gotta keep going and keep pushing and that’s what we have done,” said Harris to reporters on Friday via 93.7 The Fan. “We never lost the locker room, we never looked at anybody’s eyes like I don’t trust you.”
Obviously, it’s easier to say this now than a few weeks ago. Back then, leaders like Minkah Fitzpatrick were calling out players for expecting to have things handed to them.
Heading into the playoffs on a winning streak can create that you-didn’t-believe-in-us type of mentality and frankly, that makes for the most dangerous teams.
“We always knew that we could be capable of this,” Harris said. “We always knew that we could be winning out to this day.”
That sounds like a confident bunch heading into Buffalo on Sunday.
Harris went on to say that the media created the narrative that the locker room was in disarray. While I wouldn’t go that far, it may have been an overstep to assume the team would willingly continue to lose with Tomlin at the helm.
He thrives off the “no one believes in us” mentality, using it to help motivate his team. This is primarily why he tends to finish seasons so strongly and make late pushes for the playoffs.
It’s also the reason why he has yet to oversee a team that had a losing season despite 17 years on the job.
Maybe that’s why players like Myles Jack said Tomlin’s seat is “freezing” in terms of getting fired.
Now let’s see if the team can continue to rally around Tomlin as he looks to capture his first playoff win since 2016.
