The Pittsburgh Steelers 2023 season almost crumbled during a three-game stretch from Weeks 13-15, when the Steelers dropped three straight games to fall from 7-4 to 7-7. Even worse, two of the losses were to 2-10 teams at the time, the Arizona Cardinals and New England Patriots. The Steelers were able to rebound by winning their last three regular season games, but the stretch was historically bad, and it almost cost the Steelers a playoff spot. It’s part of the story of their 2023 season, and while Mike Tomlin said in his end-of-season presser that he “hated” the stretch, he talked about how it’s one of many challenges that can arise during the course of the season.
“You always face challenges during the course of the season. They’re always different and ever-changing and complex. I think you got to continually have a hardcore plan while being light on your feet from a change perspective, while at the same time, you can’t blow in the wind. And so, there’s a delicate balance there, if you will, and I’m comfortable walking that. It’s always different because the variables are many and different. Certainly, I hated that three-game stretch. I realized how significant it was in our positioning, but we’ll be faced with
challenges moving forward,” Tomlin said via the team’s YouTube channel.
Undoubtedly, losing three straight games, including two to bad teams, and getting outplayed in all three is a challenge, and it reflected poorly on Tomlin. That stretch did show that Pittsburgh was capable of overcoming adversity, as they then rallied to win their final three games and came together through injuries to make the playoffs.
It’s not the first time and won’t be the last time Pittsburgh goes through a losing streak under Tomlin, but it was more the manner of how Pittsburgh played and the teams they lost to that were the issue. They came out flat against New England and Arizona, while they blew a 13-0 lead in a 30-13 loss to Indianapolis. It looked like a team that wasn’t prepared and a team that just wasn’t good. Tomlin got outcoached, and the Steelers got outplayed. But going through that experience is something that Tomlin surely doesn’t want again, and the players won’t want again. It was a major challenge, and they showed that they could overcome it, which is probably the only positive that came out of the stretch.
Tomlin is right that there’s a variety of different challenges that a team faces in the season. Injuries, underwhelming play, whatever they may be, are all challenges a team may face that they have to overcome. For the Steelers, the three-game losing streak and ensuing injury problems became a major challenge that they faced, and they ended up being able to just make it a footnote in their season instead of a stretch that defined it. Going forward, the Steelers will continue to face challenges, but hopefully none as embarrassing and painful to watch as the three-game losing streak.
