The Pittsburgh Steelers have never suffered through a losing season under Mike Tomlin, but that doesn’t mean every year has been a success. At this point, just barely scraping into the playoffs only to get destroyed by whoever they’re playing isn’t good enough for the Steelers. The franchise hasn’t won a playoff game since 2016, with most of their losses since then being blowouts. It seems that the Steelers’ reputation is moving away from being a perennial Super Bowl contender, to now being a free win for playoff opponents, at least according to one Miami Dolphins writer and podcast host.
Travis Wingfield is a writer for the Dolphins and also hosts one of their podcasts, Drive Time. On the most recent episode, Wingfield was previewing the NFC North and spoke about the Detroit Lions, saying their game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the second round of the playoffs was easy relative to the other playoff teams. Building off this, Wingfield asked why the Dolphins couldn’t be matched up against the Steelers in the playoffs, stating it would be an easy win and would guarantee the Dolphins a spot in the conference championship.
”Sometimes winning playoff games is as favorable as your draw. Granted, good for the Lions, they won their division and that Rams team was no easy out, even though I picked against them all year,” Wingfield said. “That was a good Rams football team they beat, but then they get the Bucs in the divisional round? Can we have that? Can we get the Steelers, at home, in the divisional round this year? That would be a guaranteed trip to the conference championship game.”
Obviously, Wingfield is saying here that the Dolphins would dominate and easily beat the Steelers in the playoffs if the two teams matched up, which would be fair coming from a team like the Kansas City Chiefs or the Buffalo Bills who have rolled over the Steelers in the playoffs recently. But the Dolphins have had less postseason success than the Steelers during the past 15 years. In fact, the Steelers’ last playoff win came against the Dolphins in 2016. Miami’s last playoff win? Dec. 30, 2000 against the Indianapolis Colts. They then proceeded to lose 27-0 against the Oakland Raiders the following week.
Saying the Steelers have been bad in the playoffs recently is fair. However, the Dolphins have proved over the past 25 years that they shouldn’t throw stones from a glass house. In this millennia, the Steelers have won as many Super Bowls as the Dolphins have won playoff games. Just as well, Wingfield makes sure to specify that he’d want the Dolphins to play the Steelers in Miami, which is probably because the cold in Pittsburgh during the playoffs could have a serious impact on the Dolphins. If you need perfect weather conditions to win a playoff game, then you probably shouldn’t be thinking about coasting against any team.
The Steelers are well aware of their failure in the playoffs, as evidenced by T.J. Watt’s desire to finally win a postseason game, so they have no intentions of looking at any matchup as easy. Even that Bucs team last year beat the Philadelphia Eagles and put up a fight against the Lions. If a team makes the playoffs, they should be taken seriously as a threat. The Steelers know that better than most because they’ve won a Super Bowl as the lowest seed in the playoffs. Nothing is guaranteed in the NFL, but that’s especially true in the playoffs, and also couldn’t be more factual than when your franchise has barely been better than the Cleveland Browns since the 2000 season.
