Until this recent three-game losing streak, it had been nothing but positive for the Pittsburgh Steelers for most of the season. They clinched a playoff berth with multiple weeks to go and had a clear path to winning the division. Mike Tomlin was even a popular coach of the year candidate. That isn’t going to be the case anymore. He has his work cut out for him to get this team back on track.
“Maybe it’s good to hit rock bottom now and to get that out of the way and to flatten out like they have now,” Kyle Brandt said via Good Morning Football. “They have one game left to play. It’s against Cincinnati, who they’ve already beaten and whose defense is very supple and ready to have a little warmup game for Russ.”
There are a couple silver linings to the Steelers’ recent losses if you look hard enough. For one, they are going to have an opportunity for a get-right game against the Bengals’ defense. After the last time the Steelers played that defense, they had the entire NFL world believing in them as Super Bowl contenders. They managed to put up 44 points in a shootout against Joe Burrow and the hottest offense in the league.
This one will be at home, and the Bengals may or may not have anything to play for depending on the outcomes of other Week 17 games. It could be the perfect opportunity to right the ship on offense, and maybe even defense if guys like Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase end up sitting in a potentially meaningless game.
Tomlin discussed the need for the Steelers to take a hard look at themselves over the next several days. He hinted at making whatever “necessary changes” they can find, though it’s unclear what that may look like. Whatever it is, Tomlin needs to prove why he was a coach of the year candidate for most of the season.
“You have extra days in this week. If Mike Tomlin needs to go and live up to the reputation that he has that we all bestow upon him and be more than just quotes and speeches and actually fix the team midstream and get ready for the playoffs,” Brandt said. “Maybe it is a blessing that instead of getting sucker punched in the first round like they usually do, they’re on the canvas right now looking for their mouth guard, trying to get up with some time to fix it.”
The other silver lining is that the Steelers’ most likely opponent in the Wild Card round is the Houston Texans. They lost big that team last year in Houston, but the Texans are struggling just as bad as the Steelers right now. They got blown out 31-2 on Christmas by the Ravens.
The Bengals in the regular-season finale and the Texans in the first round of the playoffs have the potential to serve as a nice on-ramp to the type of playoff run that many envisioned for the Steelers.
If the Steelers once again back their way into the playoffs only to lose in the first round, it is going to get quite noisy in the media around this team — and for good reason.
