The Pittsburgh Steelers lost a game yesterday to the hottest team in the NFL. That’s essentially all that happened, although it made other things more difficult. Winning the AFC North is a little bit tougher, or at least they have fewer paths to claiming it. And they can just about forget securing a first-round bye, though that was already unlikely.
But really, all the Steelers did was lose a game, and they are still 7-2 in their last nine. That was the message from HC Mike Tomlin after the game, at least when prompted by some media histrionics. Asked how he can prevent the 27-13 loss to the Eagles from snowballing into their next games, he had little patience.
“It’s a loss. I mean, let’s not get dramatic”, Tomlin said, via the Steelers’ website. And let’s not pretend that the Eagles aren’t a 12-2 team on a 10-game winning streak. If the Steelers were going to lose another game, it was probably going to be this one. And given that it’s a non-conference game, it was the least damaging in terms of potential tiebreakers.
Perhaps most importantly, nobody in the locker room feels beaten. The Steelers know they lost, of course, but they don’t feel outclassed or overpowered. They still have the belief that they can compete with the Eagles and teams of that ilk.
“I felt like we have the talent, the scheme, and everything to compete. We just shot ourselves in the foot too many times tonight”, Steelers TE Pat Freiermuth said. “They didn’t do anything special against us tonight. We just didn’t execute for some reason early on”.
We heard a similar message trickling throughout the locker room. The Steelers caused themselves some of their own problems, though the officials didn’t always help. While they suffered their biggest loss of the season, they feel this is a game that got away. And that they could get them back next time, if given another chance down the road.
“Getting behind the sticks a lot, being in second-and-long, third-and-long, that’s just going to be losing football that way”, Steelers WR Calvin Austin III said. “It’s very frustrating because we know if we don’t beat ourselves, it’s a different game”.
The Eagles are the sort of team the Steelers will face in the playoffs, though they could only see Philadelphia in the Super Bowl. In their own conference, the Steelers will have to worry about the Chiefs and the Bills. They are already amply familiar with the Ravens, of course, another potential postseason opponent.
The Steelers know this three-game stretch is a postseason preview, particularly the next phase. On Saturday, they face the Baltimore Ravens and next Wednesday host the Kansas City Chiefs. They can lock up the AFC North with a win over the Ravens, but beyond that, there is little else they can do without help. After that, it’s more about keeping ahead of the Texans for third place in the AFC.
