The 2024 season has felt very different from last year for the most part, but here the Pittsburgh Steelers are with a week to go and a chance to end with the same 10-7 record they did with Kenny Pickett, Mason Rudolph and Mitch Trubisky at quarterback. The three-game, 11-day stretch ended with another blowout loss for Mike Tomlin and the Steelers at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs.
“That sucked, to be blunt,” Tomlin said via the Steelers’ YouTube channel. “Not the type of ball we wanna play and really kind of eerily similar to our last performance in that we’re not doing the fundamental things well enough.”
Throughout the losing streak, the Steelers regressed in their tackling, their ball security, their turnover culture, and many other aspects that made them the successful team they were for most of the season.
With just one week to go, the Steelers look like they are poised to yet again back their way into the playoffs and lose in the opening round. It wasn’t that long ago that many pundits were talking about the Steelers as a possible Super Bowl contender. Now just winning in the Wild Card round would seem like a big accomplishment. It shows just how far this team has fallen in recent weeks.
It’s one thing to lose against three quality teams, but to suffer blowouts in each contest is another thing altogether. The Steelers have lost by a combined 90-40 during the loss streak.
“You can look at it from a lot of angles. The bottom line is, it’s junior varsity. It’s not good enough. We gotta own that, but we also gotta look at what it is we need to do different,” Tomlin said via the Steelers YouTube following the game. “We’re not gonna continue to do the same thing and hope for a different result. That doesn’t seem sharp to me. And so we’re gonna take a hard look at this.
“We got a couple extra days off before we get back into it. We’re gonna take a look at it and make whatever necessary changes we need to make in the totality of this thing because again, that doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t look good.”
This loss hits a little differently than the other two. The Eagles and Ravens are difficult to play against on the road, especially with several key players missing on both sides of the ball for the Steelers. Nearly all of those players returned this week against the Chiefs, and they got embarrassed in front of a home crowd on Christmas. The stands were clearing out pretty early in the fourth quarter, to speak to just how deflating this loss was.
What kind of changes are they going to make? That isn’t as easy to figure out. The issues in the secondary aren’t easy to fix with a lack of depth and Joey Porter Jr. dealing with an injury. The offensive line depth has been depleted all season, so that’s not an easy fix either.
I doubt they would look at the quarterback situation at this point between Justin Fields and Russell Wilson, though Wilson has been shaky over this three-game stretch.
Whatever personnel or scheme changes they come up with, they need to implement them in a hurry. The opening round of the playoffs is less than two weeks away. Can Mike Tomlin get this Steelers team back in the right frame of mind to avoid another playoff disappointment?
