Get into the playoffs and anything can happen. That is going to be the rallying cry for the Pittsburgh Steelers as they once again back their way into the postseason after another disappointing month of December. By definition, the Week 18 game against the Cincinnati Bengals isn’t a must-win game, but they had better win it if they want any chance of making noise as a Wild Card team.
Chase Daniel isn’t ready to give up all faith if they lose, because he knows the message that his coaches preached to him throughout his NFL career.
“I would lose most of my faith. Not all faith because they’re in the tournament, and all the coaches I’ve had: Andy Reid, Sean Payton — they just said get into the tournament. Stuff can happen,” Daniel said via The Facility on FS1. “But man, they gotta win. They can’t go into the playoffs limping in with four straight losses.”
Plenty of Wild Card teams have made it all the way to the Super Bowl. There have been 10 teams, including the 2005 Super Bowl-winning Steelers team, to advance to the final game as a Wild Card team. But even that 2005 team had a hot streak before entering the playoffs. The Steelers won’t have the option to do that, but they can finish their season with a sweep of the Bengals, shutting down their rival’s chances of advancing to the postseason.
“My thing is like Russ [Wilson], four turnovers in the three-game losing streak, two in the red zone — can’t happen. But where’s the Steelers’ defense at?” Daniel said. “I hope they don’t lose because I like the Steelers. We were talking about ’em as Super Bowl favorites at one point, right? Just get back to doing the basics. If there’s a coach I trust a lot in this league, it’s Mike Tomlin. There’d be a mustard seed of faith right there for me, but you can’t lose, man.”
The mustard seed is one of the smallest seeds that can grow into a mighty tree. Daniel would reserve the smallest glimmer of hope for the Steelers, even with a Week 18 loss.
If they win the game, they will at worst guarantee themselves a trip to the Houston Texans to play another struggling playoff team. If they lose, they could be on the road to the Baltimore Ravens. While the Steelers have a good recent track record against the Ravens, they just faced Baltimore on the road a few weeks ago and got blown out. If they can win and then get a win in the Wild Card round against the Texans, that might be enough momentum to make serious noise in the division round and beyond. From there, who knows.
At one point, this offense was ascending to be near a top-10 group in the league. At one point, the defense looked like another one in a long line of Steelers greats. If they can recapture some of that, then they can absolutely still compete in the playoffs. Their story hasn’t been written quite yet.
Otherwise, they will be a one-and-done group once again and extend their playoff losing streak. They will be right back to square one from a year ago despite all of the changes on the coaching staff and roster. Given the elevated expectations, this offseason could end up being more uncomfortable than the last one.
