The Pittsburgh Steelers’ loss to the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Wild Card Round brought a rather frustrating but expected end to the 2024 season. What once appeared to be a promising season came crashing down as the Steelers dropped five straight games, looked lifeless at times, and really had no answers on either side of the football.
The noise surrounding the franchise is loud, and team captain Cameron Heyward understands why. But while the fans are upset and the media is circling, Heyward on the latest episode of his Not Just Football with Cam Heyward podcast Thursday morning said the players are upset, too, after an “unacceptable” performance in Baltimore that extended the Steelers’ postseason losing streak to five games.
“Yeah, this is our life. We live for this. And it’s not just letting our fans down, it’s just letting ourselves down. We carry so much on our shoulders,” Heyward said, according to video via the show’s YouTube page. “We appreciate every fan that’s there that cares. But it doesn’t…we’re more than just frustrated.
“And we understand that it’s unacceptable because of the people who were here before who’ve had such great success. And there’s a lot that needs to improve on our side of the ball, in our team.”
What the Steelers have done over the last decade under Mike Tomlin, particularly in the postseason, is unacceptable. The Steelers haven’t won a playoff game since 2016. They’ve been blown out in all but one of them, and even then that was an embarrassing 45-42 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2017.
Last Saturday night, the Steelers were slow out of the gates, had no answers for the Ravens on either side of the football, and bowed out of the playoffs in rather embarrassing fashion yet again. People are fed up.
Heyward, who has been around 14 years and counting, understands it. There’s a standard in Pittsburgh of competing for championships, playing hard, tough football, and more. Not just winning 9-10 games a season and getting into the playoffs. There’s more to it than that.
Right now, the Steelers can’t seem to get over the hump.
And while there is a lot of noise and criticism regarding the perceived lack of effort on the field in the Wild Card loss, Heyward didn’t see that from his teammates, especially on defense.
“You had guys like Patrick Queen fighting through illness If they’re given less than a hundred percent, they gotta live with that. But from my perspective, there wasn’t anybody like that,” Heyward said.
Regardless of if there was a lack of effort, the Steelers just weren’t good enough — again. It’s becoming a yearly thing with the Steelers, and it’s frustrating for all parties involved.
Hopefully that frustration can be channeled this offseason to help find solutions to get over the hump and turn the results into something positive in the Steel City once again.
Check out the full episode of Not Just Football with Cam Heyward below.
