The Pittsburgh Steelers have a lot to prove tonight—to themselves, and to the world. While they don’t need to win to make the playoffs, they know their reputation is at stake. Reeling from a humiliating three-game losing streak, they are no longer taken seriously as a competitive playoff team.
“We understand where we are at. We understand what’s transpired within the last three games,” Steelers CB Donte Jackson said, via Teresa Varley for the Steelers’ website. “But our whole motto is just to reset and attack this game like we would attack any other game. Clean up the issues that we’ve been having and just play great football.”
Reset and attack. That is about all the Steelers can do, given where they are. Of course, they likely tried to do just that in each of their past two games as well, only to suffer the same results. This time, at least, they had a long break after their most recent game, and time to make important adjustments.
And Donte Jackson suggests that the shift in the Steelers’ facilities this week is palpable. “You can feel it in the building,” he noted. “Nobody is down. Nobody’s feeling sorry for themselves, because we all understand that we’re promised next week. So, there’s some good and positivity in that.”
It is true that the Steelers may not be able to affect their playoff fate whether they win or lose tonight. They can advance as the fifth seed if they beat the Bengals. They can advance as the fifth seed if they don’t. But they would sure feel better advancing after a game in which they feel like themselves.
“We are excited to go out there and prove the type of team we are,” the Steelers cornerback said. “We have a great opportunity on primetime Saturday night against a division opponent to show the world what type of team we really are.”
The problem is, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to identify who the real Steelers are. They failed their greatest challenge and did so in spectacular fashion. The defense in particular fell flat, though the offense fared no better. Collectively, the Steelers lost their last three games by a margin of 90-40. Prior to that span, they had the fourth-highest points differential in the conference. Now they have the fourth-lowest differential of all teams with a winning record.
Who will the Steelers be tonight at home against the Bengals? I’m not sure that matters. At least, it won’t mean much if they have a good game and then lay an egg the following week. The Steelers are, or used to be, about playoff success and the quest for a Super Bowl.
They haven’t even come close to a Super Bowl since long before Donte Jackson was in the NFL. Well, the Steelers reached the conference finals in 2016, but that has been an aberration of the past 15 years. Jackson never even experienced a playoff game during his time in Carolina—but the Steelers have as many playoff wins in that time.
