While Steelers HC Mike Tomlin wasn’t sure whether to “go clean slate” or not, his players are. Several of them talked about just that after the 19-17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals—how the playoffs are a new season. If that is how Tomlin’s players are viewing it, he’ll have a hard time of convincing them otherwise.
I don’t think that’s really what Tomlin meant, though. While the slate is wiped clean in the sense that you don’t bring your record with you, you still have to learn and grow from what you experienced. The Steelers have lost their last four games—but the point is, that doesn’t matter if you keep going 1-0. That’s the mindset in the locker room, unless or until Tomlin shifts it this week.
“The slate is clean”, Steelers captain Cameron Heyward said after the game, via the team’s website. “They don’t remember your record once you get to the playoffs”. And for what it’s worth, the Steelers’ record of 10-7 isn’t so horrible. It just looks horrible because they were 10-3 not long ago.
“At the end of the day, it’s still a clean slate”, Steelers QB Russell Wilson said. “The important thing for us is having the right perspective, figuring out what we can do better”. DL Keeanu Benton said the Steelers can’t “bear these losses” into the postseason. “Have a clean slate and go out there and string together some wins”.
The Steelers clinched a playoff berth weeks ago, with the first of their four consecutive losses. They were 10-4 at the time and had the opportunity to clinch the AFC North the following week. They failed to do so, then failed, and then failed again. And they failed so far that they enter Sunday needing help not to fall to the No. 6 seed.
Every team enters the playoffs with a clean slate, in that their prior losses are not a weight on them. Beyond determining their seeding, the Steelers won’t be penalized just because they lost their last four games. If they happen to win their next four games, they still get the same Lombardi Trophy that the Chiefs would.
But as Tomlin said, they can’t clean this slate and pretend there was nothing on it before. The Steelers still bear the residue of their prior failures, the mistakes that dictated their four-game losing streak. Even had they managed to kick a game-winning field goal at the end of yesterday’s game, though, they would still have the same set of problems. It just would have meant they made one more catch and one more kick.
Part of the problem lately is the Steelers haven’t been making that one more catch. They haven’t been recovering the loose ball, protecting the ball on offense, making that one block. The Steelers have lacked the details and the little things that play with your margin for error. Lately, they have trodden on the margins and paid the price for it.
But all that matters now is going 1-0, each and every week, and the Steelers can forget about 0-4.
