After another first-round playoff exit and a five-game losing streak to end the season, Pat Freiermuth said the criticism that Mike Tomlin and the Steelers have faced over the last month or so is "warranted," but it all shouldn't fall on the longtime head coach.

Both Freiermuth and T.J. Watt voiced their support for Tomlin Monday afternoon but also shouldered part of the blame for the organization's shortcomings.

“I have the utmost faith in the coaching staff. Without Coach T, we wouldn't have been able to be in the playoffs. We all love Coach T. He's a great leader, great coach, I wish you guys could be in those meetings. I think a lot of people see those Hard Knocks meetings. There's a lot of good ball being talked about. It's a collective basis, it's just not on the coaches, like the coaches can put us in situations and there’s some games where were running the plays that we’re running against other teams, that schematically speaking, are great plays to run against them, but for whatever reason we are not executing it. So, it’s a collective. Coaches gotta take criticism, players gotta take criticism and there's obviously going to be criticism when we close the season on a five-game losing streak, that's warranted. But, we gotta figure out ways, especially in the offseason and next season, to get the train rolling.”

Watt said much of the same at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side. He knows what Tomlin means to the organization on a "personal level" and a "team level." However, Watt also said that the players, himself included, didn't do enough to support Tomlin and the rest of the coaching staff with the product that they put on the field.

"We need to perform better and I’m not saying we need to play better for him (Tomlin), we need to, I need to, play better for everybody," Watt said. "This city deserves it, this team deserves it, the guys in this locker room, we deserve it, we’re working hard, we just need to get it right. I say that every year and it gets more and more frustrating as the years go by, but tough conversations need to be had. We can’t keep doing the same thing expecting different results and that’s starting with myself. We're going into the offseason with a lot of questions but I also know there will be a lot of answers here in the next couple weeks."

Freiermuth and Watt both spoke about different things that they believe need to be fixed before next season.

For Freiermuth, as he mentioned above, it was execution. He said it was something that's come up several times this season and its one thing that the players need to focus on in the offseason.

"It really comes down to the execution and trying to be on the same page early on in games," Freiermuth said. "That’s obviously something as players that we have to take pride in and figure that out on our end. We were all happy with the game plan, the game plans, we just have to figure it out and execute it better. When we were rolling, no one was talking about the game plans. So, it just comes down to execution and asking yourself individually how you can get better at that."

Looking visibly frustrated about another early playoff loss while standing at a Steelers backdrop in the locker room, Watt said there's not just one thing that the Steelers need to fix heading into next season, there's several things. But, as he normally does, Watt said it starts with himself.

"We get to sit here at the same time as last year, the same time I’ve been in this scrum, the same questions and I have the same answers," Watt said. "Obviously I’m very frustrated with how things ended and that’s not just with the last game, that’s with the last month of football and it’s a collection of things. It starts with myself and I need to play better, we need to play better. There’s not just one thing that needs to be fixed here, there’s a lot of things, but it starts internally with myself by needing to play better in bigger moments and it will be a long offseason to have to sit with that."