If you've seen any of the Steelers' playoff losses since 2017, then you didn't have to watch Saturday night's 28-14 loss to the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium. It was truly the same old story.
Any of this sound familiar? At halftime, the Steelers were out-gained 308-59 and trailed by a score of 21-0. This team has lost six straight playoff games, and they've trailed 21-0 in three of them. They also trailed 28-0 in the 2020 loss to the Browns and 35-7 in the 2021 loss to the Chiefs.
Yep, Saturday night was a carbon copy of what we've seen transpire in at least five of the last six playoff games in which Mike Tomlin's teams have been blasted, though Tomlin wasn't necessarily looking through that lens after the game.
"I’m just assessing what transpired tonight," Tomlin said. "As I told you guys earlier in the week, those are my bags, not this collective’s bags. So, my energy is on that group in there, what they were willing to give and the journey that we’ve been on this year. Certainly, it came to a disappointing end tonight."
Regarding this collective's crash and burn, they were out-classed in every form and fashion. The Steelers only possessed the ball for 20:27, which flies in the face of how they want to play. And, perhaps most egregious of all stats from this game, they allowed Derrick Henry, Lamar Jackson and Co. to rack up 299 rushing yards as Baltimore suffocated the Pittsburgh defense. Only a kneel down by Jackson to run out the clock kept them from eclipsing 300 yards. Meanwhile, the offense failed to do anything in the first half, then only relied on the deep ball to spark anything in the second half.
All of this is coming off a four-game losing streak to end a once promising season, in which they were outscored, 109-57.
"Losing sucks. Losing five in a row to finish out the season sucks," T.J. Watt said after the game. "It felt like we had a good week of prep. It felt like we were ready for this one. I mean, you guys know more than anybody ... We weren't able to stop the run. Haven't been able to stop the run. We weren't able to get it fixed, so it's been a rough last month of football."
Slow starts have also been a problem all year for the Steelers, especially on offense. But I'm sorry, Mike, the broader scope matters here. In the past five playoff games, the Steelers have been outscored 63-0 in the first quarter. When the offense comes out and can't score, and then the defense comes out and can't stop the other team from scoring, and the fact that this has happened in the franchise's last six playoff games, it raises lots of questions about whether the right people are in place to help get a once proud franchise back to being serious contenders for a Super Bowl.
"We all believe in the process," Pat Freiermuth said. "We all have the utmost trust in Coach T as a leader, as the guy leading us. We all have the utmost trust in Omar [Khan] and the front office in their vision. ... That's what we're supposed to do. As a person in this career, you've just got to continue to believe, give everything you've got. If you don't believe, you're not going to be very successful. We're going to get past this, and we'll swing again next year."
Kudos to Freiermuth for being the ultimate team player here. And, it's true that these players do love playing for Tomlin. They believe in him. Those aren't just empty, hollow words from Freiermuth.
The problem is belief just isn't enough anymore. Saturday night's loss marks eight straight seasons without a playoff win. Change has to be considered. This franchise has never seen a drought of this length in the Super Bowl era. You have to go back to 1966-1971 to find anything truly comparable, but that was snapped after six seasons with the Immaculate Reception then a dynasty that claimed four Lombardis in six years.
While Tomlin led this franchise to its sixth Super Bowl win in 2008, they haven't come close to sniffing a chance at a title in a decade and a half. The last Super Bowl they played in was the loss to the Packers in Super Bowl XLV, and that was the 2010 season. Since then, the Steelers have gotten to just one conference championship game, in which they were embarrassed by the Patriots, and they've won a total just three playoff games. One of those was gifted to them because Vontaze Burfict and Pacman Jones Bungled away a win in the 2015 wild-card playoff.
Oh, and the three quarterbacks they've beaten in the past 14 seasons: A.J. McCarron, Matt Moore and Alex Smith. And, they needed six field goals from Chris Boswell to beat Smith. Not exactly the cream of the crop. In fact, unless you think differently of Joe Flacco than I do, you might have to go all the way back to the 2008 divisional playoff win over Philip Rivers and the Chargers to find a playoff victory against an elite quarterback.
During these past 14 seasons, Tomlin has had to coach the team while rebuilding the defense. Unfortunately, that came at a time in which the offense was as potent as we've ever seen. And by the time the defense started to catch up, that's when this streak began. A great 2017 team will only be remembered as the team that let Blake Bortles beat them on their own field to go one and done, not a team that was a legitimate Super Bowl contender before Ryan Shazier suffered his tragic injury.
While Tomlin has recently had to deal with the end of Ben Roethlisberger's career and a hodgepodge of pedestrian quarterback play since Big Ben retired, the league's highest-paid defense can't even be relied upon to help them even stumble into a playoff win. Just one playoff win. Not even talking about getting deep into January. Just being the better team in a wild-card game is too much to ask.
Saturday night is just another chapter in this stale era of Steelers football. And, the sad thing for this franchise is that many people saw this coming. It wasn't just because the team was on a four-game losing streak. It's because this is what this team has done for eight years now. Either they barely miss the playoffs or barely get in and get stomped in the wild-card round. That's become the norm.
And, fair or not, this has become part of Tomlin's legacy. Yes, he won a Super Bowl, and I think the narrative that he only won because he inherited Bill Cowher's players is something for the anti-Tomlin crowd to spew. The players who won under Tomlin have testimonies that fly in the face of it. However, for the credit Tomlin deserves for his early success, he deserves just as much criticism for this drought of playoff wins.
Saturday night added more weight to those bags Tomlin totes around. I imagine those are getting awfully heavy by now.
THE ASYLUM
Steelers eliminated, playoff win drought continues
If you've seen any of the Steelers' playoff losses since 2017, then you didn't have to watch Saturday night's 28-14 loss to the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium. It was truly the same old story.
Any of this sound familiar? At halftime, the Steelers were out-gained 308-59 and trailed by a score of 21-0. This team has lost six straight playoff games, and they've trailed 21-0 in three of them. They also trailed 28-0 in the 2020 loss to the Browns and 35-7 in the 2021 loss to the Chiefs.
Yep, Saturday night was a carbon copy of what we've seen transpire in at least five of the last six playoff games in which Mike Tomlin's teams have been blasted, though Tomlin wasn't necessarily looking through that lens after the game.
"I’m just assessing what transpired tonight," Tomlin said. "As I told you guys earlier in the week, those are my bags, not this collective’s bags. So, my energy is on that group in there, what they were willing to give and the journey that we’ve been on this year. Certainly, it came to a disappointing end tonight."
Regarding this collective's crash and burn, they were out-classed in every form and fashion. The Steelers only possessed the ball for 20:27, which flies in the face of how they want to play. And, perhaps most egregious of all stats from this game, they allowed Derrick Henry, Lamar Jackson and Co. to rack up 299 rushing yards as Baltimore suffocated the Pittsburgh defense. Only a kneel down by Jackson to run out the clock kept them from eclipsing 300 yards. Meanwhile, the offense failed to do anything in the first half, then only relied on the deep ball to spark anything in the second half.
All of this is coming off a four-game losing streak to end a once promising season, in which they were outscored, 109-57.
"Losing sucks. Losing five in a row to finish out the season sucks," T.J. Watt said after the game. "It felt like we had a good week of prep. It felt like we were ready for this one. I mean, you guys know more than anybody ... We weren't able to stop the run. Haven't been able to stop the run. We weren't able to get it fixed, so it's been a rough last month of football."
Slow starts have also been a problem all year for the Steelers, especially on offense. But I'm sorry, Mike, the broader scope matters here. In the past five playoff games, the Steelers have been outscored 63-0 in the first quarter. When the offense comes out and can't score, and then the defense comes out and can't stop the other team from scoring, and the fact that this has happened in the franchise's last six playoff games, it raises lots of questions about whether the right people are in place to help get a once proud franchise back to being serious contenders for a Super Bowl.
"We all believe in the process," Pat Freiermuth said. "We all have the utmost trust in Coach T as a leader, as the guy leading us. We all have the utmost trust in Omar [Khan] and the front office in their vision. ... That's what we're supposed to do. As a person in this career, you've just got to continue to believe, give everything you've got. If you don't believe, you're not going to be very successful. We're going to get past this, and we'll swing again next year."
Kudos to Freiermuth for being the ultimate team player here. And, it's true that these players do love playing for Tomlin. They believe in him. Those aren't just empty, hollow words from Freiermuth.
The problem is belief just isn't enough anymore. Saturday night's loss marks eight straight seasons without a playoff win. Change has to be considered. This franchise has never seen a drought of this length in the Super Bowl era. You have to go back to 1966-1971 to find anything truly comparable, but that was snapped after six seasons with the Immaculate Reception then a dynasty that claimed four Lombardis in six years.
While Tomlin led this franchise to its sixth Super Bowl win in 2008, they haven't come close to sniffing a chance at a title in a decade and a half. The last Super Bowl they played in was the loss to the Packers in Super Bowl XLV, and that was the 2010 season. Since then, the Steelers have gotten to just one conference championship game, in which they were embarrassed by the Patriots, and they've won a total just three playoff games. One of those was gifted to them because Vontaze Burfict and Pacman Jones Bungled away a win in the 2015 wild-card playoff.
Oh, and the three quarterbacks they've beaten in the past 14 seasons: A.J. McCarron, Matt Moore and Alex Smith. And, they needed six field goals from Chris Boswell to beat Smith. Not exactly the cream of the crop. In fact, unless you think differently of Joe Flacco than I do, you might have to go all the way back to the 2008 divisional playoff win over Philip Rivers and the Chargers to find a playoff victory against an elite quarterback.
During these past 14 seasons, Tomlin has had to coach the team while rebuilding the defense. Unfortunately, that came at a time in which the offense was as potent as we've ever seen. And by the time the defense started to catch up, that's when this streak began. A great 2017 team will only be remembered as the team that let Blake Bortles beat them on their own field to go one and done, not a team that was a legitimate Super Bowl contender before Ryan Shazier suffered his tragic injury.
While Tomlin has recently had to deal with the end of Ben Roethlisberger's career and a hodgepodge of pedestrian quarterback play since Big Ben retired, the league's highest-paid defense can't even be relied upon to help them even stumble into a playoff win. Just one playoff win. Not even talking about getting deep into January. Just being the better team in a wild-card game is too much to ask.
Saturday night is just another chapter in this stale era of Steelers football. And, the sad thing for this franchise is that many people saw this coming. It wasn't just because the team was on a four-game losing streak. It's because this is what this team has done for eight years now. Either they barely miss the playoffs or barely get in and get stomped in the wild-card round. That's become the norm.
And, fair or not, this has become part of Tomlin's legacy. Yes, he won a Super Bowl, and I think the narrative that he only won because he inherited Bill Cowher's players is something for the anti-Tomlin crowd to spew. The players who won under Tomlin have testimonies that fly in the face of it. However, for the credit Tomlin deserves for his early success, he deserves just as much criticism for this drought of playoff wins.
Saturday night added more weight to those bags Tomlin totes around. I imagine those are getting awfully heavy by now.
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