The NFL’s Wildcard Weekend is rapidly approaching, but it might be helpful to take a quick look back, where Pittsburgh Steelers fans watched their team wrap up the regular season in grand fashion. Just not in the typical winning fashion they – or the team — envisioned.
The black and gold dropped their fourth straight contest, dashing their hopes of becoming AFC North champs. In the regular-season finale Sunday, the Cincinnati Bengals took on the role of spoiler with a 19-17 win on the cold Acrisure Stadium turf.
It was a contest that saw Pittsburgh squander numerous scoring opportunities. Horrible play selections, routine passes dropped, Red Zone chances gone like the snow swirling in a glass globe.
One month ago the Steelers were in the driver’s seat, controlling their own destiny. That vehicle has crashed several times, resulting in the current four-game losing streak. A single win in any of those last four matchups and this article would take on an entirely new meaning.
Rather than bore you with needless statistics and game quotes – although you will hear a few — I’ll just serve up my opinion. After all, that’s what sports journalism consists of to a large degree.
An age-old adage states, “This team has problems and they are many.” That passage resonates loud and clear throughout the Steelers organization. It cuts through winter’s howling wind like a knife through hot butter. From the South Side to the North Shore, echoes of an inept offense and a worn-out defense can be heard.
Questions need to be answered; players need to elevate their level of play. This team has all ingredients to run like a finely tuned Lamborghini engine. At certain points of the season it has shown just that; on other occasions it resembles a rusted out Chevy pickup truck with a dead battery.
Numerous aspects are to blame for this season’s demise. Scapegoats are plentiful in the minds of many. Is it the head coach, coaching staff, play calling, offense, defense, players? Possibilities seem endless as many want concrete answers.
Listen, the front office runs the show. Coaches coach, players play — that will never change and our opinions really don’t matter to anyone other than ourselves.
Now that the postseason is upon us, the sentiment of a one-and-done Steelers’ cameo can be heard throughout the entire NFL. Beat writers, sportscasters, podcast hosts and fans as well give this team about the same chance in the postseason as a snowball’s chance of surviving the depths of hell.
Is this year’s team capable of repeating the final season of the Jerome Bettis era? That year, reaching the postseason, pulling off three straight road wins to make it to Super Bowl XL and capturing football’s Holy Grail seemed unattainable. We all know how that ended. Sheer jubilation in the City of Champions.
Understanding the mathematics of it all, 18 teams would love to be in the position our beloved Steelers are currently in. That being the tournament, second season, the dance or whatever one refers to it as. It’s simply the playoffs — win and move on, lose and you’re out.
Question at hand may be twofold: is this team healthy and good enough to play dominating, winning football and are they hungry enough?
Captain Cam Heyward summed it up like this: “We’re in the tournament and playing with house money.” House money? Gambling aficionados have an old passage: “The house always wins.” Is this team the house? Will it have that never-say-lose attitude when the ball hits the tee for Saturday’s playoff opener?
On paper the Steelers certainly are capable of repeating that Bettis era playoff run to supremacy. The one constant on everyone’s mind: will they?
The Steelers are just the third team in NFL history to enter the playoffs with a four-game losing streak. On the surface, barring any upsets of substantial proportion, our hometown heroes would have to win three road games and the Super Bowl to claim their seventh Lombardi Trophy. Miracles do happen.
It won’t be easy, as traveling to Baltimore for a rivalry game rarely is. For the Steelers, time will tell and the time is now to put up or shut up. Win or go home.
Photos by Mike Longo Jr.
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