PITTSBURGH — The very last thing members of the Pittsburgh Steelers see earlier than reaching the inside sanctum of their locker room at Acrisure Stadium are steely silver letters mounted on a black cinder block wall. They spell out the identical phrase coach Mike Tomlin repeats numerous occasions a day: The Standard is the Standard.
With six Lombardis proudly displayed within the trophy case, the established normal of the distinguished franchise is a world championship. But with 5 straight postseason losses relationship again to 2016, the Steelers have fallen brief.
They enter Saturday’s prime-time wild-card recreation in opposition to the Baltimore Ravens (8 p.m. ET, Prime Video) having completed 10-7 — however on a four-game shedding streak that price them the AFC North title.
It’s been eight years since their final playoff win and 14 years since a Super Bowl berth. Tomlin’s lone Super Bowl win was almost 16 years in the past.
“What you talked about is my story,” Tomlin mentioned Monday, requested in regards to the streak of playoff losses. “It’s not this collective’s story. Many of those guys concerned don’t tote these luggage. I fortunately tote these luggage, nevertheless it’s not one thing that I’m going to undertaking on the collective.”
Exactly 357 days earlier, Tomlin expressed the identical sentiment to the Steelers’ group web site forward of the Steelers’ final try to interrupt the cycle, a wild-card loss on the Buffalo Bills.
“It’s not their burden to bear,” Tomlin informed the location final January. “I do not ask them to tote my baggage. I do not undertaking my baggage onto them. … Sometimes you are kidding your self in case you assume historical past like that’s necessary to guys who weren’t part of it. It’s not.”
Despite the playoff skid, group proprietor and president Art Rooney II prolonged Tomlin a three-year contract extension previous to the 2024 season. But Rooney was additionally agency in his need to snap the streak in final yr’s end-of-season information convention.
“There’s an urgency,” Rooney mentioned then of profitable a playoff recreation. “I feel everyone, myself, Mike, guys which were on the group for some time … everyone, we have had sufficient of this. It’s time to get some wins. It’s time to take these subsequent steps.”
And but, regardless of showing to take a step ahead with a brand new quarterback room and an 8-2 begin, the season-ending slide has seemingly put the Steelers farther away from breaking their one-and-done playoff cycle, not to mention from a deep postseason run. The Steelers enter the playoffs in a frustratingly acquainted spot because the albatross of the franchise’s longest playoff drought of the Super Bowl period enshrouds the legacy of a proud group and the longer term Hall of Fame head coach who famously hasn’t had a shedding season.
But to the Steelers trustworthy, by no means shedding means lots much less if their group is not profitable within the postseason.
EVEN IN THE wake of one other first-round loss, members of the Steelers walked off the snowy Buffalo subject a yr in the past feeling they have been on the precipice of ending the drought. The group weathered a slew of accidents and inconsistent quarterback play to rally for the No. 7 seed.
With a stable, younger nucleus of offensive ability place gamers — operating again Najee Harris, huge receiver George Pickens and tight finish Pat Freiermuth — to enhance a veteran protection, the Steelers appeared a pair items away from being a contender.
“I do really feel that we’re nearer this yr at this stage of the sport than we have been at this level final yr,” Rooney mentioned on the season-ending information convention. “I believed we had a extremely stable rookie class, a couple of guys that basically stepped in as stable starters for the longer term. Need to try this once more. Need to have one other good draft class. I feel we’ve got a core group of gamers that we are able to compete [with.] I feel the largest factor we want is high quality play on the quarterback place.”
For many of the season, the Steelers acquired that from Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. Bolstered by complementary soccer courtesy of a turnover-happy protection and Pro Bowl kicker Chris Boswell with a seemingly limitless vary, the pair helped the Steelers to their finest begin since beginning 11-0 in 2020. Through Week 14, the Steelers have been tied atop the league with a plus-17 turnover differential, and the protection led the NFL with 28 takeaways, together with one other league-best 23 fumbles.
Pittsburgh clinched its playoff berth in Week 15 — the identical weekend its shedding streak started when the Eagles defeated them 27-13 and quarterback Jalen Hurts had three touchdowns and threw for 290 yards. At the time, Tomlin and the Steelers dismissed the concept one dangerous efficiency in opposition to one of many league’s prime NFC groups might snowball.
But the hairline fractures uncovered by the Eagles spiraled into spider net cracks over the subsequent three video games. Double-digit losses to the Ravens and Chiefs adopted, plus a detailed one to a Bengals group they beat in a shootout 5 weeks earlier.
“We’re not doing the elemental issues nicely sufficient,” Tomlin mentioned after the Christmas loss to the Chiefs.
An offense that averaged 28 factors and 372 yards per recreation in Wilson’s first seven begins managed 14 factors and 259 yards per recreation in his final 4.
“Everybody on this room acquired to need it,” linebacker Alex Highsmith mentioned. “That’s the one manner we will transfer on and get higher.”
Perhaps probably the most alarming of these losses was the regular-season finale to the Bengals the place the offense mustered simply 17 factors and 193 yards of offense in opposition to a group that completed the season permitting 25 factors and 348 yards per recreation and fired its defensive coordinator a day after the season.
The Steelers’ protection, too, seemingly regressed in that stretch. The Steelers compelled three takeaways every within the 4 video games previous to the Eagles loss, however starting that week, that they had 5 complete within the ultimate 4 video games. Through the primary 13 video games, the protection was among the many finest within the league limiting groups to 18 factors and 310 yards per outing. In that four-game slide, nonetheless, these numbers jumped to 27 factors and 381 yards per recreation.
They completed 4-3 in opposition to groups who made the 2024 playoffs and 6-4 in opposition to non-playoff groups.
As a by-product of the late-season droop, the Steelers fumbled away a two-game lead within the division and have become simply the third group in NFL historical past to enter the playoffs on a shedding streak of at the very least 4 video games.
“It’s necessary that we take the teachings discovered from the final month,” Tomlin mentioned. “Unfortunately, you most likely be taught extra when there’s failure, and clearly we have skilled a few of that, a few of it not jaw-dropping issues or earth-shattering issues, extra affirmation of issues that we imagine in or issues that we engineer victory by.”
TWO PLAYERS ON the roster have gained a playoff recreation with the Steelers: Boswell and defensive deal with Cameron Heyward. With six subject objectives, Boswell accounted for all the Steelers’ factors within the 2016 divisional spherical win in opposition to the Chiefs. He additionally made 4 — together with the game-winner — within the 2015 wild-card win in opposition to the Bengals. Heyward, although inactive for the 2 2016 playoff wins, compelled a fumble in 2015.
Linebacker T.J. Watt has been on the roster for every of the final 4 playoff losses. In the common seasons that preceded these winless postseasons, Watt tied Michael Strahan’s NFL sack document, gained NFL Defensive Player of the Year and was named to 4 All-Pro groups. The Steelers had 9 different first-team All-Pro picks, the NFL’s main passer (Ben Roethlisberger, 2018) and main receiver (Antonio Brown, 2017) in that interval, too.
“It all sucks,” Tomlin mentioned days after shedding to Buffalo final yr. “It does. It’s not levels of suck. It all sucks. I’d quite be working. … It’s a extremely good feeling to be in that event because the street will get slender and to be residing out the issues that you simply aspire to stay out during the last 12 months. It’s not us, and it sucks.”
Even with vital roster turnover all through the eight-year drought, there may be an simple, troubling development to the Steelers’ latest postseason woes.
In every of their final 5 playoff losses, the Steelers fell in a giant gap early, trailed by at the very least a rating at halftime and have been outscored 105-38 within the first two quarters.
Tomlin, although, declined Monday to say if he’d discovered something from these losses to take into this yr’s wild-card recreation.
“To be sincere with you, I hadn’t spent a number of time pondering that within the final 48 hours,” he mentioned. “I’ve been preparing particularly for this recreation with this collective.”
In the 2016 AFC Championship Game, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots constructed a 17-6 benefit halfway via the second quarter, and the Steelers by no means acquired nearer than an eight-point halftime differential.
A yr later, the Jacksonville Jaguars jumped out to a 21-0 lead in lower than 20 minutes of recreation time with a gap possession rating, an interception and two extra fast touchdowns. The Steelers, who had a first-round bye because the No. 2 seed that yr, fought again, however fell in a disastrous 45-42 loss that improbably marked the final playoff recreation for the trio of Roethlisberger, Brown and Le’Veon Bell.
A two-year postseason drought adopted, nevertheless it did not dry up the Steelers’ recurring playoff issues.
Playing in entrance of empty stands at Acrisure Stadium on the finish of the COVID-19-affected season, the Cleveland Browns shocked the Steelers six seconds into the wild-card recreation when Maurkice Pouncey’s opening snap sailed over Roethlisberger’s head and bounced 20 yards within the unsuitable course till Karl Joseph recovered it in the long run zone for a landing. That snowballed right into a 28-0 deficit by the tip of the primary quarter and a 35-10 gap at halftime. The Browns’ ultimate margin of victory was simply 11 factors, nevertheless it hardly mirrored the thorough beat down of a Steelers group that started off the season 11-0.
“We have been a gaggle that died on the vine,” Tomlin mentioned after that loss.
The Steelers’ most up-to-date playoff losses had extra of the identical lopsided begins, however in every of these, the outcomes have been considerably anticipated because the Steelers, who clinched the AFC’s ultimate playoff spot with a late-season rally, squared off in opposition to the league’s prime groups on the street.
Facing No. 2 seed Kansas City in 2021 in Roethlisberger’s ultimate recreation, the Steelers held serve within the first quarter and even went up 7-0 on Watt’s second-quarter scoop and rating. But the Chiefs rattled off three straight touchdowns to take a 21-7 halftime lead and ultimately gained.
And in final yr’s wild-card loss, the Steelers trailed 21-0 halfway via the second quarter and scored lower than two minutes earlier than halftime to chop their deficit to 14. A second-half surge pulled the Steelers inside a rating early within the fourth quarter, however the Bills responded with a surgical landing drive and held off the Steelers over the ultimate six minutes to win 31-17.
“No group is identical because the earlier yr, in order that’s at all times a problem,” Watt mentioned the subsequent day. “But we will need to take a protracted onerous look and determine this factor out. I preserve having the identical dialog yearly it appears.”
Unless the Steelers pull off the upset Saturday night time, Watt will probably have that dialog for the fifth time in his profession.
The consequence of the 2024 playoffs probably will not dictate Tomlin’s legacy in Pittsburgh or his future as the pinnacle coach of the franchise. But because the group continues to return up empty within the playoffs, a show case ready for trophies is as a substitute filling up with baggage.
