In many ways, you’d think to hear fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers talk, they were 0-7. The good news is that they aren’t, they’re 4-3 and they still find themselves in a decent position in the AFC North. But the reason Steelers Nation is the way that it is is because they’ve seen this movie before. The Black and Gold faithful have seen banged up teams find ways to win. They’ve seen teams short on talent find ways to win. And they’ve seen teams who have no real business knocking off better teams win in the race to get to .500 or better. But considering everything that has taken place this season and with what occurred on Sunday, does Mike Tomlin have another one of these runs left?
Tomlin has been around long enough for us to see both sides of the spectrum. We’ve seen winning records and positive trends come crashing back to the .500 level by season’s end and we’ve seen, like last year, teams suddenly find a resurgence and keep Tomlin’s streak alive. Make no mistake that Tomlin is the last person who brings up the famous “non-losing seasons” streak but like Thanos himself, it’s inevitable.
There’s a decent sized portion of the fan base that would prefer this team just go down in a collective heap and make the streak end with a resounding thud. They couldn’t be more tired of hearing every play-by-play announcer and talking head mention the streak. But then there are those who believe this team can still find a path to the postseason. What lies in the middle however – you guessed it – another .500 or better season.
In order to get there, something has to give on offense. We know Matt Canada isn’t going anywhere until the season ends so there’s no use in contemplating that. We also know there won’t be an end of season schedule that’s favorable. Three out of the final four games are on the road in Indianapolis, Seattle and Baltimore. They still have to visit Cleveland and play two against Cincinnati, one of the hottest teams in football. What is happening under Canada is not going to give this team a chance in hell of winning those games unless something massive changes. We are seven games in and nothing has changed yet so why should we expect any different? If that sounds like insanity that’s because it is!
The defense is likely going to be without Minkah Fitzpatrick for a few games. Even with him, they’ve struggled to stop the run and they aren’t getting nearly enough pressure to keep even decent QBs from finding success. In all fairness however, they did manage to give the team a chance yesterday holding the Jaguars to four field goals and a single touchdown so at least they are giving the offense a chance.
In years past, I would have suggested that Mike Tomlin is prepared and up for the challenge of getting this team into the postseason, but something just doesn’t seem right with him. He was more agitated than I’ve seen him at last week’s press conference and I can’t help but wonder if things out of his control have become too much to tolerate any longer. I hope to look back on this piece and say that it wasn’t necessary. I hope to see the team win 10 or 11 games and be a tough out in the postseason but Tomlin and “.500” just seem to go together recently and that’s not good.
