PITTSBURGH — Standing behind a dais in the cramped visitors’ media conference room at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field, coach Mike Tomlin dismissed the notion of one loss snowballing into a slump. The Pittsburgh Steelers then lost two more games in the next 10 days and now enter Week 18 searching for a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.
No longer in control of their own destiny in the AFC North title race, the Steelers may not be playing to host a wild-card playoff game, but Saturday night’s outcome could be critical in determining the team’s postseason fate as it chases the franchise’s first playoff win since 2016.
Not only could a win against the Cincinnati Bengals (8 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC) set up for a more favorable first-round playoff matchup — perhaps facing a banged up Houston Texans team instead of a third meeting with a surging Baltimore Ravens group — but it could turn the tide of the Steelers’ momentum as they enter the most critical, high-stakes time of the year.
“You want to go into the playoffs on a hot streak, everybody seeing eye-to-eye, the cohesiveness,” safety DeShon Elliott said. “Especially because it’s a single-game elimination situation. Every play matters. Every communication matters. You’ve got to intensify the way we go about our day.”
That’s exactly what the Steelers did in the 10 days between the Christmas loss to the Kansas City Chiefs and Saturday night’s regular-season finale.
Less than 24 hours after that loss, the Steelers reconvened at their practice facility for film study and frank, transparent discussions. After their mandated three-day break, the team reported back to the facility on Monday for their last work week of the regular season. Through spirited practices and extra walk-throughs, the Steelers worked to correct the issues of the last three games.
“There’s not a lot of people running open,” safety Minkah Fitzpatrick said of practice. “We haven’t had to run back a whole lot of plays. Maybe only one from Wednesday, and we’ve been doing a lot of extra work on the side while the offense is on the field, working on those communications, working on those adjustments.”
But, of course, the true measuring stick won’t come until they take the field against a Bengals team fighting for a spot in the playoffs.
“We’re determined by winning games,” defensive lineman Cameron Heyward said. “Our practice is just reinforcing our fundamentals, but we won’t know it’s a good week until we win.”
The Bengals boast a top-five scoring offense and a defense with 12 turnovers in a four-game win streak, but facing Cincinnati could be a salve for a Steelers team trying to find its footing. Just a month ago, the Steelers were clicking on all cylinders inside Paycor Stadium in a 44-38 win.
Though the defense gave up 38 points and 375 yards to Joe Burrow and the high-flying offense, Russell Wilson and the Steelers went toe-to-toe with the MVP candidate.
Even more encouraging, Wilson did it after the first drive abruptly ended in the wrong end zone as cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt intercepted Wilson’s third pass attempt of the day for a pick-six.
Wilson finished that day with 410 passing yards on completions to 10 different receivers, and the running backs combined for 110 yards on the ground. It marked the Steelers’ highest yardage total since 2018 and Wilson’s third career 400-yard passing game — and first since leaving Seattle.
As the Steelers celebrated in the visitors’ locker room with jokes about the return of Wilson’s Mr. Unlimited alter ego and Thanksgiving meal hangovers, momentum was squarely in their favor. It carried over a week later in another complete performance with a 27-14 home win against the Cleveland Browns.
Since then, though?
The good vibes ground to a halt.
It wasn’t just that the Steelers lost three games to teams with the five best Super Bowl odds, according to ESPN Bet, but it was how they lost them. They gave up an average of 30 points per game while scoring just 13 per outing, and they had a -2 turnover differential during that stretch. Frustration replaced jubilation in the postgame locker room as the Steelers stumbled.
“When guys are passionate about a game that we’ve been playing for so long,” Elliott said, “you don’t prepare to lose. You prepare to win, and when you don’t win, things can get frustrating.”
The Steelers have been in a similar position before. In 2020, the team started out 11-0 before dropping four of their final five regular-season games and a lopsided 48-37 home wild-card game to the Browns.
With one more chance to rectify their late-season slide in the regular season, the Steelers want to channel the recipe that helped them to a 10-3 start before the stakes get even higher.
“It’s about just playing good ball, and we got to get back on good footing, play with good technique,” Heyward said. “We control what we can control, and I think going forward, ball just needs to be played the right way. And it doesn’t matter what happens outside of our stadium, we understand we’re in the playoffs, so just focus on what we got to focus on.”
