In a one-game, loser-goes-home situation, the Steelers aren’t concerned about what has happened over the past month as much as they are with the task that lies ahead of them this week.
And that task would be beating the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium in a Wild Card playoff game.
While the Steelers (10-7) enter the game against the Ravens (12-5) on a four-game losing streak, a stark contrast to Baltimore’s current four-game winning stretch, none of that will matter Saturday when the ball is kicked off.
“For us, it’s not about being in the tournament. It’s not about dreaming about the next month. It’s not about pouting over the last month,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said Monday at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. “It’s about this week for us, we’re playing someone that we’re highly familiar with. They’re also highly familiar with us.
“It’ll be the third time that these two teams have come together. We’ll do it in their venue. And so there’s a lot of work ahead of us in preparation for performance.”
What the last month could or has determined for the Steelers is what they will do in this game and perhaps who exactly they will be doing those things with.
It can be easy to mask issues when a team is on a winning streak or even winning the majority of its games. But when it is losing, issues get magnified and then, ideally, are corrected.
For example, the Steelers had struggled with their red zone defense in losses to the Eagles, Ravens and Chiefs, allowing 10 touchdowns on 16 possessions inside their 20-yard line.
But in the Steelers’ 19-17 loss to the Bengals Saturday in their regular season finale, they limited Cincinnati to one touchdown in four trips inside the 20, cleaning up some of the issues that had been plaguing them.
“Unfortunately, you probably learn more when there’s failure, and obviously we’ve experienced some of that,” Tomlin acknowledged. “Some of it not jaw-dropping things, or earth-shadowing things, more confirmation of things that we believe in, or things that we engineer victory by.
“We suffer the consequences of not wanting to turn over the battle in recent weeks, and that’s been very evident. We’ve also suffered the consequences of not performing to our standards in the red zone, offensively and defensively, and oftentimes your ability to win possession downs within those situations define you that four-point swing during that four-game stretch.”
Correcting some of the issues the offense has had in recent weeks might be as simple as coming up with a game plan the team is utilizing on that particular day and who exactly it is trying to implement that game plan with.
The Steelers have gotten off to slow starts offensively, scoring just one field goal in the opening quarter of their past four games and producing just two first downs in the opening 15 minutes of those games.
“Some of it has had to do with some of the people that we played have done a nice job,” Tomlin said. “Some of it has to do with us. Rest assured that we’re working extremely hard to rectify it, and I’m excited about taking another whack at it this week.
“Certainly we’re analyzing all components of it in an effort to remedy it.”
That could lead to leaving no stone unturned when it comes to personnel usage.
Tomlin stressed that the Steelers aren’t making enough routine plays routinely coming out of the 19-17 loss to the Bengals, ie. catching passes to convert third downs or making the necessary plays on runs to convert those situations.
That could lead to increased playing time for players such as wide receiver Mike Williams or quarterback Justin Fields in certain situations.