The Pittsburgh Steelers have certainly let multiple games get away from them in the 2025 season. They enter Week 18 with a 9-7 record, with the need to win to make the postseason. If they lose and miss out on the playoffs, it most likely won’t be that Sunday Night Football contest against the Baltimore Ravens that fans will be talking about; it will be the different halftime leads they blew or backup quarterbacks that they lost to that everyone will point at as why they had another potential failure of a season.Â
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Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers under center during Pittsburgh’s 13-6 loss to the Cleveland Browns in Week 17 of the 2025 NFL regular season.
The one that is fresh is Pittsburgh’s 13-6 loss to the 3-12 Cleveland Browns, where every offensive decision made in that game seemed like the wrong one for the Steelers. That is definitely an embarrassing showcase, as all they did in that game was reinforce narratives. They could have won the AFC North then, but they instead played down to competition like fans keep saying they do.
In his column on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Ray Fittipaldo spoke about how the Browns are going to have a great laugh at Pittsburgh’s expense if it loses and misses the postseason, but the irony goes well beyond that game.
“Browns General Manager Andrew Berry might have the heartiest laugh of all if the Steelers don’t make the playoffs,” Fittipaldo said. “Steelers [Head] Coach Mike Tomlin called him out early in the season for trading Joe Flacco to the Bengals — a rare interdivisional in-season trade that helped the Bengals when their star quarterback Joe Burrow was injured.”
Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin went viral in his press conference for calling out Browns General Manager Andrew Berry for trading his starting quarterback to a division rival that had an injured starter and a backup playing horribly. That deal resulted in Joe Flacco torching Pittsburgh’s overly soft defense in a 33-31 win for his new team, the Cincinnati Bengals.Â
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Bengals QB Joe Flacco celebrates with wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase after a big time score against the Steelers on Thursday Night Football in the 2025 NFL season.
With that trade, the Browns were able to see what exactly they had in their two rookies, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders. Gabriel got absolutely smoked in his contest against Pittsburgh. Sanders did not exactly do great in his game either, but he did get the win, and the hope for them is that he can continue to develop and become the franchise quarterback that Cleveland desperately needs.
With that trade, Berry contributed to the one Steelers’ loss against the Bengals by giving them a new quarterback, and that also led to the Week 17 game where Sanders got his first win against Pittsburgh. If one of those were wins, the Black and Gold would already have its ticket punched and it would be resting starters. Now, that could be the primary reason why the team is eliminated early.Â
Steelers Got Exposed By Berry
One thing that Tomlin always preaches is to not let the things you can’t control get to you. It doesn’t matter if Berry makes a supposedly dumb trade to keep a division rival’s hopes alive; the Steelers can’t control that. However, they still went into that game on Thursday Night Football with a poor gameplan on defense, as they allowed Flacco to get easy completions all night long.Â
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Steelers’ Aaron Rodgers speaks with Bengals’ Joe Flacco after a loss in the 2025 season.
In a league that has so few games in a season compared to other leagues, getting overly angry at something that you can’t control could be a season-ending mistake. Tomlin was very upset about the Flacco trade, and he let it live in his head rent free. It seemed like it became a distraction, and it led to one of the worst defensive performances since he was first hired to be the head coach.
What do you think about Berry having a good laugh if the Steelers miss the playoffs? Let us know in the comments or on XÂ at @Steelers_ChrisB.