Squandering a key chance to clinch the AFC North last Sunday against the Cleveland Browns, it’d be easy for the Pittsburgh Steelers to get discouraged. It makes Week 18’s finale against the Baltimore Ravens for all the marbles. While the sting of that defeat might linger, Mike Tomlin is telling the team to turn the page. In fact, he’s showing them.
Patrick Queen revealed the strategy Tomlin is using to keep confidence high.
“Mike T. has already tried to go back and show some old plays and stuff of us doing good things,” Queen told reporters via the team’s YouTube channel earlier this week after receiving the “Chief” award as voted on by the Pittsburgh media.
Queen also noted Tomlin is showing negative plays to be proactive ahead of potential issues in Sunday night’s rematch against Baltimore.
The positive reinforcement might be the most beneficial, a reminder of what Pittsburgh is capable of when playing its best. That was on display in Week 14’s win over the Ravens. Despite coming off a brutally tough loss to the Buffalo Bills, the Steelers responded with one of their best games of the year. Defensively, RB Derrick Henry was minimized, and the Ravens held to just 22 points. Pittsburgh made several key stops and picked off QB Lamar Jackson once, turning the turnover into a touchdown.
“Anything in life you wanna come to fruition, you have to visualize it, you have to manifest it. You gotta believe,” Queen said of Tomlin’s tactics.
Pittsburgh will need to carry that confidence into tomorrow night. The defense is on a string of impressive performances. With DL Derrick Harmon back, the run defense has tightened up. The Steelers subdued the Detroit Lions’ No. 1 scoring unit in Week 16 and have allowed an average of 18.5 points per game over the past month, one of the NFL’s better figures. The offense is the unit that must bounce back after an anemic Week 17 showing.
Ultimately, it comes down to execution. Once the ball is kicked off, all the motivational and inspirational messages don’t mean much. But to Queen’s point, the old saying goes, whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right. Tomlin is attempting to put Pittsburgh in the right mindset for a winner-take-all game.