3 things learned from Steelers Wild Card loss to Cleveland Browns

The Steelers squandered an opportunity to bring another Lombardi Trophy to Pittsburgh

Look, I didn’t play football past high school, so I am not going to attempt to analyze the ‘x’s and o’s’ of an NFL game, but I will analyze it from a fan’s perspective.  If your offense can’t run the ball and the defense seemingly can’t stop the run, that tells me that you have to do whatever you need to do to reverse those trends.

I think we tried to run the ball and I think we tried to stop the run, but if the players on the field aren’t getting it done, put other players on the field, call different plays and go for it on fourth down because it’s win or go home.

I would suspect our players and coaches were in shock after having gone down by 28 points (I know I was in shock) but every time we started to stage a comeback, we just could not get that stop we needed or we could not get that yard we needed to sustain a drive.

The Steelers may have played our last game with key starters

When you go 12-4 in the regular season and you have a home playoff game, the expectation is that you will win at least one game.  That didn’t happen for the Steelers.  What that generally means is this: change is forthcoming.

All that resulted in the loss to the Browns is that the Steelers wasted an opportunity to win a Super Bowl with the current roster of players and that, to me, is a shame.  No Steelers team is exactly the same as it was the previous year; players come and go as do coaches in some instances.

The 2020 Steelers will be remembered for putting up 12 wins but for bowing out in the Wildcard round against a division rival and that is just sad as there is no guarantee we will be afforded that opportunity in 2021.