3 things we learned from Steelers tie against the Detroit Lions

The Steelers continue the penchant to play down to the competition

First and foremost, I am a supporter of Mike Tomlin; however, since his tenure as our Head Coach began, we have always had at least one performance where we play down to our competition. To be fair, there were plenty of games under our previous two Head Coaches where we played down to our competition.

I think the difference in the game against the Lions is this: The Steelers played down to a winless team, again no offense intended toward the Lions or their fans, but how in the world do we tie with a winless team at home when we needed a win to keep pace in the AFC North?

As I alluded to earlier in the conversation, it remains to be seen if the tie will affect our playoff destiny but if it does, how do we reconcile that?  Let’s say that the tie causes us to lose the top spot in the division and instead of being the fourth seed, for example, we end up being the seventh seed or, even worse, we end up missing the playoffs?

This trend must stop and must stop immediately.  The other trend that must stop immediately is this:  Every team has to deal with injuries, but some of our backups are simply not up to the Steelers standard, in my opinion.

The only person who can rectify that is Tomlin.  What I mean by that is this:  Tomlin has to see that there is a precipitous drop in quality from some of our starters to the backups of those starters.  If those backups end up costing us a crucial game, it will have been too late to realize that we need better depth.

One last trend that must stop post haste is mental errors.  We can’t fumble the ball when we are driving for a potential game-winning score.  That cannot happen.  Regardless of game conditions, you have to be cognizant of what’s on the line.  The difference between a win and a tie are mental errors that lead to fumbles that lead to a tie that could possibly lead to a season sans a playoff appearance.