It has been a tough month for the Steelers, as they went from in the driver's seat of the AFC North to a four-game skid that resulted in them landing the sixth seed in the playoffs. Things aren’t pretty right now, as not a lot of things are working in favor of this team. The offense has completely fallen apart while the defense has had trouble stopping anything during this stretch.
Now, they get the chance to face a red-hot Ravens team for the third time this season. Frankly put, I don’t like their odds, and Vegas seems to agree given they have the worst odds of winning in the Wild Card round. Even if this team returned to form somewhat from their recent woes, this is a tough Baltimore team to contend with.
There is only one name that will be responsible for beating this team. While football is a team game and we need to be firing on all cylinders, if the same issues remain on the offense and defense it won’t matter. This team has gone into its shell, and it has cost them. It falls on one person to get them out of this trend.
Steelers need the best from Mike Tomlin
While there have been issues with individual players recently, one of the largest issues over this putrid stretch has been coaching. The defense hasn’t been sound and has allowed good teams to score on them.
In turn, this has caused the Steelers to make their offense uber-conservative to limit any potential mistakes. That combo has led to low-scoring games and a defense that is averaging a healthy amount of points given up.
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All of this is despite the fact that the team locked up a playoff spot relatively early this season. It wasn’t like a loss would eliminate them from the postseason, and considering how ugly this skid got, something needed to drastically change. That never happened, and despite being down constantly, the offense focused on a conservative run game and was fine with punting despite needing points.
In short, this team was giving up, and they were giving up constantly. That falls on coaching, allowing the same game plan to be enacted, and making little to no changes week over week in preparation for the next disaster. That has to end this week.
If it doesn’t, the Steelers will get steamrolled. Even if they do open things up, winning this week is a long shot. There are so many things that have to be changed to make this team competitive again. That said, if an upset were to happen, it would be because Tomlin got his players back on track at the right time. He needs to show us that he still has it as an elite coach.