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Brooke Pryor, ESPN Staff WriterDec 16, 2024, 11:09 AM ET
- Previously covered the Kansas City Chiefs for the Kansas City Star and Oklahoma University for the Oklahoman.
PHILADELPHIA — In the aftermath of the Steelers’ 27-13 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, coach Mike Tomlin gestured dismissively at the podium as he downplayed the question in the visitors’ interview room at Lincoln Financial Field.
How does he stop his team from snowballing after Sunday’s loss and get it back on track with the playoffs looming?
“It’s a loss,” he said, shaking his head and rolling his eyes. “Let’s not be dramatic.”
It’s true, not all losses are created equal, and Sunday’s against a nonconference opponent isn’t the worst-case scenario.
But though they’re guaranteed a spot in the postseason thanks to losses by the Miami Dolphins and Indianapolis Colts, the Steelers’ ability to stop a snowball from becoming an avalanche will go a long way to determining how long they’ll keep playing.
“If you have to learn a lesson, a quick lesson, in a December football game against a different conference, sometimes it could be a benefit,” linebacker Elandon Roberts said. “I’ve been on the other side of that, and at the end of the year I still was holding what we all wanted to hold.
“I’m not using that for any type of pat on the back, but I’m using it as a reason to move forward in the right direction, but we need to fix what we need to fix quickly.”
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To do that successfully, Roberts said, the Steelers have to insulate themselves from the outside questions that will inevitably surface after a flat performance in what could’ve been the kind of game that solidifies Super Bowl contender status.
“One thing about our team is we’re very mature,” Roberts said. “Our younger guys are very mature as well, so you just keep the noise out. I think the noise can maybe blindside an immature team, but with us, it’s a very mature team, and hey, hats off to the Eagles. They came in today, and they won the game. Period. There’s no excuses behind it. But what we can do, we can look at this film hard, we can fix what we need to fix [on] offense, defense and special teams.”
The Steelers were in a similar position in the not-too-distant past, and they weren’t able to right that ship. In 2020, the team started out 11-0 before dropping a Week 15 game to Washington. That kicked off a skid where they lost four of their last five regular-season games, including two to AFC North opponents. The Steelers managed to clinch a division title and a home playoff game in the slide, but their postseason lasted the way all others have gone since 2016: One and done.
This time around, the Steelers are determined not to let that happen as they prepare to travel to the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday followed by the Kansas City Chiefs at home on an even shorter one on Christmas Day.
There’s a laundry list of fixes the Steelers have to move through in the short turnaround, and they have questions about the health of some of their most significant players including wide receiver George Pickens and pass rusher T.J. Watt.
“We will have to determine how great we can be,” quarterback Russell Wilson said, asked if the Steelers are a good team or a great team. “There’s a lot more football left, and I think we have the right guys. I think that the biggest thing is that any great team has to respond. You’re going to have adversity, you’re going to have ups and downs. … We can’t flinch.”
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Though the Steelers lost to the Eagles by two scores Sunday, the game was close for most of the evening, even without the Steelers’ best run stopper and top wide receiver. With two takeaways and a healthy dose of physicality, the Steelers dug out of a 17-3 hole with 10 unanswered points, including a third-down moonball touchdown from Wilson to tight end Pat Freiermuth. And in the second half, Wilson connected with wide receiver Calvin Austin III for a 31-yard gain on a flea-flicker that appeared to jumpstart the offense.
The short-lived momentum was lost a couple plays later, though, when running back Najee Harris mishandled the ball on a pitch play and lost possession. Plagued by penalties and unable to consistently sustain drives, Steelers finished with 163 yards, marking their lowest output since 2010.
“They played way better than us,” Wilson said. “It’s unacceptable how we played. I think we feel like we got to be sharper. And so we just got to stay the course and know that obviously we got a big week coming up, we got to respond, we got to get ready to go and that’s where our focus has to be.”
And on defense, the Steelers limited MVP contender Saquon Barkley to fewer than 70 rushing yards, well below his season average, but they allowed receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith to erupt for 18 combined catches, two touchdowns and over 200 receiving yards.
The Eagles also nearly doubled the Steelers’ time of possession by winning possession downs, converting 10 of 17 third downs and a fourth-down attempt.
“It’s not anything mystical,” Tomlin said of what went wrong. “It’s very fundamental. We got to play discipline, we got to secure the ball, we got to tackle. We didn’t do some of those fundamental things well enough tonight to secure victory. Although it sucks, man, we learned and we proceed and move forward.”
But perhaps even more concerning than the offensive and defensive shortcomings in Sunday’s loss is Watt.
Watt, who exited the fourth quarter with a “low-ankle” injury, said he rolled his ankle, and the X-rays were negative. Tomlin didn’t have a definitive outlook on Watt’s status after the game.
“Hopefully he recovers fast,” Heyward said. “But if he’s not able to go, I like to think we’re well equipped to get these guys right and go into the lions’ den with the Baltimore Ravens.”
Heyward was part of that 2020 team that made the playoffs despite the late-season collapse, and it’s why he understands the importance of getting the train back on the track before it pulls into the postseason.
“There’s bigger fish to fry,” Heyward said of clinching the playoffs. “We’re not just trying to squeak into the playoffs, but it’s nice to know that we don’t have to wait until Week 18 to figure out if we’re in the playoffs or not. We have a playoff team. We’ve known that before this game. We played a quality playoff opponent. Didn’t have our best showing, but there’s a lot of ball in front of us.”
