Steelers face tough road to postseason
The Pittsburgh Steelers never seem to make things easy, and thanks to an inexplicable loss in Oakland Sunday, they now have a difficult path to the playoffs.
The Steelers (7-5-1) lead the Ravens (7-6) by a half-game in the AFC North with three games remaining. The Steelers play the Patriots, Saints and Bengals while the Ravens play the Buccaneers, Chargers and Browns.
Advantage: Ravens.
The Steelers likely have to win two of their remaining three games to have any chance of winning the division title or earning a wild-card berth. Anything less could mean their first playoff miss since 2013.
The Steelers are 0-5 in their past five games against the Patriots, including a 27-24 loss at Heinz Field last December that prevented the Steelers from earning the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs.
Many Steelers are treating this game like a playoff game because they know anything short of 10 wins is putting their playoff hopes in serious jeopardy.
“We realize what’s at stake,” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said. “No panic. We still control our destiny, but it’s not going to get any easier.”
The Steelers are in this position because they lost three consecutive games after starting the season 7-2-1.
Making things more challenging this week is the team’s overall health. Roethlisberger has bruised ribs, but he said he is going to play. Running back James Conner has a high ankle sprain and is unlikely to play.
Conner’s replacement Jaylen Samuels only had 28 yards rushing on 11 carries against the Raiders, but he had seven catches for 64 yards and was instrumental in the fourth-quarter touchdown drive that gave the Steelers a short-lived lead.
The Steelers might have to outscore the Patriots because their defense hasn’t held up the past three games against the Broncos, Chargers or Raiders. They allowed 14 points in the second halves against the Raiders and Broncos and 26 to the Chargers, who erased a 23-7 halftime deficit.
The Raiders scored with 21 seconds remaining on a fourth-down pass.
“It was very disappointing how the game ended particularly because we weren’t able to stand up in that moment defensively and really, that’s the second time in two weeks we weren’t able to stand up in that moment,” head coach Mike Tomlin said. “We have to do a better job of finishing things at the point of attack. We were in position for a lot of those plays. They made the combat catches and we didn’t, and so there are obviously consequences of that. The consequences are we lost the game but there are also reasons why that happened and we have to look at all reasons, what we are doing as coaches in terms of putting those guys in position to take advantage of those opportunities, who we are utilizing and the detail to which they’re working.
“We are open to all possibilities in an effort to change that outcome. One thing we aren’t going to do is we are not going to hope and wish. We are not going through our processes in which we have and just hope that the outcome changes. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we are going to do things dramatically different, but we are not going to sit on our hands. We are not going to hope. That’s not what professionals do, particularly ones in the position that we’re in. We are going to actively seek victory. We are going to actively seek the change necessary to change the outcome of a few plays which will thus change the outcome of a game.”
The Steelers have to change something up against the Patriots Sunday afternoon at Heinz Field. Quarterback Tom Brady has had the Steelers’ number since he entered the league in 2000. He has completed 70.8 percent of his passes with 23 touchdowns and only one interception against the Steelers since 2007, Tomlin’s first season as head coach of the Steelers.
The Patriots will be motivated too after they lost to the Dolphins on the final play of the game in Miami.
“We are licking our wounds as we should when you are unsuccessful in this business, but not a lot of time for that,” Tomlin said. “We understand that as well. Sunday is coming. We are excited about an opportunity to compete and get this negative taste out of our mouths as I am sure New England is. They are coming off of a bitter, disappointing game. It’s going to be high stakes. It’s going to be a big-time atmosphere.”
SERIES HISTORY: 27th regular-season meeting. Steelers lead series, 14-12. The Steelers have lost five in a row and nine of the past 11. The Patriots won the most recent meeting, 27-24, last year at Heinz Field. The Steelers have lost four of the past six games against the Patriots at Heinz Field. These two teams have met in the playoffs five times with the Patriots winning four of them, including three times in the AFC Championship Game, most recently in 2017 (2016 season).
