Tim Benz: Concept of Steelers ‘stacking wins’ seems like fiction from a galaxy far, far away
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For local football fans, the anticipation of Sunday’s Steelers-Bengals game felt like a scene out of the new Star Wars series “Andor.”
Specifically, the one from an episode when everyone on planet Aldhani is looking to the heavens for “The Eye.” It’s a beautiful celestial event that is the equivalent of 50 meteor showers all at once. As described on the show, “a curtain being pulled across the sky until the window to the galaxy forms over the horizon.”
For 66,000 believers at Acrisure Stadium, the heavenly occurrence they were gathered to witness was the prospect of a very rare sight to behold in Pittsburgh of late: a two-game Steelers winning streak.
Alas, all those Black-and-Gold clad travelers went home disappointed as the sky fell dark on the Steelers for a seventh time in 10 tries this season. Yet again, a failed attempt to win consecutive games for coach Mike Tomlin’s team. This time thanks to a 37-30 defeat from their AFC North rivals from Cincinnati.
Did you notice that their opponents were wearing white Imperial Stormtrooper-esque uniforms?
Unless we witness a miracle much greater than “The Eye,” the lights are now out on the team’s hopes to scramble back into wild-card contention and a stunning run to a winning season.
At 3-7 with seven games remaining, barring a tie (which, I guess, needs to be stated after last year’s result with the woeful Detroit Lions), the Steelers will have to go 6-1 down the stretch to avoid the first losing season of Tomlin’s tenure and the franchise’s first since 2003.
“We just try to be here and stack bricks. What happened, happened (Sunday). It was a tough one. We really wanted this one, but we’ve got to move on to the next one,” running back Najee Harris said after the loss.
What else can he say? But the team hasn’t won two in a row all season. Now they need to win at least three in a row … twice?
Nope. Not happening. Especially since the club looked like it was headed on the right track with a 20-10 win over the New Orleans Saints last week. Especially since the club was at least good enough to mount a 20-17 halftime lead over Cincinnati on Sunday.
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Then the third quarter started. The defense collapsed. The offense had four straight sequences where they failed to pick up a first down, and the Bengals rallied to victory.
“We gave away a key opportunity,” defensive captain Cameron Heyward said of failing to win a second-straight game. “We talk about climbing out of a hole. But we just keep digging ourselves, more and more, into that hole.”
Tomlin had a team that rallied back from a 2-6 record to reach 8-8 and barely missed the playoffs in 2013. Another did so in 2019 without Ben Roethlisberger. That edition of the Steelers went 1-4 after Roethlisberger was hurt in Game 2. Like the 2013 club, the ‘19 squad finished 8-8 and wasn’t eliminated from postseason contention until the final weekend.
Also, last year’s team was 1-3 before a 4-0-1 stretch that keyed a push to qualify for the final postseason spot at 9-6-1.
Granted, the Steelers have a soft schedule remaining, aside from two games against the AFC North-leading Baltimore Ravens. However, I don’t see the Steelers going 5-0 in their other games to make those contests against Baltimore into difference-makers. I’m not even sure if they will win two or three more games. Sure, in Pittsburgh, we’re saying, “Hey, at least the Steelers have games against Indianapolis, Atlanta, Carolina, Las Vegas and Cleveland.”
But you know what fans are saying in all those places, don’t you? “Well, at least they have the Steelers left on the schedule. That could be a win.”
Don’t kid yourselves. That’s what they are thinking. And they have every right to do so. The Steelers have earned their way to the bottom of the NFL ecosystem with all of those other dregs of the league.
Want proof? At Betrivers.com, the Indianapolis Colts, who were the joke of the entire NFL for a week after hiring inexperienced former player Jeff Saturday as their interim coach, are already 2.5-point favorites to beat the Steelers Monday night. They should be. Since that hire, they beat the Raiders and nearly upset the 9-1 Philadelphia Eagles. Are you willing to put the Christmas gift money on the Steelers in that one?
Or any game moving forward?
“You have to learn from each experience,” linebacker T.J. Watt said Sunday evening. “Whether it’s good, whether it’s bad. You have to move forward. We’re not where we want to be, clearly, right now, but sitting here and sulking about it isn’t going to do anything.”
No. It won’t. That said, I won’t blame the fans if they do.
In case you are wondering, “The Eye” is said to only come around every three years. I don’t think it’ll be that long before the Steelers win back-to-back games again.
But I’m not going to hold my breath waiting either.