Tim Benz: Let’s not be too accepting if Steelers miss playoffs
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I saw way too much of this on Twitter during the Steelers’ loss to the New York Jets Sunday.
Well it all comes down to next weekend. If the Steelers don’t find any semblance of an offense, why would you want them in the playoffs? The best we could hope for this year was that the last few games meant something, & they do
— josh lambert (@Dulcezeus_1) December 22, 2019
What does it matter, this team isn’t going anywhere anyway?!?
— Mark Condo (@mcondo3) December 22, 2019
I don’t even care if the Steelers make the playoffs or not! They’ve come this far with backups I ain’t mad at all. When Big Ben come back next season it’s lit we need more WR’s though
— Tre December 30th (@3WaOvy5) December 22, 2019
I don’t care if they make they playoffs because this offense couldn’t beat any good team. But the fact the Steelers won 8 games with this clown car of quarterbacks really speaks to their defense and coaching.
— John Waltz (@johnwaltz) December 22, 2019
Let’s cut the legs from under this thread right now.
As you can see, some fans are viewing the Steelers’ reality through the defeatist lens of, “Why bother making the postseason if they are just going to get crushed in the first round anyway?”
Others are viewing it behind the kumbaya glasses of, “Those poor, injury-plagued Steelers tried so hard. They were the little engine that could. They gave it their best shot. They overachieved given how tattered their offense was all year. So it’s OK they missed the playoffs.”
Please. Just stop. On both fronts.
Yeah. The Steelers will get smashed wherever they wind up in the playoffs. I realize that. It’ll be a formality.
But don’t fans want to see those efforts to stay alive in the postseason race — despite all the roster challenges they have faced — actually result in, you know, the postseason?
Otherwise, why were we rooting so hard for them to get there in the first place? Maybe they should’ve just canceled the rest of the season after Week 13 and given the team a participation trophy.
No offense, James Harrison.
A few weeks ago, sitting at 8-5, Mike Tomlin’s team was just as likely to get thrashed in the first round by New England, Houston or Kansas City as it is today. But we still wanted them to get the chance.
Isn’t that why we were blowing duck calls up and down Grant Street as the team was flying back from a de facto home victory in Arizona?
It felt like the organization was at least worthy of the honor of being called a playoff team for their efforts to stay afloat despite losing starters at quarterback, wide receiver, running back, defensive end and tight end.
Making the playoffs seemed to matter then.
Failing to make them should matter now.
Unless we are playing mind games with ourselves to cushion the blow if the Steelers lose to the Baltimore Ravens’ backups next week, and they manage to miss the postseason entirely.
Or, if we have another situation like Week 17 of 2018. That’s when the Steelers won their final game but painfully witnessed another team failing to help them.
You remember this scene after beating the Cincinnati Bengals at Heinz Field last year, don’t you?
That’s all, folks pic.twitter.com/5wJn5BZUKv
— Mike Prisuta (@DVEMike) December 31, 2018
Thanks a lot, Baker.
Too much to endure again in 2019, eh? So let’s preemptively cook up the narrative that making the playoffs doesn’t really matter because they already accomplished something.
Sorry. I ain’t buyin’. All they would’ve accomplished is being .500. Not a bad record considering the situation. But not an accomplishment worth mentioning.
After Ben Roethlisberger went down with his elbow injury in Week 2, the Steelers were good enough to be the better NFL team eight times in 11 games. They were 8-5 and in a playoff slot after 13 games of the 16-game NFL grind.
If they gave you that much, asking them to at least win at home against the Buffalo Bills, or beat the lowly Jets, or manage a potential victory against the reserves of the Baltimore Ravens isn’t too much.
Now, if they lose three in a row to wrap up the season, they’ll likely just be in a 20-team stew of NFL also-ran clubs.
And that’s in a year where they don’t even benefit from the improved draft order of a first-round pick.
Yes. Make the playoffs and get crushed. That’d be fine. It would mean something. The franchise traded for Minkah Fitzpatrick and Nick Vannett and pushed damaged versions of James Conner and JuJu Smith-Schuster back on the field as fast as possible in an attempt to make the postseason.
Period.
So hope the Steelers bust their butts and win in Baltimore and that Tennessee loses. That would get the team the final AFC bid.
In a town that is normally comical in its “Super Bowl or bust” mentality, some fans are doing it again this year. But they are strangely accepting the “bust” part of that equation. And I don’t get it.
If ever there was a season to embrace some sort of middle ground as an accomplishment, this is it.
They’ve just got to achieve it first. Once they got in a slot with three games to go and a potentially favorable schedule, nothing short of the playoffs reaches that level.
Given the circumstances, going from 8-5 to out of the playoffs this year won’t be as bad as last year’s fade from 7-2-1 to eliminated after Week 17.
It’s under the same umbrella, though.
It’s not “OK” just because of the underdog route the team took to gain a positive foothold by the start of December.
If the team slides to the point that it is home at the start of January — again — it makes no difference why.