The Kansas City Chiefs rolled to a 29-10 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Christmas Day and another December collapse is eerily similar to past years, or is it? This year is different because less than two weeks ago there was a unanimous feeling around the Pittsburgh Steelers their ceiling was possibly more than just winning one playoff game. The Steelers have gone from being a team looked at that could beat anybody in a one game playoff if things broke their way to suddenly looking like a team that is crumbling in all phases.
Pittsburgh’s Christmas Day loss to the Chiefs was different than the past two losses. 0-3 in the three-game gauntlet with three straight losses of 14 points, 17 points and 19 points, what the Chiefs did to the Steelers was mentally break the Steelers on the coaching, offensive and defensive side of the ball. Even after the Ravens loss there was still a ‘belief’ around the team.
Patrick Mahomes/Andy Reid was Tom Brady/Bill Belichick Esque in those haunted meetings of Steelers past in how Brady/Belichick would just torment the Steelers scheme wise in being a step ahead at every turn. The Chiefs are what a Super Bowl/Elite Franchise looks like. The Steelers had every look of a pretender Wednesday afternoon.
The biggest question is whether there’s even a glimmer of hope to any of this being fixable? The last time the Steelers were remotely good enough to at least win a playoff game was in 2020 and when the collapse started, they never recovered. Mike Tomlin has an even bigger task with this group because the doubt inside the team has taken over. They went from a high of believing they were a Super Bowl Contender to now looking like a bottom-tier playoff team that will get waxed by a Buffalo, Baltimore in the wildcard round and or likely be a 1-2 pt underdog against the Texans, a caliber of team two weeks ago the Steelers looked head and shoulders above.
Finger pointing on the defensive side is really hitting home. Multiple players after the game are sending signal after signal to beat reporters there’s a bad apple among the group. The Steelers defensively were in disarray and that group remains a bigger issue than the offensive side of the ball. Let’s not forget this was a 16-10 game in the third quarter. Kansas City only put up 29 points, but it felt like they put up 50 in just how smooth, dominant they were at moving the ball…..On the offensive side, though, George Pickens’ frustration with Russell Wilson was seen for the first time this season. The blame game, doubt everywhere in the room is the Steelers biggest issue moving forward.
Even with Russell Wilson I can’t remember a bigger swing in the pendulum than what’s happened to him. Less than 14 days ago it was all about ‘you gotta give him the Baker Mayfield contract’ after the season and he looked everything of the part that the Steelers truly had their QB for at least the next couple seasons. I’m one of the biggest Wilson backers out there and have been from the start. But, another bad outing against the Bengals, do you consider a quarterback change going into the playoffs just to try to provide a spark? You can’t rule out anything. It’s crazy how quickly things have gone south.
