The Pittsburgh Steelers 31-28 loss to the New Orleans Saints was as crushing as it could get.

The Steelers backed themselves up against a wall with so many inexcusable losses to the likes of Oakland, Denver, the collapse against the Chargers to tying Hue Freaking Jacksons Cleveland Browns in week 1, that what the Steelers showed these last two weeks is what made the loss to New Orleans so devastating.

This team is good enough to win a Super Bowl, especially in this AFC. How could you not watch this team yesterday against the NFC favorite in their barn and not think that.

In a year where there is no dominant team in the AFC and each contender having a number of flaws, this is setting up as the biggest missed opportunity in the Tomlin/Colbert era.

We can debate for days whether the game stolen by the refs, but the Steelers should have never put themselves in this position where they had to rely on having to beat New England and New Orleans to likely get in.

Whether it’s coaching to the players, this team constantly found a way this season to trip over their own feet in pressure situations.

That’s the biggest thing that has to be evaluated after the season if ownership decides to make a deep evaluation of the organization.

This is such a fascinating season in how many missed opportunities they had.

You can list about 20 of them:

Just alone, Chris Boswell makes a couple short field goals/extra points, they’re easily two wins better. The turnovers in high pressure situations is more than just bad luck.

The coaching staff has surely been exposed in some of these high pressure situations that the Steelers are losing, 2-4 in their last six games (all one score games), but Mike Tomlin doesn’t fumble the ball, miss field goals or thrown in-excusable INTs in the end zone to lose a game you should never lose.

Tomlin’s job absolutely should be closely looked at this off-season, Kevin Colbert even more so with how poorly he’s drafted, lack of preparedness for the running back situation, ect, though, both of these are discussions for when the season is officially over.

This collapse is still more towards those on the field just crumbling late in games.

The 2018 Pittsburgh Steelers may have nine lives, though, and as bad as this team have underachieved, if they find a way to get in, they can do some damage.

Don’t rule out Baker Mayfield and the Cleveland Browns upsetting the Ravens. Mayfield is on a mission every week to make Hue Jackson look like a joke and you got a Browns interim coaching staff coaching for a long-term job. Potential good news for the Steelers is that Cleveland is going into that game like it’s a playoff game for them.

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