Mike Tomlin can shrug it off, but he can’t get away from it.
The Pittsburgh Steelers coach has lost six straight playoff games since beating the Kansas City Chiefs in an AFC Divisional game following the 2016 season. The skid is a frequent source of consternation for fans and the media. Though Tomlin has never had a losing season in his 19 years on the job, the playoff futility has put some tarnish on his reputation as one of the NFL’s premier coaches.
Tomlin has a chance to end the streak on Monday night when the Steelers (10-7) host the Houston Texans (12-5) in an AFC Wild Card game at Acrisure Stadium. Tomlin, though, says the past is the past.
“It’s not about the organization or myself,” Tomlin said. “It's about this collective, and quite frankly, most of these men don't care about the last whatever years. Most of them are new to us, and so that's where my focus is. I'm certainly not going to unpack my bags on the collective's bed, if you will. I'm excited about doing it and doing it this week with this collective.”
The Steelers won four of their last five regular-season games to give the franchise its first AFC North title since 2020. They rallied past the Baltimore Ravens 26-24 in a winner-take-all game for the division crown in last week’s finale.
The Texans (12-5) are as hot as any team in the NFL with nine wins in a row. Unsurprisingly, the oddsmakers have made Houston the favorite for Monday night’s game, even though the Texans have never won a road playoff game in franchise history.
Also working against the Steelers is their recent playoff history, which is abysmal, beyond the fact that they have lost six games in a row. Five of those losses have been by double digits, and the average defeat margin has been 13.7 points. The Steelers have also allowed 38.3 points a game.
“I don’t think that I've analyzed it in that way,” Tomlin said of the lopsided losses. “So many of these guys don't share that experience, so it's less relevant. I'm really just trying to put together a good plan for this collective in an effort to combat what we anticipate getting from Houston this week.”
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers also downplayed the Steelers’ playoff failures, though this is his first year with the organization.
“Stats are what they are, the trends are what they are, and those trends, any trend, is always meant to be broken at some point,” Rodgers said. “So hopefully we can do that.”
Can they?
Are the Steelers capable of winning a playoff game this season? Or are they whistling in the dark while dismissing their recent postseason failures?
We shall find out on Monday night.