The Pittsburgh Steelers went into their final regular season game on “playoff hopes” life support, having to depend on the Cleveland Browns to help usher them into the 2018 NFL postseason.
It was a simple equation. The Steelers were required to defeat the Cincinnati Bengals and the Browns had to beat the Baltimore Ravens and all that “Dorothy” had to do was click her ruby heels together and Pittsburgh would return to their anointed, appointed and usual place in the postseason.
The Steelers held up their end by beating the Bengals by the score of 16-13.
The Browns almost sent the Ravens packing but eventually lost to them by the score of 26-24. There was a long-distance scenario that if later on that night, the Tennessee Titans and the Indianapolis Colts would have to play to a tie, in order for the Steelers to sneak in the back door of the playoffs. But alas, as my father used to say: “If you depend on another man to provide food for you, don’t expect filet mignon, and shrimp scampi to be prominent on the menu.”
The Steelers did what they were supposed to do, they won.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin summed up the 2018 season this way. “I am appreciative of the efforts. We were able to control the things that were within our control today. We got our fourth AFC North win, I am appreciative of that. Can’t say enough about the efforts of the guys particularly like Matt (McCrane) coming in, getting on a moving train and kicking the way he did today. We accept the outcome, obviously we had 17 weeks to state a case for ourselves. We stand by our work, you have to in this business. It is what it is..it’s tough, the end result of it all, as it always is.”
Instead of offering heartfelt congratulations to a coach and team for an exciting and competitive season, the two-headed media again had their daggers polished and ready to go. Asking such asinine questions as: “Did this team underachieve this season?” Mike Tomlin did not even indirectly take the bait. Tomlin responded saying, “I am not getting into that. We are what our record says it is.”
The media was unsuccessful finding a chink in the Steelers’ armor with that question so they posed the same question to Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger with a slightly different spin asking him to explain, “how do you have so much talent and miss the postseason?” Roethlisberger responded; “I don’t know. I would say thanks for calling us talented on this roster.”
The Pittsburgh Steelers ownership and fans have nothing to hang their heads about. The team played hard and with heart. They were far from flawless and far from heartless. On certain game days they were the frog that received a kiss from the “princess of victory.” On other days of competition, they were exposed for the entire world to see, warts and all.
Now hear this…I am going to state this until I am blue in the face, again. The haters are now trying a new devious and underhanded approach to decapitate the coaching tenure of one Mike Tomlin. They are all now saying that “wholesale changes need to be made from the top down.” See, they know that the ownership of the team is not going to change, so the head coach gotta go. Obviously, they don’t realize that when you change clothing, you must take a shower first, or the stench will still remain.
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