The Steelers have lost two straight games, dropping their record to 6-5 and giving rise to plenty of thoughts that their season will end without a playoff berth.
As of now, though, the Steelers still hold one of the two Wild Card spots in the AFC and veteran members of the team are talking about how the teams’ playoff destiny remains in their hands. Safety Ryan Clark points out that all is not lost because the Steelers lost to the Browns because winning that game wouldn’t have made winning this week in Baltimore any less of a necessity.
“You lose one game in Pittsburgh and the sky is falling, it’s just part of the culture. It’s part of winning six Super Bowls, it’s part of being 12-4 three of last four years. We’re a spoiled bunch and overall we’ve become entitled,” Clark said, via Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “But you can’t be entitled, you can’t walk into places and just think because you’re the Pittsburgh Steelers you’re going to win. We need to execute and we haven’t been executing. Do we need to win next week? Without a doubt. We would have needed to win next week had we won this game.”
Even with all of the injuries that have sapped the Steelers roster in recent weeks, they had chances to win in each of the last two weeks. Execution was sorely lacking in Cleveland, as evidenced by their eight turnovers, and the team needs to be much sharper to hold onto their postseason berth. That’s true regardless of the identity of the quarterback, the right tackle or any other player on the field.
There’s definitely reason to worry about the Steelers, but the sky hasn’t fallen just yet.