Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is well aware of his club's recent history of postseason shortcomings, which includes not winning a playoff game in eight seasons. Tomlin will shoulder that baggage personally, refusing to put it on the 2024 Steelers as a team.
"(That's) my story, not this collective's story," he said Monday, via the Associated Press. "Many of these guys involved do not tote those bags. I happily tote those bags. But that's not something I'm going to project on the collective."
Pittsburgh hasn't advanced in the postseason since the 2016 Divisional Round, the Steelers' longest playoff victory drought in the Super Bowl era and the ninth-longest active streak.
The current collective might not shoulder the history of postseason struggles, but they can carry the weight of a four-game skid that has them playing on the road in Baltimore on Saturday night. The quartet of losses to close the season included a Week 16 drumming at the hands of the Ravens (34-17). Pittsburgh hasn't scored more than 17 points in any of the four tilts and allowed at least 27 in three.
Conversely, the Ravens enter the Wild Card Round on a four-game win streak. The AFC North rivals split the season series, each winning at home.
"For us, it's not about being in the tournament. It's not about dreaming about the next month. It's not about pouting over the last month," Tomlin said, via the team's official website. "It's about this week for us, we're playing someone that we're highly familiar with. They're also highly familiar with us.
"It'll be the third time that these two teams have come together. We'll do it in their venue. And so there's a lot of work ahead of us in preparation for performance."
The Steelers are the third team in NFL history to enter the playoffs on a four-plus game losing streak. Others: 1999 Lions, who started 8-4, lost the last four games and fell to Washington in the Wild Card Round; 1986 Jets, who started 10-1, lost the last five games, won in the Wild Card Round, and lost in the Divisional Round.
