PITTSBURGH _ No matter what happens Sunday, Mike Tomlin has done a good job with the 2019 Steelers. I'd like to think most of us could agree on that (although I doubt it).
Then again, it was just couple of weeks ago we were talking about Tomlin doing a phenomenal job. A Coach-of-the-Year-worthy job. Maybe his best job.
We're not talking about that anymore.
Two weeks is a lifetime in the NFL _ and it hasn't been a wonderful life for the Steelers, unless you consider calling a million pass plays against the Bills, losing to the pathetic Jets, asking James Conner to run the read option, watching Duck Hodges throw the ball to the other team and seeing Jordan Berry kick footballs like they're yoga balls to be wonderful developments.
The Steelers no longer control their playoff fate. Quarterback or no quarterback, injuries or no injuries, they are collapsing for the second straight December. They were favored in each of the past two games and fell flat on their faces.
That is merely stating fact, but it might also prompt this understandable reply: "What did you expect?"
Fair question. Certainly not a rhetorical one. Definitely deserving of deeper inspection.
First, the question must be placed in time. If you'd asked me what I expected after Ben Roethlisberger went down, when the Steelers were 0-2, I would have said around seven wins, given the favorable schedule.
I would have said you still have to beat the Bengals twice, the Browns at least once, the Dolphins, Cardinals and Jets and maybe sprinkle in a mild upset somewhere.
I didn't think Baltimore, San Francisco and Buffalo would be this good. I didn't think the Chargers, Bengals, Browns, Jets, Rams and Colts would be this bad.
Of course, I also didn't know the Steelers would acquire Minkah Fitzpatrick, lose Stephon Tuitt, miss JuJu Smith-Schuster and Conner for weeks at a time and start Hodges in six games. And nobody knew the Steelers would luckily draw the Ravens' JV team in the season finale.
Toss in all of that knowledge, and seven wins still would have seemed reasonable. Mostly because of the schedule. We're going into Week 17 here, and the Steelers have not beaten a team headed to the playoffs and might finish without beating a team with a winning record (depending on the Ravens game and how the 8-7 Rams fare against Arizona).
Their signature win?
I guess the Rams, although the most meaningful one by far was putting a stake in the worthless yet brazen Browns.
Look at it this way: Despite all the hardship, the Steelers _ a two-point favorite Sunday _ will have been favored in eight of 14 games since Roethlisberger went down.
Why, then, would it be so stunning if they were to go 8-6 or even 9-5 in that stretch?
On the other hand, given the state of this sickly offense, I feel like every win is akin to the Miracle on Ice.
The Steelers were favorites against Cincinnati (twice), Miami, Indianapolis, Arizona, Buffalo, the Jets and now Baltimore. They sprung upsets on the Chargers, Rams and Browns and were upset by the Bills and Jets.
They might be trending a win ahead of any sensible projection. Yet, if they win Sunday and make the playoffs, we'd be headed back toward astonishment, right?
What if they lose and make the playoffs? It's possible, given that the three teams the Steelers need to lose _ the Titans, Raiders and Jaguars _ are pretty good at losing.
What if they win and miss the playoffs?
What do we say then?
Two weeks ago, the Steelers were 8-5. That seemed more than a little surprising. If you'd asked me then what I expected, I would have said, "At least one more win."
The game Sunday will go a long ways toward how we view this crazy season.
It's only one game _ but one game is a lifetime in the NFL.
