If Mike Tomlin and Ben Roethlisberger are the elite combination they're said to be, there is no excuse for the Steelers to lose again until, at earliest, the AFC championship, and that's assuming it takes place in Gillette Stadium.
For all the accolades Tomlin and Roethlisberger have earned together, the past five seasons have produced one playoff win.
There were excuses _ a rebuilding defense, injuries, Tim Tebow _ but now, there are no more excuses, unless Roethlisberger gets hurt. It's time for both coach and quarterback to cement their legacies and prove they weren't a product of great defenses built by Bill Cowher.
Tomlin has 100 wins and a Super Bowl trophy, but his most impressive work came in his first four years. It could be argued the past six years have been underwhelming. Tomlin is a good coach, but he needs to re-establish himself.
From 2011-2015, Tomlin was 49-31 with three trips to the playoffs and a 1-3 record in those trips. He won the AFC North Division once in those five years. Bengals coach Marvin Lewis, in that same time period, was 52-27-1, with five trips to the playoffs and an 0-5 in those trips. He won the AFC North twice.
You tell me who was better, especially considering one had Andy Dalton at quarterback and the other had a Hall of Famer. Lewis did a better job with far less to work with at quarterback than Tomlin.
Roethlisberger has one playoff win in the past five seasons. That's five fewer than Joe Flacco and the same amount as Tebow. Roethlisberger stunk Sunday, and the Steelers still won because Le'Veon Bell ran wild, but they won't play a team as bad as Buffalo in the playoffs. If Roethlisberger throws three interceptions against a playoff team, the Steelers will go home.
This week they play the Bengals, who have extra motivation to win to save Lewis' job and to beat a rival. But Cincinnati is without A.J. Green and still has Andy Dalton at quarterback. If the Steelers are legitimately a Super Bowl contender, they should win at this stage of the season. The week after _ on Christmas _ the Steelers play the Ravens at home in what will likely be for the AFC North championship. The Ravens are tough and motivated, but the Steelers should win a home game with the division title on the line. They finish with the Browns at home, and if they lose that game they should probably reconsider the way they play football.
It's not realistic to believe a team should win big every year. There are many circumstances preventing that from happening, unless you're the Patriots. But the Steelers are finally good enough to win in the playoffs, and it's time for Tomlin and Roethlisberger to deliver.
The Steelers went through some adversity earlier in the season, and Tomlin did a great job of navigating choppy waters. They've won four in a row and put themselves in position to be a factor in the playoffs. They must seize the moment, and anything short of a trip to the AFC championship will be yet another failure for a coach and quarterback who have had five underwhelming years in a row.
