The Pittsburgh Steelers haven't won a playoff game in eight years, losing six straight playoff games. The latter is tied for the longest streak in the NFL. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin admitted before the latest playoff loss that the lack of success in the postseason is his baggage.
Steelers All-Pro defensive tackle Cam Heyward disagrees with his head coach, however. It's on the players, too.
"Mike T can say his guys don't have to carry the luggage, but we do," Heyward said in an interview with SiriusXM from the Pro Bowl in Orlando, Fla. "Every year, we're striving to win a Super Bowl, and when we fall short, we all have to own it. We all have to be better because of it. I don't think we had enough cohesion on defense to be sound. That starts with players executing at a high rate. I think we have the guys in the room, but going forward, we have to clean up a lot of things. I think the playoff game, especially against Baltimore, you have to have your execution at a high level and we did not."
The Baltimore Ravens ran up and down the field on the Steelers in their Wild Card win. The Steelers simply had no answer for the Ravens' read-option attack with Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry .
Midway through the third quarter, the Ravens had 242 yards rushing, which is the most rushing yards allowed by the Steelers in a postseason game. The previous high was 232 yards at Oakland in 1973. Baltimore finished with 299 yards rushing (6.0 average).
Henry broke the record with a 44-yard touchdown run up the middle to enhance Baltimore's lead to 28-7 at the 5:49 mark of the third quarter.
Like Heyward, Steelers president Art Rooney II was also not happy about the Steelers' playoff performance against the Ravens.
"It wasn't good enough, let's say that. It wasn't good enough. We were a team that was coming off four losses in a row, and we may have had some confidence problems going into that game," Rooney said, via Kaboly + Mack . "I don't know for sure. But it was not a great performance, and hard to overcome that. But we will."
Rooney also discussed the fans frustrations over the five-game losing streak to end the season.
"I understand their frustration with how we finished 2024. It just wasn't good enough, not what we expected, and everybody in this building knows that we have work to do and we've got to be better than that," Rooney told Bob Pompeani of KDKA . "We've got some big decisions to make and we're going to be rolling up our sleeves and doing the best we can to make sure we're better next year."
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