PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – The two decisions that fans want to know about were not addressed immediately after the 30-6 Steelers playoff loss to the Texans.
Aaron Rodgers said he wasn’t going to make an emotional decision, saying he will take some time to decide if he will retire. He said it’s been a great year overall in his life and part of that was because of his time with the Steelers.
The other is with head coach Mike Tomlin. It’s not openly assumed anything will change as he’s signed for the 2026 season with a club option to pick up in March for 2027.
“I’m not even in that mindset as I sit here tonight,” Tomlin said. “I’m more in the mindset of what transpired in this stadium and certainly what we did and didn’t do. Not a big-picture mentality as I sit here tonight.”
His players were quick to defend their coach, now 8-12 in his postseason career.
“I don’t really care about that noise because they don’t know what Mike T puts into us,” said captain Cam Heyward. “They don’t know how he goes out of his way to prepare every man. They don’t about know the countless nights that man is in there studying film. Coaches can only do so much, players have to play better and in those critical moments, players have to step up.”
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“Coach T pours so much into us,” said receiver Calvin Austin. “It just sucks, because our performance was not reflective of how we prepared. How we were together as a group. It sucks to put on this performance for the city and Coach T because it’s not reflective of us.”
Asked what message he would give the fan base after a seventh-straight playoff loss.
“When you don't get it done, words are cheap,” Tomlin said. “It's about what you do or you don't do. I appreciate the question, but people talk too much in our business. You either do or you don't.”
Yearly questions
A likely Hall of Fame career, but TJ Watt is still searching for a playoff win and as he answered questions following the game, he just was at a loss as to what to say except that it was extremely frustrating.
Here were some of Watt’s quotes, and for background, it wasn’t snippy responses, rather more beaten down by the same result
· “I haven’t had the answer for a long time, so don’t ask me.”
· “Sitting up here again, same story.”
· “Going to have to take a long look in the mirror. Going to take this one in. This sucks.”
· “Thought it was going to be a different story.”
· “Same story. I mean, you guys saw what happened.”