PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It's probably stating the obvious for a team sitting a 1-4 and coming off a 35-point loss, there are no quick fixes. It's more about the improvement within the room than the challenge outside of it.
Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin said as he gathered the team on Monday to review the 'disaster' and 'smashing' they took in Buffalo, it was more than just the loss to the Bills. He talked to his team about the big picture.
"One thing I want our team to know and I said it to them," Tomlin said. "We are not going to cure our ills in one or a couple of good days, or a good plan or a good performance for that matter.
The state that we are in, we have to put our heads down and work hard and diligently and stay together for an extended period of time."
"(Working to) grind our way back to respectability."
It's a harsh reality for a proud franchise, basement of the division and only the win in five games was in overtime. They are ranked 27th in the NFL.com power rankings. In explaining they used words like 'overmatched', 'destined for a losing season' and this final sentence 'It's fair to wonder if Pittsburgh ends this rebuilding campaign with one of the worst records in football'.
Tomlin said it's a mindset they have to develop and he admits some have not. They have to understand where they are. He said Cam Heyward and himself are guys who have been through many situations and that should explain why they said what they said.
"There are not quick fixes," Tomlin said. "We are going to be working our tails off. We didn't dig ourselves into this circumstance in one day. So, we aren't going to dig ourselves out of this circumstance in one day or one performance."
Along with this sudden wake-up call for a franchise who made the post-season the last two years comes emotion. Tomlin called some of the reaction from media and the fans as low-hanging fruit for criticism of his team.
"I'm not going to pretend like there wasn't disappointment and expressions of frustration, particularly at the end of the game," Tomlin said. "I don't see it as problematic. I see the execution, or lack thereof, or quality planning as the core issues and problems. I'm not going to get carried away with that component of it."
"When you are getting smashed like that, emotions and pissed-off-ness and all of that is a component of it. You are naïve if you think it's not."
"We don't like getting smashed. We don't like getting beat. All of those things are expressions of frustrations.
The questioning of desire and things of that nature, that's what competitors do particularly when you get smashed. I'm not going to read too much into it."
Tomlin said it starts with him and how he develops not only the players going forward, but the concepts (game plans) they prepare and teach. He dropped one of his favorite clichés of 'the windshield is bigger than our rearview'. Tomlin said you can waste a lot of time talking about things that have already transpired.
"You are continually educating and training young people about the nature of professional sports and the challenges," Tomlin said. "Not only inside the white lines, leading up in preparation for and things come with. That's the job of guys like myself. That's the job of veteran teammates and we don't run away from that. We run to that."
"When it's miserable it is a great opportunity to educate. We embrace that."
If that's the case it's now Steelers University and they still need to complete the 100-level courses.
