PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – A late surge led by Mason Rudolph at quarterback, the Steelers won its last three games and now with Tennessee beating Jacksonville 28-20 on Sunday, are back in the playoffs.
With nothing to play for other than knocking off a division rival, the 5-11 Titans found a way and now the Steelers wait to see where they will play.
It’s a Steelers team that lost five games by double-digit points, a pair of losses to two -win teams, started three different quarterbacks in December, fired a coordinator in season for the first time ever and now are in the post-season.
“It just shows the resilience of this team,” said Steelers linebacker Alex Highsmith. “We were 7-7 after that Colts game and we kept fighting, kept working, kept grinding. We rallied behind each other. We have momentum going into the playoffs.”
“Let us be dangerous,” said Steelers captain Cam Heyward. “We have a formula that is working right now. Hopefully we can get some guys back in the fold. We are not going to discount ourselves. We know we have work to do, we are looking forward to it.”
They could get Minkah Fitzpatrick back from injury, starting safety Damontae Kazee would be eligible to return from suspension. The major injury is to arguably their best player, TJ Watt. Best case scenarios seem to point to Watt missing the first-round of the playoffs.
“We better be able to, though it’s a tall ask,” Heyward said of making up for Watt. “It’s not going to be one guy. We are going to have to mix some things up as a D-line, a pass-rush crew, we have to step up. No one is going to go out there and say they are TJ Watt, but collectively we got to pick it up.”
Even with the likelihood that Watt doesn’t play, the Steelers will take their chances considering after the loss to Indianapolis they appeared done.
“We just never drifted,” said receiver Diontae Johnson. “We stayed locked in and stayed focused on what really matters and that’s us. We continue to do that, we can go far. We feed off each other and that’s all we got to do.”
Steelers haven’t won a playoff game since beating Miami on January 8, 2017. They would open the playoffs either at Buffalo or at Kansas City.
This story will be updated