Unsurprisingly, following the team’s wild-card loss, Steelers fans lose confidence.
Just one week ago, 69% of Steelers supporters surveyed expressed confidence in the team’s path prior to the team’s wild playoff game versus the Bills. In the same survey, 62% of supporters stated they anticipated winning over Buffalo, even though they were strong road underdogs and wouldn’t have their top edge rusher, T.J. Watt, available.
Naturally, some of those same fans no longer have that faith following that “” loss.
Perhaps many had a little tunexpectedoo much hope for the wild card game. After all, the Steelers were merely 1-10 without Watt coming into this game. They were playing a squad that was on the rise, the Buffalo Bills, who had defeated the Chiefs, Cowboys, and Dolphins in addition to staying undefeated since their Week 13 bye. Following a 5-5 start to the season, that victory over the Dolphins guaranteed them the AFC East title for the fourth time in a row. To put it briefly, this was a formidable football club that had triumphed over many of the same difficult situations that the Steelers faced, such as losing their offensive coordinator and suffering several critical injuries to their defense.
What was the one advantage they had over the Steelers? a quarterback. a video gamer. Mason Rudolph finished the game with 229 passing yards, two touchdowns, and an interception, finishing with a completion percentage of 56.4%, which was his lowest of the season. Rudolph performed about as well as one could have anticipated a third-string quarterback to in the playoffs. To prolong his NFL hopes, he kept them in it, though, and by doing so, he most likely played himself into another deal, either with the Steelers or somewhere else.
Further compounding the lack of confidence in the direction of the Steelers beyond the loss at face value is in part also the question of whether or not anything will really change in the years to come. It’s been 17 consecutive seasons without a losing record and not enough to show for it. It was another season of playing down to bad competition but managing to come up big. That kind of winning, even though it’s still winning, is maddening. A fifth consecutive
