The Pittsburgh Steelers had the stage set for a picture-perfect start to one of the more important months of football, but what ended up happening was probably the worst way to start December football that the 2023 Steelers could have imagined. Bringing a 7-4 record into their Week 13 matchup against the Arizona Cardinals, Pittsburgh had a clear set of instructions to keep a firm grip on their AFC playoff spot: win. Things couldn't have gone much worse for the Steelers in their 24-10 loss to the Cardinals. TJ Watt didn't hold back about his team's performance against one of the lower-end groups in the NFL, according to their record, at least.
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Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker TJ Watt is one of the best defensive forces in the NFL.
Steelers' TJ Watt Stunned By Painful Loss
Even though things haven't been easy or fun for the 2023 Steelers, their resilience and tendency to have a bit of luck on their side got them to 7-4 going into the Week 13 game against Arizona. After the firing of Matt Canada following Week 11 of 2023, Pittsburgh looked as though they had begun to turn things around by winning in Week 12, but apparently, that was a fluke.
In Watt's postgame comments to the media, he looked uninterested, tired, and somber, all of which he would be right in feeling considering the kind of loss he just went through. One of the best defensive players on the planet had few answers for the reporters' questions, but he certainly was candid when he was asked how this particular one ended up getting away from them.
"We got our a** kicked today, I don't know if it got away from us. We got pummeled today."
There wasn't much emotion in Watt's voice, but his eyes made it clear how disappointed he was in the Steelers as a whole. Watt has yet to win a playoff game in his career since being drafted in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft, something that hasn't been helped by Pittsburgh's insistence on treading water. Moments like the one Pittsburgh had in their grasp heading into Week 13 of 2023 don't come around often, and they usually are felt the most at the end of a season when a single game can be the difference between the playoffs and another year watching from the couch.
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Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin is known for dropping games that his Steelers are supposed to win handily.
Steelers Fall Victim To Another Bad Tomlin Loss
The feeling in the days leading up to their Week 13 game against the Cardinals was that this seemed like the perfect chance for Mike Tomlin to lose another important game to a lesser team. It's been happening throughout his entire career with the Steelers, and on Sunday, the sting of defeat was made worse by the standard of the team they fell to.
Handing the Cardinals their third win of 2023 can't feel good, and it will be a stench that lingers with each player in the Pittsburgh locker room. There are, at times, small moral victories that can be taken away from losses to teams in which you held your own or where you elevated yourself to their level, but there's nothing like that when this kind of loss comes around. This defeat feels eerily similar, and that's because Tomlin took a page from his own book.
Charles LeClaire / USA TODAY Sports
Former Steelers Offensive Coordinator Matt Canada was a big reason for the Steelers' failures, but not the only reason.
In 2018, Tomlin had the Steelers poised to make a strong, late run at 7-4-1, while the team they were playing in early December was the 2-10 then-Oakland Raiders. That game ended in a stunning 24-21 loss for the Steelers, but at least the offense put up a fight and gave the fans a semblance of hope. The 2023 Week 13 defeat at the hands of the Cardinals is one that will stick with fans and players alike because we all know it wasn't supposed to happen this way. Maybe, though, this is a sign that while the removal of Canada was much-needed, it wasn't nearly enough.
Can this version of the 2023 Steelers make the playoffs? Comment below.
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