Mike Tomlin almost seems relieved Steelers finally lost

Even the Steelers head coach is almost ok with the team falling short to Washington. 

When going undefeated, there’s a stigma surrounding the franchise. Based off how well a team is playing, some could consider them pretenders despite their record staying strong.

That might be the case with the Pittsburgh Steelers entering Week 14.

The last undefeated team saw their streak come to a close Monday night with a 23-17 loss to the Washington Football Team. The defense couldn’t keep Alex Smith from setting up field goals while multiple miscues were had on offense. A crucial Ben Roethlisberger tipped pass was intercepted by Jon. Bostic, leading to victory for the NFC East squad.

Some would imagine Steelers coach Mike Tomlin to be upset. Actually, quite the contrary when you break it down.

“Different points along the journey you get a chance to learn about yourself, who you are, what you’re made of, individually and collectively,” Tomlin told reporters after blowing a 14-0 in the second quarter. “And it takes the journey to reveal that. We’re faced with a loss now. We get the opportunity to smile in the face of it.”

Is Mike Tomlin happy the team lost?

Maybe it’s the tone, but this clearly seems to be the wrong answer when asking people how they handle defeat. Last week after narrowly escaping the Baltimore Ravens, Tomlin blew up at the media, putting his team down in the process while realizing there are problems on both sides of the ball.

“To be bluntly honest, I’m really disappointed in our performance tonight,” Tomlin said according to reporters. “We did enough to win tonight, that’s all.”

On the opposite side, they did enough to lose Monday evening.

Roethlisberger was asked to throw 53 times against the No.2 ranked secondary. While he finished 33-of-53, one could say that number should be higher if not for drops by Eric Ebron and JuJu Smith-Schuster. Pittsburgh’s run game was limited to 21 yards on the night, 15 coming to rookie Anthony McFarland.

If the season were to end today, the Steelers still would hold the No.1 seed. With their one loss coming to an out of conference foe while fellow 11-1 Kansas City fell to AFC West rival Las Vegas, they would have the better in the conference schedule. However, a two-game lead in the AFC North might not be enough from the surging Browns and now healthy Ravens.

But hey, at least the pressure’s off for perfection, right?