The Pittsburgh Steelers’ season has come to an end after a 30-6 loss to the Houston Texans to close out the wild card round.
For the majority of the game, it felt like a contest tailor-made for the Steelers.
The Texans turned the ball over three times, which is usually the blueprint for an ugly Steelers win. Jack Sawyer stripped C.J. Stroud and Yahya Black recovered to kill a Texans scoring chance. Another Stroud fumble recovered by T.J. Watt set the Steelers up on the edge of the red zone, but they netted just four yards on seven plays and settled for a field goal. Stroud then threw an ugly interception in the red zone to Brandin Echols, but the Steelers did nothing to capitalize. In total, the Steelers netted just six points on three turnovers and failed to reach the end zone at all.
Pittsburgh’s defense held up its end of the bargain, holding Houston to just seven points through three quarters. Unfortunately for the Steelers, the Texans were more than happy to get down in the mud and beat the Steelers at their own game. After a Ka’imi Fairbairn field goal made it a 10-6 game, Sheldon Rankins recovered an Aaron Rodgers fumble and returned it for a touchdown, which proved to be the nail in Pittsburgh’s coffin. A Kamari Lassiter pick-six was the icing on the cake for Houston en route to a 30-6 final.
This marks the seventh consecutive postseason loss for the Steelers, and extends the Steelers’ playoff win drought to nine seasons, elongating the longest such streak in franchise history. And while it looked a lot different than their previous handful of playoff defeats, the final score and result were all the same – a blowout in the wild card round after a 10-win season. In their seven straight playoff losses, the Steelers have been outscored 224-137.
As the season reaches a close for the Steelers, an offseason filled with uncertainty looms. For starters, who will their quarterback be in 2026? Will Aaron Rodgers decide to run it back one more time and return for a second season in Pittsburgh? If and when that does happen, will the Steelers opt to draft a quarterback early in the 2026 NFL Draft that will take place in their backyard? And who will that quarterback be?
The biggest uncertainty above all, though, is what the future holds for Mike Tomlin. While some may see it’s fairly obvious he’ll be on the sideline in Week 1 of 2026, there have been seeds of doubt sewn by several insiders who have speculated the longest tenured head coach in major American sports could step away from the Steelers, whether that be to do TV or if he is open to being dealt to another team. Will that happen, or will the Steelers do what they’ve done for the last several seasons – bring back Tomlin, make minimal staff changes, and run back largely the same group? There are only so many wild card blowouts that a franchise can tolerate, but would anyone be surprised in the slightest if the latter is what happens? If anything, the majority of fans would be surprised if Tomlin isn’t back.
For now, the Steelers are right where they’ve been for better part of the last decade – sitting in the aftermath of a blowout playoff loss with fan unrest continuing to grow. We’ll see if this is the year they actually do something about it.
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