NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Maybe it was Monday when the Steelers gathered at their South Side training base to review tape of their hurtful 20-13 loss to the New York Jets a day earlier. Or maybe it was Wednesday when they reported to work to begin preparing for a game tonight against the Tennessee Titans, their most important game of the season. The timing isn't important. What's significant is the message offensive coordinator Todd Haley delivered to the offensive players. It grabbed their attention.
"Our bye week comes after this next game. Win it and it will feel like you won two games. Trust me. It will feel like you won all over again when you're sitting on the couch watching the games next Sunday. But lose it ... It will feel like two losses. You don't want that. That's the last thing you want."
"That really hit home," quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said.
So should this:
The Steelers won't make the playoffs if they lose tonight.
Trust me.
That's a prediction, of course, not a factual statement. There are no must-win games until a team gets to the postseason or faces elimination from playoff contention. After tonight, the Steelers will have five games left. Even if they lose to the 2-7 Titans and fall to 6-5, they could win all five games, finish 11-5 and win the AFC North Division.
Sure they could.
But that's being negative. There's no way the Steelers lose tonight. There's no way they lose to the zero-win Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 4, the one-win New York Jets in Week 10 and the two-win Titans with a third-string, rookie quarterback in Week 11. No way.
OK, you know better. There always are ways.
The Steelers offense could turn the ball over three times, as it did against the Jets. The defense can give up three consecutive scoring drives to start the game, as it did against the Jets. The special teams can miss a short field goal, turn the ball over on a punt return and continue to get nothing positive from their kickoff return team, as they did against the Jets.
"That was a complete team loss," Roethlisberger said of that horrible film review. "All of the phases, the players, the coaches. ... We'll all take credit for that one. It wasn't our best effort."
It was awful, actually. It was so bad that coach Mike Tomlin said the Steelers were lucky they didn't lose by much more than a touchdown.
But Roethlisberger wasn't willing to dismiss the Jets' role in the fiasco. He talked of how the Jets came in minus-15 in turnover ratio and compared that number to the Steelers' minus-11 when they started the 2013 season 0-4 before regrouping to finish 8-8. "We didn't think of ourselves as a bad football team. ... They aren't a bad football team. They just turned the ball over a lot. Sunday, they didn't turn the ball over and we did. ... I never look at records. Throw records out the window. We're playing a professional football team. We're a professional football team. It's never going to be easy."
The Steelers will win tonight for many reasons. Their defense, which has been mostly mediocre, will torment rookie quarterback Zach Mettenberger. The team is 18-2 against rookie quarterbacks under defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau.
Roethlisberger will play better. He called his second interception against the Jets -- an overthrow for wide receiver Markus Wheaton -- "a horrible play on my part." The receivers will run better routes. Rookie Martavis Bryant caused the first interception against the Jets by not getting deep enough on his pattern. Antonio Brown, who had two fumbles against the Jets, will hang on to the ball. The offensive line will be better if only because it can't be worse than it was against the Jets. Running back Le'Veon Bell, who had just 56 yards on 21 carries in the past two games after averaging more than 86 rushing yards in the first eight games, will approach or top 100. Shaun Suisham will make his field goals. Why stop there? Let's be really optimistic this morning and predict the kickoff return team will get the ball past the 20.
"We're far from out of it," Roethlisberger said of the AFC North Division standings, which teammate Brett Keisel called "a jumbled mess." Cincinnati won in New Orleans Sunday to take over first place at 6-3-1. Cleveland lost at home to Houston to fall to 6-4. Baltimore, 6-4, had the weekend off.
"We're just going to keep playing," Roethlisberger said. "Everyone knows, Steeler Nation knows, it's all about when you get hot. Our Super Bowl runs and playoff runs, we got hot at the right times. If we can get hot and put wins together and start playing great football, we'll be just fine."
It must start tonight.
Steelers 31, Titans 16.
Trust me.
Ron Cook: rcook@post-gazette.com. Ron Cook can be heard on the "Cook and Poni" show weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.
First Published: November 17, 2014, 5:00 a.m.
