Winning ugly is better than losing ugly, and no one knows that better right now than the Pittsburgh Steelers.
While they were keeping a perfect season alive last month with some not-so-aesthetic victories, Mike Tomlin referenced the good that can be gleaned from the efforts without the pain of a defeat.
Now that the Steelers have lost three consecutive games, Tomlin is taking the same approach — even without the “W” to fall back on.
“You know … I’ve played poorly and won,” Tomlin said Tuesday during his weekly video conference. “I like to play poorly and win. I like to learn lessons while you win. I’ve (also) played extremely well at times over the course of my career and lost.
“It’s about winning and losing, and particularly in December.”
The Steelers have done plenty of losing in recent Decembers, and they haven’t won this month except for an ugly 19-14 victory Dec. 2 against a depleted Baltimore Ravens team in a game originally scheduled for Thanksgiving. An 11-0 start has deteriorated into a three-game losing streak, the second consecutive December in which the Steelers have lost three in a row.
Last season, it cost the Steelers a playoff berth. This season, it already cost them the No. 1 seed, and if the skid continues, it could cost the Steelers a division title and see them tumble down to the No.6 seed in the AFC playoffs.
Tomlin on Tuesday, though, preached a steady hand and vowed to forgo a significant shake-up in personnel or schematics as the Steelers seek to right their rapidly-sinking ship beginning at 1 p.m. Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts (10-4).
“We have a body of work in recent weeks that has not been up to our standards,” Tomlin said. “We acknowledge that. We’re not seeking comfort. Part of us working our way out of this is acknowledging that. We believe in our formula of preparation. We just simply have to do it better.”
Tomlin pledged to stick to a tried-and-true psychological method of turning the page on the previous game by the time players report Wednesday morning for installation of a new gameplan. Tomlin also stood by some embattled veterans coming off poor games (e.g., Ben Roethlisberger, Alejandro Villanueva), and he said the week of preparation would “largely” stay the same as always.
“I say, ‘largely’ because I’m always open to catering our plan to meeting the immediate needs of the group, whatever those needs may be,” Tomlin said.
“As far as motivation, words are just a part of the component for me. It’s important that they hear words, that they hear clarity, that they have direction as we fight through these issues, but it is important also that our collective actions align with those words in terms of what we do to prepare, how we prepare and the plan we make.”
Not that Tomlin has much of a choice in regards to roster formation during Week 16 of a given season, but Tomlin expressed confidence in the players he has, which is the same group that propelled the Steelers to their best start in franchise history.
That echoed what Roethlisberger said about 12 hours prior in the wake of a 27-17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals (3-10-1).
“We better get it figured out,” the Steelers’ 17-year quarterback said, “and I think we can.”
Despite the losses, despite an offense that failed to eclipsed 20 points over a four-game stretch for the first time in 16 years and despite a defense that has allowed a steady stream of backup quarterbacks keep opponents in games, Tomlin is standing by his guys.
“There won’t be sweeping changes in terms of our approach and what we do,” he said. “We just simply have to do it better. We have to have more thoughtful and creative ideas. We have to have better performances. I’m still extremely confident in that formula, in the men we work with, but confidence is one thing. Doing it is another.”
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Chris Adamski is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chris by email at [email protected] or via Twitter .
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