Late-season collapses not foreign to Steelers, coach Mike Tomlin

It already has been established that the Pittsburgh Steelers are coming off the worst two losses in the Mike Tomlin era.

No other team in NFL history with a winning record has lost back-to-back games to opponents at least eight games under .500, so how can it be viewed as anything but the low point in his 17-year tenure?

Time will tell over the next four weeks if it also leads to a collapse for the ages.

With four games remaining — three of them on the road — the Steelers hold a 7-6 record and are on the outside of the AFC playoff picture heading into games Sunday.

What transpires against Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Seattle and Baltimore will determine whether the Steelers climb back into the race or careen to the first losing season on Tomlin’s head coaching resume.

December collapses aren’t foreign to Tomlin. Anyone paying attention to Steelers games over the past six seasons is aware of that.

The Steelers had a three-year stretch from 2018-20 where they stumbled down the stretch. There were others earlier in Tomlin’s time with the Steelers.

You could even go back to his inaugural season to pinpoint the genesis of his team slumping in the final month of the season.

A look back:

2007

Tomlin brought a fresh approach to a franchise that went 8-8 in Bill Cowher’s final season. He guided his first Steelers team to a 9-3 start, which opened the possibility of a first-round bye.

The slide began with a 34-13 loss at New England, which was on its way to a 16-0 regular season.

In the weekly news conference leading up to the game, second-year safety Anthony Smith infamously guaranteed a Steelers victory. Tom Brady didn’t waste his time exploiting Smith in the secondary. Randy Moss blew past him for a 63-yard touchdown early in the second quarter for a 14-3 lead, and the Patriots didn’t look back.

The Steelers lost the next week at home to Jacksonville, a precursor to their playoff matchup a few weeks later. After ending the season with three losses in a four-game span, the Steelers hosted the Jaguars in the divisional round and lost again 31-29. Jacksonville became the first team to defeat the Steelers twice in one season at the former Heinz Field, an accomplishment they repeated in 2017.

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2009

After opening with a 6-3 record, the Steelers ended November with three successive losses, prompting Tomlin to promise the Steelers would “unleash hell” in December. The only thing unleashed was more losses — to the 3-8 Oakland Raiders and 1-11 Cleveland Browns.

To Tomlin’s credit, the Steelers won their final three games to finish 9-7 but out of the playoff picture.

2012

A year after being stunned by the Tim Tebow-quarterbacked Denver Broncos in the playoffs, the Steelers got off to a 6-3 start and faced a three-game division run of two games against first-place Baltimore and one against Cleveland.

The Steelers missed a chance to forge a tie atop the division, dropping a 13-10 decision at home to the Ravens. The next week, they lost to the 3-8 Browns. After winning at Baltimore, the Steelers lost three in a row to fall below .500.

A win in the finale against Cleveland got the Steelers back to .500 but short of the playoffs.

2018

The Steelers won six in a row at midseason but needed a touchdown run by Ben Roethlisberger with 5 seconds left to eke out a win at Jacksonville that lifted their record to 7-2-1.

What followed were five losses in a six-game stretch that knocked the Steelers out of the division lead and essentially out a playoff spot. It began with a 24-17 loss at Denver when the Steelers lost a seven-point lead in the second half.

After blowing a 23-7 halftime lead in a home loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, the Steelers went to the West Coast and stumbled at 2-10 Oakland. It was a remembered as the game in which Roethlisberger couldn’t get a quality X-ray taken of his ribs at halftime.

A home win against New England stopped the bleeding but only temporarily. The Steelers lost 31-28 at New Orleans with JuJu Smith-Schuster losing a fumble late while Roethlisberger was trying to get the Steelers in position for a tying field goal.

The Steelers won the finale but didn’t get the required help to sneak into the playoffs.

2019

With Roethlisberger out for the season after a season-ending elbow injury, the Steelers relied on Mason Rudolph and Devlin “Duck” Hodges to craft an 8-5 record.

The magic wore off with a 17-10 home loss on Sunday Night Football as Hodges threw four interceptions and was sacked four times.

Hodges was benched for ineffectiveness against the 4-9 New York Jets but had to re-enter the game when Rudolph suffered a season-ending shoulder injury. The 16-10 loss pushed the Steelers out of the playoff picture, and a third consecutive loss came when Baltimore rolled to a 28-10 victory in the finale.

2020

With Roethlisberger back at quarterback, the Steelers provided some positivity during the coronavirus pandemic by navigating several schedule changes to craft an 11-0 start, the best in franchise history.

The final win in that streak came against Baltimore in a game postponed multiple times because of covid-19. It led to the Steelers playing three times in an 11-day span.

A home loss to Washington began a run of three consecutive defeats and four in the final five games. The 12-4 record was enough for the Steelers to win the division.

After losing the finale at Cleveland in a game that had no impact on the standings, the Steelers followed up by falling behind by four touchdowns in the playoff rematch against the Browns. The 48-37 loss remains the last home playoff game for the franchise — a streak that is likely to carry into next season.