Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Chase Claypool thinks the team needs music at their practices.

“I think some music would help,” Claypool said Monday. “That stuff is fun. People are dancing, having fun, so I think maybe music would make practice a little more fun and a little more up-tempo.”

When I watch the Steelers play this year, the only music I hear in my head is a funeral dirge. Or “Taps.” Or at times during Sunday’s 41-10 blowout loss to the Bengals — namely when Claypool was getting penalties and dropping passes — I found myself humming Yakety Sax and the theme to “The Bad News Bears.”

Yeah. I know. Different sport. But the same result.

Actually, the Bad News Bears got better as that movie went along. These Steelers are getting worse. And unless Kelly Leak plays defensive line or inside linebacker as well as he plays outfield, I don’t expect the Steelers to be bringing him in for a workout any time soon.

Although, if Kevin Colbert does sign him, it’d be money better spent than whatever they gave Devin Bush in his first-round bonus in 2019.

No, music at practice isn’t going to help the Steelers. Longer practices, harder practice, more intense practice probably won’t help the Steelers all that much either.

At least not enough between now and the end of 2021 to make them a playoff team.

Taco Charlton isn’t going to practice his way into being a capable replacement for T.J. Watt or Alex Highsmith. Daniel Archibong isn’t going to practice his way into us forgetting about Stephon Tuitt. Kendrick Green can dance like Mikhail Baryshnikov at practice or run until he pukes, he’s not going to become what Maurkice Pouncey was in his prime over the last six weeks of the season.

And head coach Mike Tomlin can ride Ben Roethlisberger like he is a rookie at practice if he wants. But Big Ben will still have the body of a 39-year-old veteran.

The die has been cast on this season. And the Steelers can’t grind their way — or “fun” their way — out of it. They are a 5-5-1 football team that just spent the last three weeks tying the worst team in football and allowing 41 points in back-to-back games.

A team like that can’t be fixed between Thanksgiving and New Year’s through more stringent — or more enjoyable — practices.

“Fixing” this team is going to take a full offseason. Cuts. Free agency. A great draft. Maybe a new quarterback and new coaches.

For now, this sad-sack group of Steelers is just going to have to muddle along and try to get by with what they have.

Which is good enough to beat the Broncos, Seahawks and Bears in fourth-quarter nail-biters, but not good enough to beat the winless Detroit Lions or prevent 82 points from going on the board over the last eight quarters.

What can help the Steelers? Not music. Believe it or not, it’s the schedule.

Yeah, that same schedule which looks so daunting that the team shouldn’t expect to be favored between now and the end of the year.

But it’s also a schedule chock full of other AFC teams, all of whom have been so erratic that the Steelers’ next opponent, the Baltimore Ravens, is currently holding the top seed at 8-3.

The same Baltimore Ravens that lost to the 3-7 (at the time) Miami Dolphins. The same Ravens who needed a 66-yard field goal to beat those pathetic Lions. And the same Ravens who slogged their way to a last-second touchdown win against the Bears, and just edged the Cleveland Browns despite four interceptions from quarterback Lamar Jackson Sunday night.

The Steelers also face those Browns (Jan. 3), who lost to Baltimore Sunday night despite getting those four interceptions. They’ll also get a Tennessee Titans team that has dropped two in a row and lost most of its offensive skill position players to injury.

In other words, as formidable as the Steelers’ remaining opponents may be, they are all flawed, too.

Flawed enough to lose to the Steelers? On the surface, no. Nobody else is playing as badly as Tomlin’s team is right now.

But in the NFL, even the worst of the worst has beaten the best of the best. Look at Jacksonville’s win over the Bills. The Jets beating the Bengals and Titans. The defending Super Bowl champion Buccaneers falling to Washington (2-6 at the time).

The inherent gravity of the league — the NFL’s own centrifugal force — simply seems to pull everyone close enough together that no one goes spinning off into orbit to the point that they can’t win once every six weeks or so.

Well, unless you are the Lions. That’s what makes that tie so difficult to digest for Steelers fans.

It’s a phenomenon that’s especially true this year across the league but has always been true for the Steelers and Ravens. Like when the 6-5 Charlie Batch-led Steelers went to Baltimore in 2012 and beat the eventual Super Bowl Champion Ravens. Or when the 5-11 Ravens of 2015 got two of their five victories on the season against the Steelers, including one with Ryan Mallett at the helm.

How about when the Steelers went to overtime in Baltimore with Dennis Dixon under center in 2009? Or when Devlin Hodges replaced an injured Mason Rudolph and dragged the Ravens beyond regulation at Heinz Field in 2019? Or when that coronavirus-addled Ravens team of 2020 came to Pittsburgh and nearly ended the Steelers’ unbeaten start in Game 11 of last year’s season?

This rivalry is dotted with examples of the hefty underdog keeping the action tense despite the odds. Tomlin, John Harbaugh and the football gods can’t help themselves but to keep Steelers-Ravens close.

That’s what I’m counting on to keep the Steelers alive. At least this week. Flimsy as it may sound, that makes a lot more sense than putting faith in Claypool’s playlist during pre-practice warmups.

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