'Not trying to be paper champs:' Steelers hoping to build winter resilience in the summer

Gerry Dulac, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Jul 26, 2025

Published in Football

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PITTSBURGH — It would be easy to dismiss last year's late-season collapse on a brutal 11-day stretch in December in which the Steelers lost three consecutive games to the best teams in the league.

It would be easy to dismiss the meltdown as being overmatched against three teams who were a combined 41-10 and not having enough time to fully prepare for each opponent.

But that would be ignoring what has become a disturbing trend.

When they lost their final four regular-season games after a 10-3 start, in marked the fourth time in the past six seasons the Steelers have lost at least three consecutive games in the month of December. If you consider 2018, when they lost three in a row after Thanksgiving, that's five times in the past seven seasons.

It's a big reason the Steelers have not won a playoff game in eight years.

"We can sit here and talk and talk and talk about not winning a playoff game and how much I want to do it," said outside linebacker T.J. Watt, who enters his ninth season without a playoff victory. "But at the end of the day, that's just lip service. It's all about what we do, and that's why I'm excited to be back here."

The Steelers come to training camp at Saint Vincent College with a new-look team, carrying a hopeful attitude and short-term memory.

Their offseason moves to bring in All-Pro players and a former four-time league MVP are designed to win a playoff game, something they haven't done since the 2016 postseason. Left unsaid, though not to be ignored, is trying to avoid the late-season collapses that have plagued Mike Tomlin's teams so frequently they have become a rite of winter.

That it happened in 2024, after another offseason of frenzied personnel moves and acquisitions, only served to highlight their repeated collapses.

"At the end of the year, we didn't make the plays we needed to make to win the games we needed to win," outside linebacker Alex Highsmith said. "When we get to that moment, we've got to lock in and be consistent and play like we did all year. It's not about getting there, it's about getting there and winning."

So what can the Steelers do to prevent it? What can they do, if anything, at Saint Vincent College to avoid a repeat of their disturbing malaise?

"Those are all conversations that we're going to have this time of year to make sure that we're able to make that push when we need to," Watt said.

"You don't win the Super Bowl now, but you learn how to be a better team," said defensive end Cam Heyward, who has been involved in just one playoff victory in his 14 seasons.

The Steelers have lost three consecutive games in December each of the past two seasons and also in 2020 and 2019. In 2018, they lost three in a row after Thanksgiving — one on Nov. 25 and two more in December.

Those collapses caused them to miss the playoffs in two of the five seasons — 2018 and 2019 — but their late-season tailspins did not nothing to send them into the postseason on a positive note.

"It's all that — frustration, mad, disappointed," said tight end Pat Freiermuth, who is 0 for 2 in the postseason. "You feel all those emotions. You try to harness those for motivation in the offseason and you try to figure out ways to improve yourself but also find ways to help guys overcome that."

Of course, trying to formulate some type of plan to avoid late-season meltdowns is like planning on getting sacks or making interceptions. Or avoiding injures.

It's not something than can be scripted.

"I think staying healthy is a huge thing," Watt said. "I think it's rotating more. I think it's staying fresh. I think it's the way we approach practice. The way we approach everything. I think everything you do is contagious in one way or another. So, I'm just trying to be the best teammate I can be day in and day out, be as consistent as possible. As the stretch goes on, you have to find ways to stay fresh and to modify, if you need to."

Like everything else, the Steelers say what happens at training camp lays the groundwork for what happens during the regular season. Talking about it isn't enough, though there is no avoiding the pattern.

"We're not trying to be paper champs," Heyward said. "We're trying to be champs."