There will be no fireworks for the Steelers in New England next weekend.
Pittsburgh’s season came to an end with a 45-42 home loss to the Jaguars in the divisional round of the playoffs on Sunday, which means that there will be no rematch of last year’s AFC title game and no chance for the Steelers to go to their third Super Bowl with head coach Mike Tomlin.
After the game, Tomlin said, via Aditi Kinkhabwala of NFL Media, that the Jaguars “won the moments” over the course of the afternoon. A couple of the biggest moments were stops by the Jacksonville defense on fourth downs with a yard to go and the Steelers didn’t try a quarterback sneak or run up the middle on either one of them.
Tomlin said he was “comfortable” with the calls -- a pitch to Le’Veon Bell and a mid-range pass to wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster -- and also defended the decision to go with an onside kick after cutting the Jaguars’ lead to 42-35 with 2:18 left to play.
“We wanted to get the ball back. We hadn’t stopped them convincingly enough to take any other approach,” Tomlin said.
The kick hit a Steelers player within 10 yards, which added a five-yard penalty to a drive set to start on the Steelers’ 41-yard-line. Three Leonard Fournette runs set up a Josh Lambo field goal with 1:45 left to play, leaving some chance for the Steelers to come back.
It took them 1:44 to get into the end zone on a drive that plodded more than you’d like in that situation, however, and that meant there will be no more moments for the Steelers this season.
