It would have been easy for the Steelers to have been knocked off-kilter coming into Week 5. They’d suffered their second blowout loss of the season, this one by a 30–6 count in Houston. The public was firing offensive coordinator Matt Canada, benching Kenny Pickett and questioning the direction of the team.
Meanwhile, Mike Tomlin was showing classic Steelers-Ravens highlights.
The 17th-year Steelers coach isn’t new to Baltimore week, of course, now as steeped in the rivalry as anyone ever has been after a generation on his side of it. As such, he knew his team—as unacceptable as he publicly said the Texans game was—needed no browbeating to get itself ready for the rivalry game. Their time, he figured, would be better spent understanding what was coming, rather than looking back at what was.
