PITTSBURGH — To understand what unfolded Saturday night in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ regular-season finale at Acrisure Stadium, you have to start nearly 700 miles south and four months ago in Atlanta.

In Week 1 against the Falcons, coach Mike Tomlin set the standard for the season when he passed up a chance to kick a field goal that could have extended Pittsburgh’s lead to eight points midway through the fourth quarter. Instead, he opted to go for it on fourth-and-1 from the 6-yard line. Stuffed for no gain, the Steelers turned the ball over on downs but still escaped with a win thanks to six Chris Boswell field goals.

“We live that life,” Tomlin said at the time, insisting that he’d continue to put his faith in his offensive line and the running game as the season continued.

Now here we are in Week 18. After a season to build their identity, coach up their players and analyze the metrics, the Steelers faced third-and-1 from their 37-yard line with 49 seconds remaining in the first half against the Cincinnati Bengals. On a QB sneak, Russell Wilson’s elbow landed short of the line to gain.

Tomlin faced two choices on fourth down:

• Option A: Punt and give Joe Burrow around 40 seconds to drive the length of the field.
• Option B: Go for it, with no guarantee that converting the first down would lead to points.

Tomlin chose to play the possession down the same way he did in Week 1. The result was the same. The Bengals blew up the play, stopping running back Jaylen Warren short. By turning the ball over, Tomlin essentially handed the Bengals a field goal (Cincinnati nearly turned it into a touchdown, but Ja’Marr Chase couldn’t corral a pass on third-and-goal from the 9).

The @Bengals get a big stop on 4th and 1!

📺: #CINvsPIT on ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus and ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/B2bqpXCZzb

— NFL (@NFL) January 5, 2025

“I like to be aggressive in those moments,” Tomlin said after the game. “If you can’t get a yard, you don’t deserve to win.”

And they didn’t. In a 19-17 loss to the Bengals, those three points could be viewed as the difference.

As you zoom out, that moment helps — as much as anything else — to summarize where the Steelers (10-7) stand going into the playoffs with the stench of a four-game losing streak lingering and the early season optimism nothing more than a distant memory. A team that once had a two-game lead over the Baltimore Ravens with the inside track to win the AFC North has now squandered that opportunity. It also likely blew the opportunity to open the playoffs against the suspect No. 4-seeded Houston Texans. If the Los Angeles Chargers take care of business against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, the Steelers will visit No. 3-seeded Baltimore as the No. 6 seed.

They will do so limping into the playoffs with serious questions about who they are and what they actually do well.

When the Steelers lost three games in 11 days to the Philadelphia Eagles, Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs, the most optimistic way to view the skid was to consider the caliber of competition. All three teams have a legitimate shot to win the Super Bowl.

Well, it only seems fair to consider the caliber of competition now, right? The Bengals’ defense is one of the worst in the league. It entered the game allowing the fourth-most points (26.1) and sixth-most yards per game (358). The first time he played this defense in Week 13, Wilson posted the second-highest passing output (414 yards) of his entire career, which has spanned 13 years and 199 starts. Pittsburgh averaged 7.9 yards per play, its best in a game since 2016.

For an offense that’s been losing altitude over the last month, Saturday night was a prime chance to turn things around and build momentum entering the postseason. Instead, it was arguably its worst offensive performance of the season, as the Steelers posted their second-fewest total yards (193) and a season-low 3.3 yards per play, tied for 10th-worst by any NFL team in a game all season.

After the game, Wilson said the best thing the Steelers can do is forget about the loss.

“We’ve got to have amnesia going into (the playoffs),” he said. “Just win the next play. Just win the next game. We’ve got to have the best week we can possibly have this week.”

It seems the Steelers might already have amnesia, as they must have completely forgotten what worked the first time they played the Bengals this season. Rather than coming out throwing like they did in a 44-point outburst in Week 13, they chose to rely on old-school ground-and-pound. Star receiver George Pickens was targeted six times, committed three drops and recorded just one catch for 0 yards.

Through three quarters, the Steelers ran the ball 20 times for 58 yards (2.9 average) and threw it just 12 times (plus two sacks) for 51 yards, despite trailing from the opening possession. On first and second downs, they ran 17 times against eight passes.

“I think that was our game plan kind of going into it,” Wilson said. “Just trying to establish our physical nature and everything else.”

Therein lies the problem: The Steelers know exactly what brand of football they want to play. Stifle opponents with great defense and churn up yards with a physical rushing attack. That’s the style of football that helps teams win games in the playoffs, or so they’ve been preaching.

Well, now it’s playoff time. If this 17-game sample size has proven anything, it’s this: There’s a serious disconnect between what the Steelers want to be … and what they actually are.

Under first-year offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, Pittsburgh has run the ball 533 times. Only the Philadelphia Eagles (596) and the Ravens (544) have run the ball more. But just because a team runs the ball a lot doesn’t mean it does it well. The Ravens run a lot because they’re great at it, averaging a league-best 5.8 yards per carry. The Eagles are at 5.0 yards per carry, fourth-best. The Steelers? They’re seventh-worst (4.1). The frequency and lack of efficiency leave them ranked third-worst total rushing EPA (-78.5).

Still, after 17 weeks, the Steelers seem to believe they have the kind of offense that can line up, tell you they’re running the ball and do it anyway. In no place is that more apparent than on first down and short-yardage situations — two areas where the Steelers fell short on Saturday.

On first downs this season, Pittsburgh ranks last in yards per play (4.5) while ranking third in run frequency (61.3 percent). A team that wants to “live that life” has converted 38.9 percent of its fourth downs, the fourth-lowest percentage in the league. On fourth-and-1, the Steelers are also fifth-worst with a success rate of 54.5 percent.

“We formulated a plan that we thought was appropriate for this environment and in this game this week,” Tomlin said. “It didn’t work out the way we would like.”

When the Steelers were at their best this season, they were a complementary football team. When one side of the ball struggled, the other bailed them out. To beat the Eagles, Ravens or Chiefs, the Steelers needed both sides to play their best games. Instead, over the past month, both sides have produced their worst games of the season — sometimes simultaneously.

Now, if they’re going to avoid a winless postseason for the eighth consecutive year under Tomlin, the Steelers need to rediscover that formula in a hurry.

“The best thing we can do is get ready for the playoffs,” Wilson said. “It’s a new season. That’s the only thing that really matters anymore at this point. The reality is, winning that game would have helped us in some form or fashion. But at the end of the day, when you go into the playoffs, everybody is 0-0 and you’ve got to beat everybody anyway. That’s got to be our focus right now.”

Maybe it really is a new season, like Wilson says. But unless the Steelers can win a playoff game, it’s going to feel like same old, same old from a team that has too often fizzled down the stretch and fallen flat in the playoffs.

(Photo of Mike Tomlin: Barry Reeger / Imagn Images)

The Dallas Cowboys-Washington Commanders Week 18 matchup was a thriller to the end, but not every play had the best execution. 

Just ask the Cowboys cheerleaders. 

Brandon Aubrey, Dallas’ trusty placekicker, was setting up for a kickoff, which is about routine as it comes for his position in the league. 

But Aubrey’s attempt to kick the ball downfield went awry, as it was kicked immediately out of bounds to the left, and one Cowboys cheerleader was the unfortunate recipient of it.

After an NFL cameraman couldn’t catch the ball with one hand, it smacked a cheerleader in the back of the head, sending her to the ground in the surprise incident. 

Social media users suspect that Michelle Siemienowski, a first-year cheerleader with Dallas, was the one hit by the ball. 

COMMANDERS’ JEREMY REAVES PROPOSES TO LONGTIME GIRLFRIEND AFTER WIN: ‘THAT’S MY BEST FRIEND’

Luckily, she got back to her feet and appeared to be laughing about the situation after it happened. 

The rest of her cheer team made sure to check on her, as did Commanders punter Tress Way, who was in the area. 

Siemienowski made the cheer team in July, writing on Instagram that it was “my dream for as long as I can remember” to be a part of the famous squad. 

“This has been the most life changing experience, but this is only the beginning. I am so grateful to say that I achieved my dreams and earned my boots!”

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders perform during the game between the Dallas Cowboys and Cincinnati Bengals on December 9, 2024, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. (Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Once the game resumed after the incident, the Cowboys found themselves looking to finish the season on a high note, but the Commanders had something else in mind. 

Marcus Mariota, who took over for Jayden Daniels at quarterback given the team’s playoff berth, knew that potential seeding was on the line when he got the ball with just over three minutes to play in the fourth quarter. 

Washington, down by three points, didn’t just think about a game-tying field goal as Mariota found himself with 2nd-and-goal from the Dallas 5-yard line, and he tossed a fade to Terry McLaurin on the outside. 

McLaurin leaped in the air and snagged the ball, keeping both feet in bounds to win the game on the final play from scrimmage. 

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders perform during the NFC Wild Card game between the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers on January 14, 2024, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. (Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

As a result, the Commanders finished the season 12-5, though the Philadelphia Eagles won the division with a 14-3 record. But the win earned them the No. 6 seed instead of the No. 7 seed, which would have to travel to Philadelphia to face those Eagles in the wild-card round.

Meanwhile, Dallas finishes the season 7-10.

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HOUSTON —  The curse of the NBA regular season is that it’s a monthslong slog from city to city, from hotel rooms and hostile arenas, with opposing scouting reports bleeding into one another in what can create an unrecognizable blur.

The gift of that 82-game schedule are the tests, the moments of competition when a team can take an honest look at what it is and what it isn’t against worthy opposition.

Sunday, the Lakers were given a gift.

Playing a Houston team that split the series and showed size, speed and athleticism in doing so last season, the Lakers got a chance to fight a team just above them in the standings. And it was a fight that they nearly won.

Despite being badly beaten for almost the whole first half, the Lakers played one of their best second halves of the season only to come up just short 119-115.

“I want [us] to be a great team but it takes some things that maybe get uncomfortable out there,” LeBron James said. “We got to do a little bit more, be a little bit more gritty, make more plays, not have so many breakdowns.”

The Lakers trailed by as many as 22 late in the first half and by as many as 20 early in the third before Anthony Davis and James led a wild comeback that ended with the Lakers having a chance to tie the score with 7.2 seconds left.

James, who was called for an offensive foul earlier in the final minute, scored on a quick layup and grabbed Alperen Sengun’s missed free throw to give the Lakers a chance to tie it for the first time since the score was 10-10.

But Max Christie couldn’t get the ball inbounded, with James signaling for a timeout the Lakers didn’t receive. Christie‘s pass was intercepted by Fred VanVleet, who sealed the game by making one of two free throws. The Lakers nearly cut it to one on the next possession, but a James three-pointer was wiped out by a Davis offensive foul that he and coach JJ Redick said was a flop.

Christie said after the game he should’ve called timeout. James said he believed he should’ve been granted one.

Davis led the Lakers with 30 points and 13 rebounds, James and Austin Reaves each had 21 and Christie scored 14. James also had 13 rebounds and Reaves 10 assists.

Jalen Green, who torched the Lakers early, closed them out in the fourth quarter, scoring a game-high 33 points.

“The fight was there, which was good, but we got to stop digging ourselves in holes like that,” Christie said. “We got to play that way, like we did the second half, for 48 minutes instead of just one half. So for us as a team, that’s the next step for us.”

The standards have been set, both by the Lakers’ recent run of play and by the demands that Redick has publicly and privately put on them. They didn’t meet those standards Sunday on the glass, where Houston scored 28 second-chance points.

“We gave up too many second-chance points. Offensive rebounds killed us. We know they’re a big team,” James said. “We know they crash everybody.”

One of those crashes late — a two-handed putback dunk of an airball from Green by Amen Thompson — was a jaw-dropping display of athleticism.

“It was huge. It was huge. It was huge. It was huge,” James repeated. “But I mean… that’s what happens sometimes. We had bodies on bodies. We maybe could have gotten a body on him. But it was a broken play and me and Doe Doe [Dorian Finney-Smith] got a great trap on Jalen Green across from our bench and he threw one up and it literally looked like a lob. And the kid went up there and used his athleticism to put it home.”

Good is maybe what the Lakers are here in the first week of January; great is where they want to be. And if things aren’t being done correctly, well, Redick has insisted that he’ll find someone who will.

Less than a minute into the third quarter, Redick pulled starter Rui Hachimura for recently acquired Finney-Smith. And after just 93 seconds of playing time in the fourth, he yanked Jaxson Hayes for Finney-Smith.

The mistakes in those stretches, such as the ones late in the game, were the difference between a great win and hard-fought loss, with little room for moral victories with the Lakers’ goals being bigger.

They play again Tuesday in Dallas against the Mavericks.