Steelers Insider Gives Bad Update on Team Locker Room After Ravens Loss

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ESPN's Brooke Pryor said she felt a "sense of relief" in the Pittsburgh Steelers locker room after they lost to the Baltimore Ravens.

The Pittsburgh Steelers experienced their worst finish to a season under head coach Mike Tomlin in 2024. They lost their final four regular season games and then weren’t competitive in the AFC wild card round against the Baltimore Ravens.

The Steelers didn’t hold a lead in any of those five games.

But according to ESPN’s Brooke Pryor, Steelers players may not have been as upset about those facts as Steelers fans were after losing to the Ravens. Pryor suggested in a television report on January 12 that there was “a sense of relief” in the Steelers locker room following the playoff defeat.

“Three weeks ago, I walked into the same locker room after the Steelers lost in a blowout to the Ravens in Week 16. That locker room was silent — it was tense,” Pryor said, via Steelers Depot. “It felt like a funeral. Last night, though, it felt more like a last day of school after everyone bombed a final exam.

“There was some sense of relief that it was over. I walked in, and I saw players kind of dapping each other up, kind of the sense that, ‘Hey, the season is done.'”

Steelers Players Relieved 2024 Season is Finished?

It’s important to note that Pryor’s report is merely the mood she sensed in the locker room. No Steelers player or coach told her that they were relieved to be finished playing this season.

And not every analyst shared Pryor’s sense that that was the team’s mood.

“I don’t know that I personally sense any relief from the interviews that are publicly available,” wrote Steelers Depot’s Matthew Marczi. “Resignation, perhaps, maybe even acceptance of an inevitability. But I wasn’t in the locker room, so I can’t speak to that.”

I wasn’t in the locker room either. So, I also can’t provide a sense of the team’s mood after losing to the Ravens.

But if Pryor’s sense is at all accurate, that is not a good look for the organization.

Pryor’s report isn’t an indication that the players don’t care or were happy with the defeat. But if there was a “sense of relief,” then it could indicate a lack of belief in the locker room. It could also be an indication of how mentally taxing the final month of the season was on the team.

Steelers End 2024 Season on Very Sour Note

If there was a “sense of relief” among Steelers players, it’s hard to blame them. A lot of Steelers fans probably felt the same way after losing to Baltimore because of how poorly the team played to end the campaign.

The Steelers suffered their first five-game losing streak in 15 years. They also went through their first five-game stretch without a lead since 1969.

They never led because they started poorly in all five games. Opponents outscored the Steelers 47-3 in the first quarter during the five-game losing streak.

In the first half against the Ravens on January 11, the Steelers allowed 308 yards on defense and gained only 59. Baltimore had 19 first downs versus two for the Steelers.

Amazon Prime’s Kirk Herbstreit criticized the Steelers during the first half of the playoff game for the lack of “fight” or push back. While the Steelers didn’t give up, showing more “fight” in the second half, perhaps there’s some connection between Herbstreit’s comment, Pryor’s report and Marczi’s observation.

The Steelers entered a bad spiral in December and never found the way out. Maybe deep down, they lacked the belief they could beat the Ravens.

That could explain why the first half wasn’t their best effort. The Steelers may have accepted the “inevitability” that a loss was forthcoming.

Make no mistake, the Ravens badly outschemed the Steelers in the playoff matchup. But the lack of belief could have something to do with the Steelers giving up 298 rushing yards too.

If the team lacked confidence it could win and accepted a beating was forthcoming, of course there would be a relief after it was finished.

To draw that conclusion, one has to connect a lot of dots. For some, it might be too big of a reach.

For others, though, the fact the possibility of that dot connecting existing will be alarming enough.