The Pittsburgh Steelers' playoff berth nearly slipped away in improbable fashion during Sunday night's overtime thriller between the Los Angeles Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders. A tie would've sent the latter two teams to the postseason while leaving Pittsburgh at home. Las Vegas won the game with a last-second field goal from Daniel Carlson, allowing Steelers Nation to exhale after one of the wildest nights in NFL history.
Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin needed no such exhalation. The 49-year-old told reporters he "dozed off" near the game's end, admitting, "I'm probably better off not having watched it" considering the stakes.
With the Raiders' win, the Steelers will face a quarterback opposing coaches can't help but have nightmares about: the Kansas City Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes. Kansas City, the AFC's No. 2 seed, will host Tomlin's seventh-seeded Steelers on Sunday night just three weeks after they met in the regular season.
The Chiefs shellacked the Steelers in their Week 16 matchup, forcing three turnovers defensively while Mahomes – in typical Mahomesian fashion – powered the offense with three passing touchdowns.
"They handled us and handled us definitively. We understand that. At the same time, we're not paralyzed by that," Tomlin said, per Kinkhabwala. "We accept that we didn't play well enough, we accept that we didn't plan well enough."
Pittsburgh certainly played well enough against its AFC North rival Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, winning 16-13 in overtime to extend quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's farewell tour.
Sunday's game against Kansas City is slated for 8:15 p.m. ET. Tomlin shouldn't have trouble staying awake that night.
