It was only a little over a month or so ago that talk began to mount about Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin being a strong candidate to win his first coach of the year award. At that point, his team has become among the hottest in the league, going 7-1 in their last eight games following a 1-4 start to the season.
They then, of course, lost their final three games, their control of their playoff destiny, and then ultimately a spot in the playoffs altogether. It’s the second season in a row in which they started off slow, became one of the hottest teams in the league, and then bottomed out late to miss the postseason.