After yet another one-and-done playoff exit, the Pittsburgh Steelers have not won a playoff game since 2016, an embarrassing streak for an organization with a legendary history of winning in big moments.
A loss to their greatest enemy, the Baltimore Ravens, is bad enough, but a second consecutive loss to them by double digits is just embarrassing to end what started as a promising season.
Not all of the Steelers’ five-straight playoff losses are created equal, though. Here’s how we rank each of them, from most to least painful.
5. 2024: Steelers vs. Ravens
After a promising 10-3 start to the year, the Steelers dropped five games in a row, including their fourth-straight first round playoff exit. Their arch-rivals, the Baltimore Ravens, are clearly the better team right now, but this rates relatively low on the list of most painful losses because the four games leading up to it set fan expectations.
4. 2021: Steelers vs. Chiefs
The Steelers barely managed a playoff appearance in 2021 with a 9-7-1 record, and the negative result against the eventual AFC champion Kansas City was no surprise. This loss could have been considered relatively painless if it were not Big Ben Roethlisberger’s last game in the black and yellow. However, the real late-career playoff tragedy for Ben came one year prior.
3. 2023: Steelers vs. Bills
The 2023 Steelers managed a strong final stretch to make it to the playoffs, but could not stop Josh Allen who put up four touchdowns on Pittsburgh’s top-10 defense. After five straight playoff losses, fans began to lose faith in the Tomlin regime, which now faces difficult questions again going into the 2025 offseason.
2. 2017: Steelers vs. Jaguars
The 2017 Steelers appeared ready to right the wrongs of the year before, with a third-ranked offense and fifth-ranked defense in yardage. Yet they allowed 21 points in the first 19 minutes to a Jacksonville team making its first playoff appearance in ten years, and 42 points was not enough for Pittsburgh to catch up.
1. 2020: Steelers vs. Browns
After starting the COVID-19 season with an 11-0 record, the Steelers limped into the playoffs at 12-4, slightly stronger than they did in 2024. Yet the scene that Pittsburghers were left with after that season, Ben Roethlisberger and his retiring center Maurkice Pouncey saying goodbye after a third consecutive playoff loss. The fact that it was the Browns – a team who the Steelers historical dominate – who embarrassed them made it that much worse, the most painful and tragic playoff loss in recent Pittsburgh sports memory.
