Tomlin: ‘It’s about this week’

In a one-game, loser-goes-home situation, the Steelers aren’t concerned about what has happened over the past month as much as they are with the task that lies ahead of them this week.

And that task would be beating the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium in a Wild Card playoff game.

While the Steelers (10-7) enter the game against the Ravens (12-5) on a four-game losing streak, a stark contrast to Baltimore’s current four-game winning stretch, none of that will matter Saturday when the ball is kicked off.

“For us, it’s not about being in the tournament. It’s not about dreaming about the next month. It’s not about pouting over the last month,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said Monday at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. “It’s about this week for us, we’re playing someone that we’re highly familiar with. They’re also highly familiar with us.

“It’ll be the third time that these two teams have come together. We’ll do it in their venue. And so there’s a lot of work ahead of us in preparation for performance.”

What the last month could or has determined for the Steelers is what they will do in this game and perhaps who exactly they will be doing those things with.

It can be easy to mask issues when a team is on a winning streak or even winning the majority of its games. But when it is losing, issues get magnified and then, ideally, are corrected.

For example, the Steelers had struggled with their red zone defense in losses to the Eagles, Ravens and Chiefs, allowing 10 touchdowns on 16 possessions inside their 20-yard line.

But in the Steelers’ 19-17 loss to the Bengals Saturday in their regular season finale, they limited Cincinnati to one touchdown in four trips inside the 20, cleaning up some of the issues that had been plaguing them.

“Unfortunately, you probably learn more when there’s failure, and obviously we’ve experienced some of that,” Tomlin acknowledged. “Some of it not jaw-dropping things, or…