Between the time Mike Tomlin vowed to ‘unleash Hell’ in December during the 2009 season and then up until the Pittsburgh Steelers’ mysterious plummet last season, they were arguably the best December team in the NFL. Even including last year’s ugly finish the Steelers are 23-6 over the past five seasons during the month. You can go back to the awful 8-8 season of 2013. They still finished on a three-game winning streak that year.
More often than not—yes, 2018 is a glaring aberration—Tomlin gets his teams up for the home stretch and finishes out the year strong, usually in preparation for a postseason run.