NFL legend Troy Aikman insisted the Pittsburgh Steelers are in an “ugly” situation after the AFC North franchise lost a fourth successive game entering the playoffs.

On Saturday, the Steelers faltered and ultimately fell 19-17 to the Cincinnati Bengals. The Pittsburgh defense held the high-flying Bengals offense to just one touchdown but still suffered a fourth successive loss heading into the playoffs.

The Steelers, now 10-7, held the 9-8 Bengals to just one touchdown all night but failed to inspire on offense as they suffered their fourth-straight loss heading into the playoffs. Russell Wilson began his Steelers career with a 6-1 record, but the veteran has uncharacteristically struggled in the red zone in recent weeks and was well below his usual level against the Bengals.

Heading into the final nine minutes of regulation, Wilson had just 56 yards off five completions before finally sparking a touchdown drive that saw him complete six passes. Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth ended that drive with a 19-yard touchdown catch, but a brutal end to the game from Wilson, who completed 17-for-31 passes for 148 yards and one touchdown - although 12 of his completed passes came in the final nine minutes.

Following the game, ESPN commentators Aikman and Joe Buck took aim at the Steelers for their frustrating performance. Aikman took issue with the subpar offense, declaring: “Man, I don’t know. It’s ugly. I mean, it’s ugly. They’ve got to be better on that side of the ball, but the good news was their defense that had been struggling played really well against an offense that, as we know, has been scoring a lot of points, so that part of it they’ve got to feel really good about.

“On the other side of it, it’s just got to get a lot better. The passing game has got to get better. They run the ball a lot - they don’t necessarily run it well, but they’ve got to throw the football better than what they have thrown it if you’re going to do anything in the postseason. The fact that they're in the postseason is fortunate for them - when you lose four straight, typically that is not enough to get in.”

Joe Buck added: “I don’t know how you come out of this game where George Pickens has one catch, no yards, three drops and feel good about where you are. He missed three games with a hamstring [injury], he had three catches last week in his return from that, but yeah we all saw the same game.

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George Pickens struggled to get involved against the Bengals secondary (
Image:
AP)

“And we heard Mike Tomlin at the end of the half say when they were trying to get one yard, ‘If we can’t get one yard, we don’t deserve to win this game.' They came close. They had that one good drive in the second half, but it wasn’t good enough tonight and whether they are a five-seed or a six-seed, as Troy said earlier in the game, doesn’t really matter if their offense is going to look like this.

“They’re going to have to protect better, and they’re going to have to get Pickens involved more. No matter what, he’s their top target on the outside and he’s that guy by a mile.”

Aikman concluded: “They’re one and done if they don’t play better on offense than they did tonight. It’s going to be a short trip in the postseason and they’ll be looking for their first playoff win since 2016 going into next year.”

The Steelers have already clinched a playoff berth, but winning on Saturday would have guaranteed the No. 5 seed in the AFC - but now they could drop down to No. 6. The Los Angeles Chargers have the opportunity to move up to the No. 5 seed if they beat the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, Jan. 5.

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