The Pittsburgh Steelers saw their season come to an end on Monday with their 31-17 loss at Buffalo in the AFC Wild Card. It was what it was, though, because, as Mike Tomlin put it, his team didn’t do what was necessary to advance in the playoffs.

Tomlin spoke about the Steelers’ loss to the Bills during his postgame press conference. While he respected the shot that they gave their opponent on the road, it just clearly wasn’t enough in the end.

“I appreciate the efforts of our guys in there. I just told them that – but efforts don’t get it done,” said Tomlin.

As Tomlin continued, he circled self-inflicted wounds as the ultimate demise of Pittsburgh inside Highmark Stadium. With two turnovers and nearly a third as well as a pair of penalties from Myles Jack on the final scoring drive for Buffalo, the Steelers put themselves in an avalanche that they couldn’t finally dig themselves out from underneath.

“We spotted them early in the football game via the turnovers,” Tomlin said. “Can’t come into an environment like this versus a playoff-caliber team, turn the ball over like that, and expect to be competitive.”

“We spotted them, we fought back in it over the course of the game. We cut it to seven and was excited about that. But then we gave up a touchdown drive,” said Tomlin. “When you get a major penalty within a drive on defense? That’s usually going to produce points. That was the case and it put them back up by 14. The rest is academic.”

After going down 7-0 off Buffalo’s first drive, the Bills scored on the ensuring opportunities after a pair of Steeler turnovers in the first half. One was a lost fumble while the other was an interception by QB Mason Rudolph. The fumble led to a one-play shot to the endzone from QB Josh Allen to TE Dalton Kincaid. The interception then eventually led to a drive that Allen capped off with a 52-yard rushing score.

Still, with over 10 minutes left in the fourth, Pittsburgh was only facing a deficit of seven points. However, with a defensive holding call and then an unneccesary roughness penalty, the Steelers gave up a 17-yard touchdown to WR Khalil Shakir around six and a half minutes left to officially put it out of reach.

Tomlin isn’t one to sugarcoat and he didn’t do so at the podium in Orchard Park. Even though he valued their effort against the Bills, Pittsburgh didn’t do enough yesterday to move on in this postseason.

“I’m appreciative of the efforts but it’s not mystical,” said Tomlin. “We didn’t do what was required to win tonight.”

“We didn’t take care of the ball, we didn’t get the ball from them enough in an environment like this. And, thus, the score.