How the Pittsburgh Steelers ended the regular season won’t matter all that much if they can start winning again in the playoffs. It’s a clean slate of sorts in what head coach Mike Tomlin described on January 4 as a “single elimination tournament.”

But Tomlin made it clear in front of reporters after losing 19-17 to the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 18 that he doesn’t want his team to forget about their 4-game losing streak to end the regular season.

“I don’t know that you go clean slate. You better learn from these lessons, you know what I mean?” Tomlin told the media. “We’re a mentally tough group. It’s okay to learn from these lessons and remember the things that created this.

“Nothing mystical about it. That’s going to be my mentality, and I’m going to relate that to the guys as we move into next week.”

The Steelers lost the first three contests of their 4-game losing streak by double digits. They didn’t score more than 17 points in any of their last four games.