By: Justin Gincauskas

The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Seattle Seahawks 30-23 Sunday to guarantee that Mike Tomlin finishes with a non-losing season for the 17th consecutive time.

Tomlin took over as Pittsburgh’s head coach in 2007 when he was 34 years old. Now, at 51, Tomlin has still not had a losing season with the Steelers.

Of the 17 consecutive non-losing seasons, Tomlin had three seasons where the Steelers finished at .500 with an 8-8 record. Those three instances came in 2012, 2013, and most recently in 2019. With the NFL switching to 17 games at the start of the 2021 season, Tomlin has since needed nine wins each year to avoid ending the streak. Pittsburgh finished with exactly nine wins in both 2021 and 2022 and is currently 9-7 with one game remaining this season.

Mike Tomlin is the second-longest tenured coach in the league, behind only New England’s Bill Belichick. He has led the Steelers to the postseason 10 times, most recently in 2021. Tomlin won the Super Bowl with Pittsburgh in just his second season as head coach in 2009.

With a win next weekend against the Baltimore Ravens, Tomlin will reach a double-digit win total for the 10th time. His best record with the Steelers came in 2017 when Pittsburgh went 13-3. They ended up losing in the Divisional Round that year to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Tomlin last won a playoff game in the 2016 season, defeating the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional Round before losing to the Patriots in the AFC Championship.

Even with a win on Saturday, the Steelers will need some help if they are to make the playoffs. Pittsburgh will clinch a playoff berth if they defeat the Ravens and either the Buffalo Bills lose, the Jacksonville Jaguars lose or tie, or the Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts game ends in a tie. The Steelers can also clinch with a loss if the Jaguars lose, the Denver Broncos win, and the game between the Texans and Colts does not end in a tie.

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