Mike Tomlin's seat should officially be hot for Steelers

Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers have had a remarkable run together over the past 17 seasons. Two Super Bowl appearances, one championship, a lot of wins and a consistently competitive team that is always in the playoff race. 

But no matter how successful things have been, there always comes a point where things get stale. 

The Steelers have officially reached that point, and the responsibility has to fall on Tomlin. After Thursday's 21-18 loss to the New England Patriots, the Steelers are in a state of disarray. It is time for Tomlin to officially be on the hot seat. 

Despite not winning a playoff game in six years, Tomlin has maintained a stranglehold on his job status in Pittsburgh due to the team's consistent competitiveness. Tomlin boasts no losing seasons. There has only been one regular season game in his career where the Steelers were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. Tomlin simply has a knack for winning tough games.

All of this has masked the team's slow descent into mediocrity. The lack of postseason success has been a major talking point in Pittsburgh, but it is also a franchise that has won more than nine games just once in the previous five years, and is looking unlikely to get there this season barring a 3-1 finish down the stretch. This started long before former quarterback Ben Roethlisberger retired. The franchise has become known for some pretty terrible second-half collapses that have kept them out of the playoffs or resulted in early postseason exits. 

It is all happening again this season. That fact, combined with the way it is unfolding, is what should make Tomlin's seat piping hot. 

Exactly one week ago the Steelers were sitting in a prime position to make the playoffs. They had a 7-4 record, had one of the NFL's easiest remaining schedules with back-to-back home games against a pair of 2-10 teams, and were set to play a stretch of games against mostly backup quarterbacks.

Missing the playoffs in that situation would be inexcusable.

After staggering back-to-back losses at home against the aforementioned 2-10 teams (Arizona and New England), it's looking more and more likely.

Along with the past two losses -- within four days of each other -- the Steelers also lost to Dorian Thompson-Robinson in Cleveland four weeks ago, and have now lost three of their past four games. 

The offense has been one of the worst and most unimaginative in the league for five years. The team has looked unprepared and has been out-coached consistently. 

If they miss out on this opportunity to make the playoffs in a wide-open AFC, it would be hard to justify not making significant changes to the organization. 

The Steelers have famously had just three head coaches since 1969 (Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Tomlin) and have not fired a coach since 1968. It might be time to change that if this season continues on its current path.