PITTSBURGH — Yes, it’s true: One game really can make all the difference.

It can change perceptions of a football coach, for better or worse. It can alter the trajectory of a career.

That might seem silly. Unfair, even. But let’s take Penn State coach James Franklin as a classic example.

If Franklin had lost to SMU in the first round of the College Football Playoff, there would’ve been a compelling case for Penn State to move on despite Franklin’s sterling overall record across 11 seasons (101-41 at the moment, 34-7 over the past three years).

Less than two months earlier, boos and “Fire Frank-lin!” chants greeted the coach after another loss to Ohio State. That marked Penn State’s eighth consecutive loss to the Buckeyes. Franklin dropped to 1-10 against them.

He also fell to 1-13 against top-five teams, 3-18 against top-10 teams and 13-27 against top-25 teams, so you can see why “Big Game James” hadn’t yet taken root as a nickname. Not once in Franklin’s 10 years had Penn State, which by Franklin’s own words aspires to be elite, even qualified for the four-team College Football Playoff.

As such, the SMU game rightfully loomed large. Lose in the opening round of a 12-team playoff, as an eight-point favorite with 100,000 plus behind you, at Beaver Stadium? That would have been an ugly scene, perhaps with major ramifications.

Instead, Penn State pounded No. 11 SMU, 38-10, then hammered No. 3 Boise State, 31-14.

And now all is well in Franklin Country. The Nittany Lions will be among the final four teams standing. There should be no questions about Franklin’s job security.

Ridiculous?

Not really. That’s just the way it works. At some point, as the years drag on, you have to change perception. You have to deliver the goods.

Mike Tomlin delivered them early in his career. He won a championship, putting him forever in a separate category from all those on the pro and college level who have failed to do so (that’s what winning one game — the biggest game — will do).

Tomlin was an A-plus coach for his first five years here, reaching two Super Bowls and winning 12 games three times. In the 14 years since, he’s somewhere in the C-plus range, belying the widely held belief that he remains a great coach.

It has been a long time since Tomlin was a great coach.

As you might have heard, Tomlin has not won a playoff game in seven years. Strike that. He has not come close to winning a playoff game in seven years and has won just three in the past 13 seasons (against A.J. McCarron, Matt Moore and Alex Smith).

Ponder this: If the Steelers again fail to deliver even one playoff win, they will have gone eight straight years without one — that hasn’t happened since the 1960s to early ‘70s — and will have three playoff wins in 14 years, including none in 12 of those 14 years.

I’m sorry, but that paragraph cannot be followed by, “Yeah, but he’s a great coach.” It just can’t.

Would one playoff win make Tomlin a great coach again? No, but it’d go a long way toward changing perceptions, even if it’s only against the Houston Texans (which would be a much better matchup than going to Baltimore).

Would one playoff win mean the difference between a successful and unsuccessful season? Absolutely, unquestionably, yes.

Playoff wins are like gold, especially when you haven’t experienced one in nearly a decade. If our first conscious memories are formed around age 5, then there are thousands of kids headed to high school who have no conscious memory of the Steelers winning a playoff game.

Did I mention that since 2010, the Texans have more playoff wins (five) than the Steelers (three)?

At some point, this playoff-win drought must end. Eight years is many lifetimes in the NFL. Jimmy Johnson and Bill Walsh crafted Hall-of-Fame careers in about that time (Johnson coached nine years, Walsh 10).

How many years is too many for Tomlin to go without one? Ten? Twelve? Fifteen? It’s getting a bit ridiculous (and by the way, one playoff win also might justifiably be the difference between Russell Wilson getting a new contract or not).

We could go on here. Bill Cowher’s Super Bowl win likely put him in the Hall of Fame. Without it, he’s one brick shy of a load.

Marty Schottenheimer was a good coach who won lots of games, but he couldn’t win a single playoff game over his final 10 NFL seasons. Even one would have been monumental and might have kept him in San Diego. Instead, after going 14-2 in 2006, an upset home loss to the New York Jets got Schottenheimer fired.

Marvin Lewis resurrected the Cincinnati Bengals but never won a playoff game in 16 years there (0-7). What would even one have meant?

We’ll never know, but I know this: A single football game, fairly or unfairly, can make all the difference.

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