A smile spread across safety Minkah Fitzpatrick’s face in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ locker room on Wednesday when he was asked how he had learned to deal with “negativity” in the NFL since he presumably didn’t face that as a two-time All-American at Alabama.

“I would disagree that we didn’t deal with a lot of negativity,” said Fitzpatrick, who played for two CFP national-championship teams with the Crimson Tide. “I would say we didn’t lose a lot, but we definitely dealt with a lot of negativity. But I think you’re approach to the game shouldn’t be wavering on how many losses you have or wins you have. If you love the game, you’re going to approach every single week with 110 percent, you’re going to approach the week with a chip on your shoulder whether you’re the best in the league or the worst in the league because no matter what you are, you got something to prove. If you’re 11-0 or 0-11, you got something to play for.

“I think even though we didn’t lose a lot, we still had something to play for every single week.”

The Steelers are dealing with negativity because they have lost to teams with 2-10 records in each of their past two contests – falling 24-10 to the Arizona Cardinals on Dec. 3 and 21-18 to the New England Patriots on Sunday.

After the loss to New England, Fitzpatrick matter-of-factly managed to deliver a harsh assessment of the state of the Steelers.

“In order to see the fruit, you’ve got to toil for it,” Fitzpatrick said on Sunday. “I think too many people don’t want to toil for it. They just want to walk out here and think that they’re going to make plays and think that they’re going to perform at a high level. I think we need to have more people who want to work for it, not expect it to be handed to them.”

Has Fitzpatrick seen a change among the Pittsburgh players this week?

“We’ll see as we finish this stretch of games,” Fitzpatrick said.

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The Steelers play the Indianapolis Colts at 3:30 p.m. CST Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. NFL Network will televise the game.

Pittsburgh and Indianapolis are among the six AFC teams with 7-6 records, and they’re the two currently holding wild-card spots in the conference’s playoff field.

“It’s a playoff game in my eyes,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s a game if we win, it’ll boost our chances to get into the playoffs by a lot, and if we lose, it pretty much takes us out of the playoffs. To me, it’s a playoff game.”

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After playing the Colts on Saturday, Pittsburgh will complete its regular-season schedule with a home game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Dec. 23 and road games against the Seattle Seahawks on Dec. 31 and Baltimore Ravens on Jan. 7.

“We definitely have to make a late run if we want to go into the playoffs,” Fitzpatrick said. “We got to win just about every single week till the end of the season. What it takes is going out there playing good football, playing detailed football, playing with high energy, playing with a lot of passion.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.