How Mike Tomlin and flawed defense again cost Steelers
By Ian Wharton
Mike Tomlin
While it’s not entirely Mike Tomlin’s fault the Steelers have a negative turnover differential, how the Le’Veon Bell situation has played out, and that Ben Roethlisberger suffered a rib injury, there’s still plenty that falls on the 12th-year head coach.
Tomlin’s defenses haven’t been in the top-10 of takeaways since 2015, partly due to personnel, but also because of the copy-paste soft, conservative defense they employ. The lack of creativity on the back-end is why the Patriots have had so much success when they’re tailoring their scheme to their foes. There hasn’t been a better example of their rigidness than their second-half collapse against the Chargers two weeks ago.
Chargers receiver Keenan Allen found himself against a linebacker far too often, allowing him to tally 148 yards on 14 receptions. It doesn’t matter what your game-planning strategy is, that’s never an acceptable outcome.
The mistakes coalesced when Tomlin yanked Roethlisberger in and out of the game against Oakland. Either Roethlisberger was good enough to play or he wasn’t, yet he said “We were in the rhythm and flow of the game” with Dobbs. Dobbs-led drive sputtered to two punts, a turnover on downs, and an interception. That sequence cost them a needed win.
His continued time management gaffes proved costly as well. The Steelers had two timeouts as the Raiders neared the goal line, yet allowed the clock to bleed 38 seconds in between first and second down. There’s no guarantee the time difference leads to a different result, but the process for Tomlin remains inadequate.
Though his tenure has been filled with success, the Steelers have cost themselves numerous opportunities to add to their championship hardware. If Tomlin continues to mishandle timeouts and play challenges, then there’s little point in the team keeping him in the fold moving forward.