Mike Tomlin's Short Comings On Full Display Sunday Night
In the Steelers 20-17 defeat to the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football, all of Mike Tomlin’s short comings were on display for the entire nation to see.
If the Steelers had somehow pulled out a victory against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football, make no mistake about it, it would still have been a game leaving you feeling worse about this team.
But Mike Tomlin would have been able to put lipstick on this pig and the national media would have fawned over how “gritty” Mike Tomlin’s teams are, and how he always gets his teams to pull off victories in these close games.
But the Steelers didn’t pull it off, they failed to get the big stop. They failed to possess the ball for a meaningful amount of time. And when they did have the ball, they failed to do much with it anyways.
They were out-gained by over 200 yards, and you could feel it.
In the post-Roethlisberger era, Mike Tomlin’s blueprint seems to be to play as conservatively as possible, and hope you come up with a big play at the end of the game.
I know the QB play has been below par since number 7 retired. But Mike Tomlin appears to be so scared of his own shadow that he’d rather just sit in a dark room just to make sure he won’t see it.
Watching Mike Tomlin’s offense is like sitting in the back of your Grandmother's car as she goes 10 miles per hour under the speed limit, and you’re not sure if she is doing it just to be safe, or if that is the fastest she ever wants to drive.
I can already hear the, “but Mike Tomlin isn’t the offensive coordinator” crowd, but I have news for you, this offensive philosophy is heavily influenced by the head coach.
Mike Tomlin has now had a pathetic offense under 3 sets of offensive coordinators and 4 different quarterbacks. Mason Rudolph being the only one that provided any spark, but it wasn’t as if Rudolph lit the world on fire.
NFL teams embody their head coach, and what they are embodying is someone who is afraid to take chances. Someone afraid to make a big mistake on offense. Someone who is playing not to lose, rather than playing to win.
Maybe the talent on offense isn’t as great as people make it out to be, sure. But you don’t need to be the 2007 Patriots to put up more than 20 points in today’s NFL. You just need to be willing to take risks.
Will it always pay off? With this offensive personnel, no, but I’d rather go down swinging, then just going down with the ship.
Takeaways:
George Pickens was barely noticeable Sunday Night. Partly for him not “always” being bleeping open, like his eye black said, but also because he was regularly on the bench instead of in the huddle.
The Steelers wide receiver depth is non-existent, and George Pickens is their only real threat. So why is he being sat in favor of a bunch of bums?
Certainly it can’t be due to his immature behavior. Mike Tomlin has let way worse behavior slide in the past. Mike Tomlin claims that there is nothing more to the story other than snap management, but that is complete and utter BS.
If George Pickens can’t be a number one receiver, both in attitude and effort, then the Steelers have a massive problem at wide receiver.
Speaking of the wide receiver depth, what in the world has Roman Wilson done to not deserve getting a helmet on Sunday’s?
You would think that the 3rd round pick out of Michigan would be able to jump over the likes of journeyman Brandon Johnson.
I am a long time Michigan fan, so I have watched a TON of Roman Wilson over the years, and he never struck me as the type of player that would struggle to get on a moving train, like Tomlin alluded to.
I am not saying that Roman Wilson will fix everything, but with this pathetic receiving corps, why would you not throw him in the mix to see if he can provide a spark?
The defense was somewhere between good and great.
To be great, they would have had to have won the game, so that really is the thing keeping them down after a performance where they forced 3 turnovers and blocked a field goal.
But, we’ve seen this great defense start to show cracks the last two weeks.
They’re giving up huge chunk plays on a regular basis. The injuries to the edge rushers are starting to expose the secondary as a weak link.
Joey Porter Junior has been great, but Beanie Bishop is showing the world why he went undrafted.
I will say it again until something changes, but where is Minkah Fitzpatrick
He has now gone 17 games without a turnover.
He’s also gone 17 games without making a play I can remember.
He isn’t one of the highest paid Safeties in the league just to tackle people 8 yards downfield, but that is the only thing I can remember him doing for the past year or so.
He needs to be a gamebreaker, and far too often he has just been a guy who’s there.
Does the offensive line stink? Does Najee Harris stink? Or do both stink?
I like certain aspects of Najee’s game, but he has never looked like the budding star that so many people claim he is. He just never gets it going.
Maybe that is because he is so frequently met in the backfield, but maybe he just is not an elite runner at the pro level?
The run game has been abysmal, so the best case scenario is that only one of them, the offensive line or Najee Harris, stinks. The worst case is they both do. We’ll need to see Jaylen Warren and more of Cordarelle Patterson to figure that out.
At the risk of beating a dead horse, is it too much to ask for the Steelers to play an entertaining style of football?
Outside of the fact that Mike Tomlin’s “play it safe” mode isn’t yielding much in the way of wins, it's just flat out boring to watch.
If I wasn’t so invested in the team, I would be losing my mind watching them play. Ever since Ben Roethlisberger’s elbow snapped, there has been little joy provided by watching a Steelers game.
It's like other teams are lining up to hit dingers in a home run derby, and we’re watching a bunting contest.
It's just boring.
It's also not working.
