Mike Tomlin has been the coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers for going on 17 seasons. Fans and local reporters have questioned his coaching acumen over the last decade. Since the Steelers lost to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLVI, they have appeared in one AFC Championship game. Tomlin has gone 3-7 in the playoffs since 2011. The Steelers have not won a playoff game since 2017 and have missed the playoffs in three of the last five seasons.
Associated Press
Steelers' Terry Bradshaw is sacked in his final NFL game on December 10th, 1983, against the New York Jets.
This is the worst sustained period of football in the Super Bowl era for the Pittsburgh Steelers. As bad as the 1980s were for Chuck Noll, the Steelers had some playoff success during the decade. Noll went 2-3 in the playoffs over his final seven seasons, with Mark Malone leading the Steelers to an AFC Championship game. Despite being overmatched in a 45-28 loss to Dan Marino's Miami Dolphins, they produced the highest-scoring AFC Championship game in history. Tomlin is 0-3 in the playoffs over the last seven seasons.
Noll’s seat was on fire by 1988. He intended to quit, and Dan Rooney intended to fire him. 1988 was a different time before social media, and the explosion of debate shows on sports networks. Tomlin has been protected because of a meaningless record of .500 football. Somehow, Tomlin has been allowed to turn into Marty Schottenheimer before our very eyes and has been praised nationally for doing it.
Footbahlin With Ben Roethlisberger
Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger was shocked over controversial play call on fourth down against the Houston Texans.
Terry Bradshaw has been critical of Tomlin for an extended period of time. He was ridiculed for it, but slowly, Steeler Nation has come to realize that he might be right. Another Steelers quarterback headed to join Bradshaw in the Hall of Fame is also starting to become openly critical of his former coach.
In Episode 37 of Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger, the last quarterback to lead the Steelers to a playoff victory expressed his most direct criticism to date of the Steelers. He lambasted Matt Canada’s offensive play-calling and then turned his attention to Tomlin. Specifically, his controversial decision to go for it on fourth-and-one against the Houston Texans in Week 4.
“I don’t hate going for it, but I gotta believe that when, again, it’s during a timeout, Mike has to know what play was called,” Roethlisberger said. “He had to be okay with it.”
The fourth down call when the Steelers were trailing 16-6 in field goal range has come under severe question. The play failed, and Kenny Pickett was injured. The entirety of Steeler Nation called out in anguish when they snapped the ball from the shotgun instead of calling on the power running that was finally working with Najee Harris.
Steelers' Mike Tomlin Has Massive Bogus Excuses For Blowout Loss To Texans
Co-host Spencer Te’o pointed out that Tomlin claimed in the postgame press conference that there was a level of discrepancy between where he thought the ball was spotted and the actual placement of the ball. Tomlin alleged that he called timeout because it was a little longer than first anticipated. The future Hall of Fame quarterback was not buying the excuse.
“So they called a timeout,” Roethlisberger observed. “I mean, that sounds like, I don’t know. I don’t know about that. You’re standing right there, you see it. My question would be, was a sneak called or some sort of a play call like a run? All of sudden, you realized it was longer, it was a fourth and a full one compared to a half a one, so you called timeout and realized we have to throw it now?”
Roethlisberger is hammering away at the logic of the play call. Harris had been nearly unstoppable in the second half against the Texans. The Steelers went away from him in precisely the spot he was drafted in the first round for in 2021. Short yardage.
“So you’re telling me that if it’s one, three feet. You thought it was a half of one, so you thought it was two feet instead of three feet?" Roethlisberger concluded. "You’re telling me you can’t get your running back that one foot? That push play is batting 1.000 right now. Put big Naj back behind you and just push. That play is going to be talked about for a week at least. And your quarterback got hurt, it's not even negative, it's above negative.”
Roethlisberger had previously detailed how much he disliked the play call from Canada’s perspective. Still, he accurately lays the blame at Tomlin’s feet for approving the buffoonish plan. It was a timeout in a 10-point game. He could have quickly overruled Canada and said no, we are going to do something else. After hearing the plan, he should have just sent Chris Boswell out to make it a one-score game, 16-9.
sportingnews.com
Steelers franchise QB Terry Bradshaw and Ben Roethlisberger will go down as two of the best to ever play the game of football.
Roethlisberger, Bradshaw, and a host of former Steelers have been critical of the decision. Art Rooney II rarely comments about gameplay like Jerry Jones is forced to when the Dallas Cowboys make their annual disastrous decisions in playoff games. Maybe the Pittsburgh press corps needs to start surrounding Rooney after games to get answers on why this is being allowed to continue.
What do you think, Steeler Nation? Should microphones start being shoved into Rooney's face to discover why a once proud franchise is becoming a laughingstock? Please comment below or on my Twitter/X: @thebubbasq.
#SteelerNation
