Steelers' Mike Tomlin Blames Injury For Poor Communication In Week 13 Embarrassment

The Pittsburgh Steelers left Week 13 with yet another embarrassing loss. This time, the 2-10 Arizona Cardinals walked into Acrisure Stadium and punched the Steelers in the mouth. The Steelers could do nothing right all game long, and even failed to use the weather delays to their advantage. The game was a total team failure from top to bottom, with injuries also playing a role in the game. Five different key players were injured throughout the contest, although only three of them did not return.

Steelers Are Out Of Starting Linebackers

One of those injuries was a groin injury to Elandon Roberts, which had supposedly been bothering him all week long. Mike Tomlin focused on his injury during his postgame press conference and placed the blame on that for the constant defensive failures. Tomlin was asked about why they couldn't capitalize on anything defensively throughout the contest.

"I thought we struggled from a communication standpoint when Elandon Roberts went down. We lost some significant communication and some glue there, and I thought it was reflective in our play."

On one hand, there could be something to that reasoning, since the Steelers promptly gave up a 99-yard touchdown drive following his injury, and it didn't help that Mykal Walker was lined up on Trey McBride for the whole drive. McBride torched the backup linebacker all game long. 

After that drive, they gave up two more touchdowns, and they could have easily given up another one had it not been for Arizona running out the clock and kneeling the game away at the end of a 52-yard drive. 

On the other hand, the Steelers' issues went far beyond miscommunication and mismatches. Throughout the game, and especially in the second half, the team seemed to completely forget how to tackle. They allowed 150 rushing yards, including 105 from James Conner in his return to Pittsburgh. The front seven also continually whiffed on sack attempts, allowing Kyler Murray to run freely in the backfield. 

While Roberts' injury played some sort of role in the horrible loss, there are many different things that the Steelers did wrong. It didn't help that they kept taking dumb penalty after dumb penalty. Roberts himself could have had an interception and potentially a touchdown. Instead, he took a terrible penalty for unnecessary roughness on third down, which allowed Arizona to get into field goal range and score in the first quarter.

Tomlin Reached Into His Bag Of Excuses Again

The whole team played sloppy, yet Tomlin chose to put everything on Roberts' injury. His "next man up" cliche is proven to be all for show, as he could not figure out how to coach this defense without him. In fact, Walker has been working with the green dot throughout practice since he was called up to the active roster, and he has some history of calling defensive plays. This defensive failure goes beyond a forced change at defensive play-caller. 

While Tomlin admitted that the terrible games start with him, he needs to stop finding anything to blame but himself. Take accountability, stop blaming all your problems on one thing each week, and try to fix them. He can only find so many excuses, and he will eventually have to take a long, hard look in the mirror and realize that he needs to do something if he wants his teams to stop underachieving. 

What do you think about Elandon Roberts' injury, the effect it had on the Steelers, and Mike Tomlin's thoughts about it? Let us know in the comments below.

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