Steelers' Mike Tomlin Not Pleased Again With Team's Slow Start Against The Cleveland Browns In Week 12

The Pittsburgh Steelers' five game win streak came to an end on Thursday Night Football against the Cleveland Browns. In a blizzard of a game, the Steelers' offense just continued to struggle to get the ball into the end zone. Pittsburgh walked into the locker room with only three points on the board going into halftime, where it seemed the offense just couldn't find their rhythm in the game. The unit finally woke up in the fourth quarter, but it seemed too little too late as the Browns were able to punch it in with less than a minute left in the contest to go up five points. The Steelers' slow start to the game hurt any chance of them walking out of Cleveland with a win.

Mike Tomlin after the game, talked to the press. He wasn't thrilled about the slow start. In a game that would help separate the Steelers from the Baltimore Ravens and even get them closer to the one seed in the AFC, the offense didn't show up until late in the second half. Tomlin also blamed penalties for the lack of success early on and the team will have to learn from their mistakes during this mini-bye week as they turn their attention to the Cincinnati Bengals.

"Obviously, we got to own our portions of it. Particularly early on, I thought it took us too long to warm up to the action," said Tomlin. "You know, we're penalized some, pre-snap penalties, it just wasn't really sharp. We got going, our guys fought, but it wasn't enough to secure victory."

The Steelers had the game in their hands after a 23-yard touchdown pass to Calvin Austin to give them a 19-18 lead with a little over six minutes left in the game. Donte Jackson would even pick off Jameis Winston with 4:28 left on the clock. Unfortunately, Pittsburgh couldn't get the ball moving in the right direction and went three and out. The Browns were able to capitalize off a rare poor punt from Corliss Waitman that went just 15 yards.

The Steelers were fighting an uphill battle before kickoff. They were on the road on Thursday Night Football in a blizzard just a few days after a grueling matchup with the Ravens. It was a perfect storm of adversities that helped lead the Steelers into their third loss of the season. 

The Steelers' offense has been struggling a bit in their last two games. They were on a streak of seven straight quarters without getting the ball into the end zone until the fourth quarter on Thursday night. While Russell Wilson did finish with 270 yards passing with a touchdown, the first three quarters were not pretty, as he was taking sacks, especially from the defending AP Defensive Player of the Year, Myles Garrett, who made headlines this week about his displeasures with TJ Watt's reaction of him winning the award last season.

Arthur Smith did try to keep the Browns' defense on their toes with the Justin Fields package that helped secure the win against Baltimore, but outside of a big run, Cleveland was able to mostly bottle Fields up. It seemed that the Browns were not fooled on short yardage situations, stopping the Steelers nine times on third down and twice on fourth.

Steelers' Poor Start Of The Game Has To Be Fixed Quickly

With the Steelers' schedule only going to get tougher, the slow starts have to be fixed. They still have to face the Bengals twice, the Browns and Ravens once more, the Philadelphia Eagles, and the two-time reigning Super Bowl Champions, the Kansas City Chiefs. Tomlin knows that they cannot beat these teams relying on the leg of Chris Boswell every time, they need to put up points. 

Hopefully, the Steelers use their mini-bye week to work out the issues that the offense is having and are able to get back to their scoring ways that were seen in Wilson's first three starts to the season. 

Are you worried about the Steelers' slow starts? Do you think the coaching staff will figure out the issue and fix it before they travel to Cincinnati? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

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