The Pittsburgh Steelers are patient with how they treat members of the organization. They do not give up easily or early on players, coaches and for all we know, the janitorial staff. Chuck Noll had a terrible run in the mid to late '80's and Bill Cowher’s seat got awfully warm in the late '90's before righting the ship. Mike Tomlin’s seat should be on fire after Sunday’s performance.
"We're going to be fine offensively."@tracywolfson talks adjustments with Steelers HC Mike Tomlin at the half.
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) October 30, 2022
📺 CBS | Paramount+ pic.twitter.com/ESxZht75Fp
Coming out of the locker room down 21-10 at the half, CBS’s sideline reporter, Tracy Wolfson caught up with Pittsburgh's head coach and asked what his offense needed to do to get going in the second half:
“We’re going to be fine offensively once we get the penalty component out of our game,” Tomlin explained. “It’s not necessarily us, the penalties have been disappointing.”
The Steelers did suffer from very curious calls in the first half, like the offensive pass interference called on George Pickens that seemed very suspect. However, they had multiple illegal formation penalties which is a direct reflection of bad coaching. It is time to say the quiet part out loud, this is the blind leading the incompetent. The Steelers season was on the line today and the offensive game plan was reflective of a father-son game in May, only with less creativity.
Karl Roser / Pittsburgh Steelers
Matt Canada is a terrible coordinator. Social media has been quite active in pointing that out for far too long. The entire fan base is screaming for an improved offensive game plan and the head coach strolls out after supposedly working on halftime adjustments, only to say everything is good on offense. You are calling for the wrong coach’s job. Canada is horrid, but Tomlin has demonstrated at this point he is clueless.
Coach's verbiage could be forgiven, after all, he can’t exactly say we are terrible, what do you expect? Tomlin will no doubt have some clever phrase at the press conference to say how things will change. Fans have heard it all too often, it used to just happen in big games, now it is routine.
The organization needs to start asking if they are content with a well-coached game against what is now clearly an inferior Tampa Bay Buccaneers team, vs continually being embarrassed now like what happened on Sunday in Philadelphia. Is this the new 'standard?'
Tomlin was a competent steward of the franchise and when you have a great cast of Pro Bowlers and Hall of Famers, you win a lot of games. The national media, who only does drive-by reporting on Steelers games, will trot out the popular tropes of the offensive line being a problem and how if the Steelers fire Tomlin, he will be out of work for five minutes. I don’t wish him any ill will, thanks for the 16 years, but if you don’t even see that the team has a problem, it is time to go.
Steelers offensive coordinator, Matt Canada and head coach Mike Tomlin on the field at Acrisure Stadium. | Credit: Matt Freed/Post-Gazette
Tomlinisms are great sound bites, and the black and gold would get intense backlash for firing Tomlin ‘after one bad season.’ The fact is they have not won a playoff game since T.J. Watt joined the team. The Steelers had a three-year window from 2015 to 2017 where it seemed like they were ready to truly dislodge the New England Patriots, but the team was and has been mismanaged by the coaching staff for seven seasons now and the championship window closed firmly after the 2020 blowout playoff loss to the Cleveland Browns.
“The Standard is the Standard,” Tomlin said. “We want volunteers, not hostages and we run to adversity.”
All platitudes. The coaching staff does not run towards adversity, they create it. Tomlin deserved the benefit of the doubt until he walked out of the locker room in Philadelphia at halftime. The blame was resting squarely on the offensive coordinator, and he could have hedged with Wolfson and kept it there. He may be the greatest coach in dealing with the media in NFL history, but just like the Steelers recent game plans, he relied way too heavily on his talent to come through and exposed that he has lost touch with the modern NFL.
Steelers' Mike Tomlin gets the defense ready to take on the Browns in Week 3 of the 2022 regular season. | Credit: Abigail Dean/Pittsburgh Steelers
The defense of Tomlin will start in earnest on the endless debate shows outside of Pittsburgh in the coming week. How the Steelers would be crazy to dump Tomlin and he won’t be unemployed for long. Steelers fans are spoiled they haven’t had a losing season under Tomlin, it isn’t fair to not have faith in a turnaround. The simple fact is the team has never had a losing season with Ben Roethlisberger at the helm and it is not a coincidence that this is happening now that he is gone.
Tomlin was 8-8 in 2019 and while it was impressive to get to .500, too many people forget the team was 8-6 going into a game with a horrid New York Jets team that thoroughly outplayed and outcoached them, ultimately costing that team a playoff berth. The Steelers have never been further away from being good since the first two weeks of 1989 and even that season ended with a Wild Card victory. The standard in Pittsburgh is winning playoff games and Coach Tomlin has not done that in a long time. Based on Sunday in Philly, he no longer is aware what his own quote means in Pittsburgh.
What do you think, Steeler Nation? It has been two seasons now of increasingly embarrassing losses. Should they clean house or just burn it down and start over? Please comment below or on my Twitter @thebubbasq.
