Chris Mueller: Tomlin, not Trubisky or Canada, deserve most blame for Steelers' rotten start
I can’t do it anymore.
For years, I’ve stood up for Mike Tomlin as he’s taken broadsides from all corners of the Steelers’ fan base. I’ve pointed out how lucky fans are to cheer for a consistently relevant, competitive team, and how Tomlin has deserved more credit for that than he’s ever received, all while shouldering far more blame than he’s deserved.
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Sure, there have been times where he has obviously deserved criticism for in-game decisions, or for a less-than-advisable quote; who could forget his chestnut about seeing the Patriots again in the 2017 playoffs? On balance, though, he’s been very successful, and I’ve tried whenever possible to point that out, to give him the benefit of the doubt.
That ends now. Tomlin looks worse right now than he ever has as Steelers head coach, and there’s nowhere else to point the finger. He’s as unchallenged as he’s ever been since taking over the job in 2007, and he has so far used that autonomy to push mostly wrong buttons.
Asked after a frustrating 29-17 loss to the Browns about whether he would use the 10 days off created by a Thursday game to consider making changes at offensive coordinator or quarterback, Tomlin said, “The answer to that question is definitively no.”
Why so definitive? Why so defiant? What games has he been watching?
Mitch Trubisky still doesn’t make enough high-end throws, still doesn’t see enough open receivers. He played 30 solid minutes, then fell off a cliff, along with the rest of the offense. For the umpteenth time, this is who he is.
Matt Canada didn’t scheme up enough open receivers. Trubisky misses some, yes, but many of his completions were highly contested. That’s the mark of a bad schemer. Canada’s precepts do not work well enough or often enough at this level. For the umpteenth time, this is who he is.
Tomlin, the man with the power to make whatever changes he sees fit, seems to be one of the only people left in town who doesn’t want to make any. He’s still trying to do it his way this year, despite a significant body of evidence that that strategy will not work.
“His way,” just so we’re clear, means the Steelers playing stout defense, the offense not turning the ball over, and the team winning close games by being better in big moments and on “possession downs,” to use a favorite Tomlin term.
For a moment, let’s put aside the fact that this way of doing business in the NFL is outdated in 2022, and not a particularly great plan. Let’s take the strategy at face value and see how it’s going.
The Steelers have converted just 29.4 percent of their drives into points, 24th in the NFL. They average just 24.3 yards per drive, third-worst in the league. Their average drive lasts just 2:15, better than only Carolina thus far.
It’s hard for a defense to be consistently great when it’s on the field for a ton of time and a ton of plays. The offense is absolutely not holding up its end of the bargain – not even close.
On those vaunted “possession downs,” things are just as bad, maybe worse. The Steelers are 13-for-39 on third downs this year, and that includes going 8-for-15 against New England in Week 2. Otherwise, they’re an unfathomably bad 5-for-24. The team has gone three-and-out on 32 percent of their drives. Also, despite Tomlin’s oft-stated determination to not live in his fears, they are the only team in the NFL that has not gone for it yet on fourth down.
To put it bluntly, the offense has been a massive failure, and but for a missed extra point in Week 1, the team would be 0-3 and one loss away from matching the 2013 team for the worst start of Tomlin’s career. I’m not sure what more Tomlin needs to see to realize Trubisky isn’t the right guy for the job, and that Kenny Pickett should take over, but whatever it is, he hasn’t seen it yet.
Perhaps a 1-7 start, which looks plenty plausible at this point, would change his opinion on the matter.
That said, maybe nothing will. This is the first time in Tomlin’s entire tenure with the team that he has stood alone, unchallenged, as the central figure within the franchise. As a young, first-time head coach with a defensive background, he had to defer to Dick LeBeau. Even after LeBeau left, Ben Roethlisberger was always around, and in any prominent coach-quarterback tandem, the quarterback will always be inherently more important. And of course, Kevin Colbert, Tomlin’s close friend, was around for all of this.
LeBeau got all the credit for the 2008 defense, and Roethlisberger was cited, particularly locally, as the engine of the team’s overall success. I can’t imagine that was fun for Tomlin, from an ego perspective, which might explain his current stubbornness. He wants to prove that his way is going to work.
With Roethlisberger and Colbert having retired, Tomlin has all the power. No one has anywhere near his level of influence on the team’s philosophy and performance.
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Through three games, his philosophy looks out of touch with the reality of the modern NFL, and his team’s performance has been woeful.
One person above all has to wear these early, ugly failures. His name is Mike Tomlin.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Mueller: Tomlin, not Trubisky or Canada, deserve most blame for Steelers' rotten start
