“Obviously, I chose to go for the fake punt and we were unsuccessful there,” Tomlin said. Pittsburgh’s momentum was quickly dashed when Tomlin green-lit an ill-advised fake punt on fourth-and-5 from his own 42-yard line a few plays later. Calculated risk you take.”īut while giving the ball to Ridley, who had rushed for all of 76 yards this season, should have been a non-starter, the Steelers’ special teams bailed the offense out by blocking the Saints’ ensuing field goal, giving Pittsburgh the ball at its own 37 with a little over six minutes left. “We probably would have gone for it on fourth down had we been unsuccessful and remained in possession of the ball. “It was third down and 2 - we felt like we were in two-down territory,” Tomlin said. Ridley’s lost fumble negated a chance to kick a field goal that would have given the Steelers a seven-point lead. For those who like to point out that Tomlin has not won a challenge since January 2017, that was easy fodder as was the decision by his offensive coordinator, Randy Fichtner, to hand the ball to fumble-prone running back Stevan Ridley on a critical third-and-2 in the fourth quarter. Start with his failure to challenge a potential Michael Thomas fumble on a second-quarter drive, one that ended in a Saints touchdown. But Tomlin didn’t make it easy on himself with his performance Sunday, and since Tomlin believes football is the ultimate team game, he has to take his share of responsibility for this debilitating loss that currently puts the Steelers outside the playoffs. He’s a good coach, and sometimes good coaches have tough days.
If he were, he’d have three job offers before sundown. Let me be clear - I don’t think Tomlin should be fired. His actions in the Steelers’ brutally disappointing 31-28 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday night will only continue to fuel the ire of fans who want to see him go. The latter point is something folks in Pittsburgh have been stressing on for years, despite the 46-year-old Tomlin’s 132-73-1 career record and Super Bowl title in the 2008 season. They’re a flawed group whose strengths - a Super Bowl-winning quarterback with a really nice cast of skill-position players - could carry them to the Super Bowl if they got hot in January, and their Super Bowl-winning head coach’s game management was on point. 2.Īfter a faith-renewing home win over the New England Patriots last Sunday, the Steelers looked like the rest of the AFC contenders.
They followed those setbacks with an embarrassing loss to Oakland in Week 14 without Conner, who has been out with a high ankle sprain since Dec. The Broncos used four turnovers to snap the Steelers’ six-game winning streak in Week 12, and the next week Pittsburgh choked away a 16-point lead at home vs. Slowly though, leaks began to spring in Pittsburgh’s Super Bowl boat, all of it self-inflicted. Mike Tomlin and the Steelers are in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since the 2013 season.