Let us consider all that Mike Tomlin, or those under his authority, did incorrectly late Sunday afternoon in the Steelers' essential home game against the Patriots.
- He inserted cornerback Artie Burns into the starting lineup against five-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady, even though Burns' dreadful play at the start of the season resulted in him participating in only 11 defensive snaps in the previous seven games. This awful decision was abandoned after a single series.
- Tomlin stuck with kicker Chris Boswell after a week of tepid equivocation, bringing in a couple of aspirants to give Boswell a scare but then sending him out to kick against the Pats. Boswell entered the game having converted 62.5 percent of his field goals, worst in the NFL among regulars.
- Tomlin wasted another replay challenge when the Patriots' punt coverage team knocked the ball away from the goal line and downed the ball at the Pittsburgh 1-yard line. Replays shown to television viewers made it clear Rex Burkhead was in the field of play when he dove into the end zone and knocked the ball backward, but Tomlin threw his red flag — and lost for the 10th consecutive time. He has not won a replay challenge in more than two years.
- With an aggressive pass rush that was leading the league in sacks, the Steelers rarely fired blitzes at Brady, and almost never through the middle, which is known to bother him when defenders come free. He was sacked just once in 37 dropbacks.
- Despite averaging 6.3 yards per carry, the Steelers once again called for passes far more than they ran, this time by a margin of 36 to 25.
A thorough study of the game film would uncover more Tomlin blunders, undoubtedly, but it would not change the outcome. The Steelers beat the Patriots for the first time since 2011, and they held Brady and friends to just one touchdown. The final score was 17-10. The total sum of Americans who might have believed the Steelers could beat this team in this sort of game without question could fit into the home locker room at Heinz Field.
Maybe, just maybe, Tomlin knows how to coach football.
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"That’s what this thing is about — this thing meaning the game of football at this level," Tomlin told reporters following the game. "You're going to be tested. We're going to be tested. Sometimes, you're going to fail. You better pass enough of them."
After finding a way to lose to 2-10 Oakland in Week 14, there were plenty who judged Tomlin had flunked too often. The possibility of the Steelers firing him was discussed by Fox Sports' Colin Cowherd, in Forbes, on SB Nation, at Pittsburgh’s TribLIVE web site.
Here is what the "Fire Tomlin" people do not understand, or do not wish to understand: There is no league on Earth like the National Football League. You don't get a LeBron and win on the singular strength of being the guy who gets to send him out in your side's uniform. There is no buying a championship like in MLB. You can't excuse your team's failures with the NHL's "hot goaltender" catch-all.
The New England victory assured Pittsburgh of a winning record for 2018. That's not enough given the franchise's ambitions entering the season, but it's not nothing, if only because this is Tomlin's 12th year as a head coach, all with the Steelers, and he's never had a losing season. He is the only coach in the Super Bowl era to do this with the same franchise, and only Don Shula, George Allen and Marty Schottenheimer managed it with different teams.
Tomlin now stands at 124-65-1 in regular-season NFL games, a .655 winning percentage second only to the Patriots' Bill Belichick among active veteran coaches. John Harbaugh is at .586. Andy Reid is at .612. Mike McCarthy is at .618 — oops, he's not active any longer.
The last three college football geniuses to put their brains on display in the NFL entered with a combined .753 winning percentage as college coaches and lasted an average of 2.6 seasons, winning at just a .433 clip in the pros.
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All of which is not to excuse the horror of the Steelers' recent three-game losing streak, especially one capped with a loss to a terrible team like the Oakland — they're still in Oakland, today, right? — Raiders. Tomlin did a miserable job in each of the defeats that led the Steelers to the season-defining moment they faced against the Patriots.
How do we know he did a miserable job? Was it his responsibility for tight end Xavier Grimble’s game-changing fumble at the goal line in the second quarter of the loss to Denver, the result of a collision that could have been avoided? Was it his fault safety Sean Davis plowed into teammate Joe Haden and not only cost his team a crucial interception but also knocked the ball into the hands of a Chargers receiver? Was it his fault quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was injured in the second quarter against Oakland?
No. And yes.
It's Tomlin's fault because he did not do enough to overcome these errors, most notably leaving Roethlisberger on the sideline in Oakland longer than necessary as the team nursed a 14-10 lead that could have been extended. It's his fault because the Steelers failed to find a suitable matchup for Chargers receiver Keenan Allen. It's his fault because the team opted to pass after reaching first-and-goal at the Denver 3-yard line, and decided not to use fullback/bulldozer Roosevelt Nix to aid a second-down run.
It's his fault because this is the nature of the NFL. A baseball manager’s every decision is scrutinized, sure, but that person can lose 60 times in a year and still be considered brilliant. Tomlin has lost 65 games in a dozen years, and #FireTomlin is a hashtag contagion.
But what about what does work?
- Is it possible Tomlin dangled Burns in front of the Patriots as an alluring target to grab Brady's focus, only to snatch him back after a single series and a 63-yard touchdown pass that Tomlin insisted was not Burns’ fault?
- Boswell missed a 32-yarder that could have given the Steelers comfort in the latter part of the game, but he nailed one from 48 yards that allowed the Steelers to hold a touchdown lead into their stirring final defensive stand.
- Tomlin tossed his challenge flag onto the field to contest an apparent fumble at the Pittsburgh 15 by the Patriots' Sony Michel, on which it was ruled his forward progress had been stopped and thus no challenge was allowed. But the Patriots had been rushing to the line to get off another play in case it was a fumble, and the Steelers were not prepared. When the teams again were set at the line after the Pittsburgh bench was informed no challenge was allowed, Pats tackle Trent Brown false-started. Five plays later, Brady was intercepted.
- That interception occurred because Brady was under pressure — up the middle, from Stephon Tuitt — and trying to throw away the ball. He didn’t put enough on it.
- Rookie Jaylen Samuels finished with 19 carries for 142 yards. He gained 407 yards in his final college season.
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Tomlin described the necessity of hanging in against the weekly demands of performing in the NFL in a manner he has before. "There's no homecomings in the National Football League," he said. "If you're not playing A ball, anyone can whack you."
And he conjured a frightening metaphor that might help Steelers fans the next time their team encounters a daunting circumstance, whether or not it is of their own creation:
"Sometimes you’ve got to cut your eyelids off when you want to blink."
