With 2:33 left in the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-28 loss to Miami Dolphins on Sunday, head coach Mike Tomlin made the decision to go for it on fourth and 10 from the team’s own 10 yard-line down three points. During his post game press conference, Tomlin was asked about that decision.
“Obviously, if we were successful then we could continue on,” started explaining Tomlin. “We hadn’t done a great job of stopping them in the second half, so we weren’t ensured of getting the ball back. If you punt there, they have an opportunity to convert third downs and kill the clock and the game.
“I thought if we went for it we had an opportunity to continue on. If we didn’t, then whatever was going to happen was going to happen quickly, and we had an opportunity to have the ball at the end, which is what we did.”
Tomlin’s remarks were aimed right at his defense and really you can’t blame him for saying what he did. The Steelers defense allowed three touchdown drives of 71 yards or more in the second half as well as a 43% third down conversion rate for the entire game.
To make matters worse, the defense also gave up three more plays of 40 yards or more and that is a problem that has plagued them all season long.
