The Pittsburgh Steelers got crushed by the Philadelphia Eagles at The Linc Sunday afternoon, losing 35-13 and falling to 2-6 on the season. The defense could not stop the connection between Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown who connected for three TDs in the first half and bled yards on the ground to Miles Sanders as the Eagles closed the game out. The offense wasn’t any better as the running game was once again ineffective and Pickett was pressured all game long behind an overwhelmed offensive line.
When Mike Tomlin was asked if he will assess everything, including the coaching staff during the bye week in attempt to try an improve this team, Tomlin broke up the rest of the question in frustration, understanding where his team is currently at.
“Hey, we’re 2-6, guys,” Tomlin said to the media Sunday after the blowout loss to the Eagles during his post-game press conference which aired live on the team’s YouTube channel. “I not going to answer that question every week. I’m open to do whatever is required for us to get better, and that’s just how it is man. We’re seriously committed to winning and being better and that’s just a component of it.”
Sounds familiar, right?
Just a few weeks ago, mike Tomlin made a similar comment stating that he would be open to do whatever is required to change the outcome of these games after getting decimated by the Buffalo Bills.
Since that loss, Pittsburgh is 1-2, having pulled out a close win against the struggling Buccaneers, but lost to the Miami Dolphins last Sunday in a game that they had the chance to win late and to the Eagles this Sunday in a game that was never close.
Since that loss to Buffalo, Tomlin and the coaching staff have made minor changes to their scheme and their personnel, adding a couple of defensive backs for the game against Tampa Bay when nearly their whole secondary missed the game, but haven’t made a significant addition or changeup to the depth chart to warrant any change.
I said it a couple of weeks ago, and I will say it again.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over a expecting a different result.
Tomlin has said just this offseason on The Pivot Podcast that you must do unique things in order to expect unique results. Being a winning team in the NFL is unique. It’s not common. It’s definitely not easy. The Pittsburgh Steelers have gotten away from their winning ways, and given the way this current team has been constructed, it’s easy to see why. Tomlin can say that he’s “open to do whatever is required for us to get better”, but he has yet to make any move of significance to change the mediocre results this team has been having and turn them into unique results.
This isn’t to say that Tomlin needs to fire OC Matt Canada for this team to start seeing results (although it would be interesting to see how that would work out). However, this is to say that until Tomlin follows through with his word and makes the changes necessary to elicit a change in results on the field, the Steelers will continue to underperform see their offense stay at the bottom of the league.
