The old saying is once is an accident, twice is a coincidence and three times is a pattern.
For Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, the offensive struggles the first two weeks of the season is enough to develop a pattern in the game of football.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday during his weekly press conference coming out of 26-22 win over the Cleveland Browns and previewing the Week Three matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders, Tomlin stated his frustration and overall concern with the offense’s struggles through the first two weeks but added that he doesn’t place blame in any one single area.
“We’re not going to make knee-jerk reactions in an effort to make wholesale changes in an effort to change that outcome,” Tomlin said regarding the offensive struggles and the unit losing its mojo, according to video via the Steelers’ YouTube page. “But we do acknowledge that two is a pattern. We’ve had two outings that are not up to snuff in that regard, so it has our attention as we’re preparing for this next one.
“We’re all in this thing together, man. We’re not assigning blame to anyone. Obviously it starts with coaching; we’ve got to coach better. We’ve got to get these guys playing faster, and surer. We’ve got to start faster.”
The struggles from the Steelers offense in Week One was a bit understandable when looking back on the 30-7 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. San Francisco boasts the best defense in the league with the best defensive line in the NFL and really made things challenging. Add in second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett misfiring on some easy throws and it was clear what went wrong in the season opener.
Then, Monday Night Football against the Browns occurred.
While the Steelers had a handful of explosive players — seven plays accounted for 202 yards — the Steelers ran 43 other plays for just 55 yards. It was a slog all night long. The offensive line didn’t protect all that well, didn’t create any displacement in the run game and the route concepts were again quite frustrating to watch.
Make no mistake about it: The Steelers’ defense lifted the Black and Gold to the win on Monday night, scoring two touchdowns. The Steelers defense has as many touchdowns on the year as the offense does through two games: two apiece.
That’s a major concern, especially for an offensive unit that had so much anticipation and promise entering the 2023 season.
As Tomlin pointed out, everyone has to improve offensively. That starts with coaching and then filters on down to the players and executing at a high level. This is the first time that Tomlin appeared rather frustrated with the offense on the year, and it won’t get any easier. It might not get any better, either.
Two is a pattern for Tomlin. What happens if they get to three and beyond?
