Realistically, anyone who wanted OC Matt Canada fired Monday probably knew they weren’t going to get their wish. The Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t tearing the building down brick-by-brick. But after Sunday’s butt-kicking at the hands of the Houston Texans, Mike Tomlin seemed to talk a big game.
“Hell yeah we gotta make some changes, man,” Tomlin said in his postgame presser. “That was an ugly product we put out there today. And so, we’re not going to do the same things and hope for a different outcome.”
Which brings us to Tuesday’s press conference. What are those changes Tomlin seemed so adamant the team would make?
1. Practicing in pads this week
2. Adjusting matchups
Enter the Price Is Right loser horn here.
Sure, those are two things that can be addressed. Pittsburgh clearly wasn’t the more physical team in Sunday’s defeat. They lost in the trenches on both sides of the football. Using the limited number of padded practices afforded to a team over the course of a year is a fine decision. As is tweaking matchups.
But. That’s it? That’s the change?
I understand it’s a press conference. The goal is to win on Sundays, not Tuesdays, and Tomlin isn’t going to lay out in perfect detail exactly all that will be different. We’ll make sure to note whatever isn’t the same in Sunday’s game. But these just sound like tweaks around the edges, as if this isn’t a team with serious problems on both sides of the ball and a coaching staff that seems to always be one step behind. None of it inspires confidence.
It’s a similar script as last season. Tomlin not ruling out making big changes, including to coaches and coordinators, before ultimately doing little to nothing in that regard. In fairness, that 2022 team did turn its season around, going 7-2 down the stretch, but the Steelers are stuck in the same place a month into the season they were a season ago. An offense that can’t score. A defense that can’t get enough stops. A team that always seems behind, schematically and on the scoreboard, trying to adjust and catch up in the second half.
Football is a results-oriented business. If Pittsburgh beats Baltimore, the sky is back up, just as it was after Week Two’s win against Cleveland, eight days after being drubbed by San Francisco. But it’s hard to accept these “changes” when they’re just obvious shifts that anyone could point to. Be more physical, find winning matchups. Duh. With how not just the 2023 season has gone but the last three years have played out, minor tweaks and twists of the dial isn’t good enough. Changes may not come this week, but if Tomlin can’t find a way to right the ship, then big changes must happen after the season.
