With the Pittsburgh Steelers coming out of their bye week and taking on the Los Angeles Rams tomorrow, there’s plenty of talk about Mike Tomlin’s post-bye week record. Tomlin is 12-4 coming out of the bye and has won six straight games coming off a week’s rest. On today’s Mike Tomlin Show, aired on the Steelers YouTube page, Tomlin offered some insight into why his teams are so successful coming out of the bye.
“When I got a bye [week], it gives me an opportunity to reflect and look at where we are and analyze us and some things that maybe we’re doing well and maybe we’re not doing well,” said Tomlin to Bob Pompeani. “And so the self-reflection that the bye gives you probably is good information to proceed into your next challenge. Oftentimes when you’re in a seven day cycle or a six day cycle, a lot of your attention is focused on the opponent, the next opponent, and the things that you need to do against them. And so it’s reasonable to expect quality play and strategy coming out of byes.”
Not only does the bye week give players a much needed break from the physicality of football but it also gives more time for strategy and self-scouting. As Tomlin mentioned, the extra week off gives more time for self-reflection which is much needed, especially for a Steelers team whose offense is ranked last in the NFL in total yards.
While there is self-reflection each week, the NFL moves so fast that there is not as much time for it as coaches and players need to prep for their next opponent by studying film and getting ready to scheme to beat them, focusing less on themselves and more how to beat other teams. The bye week offers teams more time to focus on themselves and fix what is wrong, something that Tomlin and his teams excel at.
For example, look at last year. Entering their bye, the Steelers were 2-6 with no running game and an offense which made mistake after mistake. Pittsburgh came out of the bye week up against the New Orleans Saints and rushed for 217 yards as the Steelers totaled their highest amount of yards in the season up to that point in a 20-1o victory. It kickstarted a 7-2 finish to the season, nearly storming back to make the playoffs.
Tomlin and the Steelers self-reflected and became significantly better because of it. However, not everyone is buying into the Steelers bye week improvement, as Garrett Podell of CBS Sports believes Tomlin will not be able to do enough to fix the offense before Pittsburgh takes on DT Aaron Donald and the Rams.
The Rams will prove to be a tough test, and strategizing to limit Donald and the Rams’ offensive weapons will be difficult. But first and foremost, the Steelers need to fix themselves. A poor offensive unit, the Steelers need to come out of the bye week like last season and have their best offensive performance to date. With how poor the Steelers offense has been this season, it should not be too hard to do that.
There is a lot Pittsburgh needs to fix, but with how Tomlin’s teams come out of the bye week, Pittsburgh should look better. There is clearly a lot of self-reflection in this time, not only by the players, but also by the coaching staff. This does not guarantee a victory, but it should lead to some improvement. And for a young team that’s important, especially considering the NFL season isn’t even at the halfway mark.
