Pittsburgh Steelers’ head Coach Mike Tomlin likes to talk all the time about smiling in the face of adversity as a football team and as a football player. He also likes to use the phrases of cutting one’s eyelids off so as to not blink in the face of adversity.
The Steelers are going to have to do that — again — on Sunday in Week 12 against the Cincinnati Bengals.
It’s been a turbulent week for the Steelers after the firing of offensive coordinator Matt Canada on Tuesday. These are uncharted waters for the franchise, especially under Tomlin. The last time the franchise even took play-calling duties away from an offensive coordinator was when Bill Cowher stripped Ray Sherman of play-calling duties in 1998 late in that season.
Now, the Steelers are without Canada after Tomlin and the franchise fired him, putting running backs coach Eddie Faulkner and quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan as co-offensive coordinators for the rest of the season.
For center Mason Cole, who spoke to reporters Wednesday, he’s looking forward to working with a new play-caller, all the while smiling in the face of adversity again ahead of a big divisional game that is now a must-win on the road with the Steelers sitting at 6-4 on the season and 2-1 in the AFC North.
“I’m looking forward to ‘Sully’ [Mike Sullivan] calling plays and seeing what that can do for us. It’ll just be different having someone else call plays. I don’t know what that’s like ever to call plays in the National Football League, but I imagine it’s different,” Cole stated to reporters regarding the change in play-calling duties, according to video via Steelers.com. “So, having ‘Sully’ back there and, and working close with Kenny [Pickett] will be good. Just excited to be playing for our group, our offensive group. We’ll go out there and play hard and, you know, Coach Tomlin always talks about smiling in the face of adversity.
“Well, we’ve done that a good bit and we look forward to doing it again this week.”
It certainly will be different for the Steelers’ offense with Sullivan calling the plays now after the firing of Canada. But sometimes different can be good. It puts a new, fresh perspective on play-calling within games, probing against defenses with certain calls to see how they deal with certain looks, building things for later in the game.
The common criticism regarding Canada as a play-caller was that he was just out there calling plays and wasn’t exactly aiming to do anything. There was no rhyme or reason. Hopefully that changes with Sullivan now calling the plays, something he’s done with two different franchises in Tampa Bay and the New York Giants in the past.
But that adversity that Cole touches on, the Steelers are used to it. Adversity — especially on the offensive side of the ball — is nothing new to them. Though they’re a young group, the offense has had to grow up quite a bit in the last year and a half, due to late-game heroics needed, dealing with defenses that seemingly know their play calls, and more.
That’ll continue on Sunday against the Bengals with a defense that remains one of the top ones in the league under defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo.
