Three times this season, the Pittsburgh Steelers and head coach Mike Tomlin have faced off against rookie head coaches. All three times, the Steelers not only lost, but lost badly.
Week Three on the road against the Houston Texans, Tomlin and the Steelers lost 30-6 against rookie head coach DeMeco Ryans. Week 13 against the Arizona Cardinals and rookie head coach Jonathan Gannon, the Steelers lost 24-10. Then, on Saturday in Week 15 against the Indianapolis Colts and rookie head coach Shane Steichen, the Steelers lost 30-13.
All three games, all three losses by at least 14 points. That’s rather ugly.
It has raised even more questions about Tomlin and his abilities in Pittsburgh, specifically: has the game passed Tomlin by?
That question was raised by the 93.7 The Fan Morning Show Tuesday to Pro Football Focus’ Brad Spielberger.
“The new, up-and-coming head coaches that check so many boxes and are now well-versed and fluent in so many different things, so is the game passing him by? You could certainly make that argument,” Spielberger said regarding Tomlin.
Tomlin has been around a long time. He’s seen a lot of football. He knows a lot of football and has forgotten more football than most people can possibly remember.
But in recent years Tomlin has shown an inability or unwillingness to adjust to today’s NFL. As the rest of the league focused more on wide-open offenses, high-scoring games and taking more shots down the field in the passing game, Tomlin went in the opposite direction, wanting his offense to play safe, smart, complementary football, not lose the game and lean heavily on the defense to win low-scoring affairs.
At times, it’s worked. But this season, a lot of the Steelers’ success was smoke and mirrors.
The smoke is clearing now, and the Steelers are being exposed. Tomlin doesn’t have the answers like some of the younger, more innovative coaches have right now as the game has changed. That’s rather concerning. It’s not as though Tomlin is the first long-time coach to have his credentials and experience questioned as the game potentially passing him by.
Look at Bill Belichick currently in New England.
It’s a fair question of Tomlin, who is an old-school, defensive-minded coach. As of late in the NFL, those defensive-minded head coaches aren’t having much success in an offensive-driven league.
We’ll see if Tomlin can adjust and be an old dog who learns new tricks. To continue having staying power and remaining one of the best coaches in the league like he’s considered, he’s going to need to learn new tricks and change some of his beliefs in today’s game.
