In the moments following the 20-12 preseason-opening loss to the Houston Texans Friday night at Acrisure Stadium, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was not happy one bit.
Stepping to the podium to speak to reporters following the disappointing showing from his new-look team, Tomlin lamented the sloppiness and the “JV’ performances across the board in big spots, especially situational football.
His comments weren’t all that surprising, nor was his body language. He was clearly unhappy with what he saw for four quarters from his team.
For former Steelers defensive tackle Chris Hoke, who appeared on the KDKA Nightly Sports Call following the loss to the Texans, the sloppy loss could do wonders for the Steelers, especially after they cruised through the preseason last summer to a 3-0 record, looking unstoppable in the process.
“Sometimes when you play really well, what happens is you start to think, ‘Hey we got this. We got this.’ And you start to sniff yourself a little bit,” Hoke said on the Nightly Sports Call. “These guys know that they have work to do, which is going to make practice this week out at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe much more intense.
“It will be good for this team. Coach [Mike] Tomlin’s going to get up in their jocks a little bit.”
While it is undoubtedly disappointing for the new-look Steelers, who enter the 2024 season with high expectations, to come out and flop the way that they did at home, as Hoke points out, it’ll be a good thing for this team to have those issues in the preseason opener and needing to get back to the practice field and work on things.
Hoke, who played for Tomlin in five seasons out of his eight-year career, knows just how Tomlin approaches things and coaches, even all these years later.
The sloppiness was really frustrating for Tomlin, but it’s an opportunity to get back to the drawing board and really get hands on and teach.
Training camp has been an intense, physical one for the Steelers. But that didn’t matter Friday night as the sloppiness was a bigger issue than anything else. Therefore, it could be a tough week in Latrobe for the Steelers, where Tomlin could really push this team to hammer out some of the issues that reared their ugly heads Friday night.
In the end, that could be very good for the Steelers.
