If there is a head coach who knows about a good gamble, and the pros and cons associated with it, it would be Riverboat Ron Rivera. He earned that nickname for being aggressive on fourth down. Game recognizes game, and Rivera likes the gamble that Mike Tomlin took with the quarterback position for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“I think what he was looking for was an even bigger spark, and I also do think the way he’s handled this situation from the time they got Russell [Wilson] to where they are now, I think was masterful,” Rivera said on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football. “They way he treated Russell with so much respect and dignity, making sure he was paying attention, being part of it, getting himself out there. I think it’s humbled Russell to a degree. And I think it’s also had his teammates really watch how Russell’s handled this and thought, ‘Man, this guy really is all in.’”
He went on to call it a masterful sports psychology move by Mike Tomlin. Is anybody really surprised by that? There are coaches who are better in other areas, but Tomlin’s calling card has always been managing the locker room and getting players to play for him and the collective as a team. There are no coaches, maybe in the history of the league, I would trust to manage this type of situation better than Tomlin.
FOX Sports reporter Jay Glazer said that Tomlin went “lone ranger” with his decision to start Wilson. Obviously the majority of the sports media world were in favor of continuing with the 4-2 Justin Fields, and apparently that sentiment was shared within the Steelers’ organization as well. But Tomlin makes the decisions and he wanted to see Wilson take the reins of the offense.
It paid off in a big way with Wilson leading the team to a 37-15 win over the New York Jets. He didn’t get it going much until the very end of the first half. Even given their first-half struggles, the Steelers put up their most points of the season. Wilson’s 264 passing yards set a franchise record for a quarterback debut in Pittsburgh. He was responsible for three total touchdowns and really didn’t have any turnover-worthy plays. He had command of the offense and looked more comfortable as he shook the rust off while the game went along.
“Coach has done a tremendous job because he also thought about the players and how to handle them best,” Rivera said. “That, to me, is probably one of the best moves I’ve ever seen a head coach make, and kudos to what Coach did.”
It could have blown up in Tomlin’s face, and it seemed like it was trending that way after the first few drives of the game. But his faith in Wilson paid off, and it looked like the rest of the team was fully bought into Wilson as QB1 by the time the clock struck 00:00 in the fourth quarter.
