From the start of the game against the Cleveland Browns, it was clear that Mike Tomlin was holding a more aggressive posture than he normally does. The Pittsburgh Steelers are usually content with taking a conservative approach, much like they did early in the season with Justin Fields as quarterback. They don’t often beat themselves with costly mistakes and thrive on a top-notch defense that keeps the score down.
They got away from that approach on Thursday night football. Hindsight is 20/20, but those decisions backfired and did more harm than good.
“I wondered, just kind of my thoughts about some of the fourth downs and some of the decisions that coach T. [Tomlin] was choosing. I wondered, in that kind of a game when you know that they’re maybe struggling on offense and your defense is playing well, like, did he ever consider punting on some of those fourth downs or just trying to flip the field?” Roethlisberger said via his Footbahlin podcast on YouTube. “Let’s play the field position game because there were times obviously going for it on fourth down, going for a long field goal that you gave them the field position.”
Roethlisberger acknowledged that this was a little bit of Monday morning quarterbacking on his part, but he makes a fair point. When the Steelers played against a seven-win team like the Washington Commanders, it made a little more sense to have a fake punt in their back pocket and play a more aggressive game. But if you are clearly the better team, a safer game plan will win out more often than not.
That is oversimplifying things, and Tomlin always respects road division games. The aggression was perhaps a sign of that respect, but it backfired.
On the first drive, the Steelers attempted a 58-yard field goal and missed, which gave the Browns the ball right around the 50-yard line. On the second drive, the Steelers had a fourth-down opportunity on the Cleveland 38-yard line and failed. That gave the Browns the ball at their own 40. The Steelers’ defense held firm to force a pair of three-and-outs, but that isn’t the point. Instead of the Browns having to punt from deep in their own end on both occasions, they were able to pin the Steelers back inside their own 20.
“There’s just some day-after questions,” Roethlisberger said after recapping several coaching decisions from the loss.
Tomlin often talks about complementary football, with the defense helping set up the offense and, of course, special teams aiding both sides of the ball in winning the field position battle. On Thursday, it was pretty disjointed in that regard because of Tomlin’s aggressive decisions.
I won’t directly blame Tomlin for the shanked punt, but it probably would have been good to keep the punter engaged earlier in the game so he wouldn’t make his only punt of the game in the final four minutes of the game. That punt ended up getting shanked for just 15 yards, which spelled certain doom for the Steelers.
I can’t help but feel like the Steelers would have won soundly if they had taken a more conservative approach, but of course, that is just conjecture at best.
