Did the Pittsburgh Steelers lose to the Cleveland Browns last Thursday, or did Mike Tomlin lose for them? Certainly, their head coach made several decisions during the game that have come under scrutiny. For Ray Fittipaldo, it should go down as one of the worst losses of his career on his shoulders.
In his latest chat session, Fittipaldo assessed the Steelers’ loss to the Browns as “Top 5” in Mike Tomlin’s tenure, based on his own decisions. He proceeded to rattle off a list of reasons, some more clear-cut than others.
I hated having [Justin] Fields throw on the third and four when they had a chance to win the game by running out the clock. I did not like the early-game decisions of attempting a 58-yard field goal in that weather or going for it on fourth and 2 from their own 46 on the next series. The Steelers were playing a 2-win Browns team. Punt, play field position and force them to drive the length of the field. There were other head-scratchers, but those are the ones that stick out to me. No one talks about the decisions in the first quarter, but I think that set the tone of the game. It was almost as if Tomlin didn’t respect the Browns. They sensed that and gained momentum when they got stops there.
When you coach the game of football for 18 years, you’re going to have some bad losses. Mike Tomlin has lost some bad games with the Steelers, but so did Bill Belichick with the Patriots. So did Chuck Noll, and so has Andy Reid, and so has everybody else.
Of course, this is not the first time Mike Tomlin has faced scrutiny for his in-game decision-making. Steelers fans in particular routinely criticize him for time management and timeout usage. He has a notoriously bad reputation for selecting his moments to challenge plays (or not challenge). Sometimes he even attempts to challenge a play that you can’t challenge.
The man certainly isn’t perfect. You can hardly claim as much after coming off a loss to a two-win team in late November. But Mike Tomlin still has the Steelers at 8-3 and in good position to win the AFC North. And part of that position was built on beating the Baltimore Ravens just a week earlier. Actually, not even a week earlier, days earlier.
The Steelers are actually 3-3 against teams with losing records this season, but 5-0 against teams with winning records. If push came to shove, would you rather beat good teams or bad teams? Of course, there are six games left to play and some good teams on the schedule. Tomlin still has to face the Eagles and Chiefs, and the Ravens in Baltimore.
But just a week ago the NFL community was talking about Tomlin as a frontrunner for the Coach of the Year award. Now, that doesn’t preclude you from having a bad game, and certainly the Browns game was arguably the Steelers’ worst of the year. Was it one of the five worst showings in Mike Tomlin’s career though?
