Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers recorded their eighth win over the Baltimore Ravens in nine games last Sunday. While it would be too simplistic to say it came down to one play, the two-point rejection certainly stands out.
Trailing by eight points, the Ravens scored with a little over a minute to play. Just as they were set to run a play on a two-point conversion attempt, Mike Tomlin called a timeout. When they reset, the Steelers saw a clearly different alignment—their second-best play.
And it didn’t look like a good one from the start. OLB Nick Herbig blew up multiple blockers and CB Joey Porter Jr. put the pressure on QB Lamar Jackson. The play failed, the Steelers preserved a two-point lead, and Tomlin’s gambit worked. It even drew praise from Bill Belichick, widely regarded as the greatest coach in NFL history.
Steelers DL Cameron Heyward appeared on Inside the NFL on The CW yesterday with Belichick also on the show. After breaking down the successful two-point defense, Belichick offered one more kudo. “You know who else did a good job is Coach [Mike] Tomlin. That was a great timeout”.
Of course, it doesn’t always work out that way. Back in Week 5, Mike Tomlin used a timeout before the Dallas Cowboys’ game-winning touchdown with 26 seconds to play. According to Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy, that timeout only helped them get the edge over the Steelers.
“Just trying to win the game”, Tomlin explained following that Steelers loss. “Wanted to gather some information, see the structure that they came out in, get ourselves in the right call. It was a fourth-down play. No hesitation about that. We had an opportunity to win that game right there. Forget what comes after”.
Likewise, Tomlin’s timeout before the Ravens’ two-point conversion attempt came in a similar situation. While the Steelers still had to run out over a minute of clock against three timeouts, they were able to do so with the lead by virtue of stopping the two-point try.
“I think the first play they were looking at that halfback dive with the pass over the top. But calling that timeout kind of ruffled some feathers there”, Heyward recalled of Tomlin’s timeout against the Ravens. Said Ravens HC John Harbaugh after the game, “We have two-point plays called – we called a one, they called timeout, we called the next one”.
Unfortunately for the Ravens, that second play didn’t work out. There is no guarantee the first one would have worked either, granted. But if you have the option of forcing a team to run its best play or second-best play, the choice is clear. Mike Tomlin took that chance, and at least on this occasion, it paid off for the Steelers. Now they are 8-2, in control of the AFC North, and in the driver’s seat for the top seed in the AFC playoffs.
