As Mike Tomlin watched his Steelers take a beating by the Ravens, the broadcast took his team to task. They criticized the effort and fight on display during the second quarter, which echoed a lot of amateur sentiment. While the Steelers showed more “fight” in the second half, they still came up woefully short.
Tomlin fielded a question about that in-game criticism from the broadcast yesterday during his year-end press conference. “Everyone is entitled to their opinions. It sounds like what you outlined is an opinion”, he said, via the Steelers’ website. “I’m not gonna spend a whole lot of time addressing or disputing opinions.
“I respect opinions, but opinions aren’t often reality for me. I tend to focus my energies on things I have control over. How we’re constructed, the manner in which we work, our preparedness, the outcomes that you mentioned. And I worry less about opinions”.
At times, critiques over “effort” are a shortcut for more substantial analysis. If one isn’t prepared or able to explain why a team is playing poorly, it is easier to blame the effort. That doesn’t mean players never lack effort or fight, and that includes Tomlin’s Steelers. And there were certainly times on Saturday when you couldn’t help but wonder, especially watching live.
I don’t know that the Steelers have an “effort” problem, but they certainly have an assortment of other issues. That’s already more than enough for Mike Tomlin to work on this offseason without worrying about desire. Sometimes it’s hard to stay engaged when you already feel defeated, and perhaps there is that issue. Only those in the locker room can truly know that, though.
What we on the outside saw, quite simply, was yet another Steelers team being embarrassed on a big stage. It’s not our job as fans to provide the post-mortem, but it’s fair to question the coroner when the cause of death becomes repetitious. And Mike Tomlin is the coroner.
With that said, some Steelers players themselves have spoken out at times. Patrick Queen, for example, said he felt the defense at times got too comfortable. Tomlin disagreed with that but respected the individual opinion.
Often the culprits behind the appearance of a lack of effort are a shortage of talent, coaching, and communication. There is no question the Steelers have issues in all three of those areas. But nobody would have watched the first half of that game and praised the Steelers’ “fight”.
They looked like they were waiting out the bell at the end of the round. One reporter even felt a “sense of relief” in the Steelers’ locker room that their long losing streak was over along with their season. That’s surely not a sentiment Mike Tomlin would share. But more importantly, it’s not one Mike Tomlin could control, so it would be a waste of his efforts.
