Mike Tomlin’s seat should officially be hot for Steelers
from Adam Gretz, with YardBarker.com/www.yardbarker.com
Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers have had a remarkable run together over the past 17 seasons. Two Super Bowl appearances, one championship, a lot of wins and a consistently competitive team that is always in the playoff race.
But no matter how successful things have been, there always comes a point where things get stale.
The Steelers have officially reached that point, and the responsibility has to fall on Tomlin. After Thursday’s 21-18 loss to the New England Patriots, the Steelers are in a state of disarray. It is time for Tomlin to officially be on the hot seat.
Despite not winning a playoff game in six years, Tomlin has maintained a stranglehold on his job status in Pittsburgh due to the team’s consistent competitiveness. Tomlin boasts no losing seasons. There has only been one regular season game in his career where the Steelers were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. Tomlin simply has a knack for winning tough games.
All of this has masked the team’s slow descent into mediocrity. The lack of postseason success has been a major talking point in Pittsburgh, but it is also a franchise that has won more than nine games just once in the previous five years, and is looking unlikely to get there this season barring a 3-1 finish down the stretch. This started long before former quarterback Ben Roethlisberger retired. The franchise has become known for some pretty terrible second-half collapses that have kept them out of the playoffs or resulted in early postseason exits.
It is all happening again this season. That fact, combined with the way it is unfolding, is what should make Tomlin’s seat piping hot.
Exactly one week ago the Steelers were sitting in a prime position to make the playoffs. They had a 7-4 record, had one of the NFL’s easiest remaining schedules with back-to-back home games against a pair of 2-10 teams, and were set to play a stretch of games against mostly backup quarterbacks.
Missing the playoffs in that situation would be inexcusable.
After staggering back-to-back losses at home against the aforementioned 2-10 teams (Arizona and New England), it’s looking more and more likely.
Along with the past two losses — within four days of each other — the Steelers also lost to Dorian Thompson-Robinson in Cleveland four weeks ago, and have now lost three of their past four games.
The offense has been one of the worst and most unimaginative in the league for five years. The team has looked unprepared and has been out-coached consistently.
If they miss out on this opportunity to make the playoffs in a wide-open AFC, it would be hard to justify not making significant changes to the organization.
The Steelers have famously had just three head coaches since 1969 (Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Tomlin) and have not fired a coach since 1968. It might be time to change that if this season continues on its current path.
**********Steelers star calls out teammates for mindset, not wanting to work for it**********
from Adam Gretz, with YardBarker.com/www.yardbarker.com
After losing to a pair of two-win teams in four days, Pittsburgh Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick called out his teammates on Thursday night for having the wrong mindset going into games.
After losing 24-10 to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, multiple Steelers players — including running back Jaylen Warren and wide receiver Diontae Johnson — talked about how they took the Cardinals lightly. Those are concerning comments coming from NFL players, but they had a chance to redeem themselves on Thursday night against the then 2-10 New England Patriots.
The Steelers went out and repeated all of the same mistakes in a 21-18 loss to put a huge dent into their playoff hopes.
That set Fitzpatrick off after the game.
In an interview with ESPN’s Brooke Pryor, Fitzpatrick called out his teammates for not wanting to do the hard work and “toil” for the fruit.
From ESPN:
“In order to see the fruit, you’ve gotta toil for it. I think too many people don’t want to toil for it. They just want to walk out here and think that they’re going to make plays and think that they’re going to perform at a high level. I think we need to have more people who want to work for it, not expect it to be handed to them. This is the NFL. Nothing’s handed to you. You got to earn everything. I think that dudes just think that because they’re wearing the black and gold, that they’re going to win games, and I think we need to check that mentality and make people realize that they got to earn that mentality, and they got to earn every single blade of grass, every single splash play and every single rep that they get out there. They got to earn it.”
That is about as scathing of a critique that you will see from a player regarding his teammates. Fitzpatrick is one of the best safeties in the NFL and one of the Steelers’ best and highest-paid players.
The fact he sees that mentality, and the fact he said he is not sure they can change it, is a pretty damning indictment of the culture the coaching staff has created and the roster the front office has constructed.
You can just add all of that to the list of why head coach Mike Tomlin should finally be on the hot seat in Pittsburgh.
Losing one game to a 2-10 team?
It happens. Anything can happen on a singular week in the NFL.
Losing to two of them in four days with both games coming at home?
That is a big problem that runs far deeper than having some injuries and just coming out flat.