Mike Tomlin maybe should be thankful for that.
Tomlin has had a great career, but the past five days for the Steelers have been a fiasco. Somehow, the Steelers lost home games to the Arizona Cardinals and New England Patriots. Those teams are 4-20 against the rest of the NFL this season.
The Steelers fell behind 21-3 in a listless first half. The Patriots are a bad team and couldn’t put the Steelers away, but Pittsburgh couldn’t make it all the way back for a win.
The Patriots improved to 3-10 with the 21-18 win over the Steelers on Thursday night. Pittsburgh’s offense was bad, as it has been most of the season.
The defense pitched a second-half shutout, but giving up 21 first-half points to the Patriots was surprising. It spoke to how ill-prepared and flat the Steelers looked.
One sequence summed up how sloppy the Steelers were. On a second-down early in the second quarter, with the Steelers trailing 14-3 and fans booing the offense and some chanting for backup quarterback Mason Rudolph, Pittsburgh sent Chukwuma Okorafor in the game as a sixth lineman.
Okorafor reported as eligible but he lined up wrong, not covering the tackle. That was an illegal formation penalty from a player who knew he’d be included in that specific personnel group. That’s a direct reflection on the coaching staff.
It was clear early on Pittsburgh wasn’t locked in. The Steelers had just 36 yards in the first quarter. They gave up 115 yards and a touchdown in the first quarter to a team that had 257 yards and no points in an entire game against a bad Los Angeles Chargers defense this past Sunday.
Then to start the second quarter, Mitch Trubisky threw an interception. He was hit as he threw on third down and it was an easy pick for safety Jabrill Peppers.
The Patriots turned that into a touchdown to Hunter Henry and a 14-3 lead. A little later, Henry caught another touchdown and the Patriots led 21-3. The Patriots had scored 13 points in their previous three games combined.
Before kickoff last Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers were 7-4. Everyone, including the Steelers themselves, seemed to realize they weren’t exactly as good as that record. But they didn’t seem to be a bad team.
The past two games exposed that maybe the Steelers are bad. Or at least strangely disinterested for a team in the AFC playoff race.
Tomlin gets a lot of praise, and rightfully so. With his team falling apart, he needs to get some blame too.
One sequence summed up how sloppy the Steelers were. On a second-down early in the second quarter, with the Steelers trailing 14-3 and fans booing the offense and some chanting for backup quarterback Mason Rudolph, Pittsburgh sent Chukwuma Okorafor in the game as a sixth lineman. Okorafor reported as eligible but he lined up wrong, not covering the tackle.
That was an illegal formation penalty from a player who knew he’d be included in that specific personnel group. That’s a direct reflection on the coaching staff.
It was clear early on Pittsburgh wasn’t locked in. The Steelers had just 36 yards in the first quarter.
They gave up 115 yards and a touchdown in the first quarter to a team that had 257 yards and no points in an entire game against a bad Los Angeles Chargers defense this past Sunday.
Then to start the second quarter, Mitch Trubisky threw an interception. He was hit as he threw on third down and it was an easy pick for safety Jabrill Peppers.
The Patriots turned that into a touchdown to Hunter Henry and a 14-3 lead. A little later, Henry caught another touchdown and the Patriots led 21-3. The Patriots had scored 13 points in their previous three games combined.
