Mike Tomlin surprisingly began his latest press conference by blaming Aaron Rodgers and the offense for the loss against the Green Bay Packers. Despite the defense collapsing in the last two games for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the head coach’s first criticism was aimed at the unit led by Arthur Smith.
“You’re always a little bit concerned when you’re settling for field goals when you’re playing good people. It seems like touchdowns is how it gets done in our business at this level. So, it was a little less than comfortable at halftime settling for three field goals. I think those drives were stopped by penalties and negative plays on first an 10. Put us in some second and long circumstances. We didn’t perform very well in second and long. We were in more third and longs in that game than we’re comfortable with and I think we suffered the consequences of that.”
Tomlin’s comments have sparked a lot of controversy, as he did not anticipate major changes on defense and even praised his coordinator, Teryl Austin. It’s important to remember that the Steelers have the highest-paid defense in the NFL, and as a result, many experts predicted that it would be the key to competing for the Super Bowl. However, at the moment, they are among the worst-ranked units in the league.
What is Mike Tomlin’s contract with the Steelers?
Mike Tomlin has a contract with the Steelers through 2027, but the team’s recent poor performances, especially on defense, have revived the debate over whether it is time to make a head coaching change.
Although Tomlin has never had a losing season in his career, it is also true that the Steelers have not won a playoff game in eight years, and it doesn’t seem like that streak will change this season.
“Just really disappointing in a lot of fronts, but probably the most important component of it is we didn’t put 60 minutes of football together. Felt like we were doing the thing we needed to do over the course of the first 30 minutes of action although it wasn’t perfect by any stretch.”