Jan 13, 2025
Andrew Grimm
“Where is the fight?”
“There’s no push back at all.”
“This does not look like the Pittsburgh Steelers.”
“They look uninspired.”
“Unfocused.”
Those were the phrases used on the Amazon Prime broadcast about the Steelers as they fell in yet another deep hole in a playoff game on the way to yet another embarrassing playoff loss to end yet another late season collapse to end yet another disappointing season.
Upon a second glance, one of those statements, the “This does not look like the Pittsburgh Steelers” uttered by Kirk Herbstreit as Baltimore was racking up over 300 FIRST HALF yards on the highest paid defense in the NFL on the way to a 21-0 lead, is not accurate — this IS the Pittsburgh Steelers the last decade under Mike Tomlin.
Towards the end of Big Ben’s career, the finger got pointed at him for being too beyond his prime. The team obviously missed on his replacement with Kenny Pickett, and last year it was Mason Rudolph starting the playoff game.
They went out and brought in a Super Bowl winner in Russell Wilson, and what happened on the field in the first half Saturday night was even worse than with an aging Ben and an inexperienced Mason Rudolph in his first playoff game.
The playoff failures have been under different offensive coordinators. The defense, with different parts and pieces and coordinators in each of the flame outs, got torched again. And again. And again.
The only thing that hasn’t changed is the man at the top — and the end result.
At some point, even for an organization that has notoriously not fired coaches, enough has to be enough.
Mike Tomlin, I believe, is a good coach and a good man. But, good coaches run their course. Better coaches have been let go other places for far fewer disappointing flameouts than the Steelers have had in the last decade.
In another early hole (now outscored 73-0 in the first quarter of six-straight playoff losses), Tomlin refused to go for a fourth down and less than a yard. Down 21-0 and getting manhandled in every aspect, with an offense that hasn’t looked good in over a month, he marched Wilson back on the field and left Justin Fields, who had the team at 4-2 as a starter earlier in the season and would at least give a different look, maybe light a spark, stand on the sidelines for the last month-plus.
The defense got dominated in the trenches — Baltimore had a scoring drive that was all running plays, more than a dozen of them, no passes, right down the throats of the once-proud Steelers defense. Against the Pittsburgh Steelers defense. When I was growing up, that was unthinkable. Embarrassing.
The offense did finally get something going to start the second half — Wilson showed some life for two drives that quickly faded right back away –and what happened? The defense gave up a 44-yard TD run to break the backs once again.
That defense, again the highest paid unit in the entire NFL, gave up the most yards after contact of ANY TEAM THIS SEASON. They gave up a yard shy of 300 on the ground.
The plan, it was sated time and time again, was to take away Derek Henry and make Lamar Jackson beat them. Henry still gashed term for nearly 200 yards anyway. Great plan.
A complete and utter failure on all sides of the ball in all facets of the game.
Unprepared and blown out of the water early again, once again never really being much of a threat to win the game.
No is coming back from holes as deep as they’ve been against teams like the Ravens, Bills, Chiefs etc. the elite in the AFC. Especially not this Steelers offense. Those teams might as well be playing a different sport — it ain’t the same one the Steelers have been playing the last decade.
Tomlin says all the right things, but what happens in the playoffs speaks a lot louder than his words — and has for a long time.
So, when is enough going to be enough?
The prime years of the Hall of Fame careers of TJ Watt and Cam Heyward have essentially been wasted. Neither of them are getting any younger. If you think the defense is bad in big situations now, just wait until one or both of them are gone.
Both Wilson and Fields are free agents so there will quite possibly be another new quarterback next season. Even if Wilson does come back, he’s 36 years old and shows it. They didn’t pick up an option on Fields, so unless he re-signs (and why the heck would he want to?) there’s no young option. This draft class is not exactly full of great QBs and they’ve missed in the draft at the position already, hence those two being here to begin with.
Kyle Allen for starting QB?
After two decades of having a Hall of Famer be a constant at the position and always give them a chance to contend, the Steelers QB situation is starting to resemble that of another team in the division that wears orange and brown.
The point of bringing in Wilson to begin with was to have an experienced guy to make one more run and delay the complete rebuild. It didn’t happen.
It’s being tore down regardless now. It has to be. It can’t be delayed any more. This team is nowhere near close to making any kind of run. That’s beyond obvious now. Should have been for a long time.
Tomlin is not the only problem, far from it, but at some point the common denominator in all of the the problems becomes pretty clear and obvious.
Different QBs, coordinators, other staff, players in different positions — hasn’t mattered. Same result. Same head coach — the common denominator.
It’s time to rebuild — and do so completely with a new coach.
When will enough be enough? It’s been enough for a while.
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