Mike Tomlin Delivers a Disaster in Cleveland

Mike Tomlin struck a conciliatory tone to start his post-game remarks after a 24-19 loss to the Browns Thursday night.

First, I’d like to start by complimenting the Cleveland Browns. I thought they brought it tonight.

I’m not sure if Kevin Stefanski returned the favor in his presser, but he should have. Tomlin absolutely brought it. If by “it”, you mean “A victory for the Browns, gift-wrapped in black-and-gold packaging.”

As with just about any NFL game, there were plenty of elements that a disgruntled fan of the losing team could choose to focus on; a shanked punt, a lack of ball security from the quarterback, an ill-advised sack taken by the very same quarterback, coverage busts, invisible performances from star players, a missed field goal from a near-automatic kicker, and so on.

Most of those are physical errors, some of them mental, if you want them to be. It’s not so much that those are easy to excuse, but they sort of come with the territory. If every player did their job perfectly on every play, every game would end in a 0-0 stalemate.

That’s why Tomlin is the biggest culprit from Thursday night. Deeming this game the “Tomlin Loss to end all Tomlin Losses” might not be accurate – everyone has their “favorite”, after all – but it was easily one of the worst individual coaching performances – maybe the worst – of his entire career.

He lamented his team’s slow start, an assessment I’m not even sure I agree with. The Steelers moved the ball 44 yards over nine plays to start the game. Jaylen Warren had a 15-yard run. Pat Freiermuth caught a 22-yard pass. They were clicking early. And then things fell apart once they started to get close to the red zone. The play-calling got very stupid on 2^nd-and-3 from the Cleveland 32, and then Russell Wilson made a major mistake, taking a sack that made what would have been a 50-yard field goal into a 58-yarder.

Chris Boswell pushed the kick right, just his second miss of the year, but something I haven’t seen talked about is the fact that he didn’t really finish his pre-kick setup, because the play clock was winding down to near zero. I can only assume, since no one else has said otherwise, that the rushed nature of the play stemmed from Tomlin being indecisive about whether or not he even wanted to attempt the kick.

Here’s a question: How is he not commiserating with Boswell before the game, and asking him what his max comfortable distance is, and whether or not that’s impacted by what direction the team is going? You would think that would be a basic starting point. Boswell is good enough that if he says he’s good from 60, you send him out if he’s making the attempt from anywhere inside that number, no questions asked, no thought required.

That wasn’t the only time the team looked confused and unsure of themselves while the play clock was winding down in a crucial spot. The same thing happened on Justin Fields’ failed 4^th-and-2 run, and on Nick Chubb’s 4^th-and-1 conversion run. Tomlin wasn’t ready to make big decisions, and as a result, his team wasn’t ready to execute on what he likes to call the “weighty” downs, the ones that often swing football games one way or another.

Indecisiveness was a theme that permeated the entire night on the Pittsburgh sideline. Burning a timeout on 2^nd-and-13 with 12:07 left in the first half was a consequence of that, and all the Steelers did after was run a play for three yards (while committing a declined penalty), run another play for two yards, commit a false start on what should have been a 43-yard field goal, then exhale only after Boswell drilled a 48-yarder. It was a messy, poorly executed sequence of plays, to say the least.

Timeout usage and time management in general has long been the top critique of Tomlin’s in-game coaching, his shortcomings in those areas reared their ugly head again late in the first half. He flat out got clowned by Stefanski with 90 seconds to go. Tomlin correctly burned a timeout after Jameis Winston completed a pass that left the Browns facing 3^rd-and-7, then inexplicably didn’t use his last one after Cleveland ran Nick Chubb for one yard on the next play.

I don’t know if Tomlin thought Stefanski was going to go for it on fourth down, but 40 seconds ran off the clock before Cleveland called timeout, and Dustin Hopkins hit a 34-yarder. Ask yourself this: Would you rather have what the Steelers had – one timeout and the ball at their 30-yard line with 40 seconds left – or no timeouts, about 1:20 left on the clock, and the ball at the 30. I would take option B every time. The playbook would have been more open, and they’d have been much more likely to get in position for a field goal.

Instead, Myles Garrett sacked Wilson to end the half.

As bad as Tomlin’s first half was, the final 30 minutes, particularly the final five or so, were worse.

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He burned his first timeout of the half with 4:43 to go in the third quarter to prepare for a 4^th-and-1 attempt, something most teams wouldn’t need to do, and even though the drive ended with another field goal, it was ultimately a disappointment.

His defense looked confused yet again, as previously mentioned, on Chubb’s 4^th-and-1 conversion on Cleveland’s ensuing drive, one that ended in a touchdown and staked them to an 18-6 lead. I’ll remind you here that the defense is Tomlin’s purview, no matter what anyone tells you about Teryl Austin.

Tomlin finally pushed a good button when he inserted Justin Fields on the next drive, reaping a 30-yard scamper and a trio of Cleveland penalties that eventually led to the Steelers’ first touchdown in over seven quarters, and it appeared he might somehow end up squeaking out a win when Bad Jameis Winston showed up immediately thereafter, fumbling the ball back to the Steelers at the Browns’ 27.

Wilson threw a third-down strike to Calvin Austin for the go-ahead touchdown, but then, Tomlin and Arthur Smith went with a braindead two-point conversion attempt, a fade pass to Cordarrelle Patterson, who appears to have a vertical leap comparable to mine these days. The play failed, and the Steelers were left clinging to a one-point lead.

Cleveland wasn’t done trying to hand the Steelers the game; after getting the Browns into Pittsburgh territory, Bad Jameis showed up yet again, and threw an interception to Donte Jackson. The Steelers had the ball with 4:22 to go, needing perhaps two first downs to seal the game.

Of course, they didn’t get them. Justin Fields, facing a 3^rd-and-4, threw a go-ball to George Pickens that fell harmlessly incomplete. If you’re going with that call in that spot, why not have Wilson stay in and throw it? The whole thing was too clever by half. Tomlin and Smith outsmarted themselves, then really got burnt when Corliss Waitman shanked the ensuing punt a mere 15 yards.

Winston easily converted on a 4^th-and-3 to keep Cleveland’s ensuing drive going, and then, given the choice between declining an illegal touching penalty and boiling the game down to one 4^th-and-2 attempt by the Browns, or accepting the penalty and giving them two cracks at a conversion, Tomlin chose the latter. He cited a desire to make a potential field goal attempt more difficult.

One problem: The Browns were going to go for it on 4^th-and-2, not kick. He could have boiled down the game to one play right there, but he didn’t. Even if they had kicked, and Hopkins had made it, the Steelers would have been left with almost a full two minutes, and two timeouts, only needing a field goal to win. Nope!

Tomlin seemed incredibly confused in the moment by the whole situation, then said afterwards that he thought the penalty was intentional grounding, not illegal touching. His entire explanation was convoluted, and to make matters worse, he called a timeout before the third-down play, only to have his defense look confused and give up an easy conversion. He then should have immediately let the Browns walk into the end zone on their next scrimmage play, but nope, the Steelers tackled Nick Chubb, burning another 40 seconds off the clock in the process.

The damage was done, and a last-gasp drive, hamstrung by a lack of time and timeouts, came up short.

Tomlin squandered two of his three second-half timeouts foolishly, couldn’t get the Browns off the field when it mattered most, and made decisions that hurt his team’s chances from a situational perspective. He was two steps behind all night, particularly in the game’s biggest moments. A winnable game and a stirring comeback turned into an infuriating loss, in part because the man getting serious Coach of the Year consideration butchered every crucial choice.

I’d go into even further detail about why this is all so frustrating, but there’s no need, because if you’re reading this, you already know.

You’ve seen this movie before.