Steelers’ Tomlin almost out of chances

The tweet came Sunday night from Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy just as the Cleveland Browns were finishing off the highest-scoring first quarter in NFL playoff history.

“28-0 Cleveland in the 2nd Qtr. Pittsburgh has made mistakes and Ben has been off target. But Cleveland is playing harder than Pittsburgh right now and that is very surprising to me.”

There it is, the most damning indictment of Mike Tomlin’s role in the Steelers’ 48-37 loss, the worst loss in franchise history.

It wasn’t Tomlin’s decision to punt on fourth-and-9 from the Cleveland 38 when the Steelers trailed, 28-0, and on fourthand-1 from the Steelers 46 after they had pulled within 12 points, even though those decisions were horrendous. That second decision sabotaged any chance the

team had of making a miraculous comeback.

No, what was awful was that the Steelers came out flat and weren’t ready to play.

Again.

Sure, Maurkice Pouncey’s errant snap and a couple of Ben Roethlisberger’s interceptions were hurtful. But the team didn’t play with any urgency, offensively or defensively. It allowed the Browns to be physically dominant.

If you watched, you were embarrassed for the Steelers.

That’s on Tomlin. Unfortunately, it was that way for much of the second half of the season. The Steelers didn’t score a point on their opening drive in their final 10 games and managed a total of one first down in the past seven. Even worse, their offense failed to score a point in the first quarter of the past eight games. If that’s not bad enough, the offense’s mistakes led to three Cleveland touchdowns in the first quarter.

It’s easy to blame offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner, who could be fired over the fervent wishes of Roethlisberger, who is expected to return for one more season. But firing Fichtner isn’t necessarily going to fix the problems. When a team struggles the way the Steelers did down the stretch, the issue goes higher.

To the top.

To Tomlin.

It’s not as if this season’s collapse was the first under Tomlin. It has happened four years in a row.

Let’s take an unpleasant trip down Nightmare Lane:

• In 2017, the Steelers went 13-3 and lost at home to the Jacksonville Jaguars in their first playoff game. Shame on them and Tomlin for looking ahead to a rematch with the New England Patriots in the AFC championship.

• In 2018, the Steelers were 7-2-1 and finished 9-61, out of the playoffs. They lost at Denver when Roethlisberger threw an interception to a defensive tackle; to the Los Angeles Chargers at home when they blew a 16-point halftime lead; at Oakland to the 2-10 Raiders; and at New Orleans when JuJu SmithSchuster lost a late fumble in Saints territory.

• In 2019, the Steelers were 8-5 before losing to the Buffalo Bills, the New York Jets and the Baltimore Ravens to finish 8-8, out of the playoffs. Blame Roethlisberger’s elbow injury, which left Mason Rudolph and Duck Hodges as the quarterbacks.

• This season, the Steelers lost five of their final six games after an 11-0 start.

Tomlin’s answers when asked about all of this Sunday night were evasive and trite.

“It is what it is.” “Our record is our record.”

“We own it.”

“We don’t run from it.” And my favorite on the Browns’ domination: “They did, we didn’t.” That has been happening a lot around here. The Steelers have gone four seasons without a playoff win. They have just three postseason wins since the 2010 season when they made their most recent Super Bowl appearance.

The reaction around town has been predictable. It seems as if just about everybody wants to fire Tomlin. I get that. But I’m not willing to go there. Not quite yet, anyway.

It’s hard for me to fire a coach who just went 12-4 and unexpectedly won his seventh division title in 14 seasons despite not knowing if his quarterback’s elbow would hold up all season. As the Steelers were going 9-0 and 10-0 and 110, Tomlin was the runaway favorite to be NFL coach of the year. That’s not just because of the perfect record, but also because of the way he led the team through the COVID-19 landmines. It’s not as if he suddenly overdosed on stupid pills.

Injuries hurt the Steelers, especially the one to Bud Dupree in the Baltimore game on Nov. 1. So did their coronavirus-impacted schedule, which saw them miss out on their open week and have to play three games in 12 days. Their slide coincided with that stretch of games.

That’s why the Steelers should and will give Tomlin — and Roethlisberger, for that matter — one more shot to get it right.

And if they don’t?

The Steelers will have to look for just their fourth coach since 1969.

Ron Cook: rcook@post-gazette.com and Twitter @RonCookPG. Ron Cook can be heard on the “Cook and Joe” show weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.