Tomlin deserves credit for overcoming injuries, losses

Mike Tomlin deserves to be in the coach of the year conversation at the halfway point of the NFL season.

Really.

I know it’s early. There is a lot of football left. It won’t be all that surprising if the Steelers lose at least five of their remaining eight games and finish with their first losing record in Tomlin’s 13 seasons. No one will be praising him then. I also know there are other stronger candidates. Start with the 49ers’ Kyle

Shanahan, the Saints’ Sean Payton, the Ravens’ John Harbaugh and the Bills’ Sean McDermott. There are others.

But Tomlin deserves mention.

I can’t believe the Steelers are 4-4 despite losing Ben Roethlisberger for the season late in the first half of the second game. I can’t believe they kept things together after starting 0-3 and 1-4. I can’t believe they went to Los Angeles and beat the Chargers with Duck Hodges at quarterback. I can’t believe they beat the 5-2 Colts at Heinz Field without James Conner.

I can’t believe the Steelers still are playoff relevant.

“It’s good to be sitting at 44. I never thought I would hear myself say that,” Tomlin said in those warm moments after Sunday’s 26-24 win against the Colts. Give Tomlin a little credit. C’mon, be fair.

Raise your hand if you thought the Steelers were finished when Roethlisberger went out in the Seattle game with his elbow injury. Mine is up. I still think the Steelers have no chance of competing for the Super Bowl without Roethlisberger. But making the playoffs? In the weak AFC? It’s possible.

Raise your hand if you watched Mason Rudolph struggle against the 49ers in his first NFL start the week after Roethlisberger’s injury and thought the Steelers might not win more than a game or two all season. Mine is up again. The team was 0-3 after that game and then 1-4 after a brutal home overtime loss to the Ravens.

There is no way the Steelers were going to bounce back, right?

Wrong.

I’m giving Tomlin a lot of credit. His strength always has been keeping his players believing and fighting even under the worst adversity. I think back to the 2009 season when the Steelers lost five in a row to fall to 6-7 only to win their final three games. They didn’t make the playoffs but were in the hunt until the final weekend.

It looks as if the Steelers will hang around again this season despite losing Roethlisberger, easily the biggest challenge of Tomlin’s career. Do you know how easy it would have been for his players to check out mentally after that injury? Especially at 1-4? But Tomlin didn’t allow it.

The win against the Chargers was amazing. Hodges, a street free agent, had nothing going with his top receivers, JuJu SmithSchuster and Diontae Johnson, who combined for three catches for 21 yards. On top of that, Stephon Tuitt was lost for the season with a pectoral injury on the Chargers’ fifth play.

The win against the Colts might have been more remarkable because it came without Conner, who produced 119 total yards against the Chargers and then ran for 145 yards and a touchdown in the next game against the Dolphins. The Steelers couldn’t run the ball, a 45-yard run by Trey Edmunds aside. Their other 24 carries produced 45 yards. Rudolph was ineffective again with SmithSchuster and Johnson, who combined for four catches for 16 yards.

Thank goodness for the Steelers defense.

While we’re handing out credit, doesn’t Tomlin deserve a little for the defense’s improvement and strong play? He and Keith Butler were widely criticized when the defense struggled the past two seasons. Isn’t it fair to give them a pat on the back now that the defense has had 10 sacks and forced nine turnovers in the three-game winning streak?

Tomlin is far from perfect, of course. His challenges remain problematic. He didn’t challenge what appeared to be a touchdown run by Jaylen Samuels in the first quarter and lost two challenges on pass-interference calls late in the game despite knowing that those calls almost never are changed. Losing the two timeouts could have doomed the Steelers if the Colts’ Adam Vinatieri had made his 43-yard field goal try with 1:11 left.

Tomlin also shouldn’t be ranked ahead of the other top coach of the year candidates at this point. Who thought Shanahan’s 49ers would be 8-0? Or Payton’s Saints 7-1 despite missing Drew Brees for four games and most of a fifth? Or Harbaugh’s Ravens 6-2 with road wins against the Steelers and Seahawks and a home win against the previously unbeaten Patriots? Or McDermott’s Bills, for goodness sake, 6-2?

All I’m saying is that Tomlin should be recognized. He’ll climb up the list if the Steelers beat the Rams Sunday at Heinz Field. And if they somehow make the playoffs without Roethlisberger and Tuitt? It might not get Tomlin the Coach of the Year Award, but it would be his best work.