The coach is shuffling quarterbacks again. He fired the offensive coordinator weeks ago, but his team has not responded. So the new plan is to start an old backup, even though this offense has already failed with the injured starter and his second in command.
Welcome to December in … Pittsburgh, where the Steelers might be living through the darkest winter of Mike Tomlin’s tenure.
Entering this season, Pittsburgh had won 35 of its previous 51 games during December and January. But now they’ve lost three in a row against three beatable teams (the 3-11 Cardinals, the 3-11 Patriots, the 8-6 Colts with a backup quarterback). And the mistakes hurting Pittsburgh, in Tomlin’s opinion, should’ve been corrected months ago.
“We haven’t developed in some ways that we would like to,” Tomlin said Monday. “Fundamentally poor might be an exaggeration, but it also in some ways is accurate.
“There’s December levels of execution, and there’s September levels of execution. Five penalties from (an offense) is September-like, to be quite honest with you.” That’s gonna slow you down in December when you’re trying to (engineer drives) and keep pace and score and do the things that you’re engineering victory this time of year.
Sound familiar, Browns fans? For most of Tomlin’s career, Cleveland has been the premiere home to out-of-season penalties. December games have rarely held weight, unless you account for draft position. And the Browns’ history of interim coordinators and last-gasp starting quarterbacks runs as deep — if not deeper — than Tomlin’s winning tradition.
But entering this holiday season, Tomlin’s Steelers can’t stop beating themselves. The Browns keep beating the odds by winning with a battered roster. And with four weeks until the playoffs, it feels like Cleveland and Pittsburgh have traded places in the AFC North culture wars.
Browns coach Kevin Stefanski has stolen Tomlin’s mojo by winning with four starting quarterbacks, all of whom have orchestrated game-winning drives this season. Remember how the Steelers celebrated their 8-8 finish during a 2019 season where Devlin “Duck” Hodges started six games?
Cleveland could clinch a postseason berth this weekend if 38-year-old Joe Flacco, who has thrown more touchdown passes in 12 quarters (seven) than Kenny Pickett has thrown in 12 starts (six), guides Cleveland to a third straight December win on Sunday.
The Steelers’ defense, so long a bastion of their success, now ranks behind Cleveland’s in EPA per play, yards allowed per play, opponent success rate and takeaways, to name a few categories. Pittsburgh still owns a slight edge in scoring defense — 20 points per game allowed compared to 20.6 — but each empty offensive possession stretches the defense’s stamina. Pittsburgh ranks 25th in time of possession percentage and 29th in first downs per game, leaving players like Cam Heyward to defend his own offense in the media.
