Steelers vs. Raiders: Tomlin Tuesday

The Steelers are coming fresh off of a disappointing loss to the Cincinnati Bengals that literally has the them backed into a corner in the AFC playoff picture and head coach Mike Tomlin took to the podium on Tuesday to review the previous game, update injury statuses, preview the upcoming game and answer questions.

Tomlin began the presser by giving his assessment of the Steelers previous performance. Clearly there was a lot to be desired from the performance, except for the fact that the Steelers defense was able to hold a team that was averaging 30 points a game to 16.

The penalties, however, were another story.

"“The penalties were disturbing. That’s now how we are going to play. We are going to fix that as soon as possible. But it was an issue in the game. We were penalized 10 times. That hasn’t been us. Penalties have been an asset to us over the course of the season. It’s been a winning edge for us, and it’s something that we take pride in. But we were highly penalized in the game, and it was a detriment to our efforts in many instances.” – Mike Tomlin"

Obviously, the turnovers played the biggest part in the outcome of the game. The Steelers managed to take the ball away from Cincinnati twice but gave it up three times, with two of the three interceptions coming in the fourth quarter.

Tomlin acknowledged that Le’Veon Bell was placed on the Reserve/Injured list and that the team signed Isaiah Pead for running back depth. He said there wasn’t yet a timetable as far as surgery or recovery time for Bell but he did confirm that Bell’s ACL was still intact so that’s about as well as anyone could have hoped at this point.

The rest of the injury update included Terence Garvin, who is still out with an MCL sprain and Mike Mitchell, who is undergoing the concussion protocol. Will Allen and Stephon Tuitt will be returning to practice this week and Ben Roethlisberger didn’t suffer any injury setback playing off of his knee injury.

On to the Raiders the Steelers are a 4-4 team coming off of two consecutive losses going up against a 4-3 team who have just won their last two games. The Steelers defense will have their hands full with the likes of Derek Carr and Amari Cooper but Tomlin explained that there are some defensive players worth keeping an eye on.

"“And they have the timeless one in Charles Woodson. What can you say about him that hasn’t already been said? As a young assistant in the league in 2002, I was with the Buccaneers, and we played the Oakland Raiders in the Super Bowl. One of the feature defenders for the Raiders was Charles Woodson. That was 13 years ago. I am still talking about him as we get ready to play the Raiders. This guy is timeless. He ages the way quarterbacks and James Harrison age, and nobody else.” – Mike Tomlin"

Most importantly, aside from highlighting one player or another, the Steelers have to control what they can control in this game in order to get off the schneid.

"“We can’t be highly penalized, we have to win the turnover battle and we have to take better care of the football than we have in the last two weeks. It’s been a formula for success for us in the midst of some adversity, and really in the last two weeks we haven’t taken care of the football. That’s probably the central reason we lost the last couple of games. That’s going to be our focus. We are going to keep it simple, roll our sleeves up and get back to work as we always do. We are excited about doing that with the compliment of men we have this week.” – Mike Tomlin"

But coach? What about the clock management? Everyone knows the game was lost because of the 38 seconds ticked off of the clock instead of a timeout being called before the two-minute warning. How else was the team supposed to hold the Bengals to a field goal and then get down the field and get into scoring range before time ran out? Oh wait, that’s what happened anyway.

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Still, because Yinzers, Tomlin was asked to explain his timeout non-usage even after explaining it post-game.

"“I thought I was pretty clear way, and I outlined that decision after the game. I thought having the ability to stop the clock was more important once we had the ball. Oftentimes it dictates the coverage that defenses play. They have to defend the middle of the field when you have the ability to stop the clock. If we don’t have the ability to stop the clock, they would get in their cover-two structure and rush their four men, really protecting the sidelines. That scenario was going to get increasingly more difficult if they got in that structure. I thought by possessing a timeout, it would give us an opportunity to at least have the ability to change the interior of the field and maybe dictate some of the coverage they play, give us a better chance to navigate down the field. We were comfortable with that. That’s the plan we went with. If I had it do to over, I would do it again.” – Mike Tomlin"

Even after all that Tomlin was asked again about using two of the timeouts.

"“Again, I outlined it in great detail, the thought process I went through and why we did what we did. Now, you might have done it differently and that’s your choice.” – Mike Tomlin"

Tomlin also explained that he didn’t think rust was associated with Ben Roethlisberger’s play in the last game as well as that he didn’t have any injury updates on Mike Adams nor Maurkice Pouncey.

He thought the defense played above the line and he also saw some good things from the offensive line on Sunday.

So we can spend the rest of the week complaining about a timeout that wasn’t called or start getting ready for the Raiders. Your choice.

You can listen to Tomlin’s entire presser right here.

Obviously Count = 8

Here we go Steelers! Here we go!