Steelers lose: Who is to blame?

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3. Mike Tomlin

And now we come to the real culprit, in my opinion.

When Tucker’s game-winning kick was in the air the cameras appeared to catch head coach Mike Tomlin mouthing the words “my bad.”

As Phil Simms said reading lips, Mike Tomlin appeared to say, 'My bad," as #Ravens made game-winning FG
— Ed Werder (@WerderEdESPN) October 2, 2015

My bad, indeed.

First of all, Tomlin and general manager Kevin Colbert have to get some blame for putting Scobee in a postion to fail. The team has had a lot of misfortune at the placekicker position this year, but there’s no excuse for not being able to find a suitable replacement.

The Steelers had a chance to put the Ravens down for the year one month into the season. Because they stayed complacent at kicker, Baltimore’s season now has new life, and that may come back to haunt them.

Back to the game, though. Tomlin’s playcalling was uncharacteristically bad all night. Usually his instincts are sharp, but in this case they let him down. Why did he not trust Le’Veon Bell with the ball in the two critical fourth and short situations when he was having a great game?

To Tomlin’s credit, he is taking responsibility for the calls despite the miss by Vick. Here’s what he told reporters after the game, per the Post-Gazette:

“When you lose, you’re open to criticism,” Tomlin said. “We lost, so I’m not going to try to justify anything that we did. Anything we did, I take responsibility for.”

That’s a sign of maturity but it’s also small consolation for Steelers fans, who know their team gave one away last night.

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