The Pittsburgh Steelers season has taken a turn for the worst. They are now 7-5-1 after being 7-2-1 and in comfortable position to win the division again.
The Steelers are rapidly spiraling out of control and playoff contention. With three straight losses, they now sit just one half game ahead of the Ravens in the division.
Pittsburgh has now dropped three games to teams they, in theory, should never have lost. In all three games they had late leads only to see them dwindle in the end.
The Steelers were in a must win situation before the Ravens lost. With the Ravens loss, the loss to Oakland does not hurt nearly as bad as it would had the Ravens beaten Kansas City.
Let’s face it, the entire team’s stock is trending way down amidst their first three game skid since 2016. However, there are some people who can trend up whilst the majority are trending down. There are also a select few who really stand out as trending down.
Mike Tomlin – Stock: Down
As the coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the fans will hold you to a high standard. The fans expect greatness and when you do not perform to that standard, they will let you know it.
Over the course of his career, Steelers fans have had their thoughts on him. It seems the general feeling is either fans love him or fans hate him with not many who are somewhere in the middle.
I have long been a defender of Tomlin to most fans. I don’t believe the Steelers could find much better if they were to let him go and he would have a new job tomorrow if fired today.
Even with saying all that, though, it is hard to defend what we saw on Sunday from him. Sitting Ben Roethlisberger the entire second half until it was just too late was absolutely inexcusable.
Tomlin has made some questionable decisions in his time but this takes the cake by far. In what became a must win game, you cannot sit your future hall of fame quarterback on the sideline after he was medically cleared.
Tomlin shot his stock way down in a move that put Pittsburgh at 7-5-1 with three games to go. The Steelers could really have used a win in Oakland before New England and New Orleans in back to back weeks.