Mike Tomlin not entirely responsible for the Steelers 9-8 record in 2022

Steelers vs the AFC East

In case you missed it, Pittsburgh did not fare exceedingly well against the AFC east this year, losing to the Bills, Jets, Patriots, and Dolphins. All of the losses came before the bye week. Certainly not helping the Steelers record early. The Bills gave the Steelers one of their worst losses in decades.

The Steelers had no answer for the Dolphins, and Belicheck undoubtedly out-coached Tomlin. So perhaps looking at why things went haywire before the bye week, playing all of the AFC East teams explains that. It never appeared Tomlin had much of a clue on how to play the AFC East this year, nor had a game plan to stop them. So while players not making plays accounts for some of that, so did poor coaching all the way down the line.

Steelers vs. the NFC South

Unlike the AFC East, the Steelers went 4-0 against the NFC South. However, one of those four wins came in the first half of the season at home over Tampa Bay. It’s one game you do have to give Tomlin his respect with the injuries they had going into the game.

However, Tom Brady was arguably a mess in that game, not the Tom Brady of old and several reporters commented on it. The rest came after the bye week. And perhaps with the exception of the Saints game, the Steelers generally move the ball at will and were never in serious danger of losing the Panthers and Falcons game. So if the Steelers record was worse early thanks to the AFC East, it was perhaps a bit better than it should have been thanks to NFC South victories.