If you thought the Steelers had problems against the Colts in Week 4, you didn't see anything until you watched the game Mike Tomlin called against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football in Week 5. With lightning strikes near Acrisure Stadium causing significant delays, this game got a late start.
Steelers fans are going to wish it had been postponed after this nightmare performance.
Tomlin diligently tried to force his winning recipe against Dallas on SNF -- run the football, play good defense, and win the turnover battle. Some of these things they were able to do.
Pittsburgh pounded the rock for 92 yards on the ground (albeit, not efficient yardage on 26 carries), they were plus-two in the takeaway department, and they held the Cowboys to 20 points.
But with a philosophy that prohibits aggressive play, Coach Tomlin dug his own grave on Sunday Night Football.
Fatal philosophy flaw bites Steelers in Week 5 loss
Here's what Tomlin's not getting: this strategy works against subpar teams and mediocre quarterbacks. It was never going to work against Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys.
By the end of the game, the Cowboys had doubled Pittsburgh's yardage output (445 to 226). It took a series of events to fall the right way for Pittsburgh, and they still couldn't come away with a victory.
Dak threw two interceptions, the Cowboys lost a fumble, and Pittsburgh blocked a field goal. Heck, Elandon Roberts even forced a fumble near the goal line to give the Steelers one last chance they didn't deserve.
The collection of all of these players weren't enough.
Even with the Steelers routinely stalling out Dallas in the red zone and playing taking better care of the football than their opponent if they were losers in the end. Why? Because Tomlin's philosophy doesn't allow room for aggressive offensive play.
Putting up 17 points against the Cowboys was never going to get it done. The Steelers had to have known this. Yet Justin Fields passed the ball just nine times in the first half -- even when they were getting the looks down the field they wanted.
Dallas' defense was without All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons, All-Pro cornerback DaRon Bland, Pro Bowl edge rusher Demarcus Lawrence, edge rusher Sam Williams, and cornerback Caelen Carson. Meanwhile, what edge depth they had was obliterated when rookie Marshawn Kneeland suffered a knee injury early in the game.
Instead of trying to exploit the Cowboys' lack of pass rush and weak cornerback depth through the passing game, Tomlin was dead set on deploying nearly a 50/50 split between the run and pass -- passing 28 times to 26 runs (many of which were unsuccessful).
Though the Steelers lost the game with a last-second score, this was as ugly of a performance from the offense as you will see. Arthur Smith deserves some blame, as does a lackluster performance from the team. But this entire passive showing stems from a fatal flaw in Mike Tomlin's winning philosophy.
Sure the offense looks different this year, but Arthur Smith's squad is averaging 18.4 points through over the quarter mark of the season. Strictly from a points-scored perspective, it's not much different than what we saw with Matt Canada over the past three seasons.
This team needs to get aggressive if they want to have any chance to make a splash this year... and it has to happen now.