Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said he is going to turn over “all stones” in an attempt to get his team back on track and indicated that could include getting three of his rookie draft choices more involved on offense and defense.
Tomlin also said he was unaffected by comments made by a couple of former Steelers — coach Bill Cowher and wide receiver Hines Ward — that his team was too “soft.”
Cowher and Ward, who are television analysts, made comments on their respective networks after the Steelers were drubbed by Cleveland Sunday. Both complained the Steelers were a finesse team on offense, soft on defense.
“I don’t worry about that; that’s elevator music,” Tomlin said. “Love those guys, but those guys are on the outside looking in.”
Red-zone woes
The Steelers are coming off a 31-10 loss in Cleveland — their worst in 25 years against the Browns — in which the offense scored only one touchdown for the second game in a row and the defense allowed 158 yards rushing and four pass plays of 31 yards or longer.
“We will look critically at what we’re doing and who we’re doing it with,” Tomlin said. “We will turn over all stones to produce more playmaking.”
The Steelers rank next to last in the league in red-zone percentage (36.8), scoring touchdowns on just 7 of 19 trips inside the 20.
Game changers
Tomlin pointed to several blown opportunities against the Browns that contributed to the lack of offensive production for the Steelers.
Among them: Markus Wheaton dropped a third-down pass at the Browns 5 when the score was 3-0; Le’Veon Bell and Justin Brown each failed to get a second foot down on sideline catches that would have been big plays; and slot receiver Lance Moore dropped a couple of passes, even though Moore caught the pass for the only touchdown.
Wheaton’s drop — he ran the route 2 yards too deep and didn’t turn around in time — forced the Steelers to settle for a 35-yard field-goal attempt that was botched on a bad hold by punter Brad Wing. Several plays later, the Browns hit a 42-yard pass to tight end Jordan Cameron that set up their first touchdown.
One series later, the Browns scored on a 51-yard pass to Cameron that made it 14-3.
“It was blood in the water after the botched field-goal attempt,” Tomlin said. “In a very short period of time, the makeup of the game changed. From that point on, they fed off that momentum.”
First Published: October 14, 2014, 5:11 p.m.
