Mike Tomlin seemed awfully reluctant to blame the defense he oversees, particularly its rotten start, for the 27-24 loss Sunday at Indianapolis.
So let’s clear this up right away: The defense lost the game early, and the defense lost the game late. But especially early.
This is supposed to be a great defense. It is highly compensated to that end. It had some of us (columnist sheepishly raises his hand) wondering if it might be Tomlin’s best defense since 2010 after it dominated people for three games.
But on this day, it looked disorganized and at times disinterested. The start set the tone. The Colts hit a 42-yard pass on their first play and went from there. A shorthanded Colts line pushed the Steelers around. Colts coach Shane Steichen, who runs the offense, badly outcoached Tomlin, just like in last year’s loss at Indianapolis.
The Steelers couldn’t stop Anthony Richardson. They couldn’t stop Joe Flacco. (Tomlin said Flacco is the much more dangerous passer, but Richardson went 3 for 4 for 71 yards before he left injured.) The Steelers couldn’t get off the field on third downs. (The Colts were 8 of 15 on third-down conversions.) They blew coverages and missed tackles. They got absolutely blown away at the start, when they fell into a 17-0 hole that Tomlin somehow deemed irrelevant, and they gave up 10 fourth-quarter points on two other long drives.
The Colts embarrassed the Steelers on the first two drives, rolling up 156 yards and two touchdowns on 17 total plays. Quite obviously, that start gave the Colts a great chance to win. How many teams overcome 17-point deficits?
Tomlin, however, said the hideous start didn’t matter all that much in determining the outcome.
“I thought [the Colts] really brought it, particularly at the beginning of the game,” Tomlin told reporters. “But the beginning of games doesn’t really kind of define games. It’s just the beginning.”
Really? Then how come Tomlin on Tuesday lamented his offense starting so slow against the Chargers last Sunday and said such starts could hurt his team moving forward?
On Tuesday, speaking of the Chargers game, he said, “Offensively, we didn’t start with the level of fluidity I would like. We gotta get that solved and get it solved quickly. I think particularly at the early stages of the season, you better work on things that could be trouble for you as you continue through your journey.”
You mean like ... bad starts?
“[Bad first-quarter offense] just doesn’t tee us up to play the type of ball that we desire to play,” Tomlin added Tuesday. “Thankfully, we were in our home venue and our defense was playing really good at the early stages of the game to minimize some of that.”
So, you mean ... playing good defense early in the game is important, especially when the offense is struggling?
What are we doing here?
Tomlin finished his we-need-to-start-better segment Tuesday by saying his team needed to establish “the right kind of mojo early in games.”
The mojo couldn’t have been worse Sunday — unless you consider a 17-0 deficit good mojo — and yet Tomlin doubled down on the idea that starting so horrendously wasn’t a big deal.
“Again, there were things that happened at the early stages of the game that are really insignificant in terms of the outcome,” he said.
Insignificant! They spotted the other team a 17-0 lead!
What?
“Starts are just that: starts,” Tomlin said. “I thought the significant components of the outcome of the game were obviously the turnover game and some of the self-inflicted wounds we had.”
Well, sure, none of that helped. But falling behind 17-0 gave the Steelers almost no margin for error. It really did define the game. Indianapolis only needed 10 more points to secure victory.
I can’t be the only one baffled by Tomlin’s takes here, can I?
The Colts picked on Patrick Queen early, pushing him around, and minimized T.J. Watt (two tackles, no sacks, no tackles for loss). Joey Porter Jr. did not have a good game. On the KDKA postgame show, former Steelers nose tackle Chris Hoke said the Colts picked on linebacker Nick Herbig in the run game.
And with the outcome in the balance late in the third quarter and early in the fourth — with Justin Fields leading a valiant comeback — the defense crumbled again. It gave up 10 points on two drives totaling 20 plays and 124 yards, even though the Colts lost their star runner, Jonathan Taylor.
Yes, a bad personal foul call on Minkah Fitzpatrick helped the Colts, but so did the Steelers putting inside linebacker Payton Wilson on a receiver (Josh Downs) in the slot. That is called a no-chance matchup.
Just a disastrous performance all the way around, unbefitting of a defense that wants to be great.
I would suggest the defense start better Sunday night against the Cowboys, but who cares about good starts?
Meanwhile ...
• If I were to pick the biggest factor in this loss besides the awful defensive effort, it would be George Pickens’ red-zone fumble. It’s one thing if the defense makes a great play, quite another if the ball carrier is being careless. It just can’t happen.
• There were two incredibly soft personal foul calls, one on each side. Fitzpatrick tried to pull up on Adonai Mitchell, who made a blatant business decision in putting zero effort toward catching the ball. The contact thereafter hardly justified the penalty, which helped decide the game.
“[Fitzpatrick] doesn’t strike through him,” CBS officiating expert Gene Steratore said. “You could see him try to let up. ... That’s just a football play.”
Yes, and so was Colts linebacker Isaiah Land, well, landing on Fields for a sack. It was a hard hit but basically just a form tackle. There was no head-to-head contact. Land was either going to make a tackle or let an elusive quarterback perhaps spring free. He did nothing wrong.
• The CBS broadcast was bad, and I’m not talking about announcers Spero Dedes and Adam Archuleta. I’m talking about the lack of replays on several key plays. Archuleta pointed out on more than one occasion possible interference on pass plays, only to have no replay. One was Beanie Bishop Jr. early in the game. The biggest was when Archuleta said Colts defensive back Jaylon Jones held Pickens on what could have been a huge pass play on the Steelers’ final possession. We never got another look. Inexcusable.
• Tomlin should have used his final timeout before the 4th-and-11 play on his team’s final possession. Clearly, the Steelers were discombobulated after a ruinous fumbled snap on first down and Najee Harris failing to run out of bounds on third down. It was the perfect time for a reset with still more than 30 seconds left. Instead, Fields threw a wild pass with no chance for a completion.
Dedes wondered before the play why Tomlin didn’t call timeout. Tomlin later explained he “just wanted to hold it in my hip pocket; sometimes working at pace is an advantage for the offense.”
Sometimes, yes. But not there. Not when the offense was clearly reeling.
• Harris looked slow hitting the hole, especially when compared to Cordarrelle Patterson, who was decisive and effective before leaving injured. Harris had 13 carries for 19 yards, Patterson six for 43.
• Hoke said it looked to be Fields’ fault on the fumbled shotgun snap on the final series.
“In my mind, everyone moved but Fields, [so] who could it be on?” Hoke said.
I see his point, although it looked like Harris also was surprised by the timing of the snap.
• The Steelers lost by three, so it’s easy to second guess now. But I was wondering at the time why Tomlin did not allow Chris Boswell to attempt a 58- or 59-yard field goal (depending on the spot) on the Steelers’ first series. Boswell is more than capable of making that. It’s the second year in a row that Tomlin punted from Colts territory in a loss at Indianapolis when his kicker had a makeable attempt.
• That probably wouldn’t have been an issue if Spencer Anderson hadn’t been flagged for a late hit on a play when the Steelers advanced to the Colts 34. And if Anderson hadn’t been called, Broderick Jones might have been. Jones came in a split second after Anderson and made a worse late hit. Then again, it was still early — and we all know that how you start the game doesn’t matter.
Unless it does.
First Published: September 29, 2024, 11:01 p.m.