Mike Tomlin And His Late Season Collapses

The national media has told me Mike Tomlin was an elite coach in the National Football League. However, they do not tell you his history of blowing divisional leads and playoff chances.

2009: Unleash Hell in December

In a year coming off a Super Bowl victory, the Steelers' 2009 season had high hopes, especially with a new inspiring young coach. The 2009 season started by meeting those expectations and heading into the bye week at 5-2. Following the bye week, the collapse started, only winning one of their next four games, including getting swept by the Bengals and losing to the Ravens. That 5-2 start quickly turned into 6-5, and Tomlin, in a press conference, said, " We will unleash hell in December". This quote quickly backfired on the Steelers losing back-to-back games to the Raiders and Browns, who both finished 5-11. This dropped their record to 6-7, essentially losing them the division and a wild card spot. They finished the season 9-7, missing the playoffs and finishing third in the division. Big Ben only missed one game, and the team had two thousand-yard receivers, Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes, as well as a thousand-yard rusher, Rashard Mendenhall. Most of the blame falls on Tomlin for the reason that is similar in all of these collapses, which is him getting complacent with his players and team.

2018: Disaster

If you are a Steelers fan, you will remember this season as the last year Antonio Brown suited up in a Steelers uniform. Disaster is a fitting name for this season since it started with the best running back in the league sitting out. Leveon Bell refused to play under a franchise tag, instead electing to watch the games from home. I feel Tomlin gets some slack for this season due to the Leveon saga. However, a promising second-year player, James Connor, was able to step up. Even with no Leveon, the Steelers still had high expectations, especially coming off a thirteen-win season the previous year. The season started extremely slow with a tie in Cleveland and a loss at home to Kansas City, but then the season got back on track, winning seven of their next eight games, only losing to Baltimore. The Steelers, who were first in the division heading into week twelve, were right where they were expected to be at this point, but disaster struck heading into Mile High to play Denver. Steelers fans in 2024 know Boswell as the money man, missing very few kicks and being one of the best in the league. However, Steelers die-hards remember the implosion that took place in 2018. The first missed kick took place in Denver. However, it was not the deciding factor, and the Steelers ended up losing by seven. The next game was Sunday Night Football against a good Chargers team fighting for their division. The Steelers shot out to a 23-7 lead at the half. However, the second half was a complete collapse, blowing the lead, and Steelers fans should remember corner Artie Burns going offside three times on the game-winning field goal attempt. On the third time, the kick went through, ending the game and the Steelers blowing another lead. With two losses in a row, the Steelers wanted to get back on track, and they should have against a horrible Raiders team who had three wins at the time. The Steelers played a horrible game with Boswell missing two field goals however, with a minute left down three, the Steelers ran a hook and latter between Juju and AB to get into field goal range. Boswell attempted a game-tying kick as time expired, but Boswell slipped and missed the kick, losing the game and the division lead. Next week would be a bounce back with the Steelers beating Tom Brady and the Patriots at home and the Ravens slipping up, allowing the Steelers to control their destiny, needing to win out to win the division. They would play the Saints on December 23, which, to Steelers fans, can be remembered as either the Juju game or AB's last game as a Steeler. The game started with a phantom pass interference on Joe Haden, which set the Saints up for a score and an early lead. The Steelers battled back with AB completely dominating rookie Lattimore, who was playing at an All-Pro level that season. Then Tomlin made one of the most boneheaded decisions I have ever seen him make, running a fake punt on his own forty on fourth and fourth. The fullback Nix came up a whole yard short while dancing and taunting since he thought he had a first down. However, AB scored to put the Steelers up four, and the defense had a chance to get a stop and project us into the playoffs. However, another questionable pass interference on Haden and a third and fifteen conversion by the Saints allowed them to score and take the lead 31-28. Big Ben had a chance to answer and on AB's final catch, he delivered what I think was his nicest toe tap to gain about 15 yards. Then a few plays later what Steeler's fans will remember the most about this game was Juju's fumble (pictured below). The Steelers lost the game pretty much eliminating them from the playoffs. Even though the Steelers won the next week the Ravens were able to secure a playoff spot by beating the Browns. This season marked the end of the Killer B era with AB asking for a trade after Juju was named team MVP. This season to me hurts the most since we competed with the top teams in the league and still were not able to make the playoffs.

2020: Covid

The start of the 2020 season was weird, and expectations were not known. Of course, the Coronavirus played a big factor in these questions, as well as Big Ben coming off elbow surgery he suffered in the previous year. However, early Big Ben was on his A game, starting 7-0 while beating some good teams like the Ravens and Titans. However, scraping out a win while visiting a Dallas team with no Dak marked a sign of struggle to continue. They ended up 11-0 but then lost to a mediocre Commanders team, killed by a great Bills team, and upset by a bad Bengals team. They did end up rallying to beat the playoff Colts and clinch the division, but that did not matter. The Cleveland Browns came to Pittsburgh wildcard weekend and went up 28-0 after a disastrous start, which included a high snap opening play touchdown. The Steeler's offense did battle back, but the Browns kept scoring, They killed the Steeler's linebackers, who kept trying to guard Jarvis Landry one on one with Vince Williams. This loss killed the Steeler's dominance in the AFC North, losing to a team who they rarely had trouble with. To me, this marked the end of Ben's career and this picture with Pouncey speaks a thousand words (pictured below).

2024: 5 in a Row

After a 2023 season that left the Steelers with more questions than answers, the Steelers elected to bring in Fields and Wilson at QB while trading Pickett to the Eagles. Long-time Steeler Diontae Johnson was also traded for corner Donte Jackson. Fields started the year due to Wilson having an injured calf, and to my surprise, we started 4-2, and Fields looked solid. Even with him playing well, Tomlin elected to change to Wilson, who also started very well and went 6-1 while beating the Ravens and Commanders, which moved the record to 10-3. This marks the start of a major collapse. With the Steelers playing weaker opponents earlier in the year, it was time to face the music and play three of the best teams in the league in eleven days. The first game was at Philly, which was completely embarrassing. The Steelers fumbled the ball away down seven, which put the game away. However, criticism focused on a questionable Tomlin punt on fourth down and losing by multiple scores. The Eagles would go on a twenty-one-play, eighty-eight-yard drive lasting ten minutes. The Steelers, after the punt, never saw the ball again, just getting completely embarrassed on the defensive line, which would be a sign to come. The next week would be a game at Baltimore which if won would secure the division for the Steelers. The Steelers were again run all over this time by Derrick Henry but the Steelers did have an answer offensively immediately scoring. However, Russ was terrible while going in to take the lead he fumbled on the three-yard line completely flipping momentum. The Steelers remained down a touchdown for most of the game but hope arrived after a Minkah pick which is rare but really should not be since he is getting paid so much. Then Russ answered with a horrible pick-six to Marlon Humphrey and a throw I think I could have made. The rest of the game was a wash and the division title hopes were in limbo. The Chiefs were next on Christmas and the Steelers still controlled their destiny winning the last two would secure the tile but Christmas day flat-out sucked. The Steelers got embarrassed so bad that there is not , much to say the defense and offense flat-out quit. Finally, a game that and Sandos were both at was the Bengals and for the first time in three weeks the defense showed up by holding Burrow and the company under twenty points. That did not matter though the offense scored seventeen and was apoplectic to watch. Finally this past weekend the Steelers were put out of their misery and completely quit. The Ravens ran for 299 yards and Lamar completely dominated the Steelers with his legs. Minkah and Watt were literal ghosts and the secondary with Sutton and Jackson was abysmal. The offense showed life late but Russ was not good enough to slow and old. The season ended with five straight losses 10-3 went to 10-8 and enough is enough.

My Thoughts:

The 2018 season is always a collapse I will remember but to me, this past year was very telling. For the first time, I think the locker room lost faith and quit on Tomlin. I am mainly pointing at the secondary unit and the leader of that group Minkah. He played with a lack of effort which rubbed off on guys like Sutton and Trice who were just horrible in coverage and tackling. TJ does not avoid blame either he did not record a meaningful stat in his last 127 snaps and was even dominated when blocked one on one. I see Steelers fans online angry at the defensive coordinator Teryl Austin but it is not his fault. This is Tomlin's defense and Tomlin's players who just flat-out stink and quit. I have already seen excuses come out with Patrick Queen acting like a war hero since he played through the flu. I am sure TJ sympathizers will come out with an injury over the next few weeks but all this stems from Tomlin. He flat-out stinks and to me has always been a fraud. He has rarely drafted well with picks like Jarvis Jones and Artie Burns during the prime of the Killer B's. His culture is also overrated it allows players to blame each other in the media with no consequence which we saw a lot of in the defense over the last four weeks. Finally, he has to be the smartest guy in the room and it holds the Steelers back. Over Tomlins's time, we never had elite play calling we just had good players to make up for it, and now that we do not it shows. Dan Campbell for example surrounds himself with gurus who are smarter than him and is the reason why the Lions are so good. This will never change unless the Steelers make a change.