PITTSBURGH — Mike Tomlin needs to deliver a victory today against the Patriots.
If he’s more than just a good soundbite.
If he’s able to do more than just be a motivator.
If he’s really a good coach.
If you ignore the stats and just go with the eyeball test, Tomlin has been, to this point, an above average coach propped up by a future Hall of Fame quarterback (Ben Roethlisberger) and safety (Troy Polamalu), as well as a receiver (Antonio Brown) and running back (Le’Veon Bell) who are on their way there as well.
Since winning a Super Bowl in his second season and returning in his fourth, the Steelers have made one appearance in the AFC Championship Game in the six years since. That was last season, when they went to Foxborough and were shellacked, 36-17. Apparently, they weren’t ready for “dat ass,” as Tomlin proclaimed they would be after edging the Chiefs at Arrowhead.
But the Steelers were missing some key pieces. Martavis Bryant was suspended (seems to be a recurring issue with Tomlin’s teams). Cam Heyward, Ladarius Green and Markus Wheaton were all injured. Bell was injured on the second snap of the game.
This time around, there are no excuses.
The Steelers have their triplets, they’re healthy and playing their best ball of the season.
They have Heyward back, forming one of the league’s best defensive lines with Stephon Tuitt and Javon Hargrave. Sure, they’re a little banged up in the secondary and are missing Ryan Shazier, but this isn’t the first game without their spirited and fleet-of-foot linebacker. A good coach would have the next man up and ready to go by now.
The Steelers are also at home for the second straight week and have the benefit of entertaining a Patriots team that is coming off a short week and playing their third straight road game.
The Patriots are the team with all the injury issues, having already lost their best receiver (Julian Edelman) and defensive player (Dont’a Hightower). They’re also down to their third left end player — an undrafted one at that in Eric Lee — now that Kyle Van Noy can’t go with a calf injury. Their best offensive lineman (Marcus Cannon) was placed on injured reserve. And Alan Branch, their highest-paid interior lineman, is also out. Basically, the Patriots’ front seven looks like a used car lot for football players.
The Steelers are coming off two straight tough divisional games, where they pulled off dramatic comebacks. The Patriots are coming off three straight bland games against the mediocre AFC East, and were roughed up by the Dolphins on Monday night.
And Steelers have had the entire offseason and this season to get ready for this game. They knew the Patriots would be on the schedule. And they knew, in all likelihood, that the road to the Super Bowl would go through Gillette, or at least the Patriots.
Make no mistake, the Steelers are the hungrier, better and more talented team going into this game (the playoffs might be a different story). Yet, the Patriots enter as 3-point favorites.
Why do you think that is?
That’s an indictment on Tomlin’s coaching acumen. Despite having all these advantages, the Steelers are underdogs because the belief is Bill Belichick will still coach circles around Tomlin today. When it comes down to it, Tomlin’s team will make the undisciplined mistakes and errors that will deliver the Patriots another victory against the Steelers.
It’s time for Tomlin to prove his worth, once and for all. He can shut up all his critics if he can stop mugging for the TV cameras, come up with inventive schemes on both sides of the ball, get his team to drop the faux tough-guy façade and just play disciplined, hard-nosed football and be the football assassins that they have the talent to be.
If not, the chorus will only get louder that the Steelers have a coach that’s out of his league if they truly consider themselves AFC contenders.
Greg Bedard is the founder and lead NFL columnist at Boston Sports Journal.