Kovacevic: Players looking feeble, Tomlin and coaches fumbling ... Rooney needs to weigh everything

The ball sat there, seemingly forever.

And yet, at no stage of the swift, sorry life of Maurkice Pouncey's opening snap from scrimmage -- from sailing two feet beyond Ben Roethlisberger's reach -- to taking root two yards shy of Heinz Field's north end zone -- was there a semblance of doubt how it'd turn out.

Know what I mean?

I hope so. I really do. If only to help clarify my own feelings as to all that occurred on this Sunday night in maybe the most embarrassing playoff loss in the Steelers' 88-year history, 48-37 to the Browns. And I mean all of it, not just that sickening sequence.

I've rewound it on video ...

... and I've studied it in the stills, from the angle shown in the Getty photo atop this column to the opposite perspective in the AP photo below:

James Conner badly over-slides the ball, neither striving to pick it up nor to pounce on it. Ben pretty much avoids it as if it's radioactive. And the Browns, the NFL's version of the Pirates in every way, perhaps anticipating their own Johnny Cueto-dropped-the-ball moment in their first playoff game in forever, come swarming onto the scene ... one, two, three, four, then five of them before Karl Joseph covers for the touchdown. 

And yet, none of those images captures the stark, singular sense I had witnessing it live.

The sense that there was no chance.

That it was all over. And not necessarily just this game.

____________________

Maurkice had the previous weekend off in Cleveland. No one spoke a syllable against it. He is who he is. He's an All-Pro veteran of a decade-plus, he's endured multiple ankle surgeries and, as such, the respect for his career had held even through a season where he and the offensive line were repeatedly exposed as a weakness.

Ben had the previous weekend off. No one spoke a syllable against that, either. He's 38. He is who he is. He might be the greatest offensive player the franchise has known, he's headed to Canton and, as such, the respect for his career had held even through the ugliest two-month stretch of his career where he couldn't/wouldn't throw a football further than his nose.

We accepted that they'd sit out in Cleveland, even saw it as a small victory of sorts, a chance to rest and recover. We accepted that they wouldn't practice on Wednesdays through the season. We accepted everything.

Don't presume where I'm headed with this. Stick with me.

Conner's got nowhere near the resume of those two, but we accept a lot with him, as well. He's constantly hurt, often in mid-game. He's capable of rolling out of bed and onto IR. But because Benny Snell's a negligible backup at best, we just cringe and bear it with him.

Now, I'll ask politely, thumb back up and watch it again.

See it now?

Yeah, thought so. The part where Ben's struggling to stand back up after being on all fours does the trick, huh?

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm tired of it.

I'm tired of watching an offense founded on a quarterback whose every dropback could bring not only the end of the game but the end of a bleeping era.

I'm tired of the pocket collapsing around him anytime he breaks the 2.7-second barrier on release time.

I'm tired of the weakest running game Pittsburgh's seen in a generation.

I'm tired of teams everywhere -- even bad ones -- looking fresher, faster, stronger, tougher than the Steelers. That's meant opponents -- again, even bad ones -- but it's also been cursory glances on TV. There's an awful lot I'd forfeit about the Steelers' skill/experience level, for example, in exchange for a Josh Allen shove up the middle. Or a bulldozer run by Derrick Henry. Or all that energy brought on this night by Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, the Browns' dynamic backfield duo who ran as if they'd need to be blown apart by a bazooka to be brought down:

I know, I know. Talents like those can't be grabbed at a Giant Eagle express lane. But to repeat, this is about feel. Nobody watches those players and fears that they'll perish with every play.

Starting to make sense here?

Cool, because I'm so very tired of so much more, and I'd love to let it all loose here, if that's OK.

I'm tired of this head coach, in more ways than I'm comfortable confessing. Mike Tomlin should be done.

Tomlin led these same Steelers to an 11-0 start, and that can't be forgotten. Same man. Same style. Same results, too, that's gotten for years. All appropriate credit where due for that and, extending further, for a Canton-level career of his own. He's been a blessing for the team, the city and the sport.

But man, I'm tired of Kevin Dotson sitting for Matt Feiler. That's meant literally -- Dotson was the offensive line's very best in the five weeks Feiler was out with a serious triceps injury, and Feiler returned just in time to commit not one but two penalties in the first quarter here -- but also symbolically. Because Tomlin's got no concept of balancing his beloved veteranosity with that fresh, fast, strong, tough thing I referenced earlier.

I'm tired of being told that Chase Claypool was having his snaps/targets limited because of an alleged 'rookie wall' -- that actually came from Tomlin's mouth a month ago -- only to see Claypool keep making splash after splash right down to the finish on this night.

I'm tired of hearing that a $3.2 million fullback's worth his weight in gold, only to see all concerned wait until Week 18 to finally utilize Derek Watt -- through handoffs! -- when he could've made a dent in the fresh, fast, strong, tough thing months ago.

I'm really tired of this coach, contrary to one of his pet phrases, undeniably living in his fears.

Second quarter. Browns already up, 28-0. Steelers stall at the Cleveland 38. Fourth-and-9. Tomlin sends out Jordan Berry.

For real.

This one's far worse: Early fourth quarter. Browns still up, 35-23, but the Steelers have put up 23 of the past 30 points. They're rolling. They stall at their 46. Fourth-and-1. Tomlin sends out Berry.

And, as karma would have it, Berry boots the ball 59 yards for an unwanted touchback, and the Browns storm 80 yards for another touchdown, anyway.

I couldn't believe the punt call. Still can't.

I asked Tomlin about it:

"We had some stops, wanted to pin them down, maybe provide the short field for our offense," came the unflinching reply. "We had maybe two or three consecutive stops. I just wanted to keep the momentum going in terms of field positioning. But we weren't good enough in terms of doing that."

He blamed the defense. Which wouldn't have taken the field if he could've created an environment where he could trust his quarterback, his running back, his offensive line and, for that matter, his coordinator. 

Or if he'd simply prioritized further pounding the Browns' defense over, what, field positioning?

Seriously, if his thinking was that his defense was getting stops, why not task them with getting one at midfield if this failed?

At every turn, even when 11-0, this team's offense took the timid route. And I dare say that left it unprepared for where the fresh, fast, strong, tough thing would be needed most.

I'm tired of Randy Fichtner. 

This outcome couldn't reasonably be blamed on him -- he didn't commit five turnovers, and his offense did put up 38 points and 553 net yards -- but I've seen nothing through his tenure to convince me he's anyone's answer, in Pittsburgh or in 31 other NFL homes, at his position.

I'm tired of Keith Butler, partly because he once had T.J. Watt drop into coverage on a third-and-2 and was most responsible for limiting the NFL's premier defensive performer to a rare light presence, partly because he conceived of the brilliant dadgum idea to have flat-footed Robert Spillane cover Jarvis Landry:

... but mostly because it's old seeing Butler get beaten to a pulp in the playoffs. Adding this to the 45-42 loss to the Jaguars three years ago this week, that's 93 total points conceded in the past two playoff performances for his defense.

Do I hear a 50 next year?

More than any of this, though, maybe more than all of it combined, I'm tired of being confounded by the palpable lack of preparation.

People hear that term and presume it's solely on the coaches. It's primarily on coaches, but it's also on team leaders. No coach was going to prepare Pouncey for that snap. No coach was going to prepare Ben to avoid all those picks. That's got to happen in the huddle, in the locker room, on the sideline. And ever since Dallas, I've lost count on all the lack-of-preparation messes this group's created.

Maybe Art Rooney II should be tired of that and all the rest, too.

____________________

I'm not Art, of course, and I won't appear on his consultation list this offseason. But here are a half-dozen things I think he should do:

• Have a heart-to-heart with Tomlin.

It's not enough to win in the regular season but to have three playoff wins in the past 10 years, same number as the Pirates in that span, it's not enough to blithely answer, as Tomlin did when asked after this what accountability he holds for these playoff flops, "It is what it is. Our record is our record. Our performances are our performances. We don't run away from that." And it's definitely not enough to dismiss all questions, every year, that connect patterns over multiple seasons.

This pattern's real. Almost down to the final scores:

Tomlin's not getting fired, so cut that out right now. And while I heard all through this season that he might be thinking about his future beyond coaching, I can't imagine he'd want to walk out like this.

So figure it out. Reporters ask questions he doesn't have to answer, but the owner can achieve both.

• Fire the coordinators. Both of them.

Enough's enough. 

I don't care if Ben's wounded, since Ben's clearly closer to the end than anyone might've wanted to acknowledge. I definitely don't care what anyone on the defensive side thinks, because of the aforementioned pattern. If, say, Cam Heyward, the defensive captain, were to back Butler on the inside, I'd show film of Cam's output in both of these past two playoff games -- one whole tackle in this one, and Leonard Fournette's footprints in the previous one -- and ask him to build a case off that.

And no more internal hires to replace Fichtner and Butler. Cast a wide net, bring in a couple of the game's sharpest, savviest minds, ideally with both faith and foundation in football's advanced analytics.

To repeat: This isn't working. Try something else.

• Bring back Ben.

Ben isn't done. 

"It's going to start between me and God, a lot of praying," he said of the decision he'd have to make, despite having declared multiple times he'll be back in 2021. "A lot of talking with my family, discussions, decisions. I still have a year left on my contract. I hope the Steelers want me back, if that's the way we go. There will be a lot of discussions. But now is not the time for that."

Well, also, he's got a $41.25 million cap hit for the Steelers next season -- yeah, just him, just one year -- and that'd be $21 million even if they'd release him. Which they won't. And shouldn't. The same quarterback who butchered the first quarter, with significant help, also wound up completing 48 passes for 501 yards and four touchdowns and, oh, by the way, lasted through the entire season without missing more than a couple snaps to injury. He's still above-average at his position in the NFL.

But ...

Whatever this weirdness was, where he couldn't get comfortable until the second half of games, that's got to stop. The first half isn't the warmup period. I watched Ben's warmup passes Sunday, and they were dying ducks. If that means more practice, even Wednesdays -- (gasp) -- there has to be a solution, a change put into motion. Can't just be that he'll try harder.

Moreover, there should be an understanding that, if it were to keep up, it'd no longer be considered sacrilege to replace him, even mid-game. And don't tell me it didn't cross everyone's mind in this game how much sharper Mason Rudolph looked in the first half a week ago than Ben did here.

• Prioritize the O-line in the draft.

The next Pouncey won't be there late in the first round, but that's fine, since nearly every interior position needs to be addressed. I'll take Chuks Okorafor and Zach Banner as my tackles, and I'll love Dotson at guard, but Pouncey and Alejandro Villanueva might be finished with football altogether, from what I've been told, and David DeCastro had a rough season in every way. 

If anyone wants to apply the 'rebuild' term to the Steelers, this is the fit, and this is the time.

• Be judicious with the free agents.

Or is that JuJu-dicious?

I've had mixed feelings on JuJu Smith-Schuster since his arrival, and they're mostly in place. For sure, I won't let this output of 13 catches for 157 yards influence anything, since he had all of two catches for 14 yards in the first half, after which Cleveland went pure prevent with the defense. He's not a No. 1 wide receiver by any metric other than social media followers, and he shouldn't be paid accordingly by a team that'll struggle again to stay under the cap.

Ben made a brief case for JuJu after this game, saying, "I don't know what the future holds. He doesn't know. I'll always support him. I'll always be proud of him. I think he embodies what it is to be a Pittsburgh Steeler. He's tough. He shows grit. You saw some of the plays he made tonight. They were black and gold through and through. I hope I can speak for the fans when I would say that they don't want him going anywhere, and we don't want him going anywhere."

JuJu followed up later, "Honestly, I wouldn't mind. I would love to stay in Pittsburgh. I built a strong foundation and a strong fan base. I love Coach Tomlin and everybody I've been around. They've helped change the way I am, I love the game of football and I would love to do it again."

Wait, fan base?

Is he talking social media?

Whatever the case, it's not cut and dried. There are other receivers here and, as mentioned earlier, Ben's influence should be diminished.

Bud Dupree will be lost. That's tough, though Alex Highsmith was encouraging.

Conner will be lost. No big deal.

My free-agency focus would be on keeping Mike Hilton and Cam Sutton, especially with Joe Haden getting older. Anything that's left for JuJu can be part of a discussion.

• Get a big-time back.

Doesn't have to be Henry or Chubb, but it can't be a Conner, either. Dead last in the league means dead last. Imagine the difference this would make for Ben alone.

This was all tough to watch, none of it tougher than what's above.

Ten years ago, I was around Pouncey almost daily at the Steelers' hotel in Fort Worth, Texas, where the team was staying for the eventual Super Bowl loss to the Packers. He tried to put on a happy face, but he failed. He knew an injury wouldn't allow him to play. And ever since then, anytime I'd bring up any serious subject with Pouncey about his goals, I'd remind him of that week down there. And each time, he'd cringe at the one opportunity he'd had. I could see the hurt and can't picture what it was like being on that bench up there with Ben.

He's exuded excellence for a long time around here, both on and off the field with his extensive work with local police forces. If he's indeed done, he'll be missed.

All the rest of my grievances?

Heck, it's sunrise now, the next morning, and I'm tired from just listing them all out.