{"id":6084,"date":"2024-10-01T03:23:24","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T03:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=6084"},"modified":"2024-10-01T03:23:24","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T03:23:24","slug":"steelers-mike-tomlin-under-fire-after-slow-start-in-colts-loss-getting-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=6084","title":{"rendered":"Steelers\u2019 Mike Tomlin Under Fire After Slow Start in Colts Loss: \u2018Getting Old\u2019.."},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\" class=\"wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"h-responsive\">\n<figure class=\"h-responsive__inner\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Mike-Tomlin.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Mike-Tomlin.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Mike-Tomlin.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Mike-Tomlin.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Mike Tomlin\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" data-dom-ready-time=\"198\" data-img-load-time=\"1336\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"caption-credit\">Getty<\/span>Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is under fire after the team&#8217;s first loss of the 2024 NFL season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Head coach Mike Tomlin has been a popular source of blame for\u00a0Pittsburgh Steelers\u00a0critics over the past several years. That was the case again after the Steelers lost their first game of the 2024 season in Week 4.<\/p>\n<p>As they have routinely done this season, the Steelers started slowly on offense against the\u00a0Indianapolis Colts\u00a0on September 30. But the defense played poorly in the first half as well, allowing more points than it had in the previous two games combined.<\/p>\n<p>The end result was a 17-point hole for the Steelers, which the team never climbed out of in the 27-24 loss.<\/p>\n<p>There was plenty of blame for how the players performed. But Tomlin received some of the harshest criticism after the defeat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhether it\u2019s Smith or Tomlin, these ultraconservative game plans to start games are getting old,\u201d\u00a0wrote Fittipaldo. \u201cThe defenses know exactly what\u2019s coming, and Smith had no answers, at least in the first halves of these games.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette\u2019s Ray Fittipaldo gave Tomlin an F grade for his Week 4 performance.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Steelers Play \u2018Awful Passive\u2019 Defense Against Colts<\/h2>\n<p>The Steelers entered Week 4 ranked first in a lot of different defensive categories. They had yet to allow an opponent to score more than 10 points in a game.<\/p>\n<p>But the Colts had two touchdowns after two drives and 17 points early in the second quarter.<\/p>\n<p>While the offense started slowly again, not scoring a touchdown until the third quarter,\u00a0The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review\u2019s Mark Madden argued Tomlin and the defense lost the game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought the defense was awful passive,\u201d\u00a0Madden said on this week\u2019s \u201cMadden Monday\u201d podcast. \u201cI don\u2019t think they were aggressive at all. They kind of laid back. And I thought it\u2019d be all over Flacco. I saw nothing exotic on defense.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know what they need to do? They need to move (T.J.) Watt around. They need to have Watt, line up in different places. That\u2019s how other premier pass rushers find openings when they\u2019re getting chipped and double-teamed all the time. Why doesn\u2019t Teryl Austin do that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Second-year quarterback\u00a0Anthony Richardson\u00a0led the Colts on their first touchdown drive. Richardson exited with an injury on Indianapolis\u2019 second possession, but with veteran backup\u00a0Joe Flacco, the Colts immediately scored again.<\/p>\n<p>With Flacco playing most of the afternoon,\u00a0the Colts converted\u00a08 of 15 third-down opportunities. On one second half drive alone, Flacco completed passes on third-and-7 or longer three times for first downs.<\/p>\n<p>Steelers Wire\u2019s Curt Popejoy put Tomlin on blast for how the team handled Flacco replacing Richardson.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe notion that a unit claiming to be the best defense in the NFL couldn\u2019t adjust to Flacco quickly enough to keep themselves in the game is crazy in today\u2019s NFL,\u201d\u00a0Popejoy wrote. \u201cThe Colts kept the Steelers pass rush in check and Pittsburgh seemed lost as to how to cover a group of Colts receivers who were off to a very slow start this season.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Mike Tomlin Makes Head-Scratching Decisions<\/h2>\n<p>The Steelers head coach didn\u2019t just fall short in his game plan and in-game adjustments. During Week 4, he also struggled with play-calling, clock management and challenge decisions.<\/p>\n<p>Steelers Depot\u2019s Alex Kozora took issue\u00a0with five strategical choices Tomlin made during the loss.<\/p>\n<p>In the first half, Tomlin didn\u2019t challenge when officials ruled\u00a0Najee Harris\u00a0just short of the first-down marker on a third-down run. Replay showed Harris may have picked up the first down.<\/p>\n<p>Tomlin elected to go for the fourth-and-short, but the Steelers failed to convert. The failed conversion gave the Colts a short field, which led to 3 points.<\/p>\n<p>On the ensuing Colts drive, Tomlin curiously challenged an Indianapolis catch that appeared to be an obvious reception. That resulted in a wasted challenge and timeout.<\/p>\n<p>Kozora argued Tomlin also misused his timeouts in the second half.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t take timeouts with you. But Tomlin did,\u201d\u00a0Kozora wrote. \u201cOn the final possession, the Steelers didn\u2019t use their last timeout. They didn\u2019t use it after the disaster that was the botched snap that lost 12 yards, setting up second-and-22. They didn\u2019t use it when Najee Harris couldn\u2019t stop the clock on the third-and-22 completion, going backwards out of bounds to keep time running.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat led to a hurried fourth-down call with time running out, a Fields incompletion that ended the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kozora wrote that he understood Tomlin\u2019s intention.\u00a0The Steelers head coach explained\u00a0in his postgame press conference that he wanted to save the timeout to use just before kicking the potential game-tying field goal.<\/p>\n<p>But without the fourth-down conversion, which was a little rushed because the clock was running, Tomlin never received the chance to use that timeout before a field-goal try.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GettyPittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is under fire after the team&#8217;s first loss of the 2024 NFL season. Head coach Mike Tomlin has been a popular&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Steelers\u2019 Mike Tomlin Under Fire After Slow Start in Colts Loss: \u2018Getting Old\u2019.. - Sport News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=6084\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Steelers\u2019 Mike Tomlin Under Fire After Slow Start in Colts Loss: \u2018Getting Old\u2019.. - Sport News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"GettyPittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is under fire after the team&#8217;s first loss of the 2024 NFL season. 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