Mike Tomlin's Steelers Are Asleep at the Wheel

I'm not really into traveling—it's just who I am. I don't have, as Rolf Potts wrote in Vagabonding, a "friendly interest in people, places, and things that makes a person an explorer in the truest." I desire that interest and have tried to cultivate it, but at this point in my life I'm beginning to think I may never have it.

In much the same way, Mike Tomlin's Steelers are who they are, and they don't look likely to change any time soon. They're capable of upsetting any team in the league, as they did in beating Arizona without Ben Roethlisberger. They're also capable of throwing up an egg against a bad team at any time. Pittsburgh's loss to the lowly Ravens on Sunday—two of Baltimore's five wins this season are against the Steelers—flipped the entire script of the playoff chase. The Jets, who came into Week 16 needing a miracle, are now in the driver's seat in Week 17.

After results from the 1 PM gms, the AFC playoff picture has shifted drastically. #Jets now have ~67% playoff odds. pic.twitter.com/rkdYH6xHau
— Sharon Katz (@skatz23) December 27, 2015

As much as the Steelers have suffered the ravages of the injury machine this year, there's no excuse for a team this good to be on the outside looking in. I feel like we've spent the entire season extolling the virtues of a healthy Pittsburgh, but the banged-up version is pretty damn good, too. Even with Le'Veon Bell and Roethlisberger missing time, the Steelers have had the best offense in the NFL by DVOA. It's just that, time after time, they come up with bad games against bad teams on the road.

Steelers: offense bombing again on the road vs. bad team. pic.twitter.com/uxxskykKf1
— Scott Kacsmar (@FO_ScottKacsmar) December 27, 2015

The Steelers are 4-7 in their last 11 games against teams under .500. Against the then 4-10 Ravens on Sunday, Roethlisberger threw for 215 yards, with two interceptions, and was outdueled by Ryan Mallett, a guy the quarterback-hungry Texans released due to tardiness. Clock management under Tomlin has routinely been an adventure. While Week 16 was gaffe-free, this year alone we had the Cincinnati game and the season-opener against New England. Tomlin's teams always seem to make things harder for themselves than they have to be.

Now, I want to be clear: this is not a column calling for Mike Tomlin's head. He's not a bad head coach; in fact, he does a lot to push a team toward the playoffs. There are simply clear and obvious flaws that the Steelers have to weigh when deciding how much they value his services. A lot has to go right to create the scenario where Tomlin can win three or four games in a row.

I think the vocal majority of Steelers fans, the ones used to winning championships, don't want to make this trade-off. I get that. Fans want their teams to aspire to great things, not good ones. They don't hang banners for consecutive playoff appearances or eight-win seasons.

The Steelers do have a number of things going for them. The offense is empirically excellent, as I've noted, and the defense improved after promoting Keith Butler to defensive coordinator and letting Dick LeBeau go. They may miss the playoffs this season and still be poised to be one of the most dangerous teams in the AFC in 2016.

That said, Pittsburgh should have been a devastating AFC contender this year. There's no way we can look at how this team has performed under Tomlin and not conclude that he's holding them back a bit. He could take some lessons from this season, but he could have learned from the past few seasons, too. At a certain point, a coach is the sum of his blind spots. Even the best have issues: Bill Belichick has drafting wideouts; Jim Harbaugh plays conservatively when ahead. Tomlin's clock management and no-shows are the bugaboos that define him.

Tomlin is a coach of a team that sleeps through too many games. It's the only reason for a team as talented as Pittsburgh to be in line to miss the playoffs. Pittsburgh appears to value stability and consistency, as well as the total package Tomlin brings, in spite of the periodic mental lapses. There's no realistic talk about the Steelers firing Tomlin, but the question remains: If these Steelers aren't finishing where they should be, who else is there to blame?