After Sunday’s disappointing loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the topic on all Pittsburgh Steelers’ fans minds is the insanely high amount of penalties the Steelers have been called for to begin the season, most notably the 13 flags for 125 yards on Sunday.
You aren’t going to win many football games like that and head coach Mike Tomlin took the blame for his team’s undisciplined play.
“After a performance like that I think it is important that we look within and look at what it is that we are doing,” said Tomlin. “The bottom line is that we are an undisciplined group. We are too highly penalized. Obviously we are not coaching it. We are allowing it to happen. So I take responsibility for that.”
Tomlin also added on Sunday: “We kicked our own butt today with penalties. We have to fix it. I have to fix it, and I will.”
After hearing that, my first question is if Tomlin isn’t coaching it, then why not? And if he isn’t, then who is?
The Steelers have had a whopping 44 penalties accepted against them this season to date. That’s an average of over 10 games and that is simply unacceptable. Their 44 penalties is the second most in the NFL to the San Francisco 49ers 46.
Those 44 penalties have amounted in a total of 387 yards, which ties the Steelers with the Washington Redskins for the most penalty yards in the league.
I went around the Steelers locker room on Sunday and the common theme among each player is that penalties have killed the team so far, but no one knows how to fix it.
“I just don’t know,” said tight Heath Miller. “Other than we just have to get back in the lab and see what we are doing wrong and figure out how to fix it.”
Since Sunday’s debacle there have been various opinions on who is to blame. Should the players be held accountable or should the blame lie solely on Tomlin and his staff?
Depending on who you ask, you get different opinions there also.
“That’s for the coaches to do for us,” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said after Sunday’s loss. “We just need to play better. Period.”
Others, like defensive end Cameron Heyward, feel the blame should be placed on the shoulders on the players.
“It’s not on the coaches,” said Heyward. “It’s all on us. The coaches aren’t out there jumping offsides and grabbing face masks. We are out there making those mistakes.”
Yet while it is easy to point the fingers at Tomlin, the players deserve their fair share of criticism here also.
Of the Steelers 44 penalties, 11 of them (25 percent) has been pre-snap penalties.
That’s a simple case of players not paying attention to their assignments.
Should Tomlin have them more prepared? Absolutely, but ultimately the players have to do their jobs.
Then there are the ridiculous amounts of post whistle penalties.
To date the Steelers have been flagged for a pair of unsportsmanlike conducts, a pair of other personal fouls, a taunting penalty and four unnecessary roughness calls.
That should also be on the players.
Antonio Brown has been in the league five years now. He knows the rules. He chooses not to abide by them.
While Brown has been probably the Steelers best player the past couple seasons, the occasional actions after scoring touchdowns the past few seasons are just selfish. For a player who has a knack for scoring a lot of touchdowns, wouldn’t it be refreshing to see Brown act like he has been there before and just hand the ball to the referee?
I’m sure Tomlin has brought that up before.
No one is listening.
These issues are on the players, but it also brings up the issue of if Tomlin has lost the respect of some of the veterans in the locker room.
The biggest issue though is the fact that Tomlin’s team refuses to adjust to the way the game is called.
Like it or not those are the rules. Other teams have adjusted just fine. It’s not a case of bad calls. It’s a case of the Steelers not adjusting to the game.
“Like coach said, we need to get disciplined,” said cornerback William Gay. “Post-snap and pre-snap penalties are about discipline. We have to look within and make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
If Tomlin is sending a message it certainly isn’t getting across.
Tomlin’s tough guy routine with the media leaves a lot us scratching our heads, but what happened to the tough guy routine inside the locker room?
The same guy who came in and installed toughness and rules, is now more likely be buddies taking pictures and having a good time with a guy like James Harrison than he is disciplining his team.
Tomlin used to make guys like Casey Hampton run laps around the field in camp for being overweight while the rest of the team practiced. Nowadays he’s more likely to take a selfie with his guys than to make sure they are a disciplined group on Sunday.
The results don’t lie.
Tomlin used to have a veteran group that could basically police itself on and off the field. Now he has a younger roster and he’s having a hard time teaching discipline.
Is anything more of a slap in the face to the head coach than two of his running backs toking up as they are ready to board a plane for work?
Speaking of running backs, Le’Veon Bell’s taunting penalty shouldn’t be excused either. What happened to just running the ball and going back to the huddle?
Sometimes being a player’s coach, which Tomlin is perceived, can be a bad thing as the inmates run the asylum.
Do you think the veterans in the locker room have the same level of respect for Tomlin now than they did just a few years ago?
Their actions off the field and their play on the field would suggest no.
However when Tomlin was asked about being a player’s coach during an interview on FOX, he immediately played the race card.
Seriously?
Last time I checked Pete Carroll was viewed as a player’s coach. So was Bill Cowher. So is Clint Hurdle.
People should lose a bit of respect for Tomlin there.
What he needs to do is shut up for a while and start acting on the changes he promises. Every week we hear that they need to do this and they need to do that, but when is the last time Tomlin has delivered on any of those promises?
It’s easy to want to push Tomlin out the door and with every loss that builds up, he becomes less and less popular among Steelers nation.
But he is still a guy who has never had a losing season in the NFL.
His seat shouldn’t be hot, but if he doesn’t start cleaning things up, it could start getting a little warm.
At the end of the day, everyone in that locker room should be held accountable for what this franchise has become the past couple of years.
That includes the players.
That also includes Tomlin.
Tomlin likes to preach accountability and the players need to hold themselves accountable. That’s step number one.
But Tomlin needs to look in the mirror and do the same.
A team takes on the identity of its coach.
Right now this team doesn’t have one.
Photo Credit: Associated Press
