Raise your hand if you saw this coming with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Really? You, back in the corner: Tell the truth.
Just before Christmas, you could have stuck a fork in Mike Tomlin’s team. The Steelers were reeling with a three-game losing streak and looked so uninspired in the process. They seemed destined to finish with some history: the first losing season of Tomlin’s 17 years at the helm.
Look at them now. With a three-game winning streak stamped by a remarkable run from Mason Rudolph, the third-string quarterback for the bulk of the past two seasons, Pittsburgh (10-7) is in the AFC playoffs with a weekend trip to balmy Buffalo on tap for a wild-card matchup.
They can thank the Tennessee Titans (and Jacksonville Jaguars) for the help in getting into the tournament, but the Steelers undoubtedly handled what they could the past three weeks to create their big break.
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Sure, it’s a tall task ahead. The Bills (11-6) open the playoffs with the NFL’s longest winning streak at five games. The Steelers will try to contain Josh Allen without the services of linebacker T.J. Watt, who happened to lead the league in sacks for a third time with 19, but will miss the game due to a sprained knee.
Still, Tomlin is now the first coach in NFL history without a losing season over the course of his first 17 years. That’s remarkable when considering how stuff tends to happen in the NFL. If not parity, injuries to key players always lurk as equalizers. Yet the Steelers coach just keeps producing teams that at least stay in the hunt.
And this year’s effort is better than that. For my money, this has been Tomlin’s best job yet.
Granted, that is subject to debate. The man won a Super Bowl in his second season and two years later went back to the same stage. He’s had 10 seasons with at least 10 wins. So many times, he had to adjust to one injury after another to his former star quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger. And Lord only knows what all happened behind the scenes to extract so many premium years of production from Antonio Brown.
Yet this season ranks as special because so often it seemed like a lost cause. And you know that Tomlin, a man of many catchphrases, such as ‘the standard is the standard,’ pushed buttons like nobody’s business.
Just think of all the salty vibes coming from the locker room in recent weeks. After a loss in November, running back Najee Harris vented frustration as follows: ‘I’m tired of this (expletive).’
After a loss in December, safety Minkah Fitzpatrick publicly questioned the desire and professionalism of teammates.
A few days later, receiver George Pickens admitted that he didn’t attempt to block on a goal-line running play in the loss at Indianapolis because he didn’t want to risk injury.
The episodes of griping (and if that was what was shared publicly, imagine the private chatter) was so un-Steeler-like. Not exactly the standard.
Yet Tomlin, who keeps a pulse on player sentiments better than most if not all NFL coaches, took none of this in stride.
Rudolph was inserted into the lineup in Week 16 after then-injured starter Kenny Pickett’s backup, Mitch Trubisky, bombed. Bingo. The Steelers scored 30 points in a game for the first time this season with Rudolph at the helm. Then they did it again, with the deep passing attack – and connections to Pickens during back-to-back monster games – suddenly discovered. Then they won in the rain at Baltimore, enabled by a 71-yard, Rudolph-to-Diontae Johnson TD connection.
It’s easy to second-guess now. Maybe Rudolph should have been the No. 2 quarterback all along? In any event, when Pickett was cleared to return from ankle surgery, Tomlin also made the decision to stay with the hot hand.
This, weeks after Tomlin fired embattled offensive coordinator Matt Canada – the first such in-season move by the Steelers since 1941. After 10 games, Tomlin turned over the coordinating duties to running backs coach Eddie Faulkner and the play-calling to QB coach Mike Sullivan. Tony Dungy, the Hall of Fame coach who Tomlin once worked for, said Tomlin told him that he needed to make the move because with the intense criticism and lack of production, ‘everybody was feeling the crush of it.’
It’s also apparent that Tomlin struck a nerve with Pickens, the talented second-year receiver whose opportunities to make big plays have been severely limited during his time in Pittsburgh…but has demonstrated shameful fits of immaturity with his sulking and yelling at teammates. Three weeks ago, amid buzz about Pickens quitting on the team, Tomlin opened a news conference by bluntly addressing some of the issues with Pickens, including an expectation that the receiver would be more professional in dealing with media. In maintaining the organization’s support for Pickens’ development in football and life, Tomlin said, ‘He’s very much a work in progress.’
A few days later, Pickens blew up against the Cincinnati Bengals with four catches for 195 yards and two touchdowns. As an encore, he stung the Seattle Seahawks for seven catches and 131 yards.
Meanwhile, Harris caught fire, too, posting back-to-back 100-yard rushing games in the NFL for the first time, during the past two victories at Seattle and Baltimore.
The Steelers offense that was so feeble now has life. The gritty defense that has spent the season filling gaps created by injuries has survived more by forcing turnovers than keeping down the yards. For much of the season, Pittsburgh had the distinction of being outgained in yardage, week after week. Yet it still produced a 7-4 mark before Pickett was injured in early December.
Tomlin’s best season? There’s still time to add to the debate. If Pittsburgh can pull off an upset at Buffalo without Watt, it would be a major statement to that effect.
One thing for certain: However this season ranks, it has been quite the ride. It began with a 30-7 blowout loss against the San Francisco 49ers. And now the Steelers are riding their longest winning streak of the season.
Someone asked Tomlin this week to reflect on the rollercoaster campaign. His gruff response was typical Tomlin.
‘We’re living it, as opposed to writing it,’ he said. ‘I don’t know that we spend a of time reflecting in that way.’
Maybe. But they know. After all, Tomlin has written – or at least uttered – so many messages over the years that capture the moment and resonate with players, fans and, well, the media.
After the victory on Saturday at Baltimore, veteran defensive end Cam Heyward met the press while wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a ‘Mike T’ slogan. It read: ‘We Don’t Care.’
Surely, the Steelers care about their standard and winning and all that. But how this season reads or sells or is perceived, I think we get the message. Which only adds a layer to what might be Tomlin’s best job yet.
This post appeared first on USA TODAY
