OAKLAND, Calif. -- "Mannnnnnn, we'll be fine," Ramon Foster was telling me Sunday night. "We'll pull through. We will. You'll see. Don't we always?"
Maybe he's right. Maybe they will.
But if I'm being as honest with you as I was with the big man following this sorriest of losses for the Steelers, 24-21 to the stinking Raiders, this feels different. Because this team isn't like those that piled up momentum through the later months of a regular season. This team isn't gaining confidence. This team isn't getting better.
And that's worrisome on a whole lot of levels, not least of which is the most meaningful of all: They're now 7-5-1 with three losses in a row -- nearly four, but for that last gasp in Jacksonville -- and, even with early gifts unwrapped around the AFC earlier in the day -- they're anything but guaranteed to participate in the playoffs, much less push for home field.
Oh, and this: Next up are the 9-4 Patriots and the 11-2 Saints. And I'd dismiss the 5-8 Bengals at the end, except that they're about a billion times better than a certain 3-10 team in the current discussion.
Quite the challenge ahead, as I mentioned to David DeCastro.
"It really is," he responded. "But we're up to it. We just need to straighten a few things out."
Again, maybe they can. Maybe they will.
Ideally, of course, that'll occur sometime between now and kickoff next Sunday against New England, as all concerned have got to at least start righting an increasingly long list of wrongs. It's so long, actually, that I'm not sure where to start in making my own list.
But hey, how about if it's in the feral spirit of the fan base's principal focus?
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Mike Tomlin's greatest trait over his tenure, from this perspective, has been that his teams have improved over the course of a season. They've occasionally struggled early, and some of his own decisions have been similarly dubious, but they've gone 33-16 in December and, as a result, wound up owning the AFC North more often than not. They've sorted through personnel, they've adjusted Xs and Os, they've motivated through a common cause and, as Foster suggested, they've pulled through.
But this really does feel different.
When Tomlin himself openly states afterward that the Steelers' primary issue is a lack of "good fundamental things" that "we're not doing," that's regression right at the foundation. That's different.
"We haven't been playing good enough football," Mike Hilton told me, and it was essentially echoed around the room.
When it's just the offense, just the defense, just the special teams or even just the literally misguided kicker ...
... fault can be found mostly in the individual facets or people. But when it's across the board the way it's been the past month, when opportunities to win are transformed into ways to lose, that runs to the top.
Some of that's basic, boring stuff.
Like repeatedly running Jaylen Samuels into no-gains. Again and again for no gain. Eleven carries for 28 yards, plus Stevan Ridley's five carries for four yards, and the Steelers' per-carry average of 2.1 achieved little more than if they'd simply stayed in the huddle and burrowed holes.
Samuels labeled his day "difficult," and that would fit just as nicely in describing the decision to keep handing him the ball when facing an opponent that hadn't stopped anyone through the air.
The defensive frustration was also basic, boring stuff in its own way.
The Steelers were ripped near and far for their bizarre application of linebackers to the Chargers' top wide receiver, Keenan Allen, so naturally, they came right out here and had L.J. Fort, Jon Bostic, Vince Williams and all the rest chasing skinny dudes all day, with the result being about the same: Eighty-something made the catch, and fifty-something was on the coverage.
And on that winning touchdown on fourth down ...
... whether it's Tomlin or Keith Butler making that call -- no one can say with certainty who's defensive coordinator anymore -- that's just exasperating.
Hilton slips, sure. That's human. But never mind him or Oakland tight end Derek Carrier's move to get open. Look instead at the half-dozen bodies dropping back into the end zone. Fort stays up near the line to spy the running back, everyone else is behind him, and only four are left to pressure Derek Carr. On the pivotal play of the game, the team that leads the NFL in sacks opted to forgo its own strength and offer Carr ample time to seek out his second option for a casual strike befitting a walkthrough drill.
Another basic, boring friend -- clock management -- came to play, as well.
When Oakland gained the Pittsburgh 7-yard line shortly after the two-minute warning, Tomlin didn't call a timeout. That virtually ensured the Steelers would have precious little time if or when they'd get the ball back. They did get it back ... with 21 seconds left ... and still nearly tied the game.
Other stuff wasn't basic and definitely wasn't boring.
What of the weirdness between Tomlin and Ben Roethlisberger in the second half?
I'm here to tell you, I seldom took my eyes off the franchise quarterback from the moment he returned to the field in the third quarter after that rib injury, and that included when he grabbed a helmet and began tossing on the sideline while Josh Dobbs was left in the game.
According to Tomlin, regarding Roethlisberger, "He probably could have come back in a series or so sooner, but we were in a rhythm and flow of the game. He was ready to go when he got back out there."
That's the term he used. It was "flow." Presumably, that's because Dobbs' "flow" saw four series in which the Steelers netted 64 total yards, two punts, a turnover on downs and an interception. Even handing the ball to Samuels some more suddenly became attractive.
Either Tomlin's covering for a Roethlisberger drama episode -- and the latter's been known to make the most of his injuries, to be fair -- or he's lost his mind. But I can't see much gray in between. Dobbs was terrible. The franchise quarterback was standing right there, apparently available. And ... this is all so nonsensical I'm not sure how to complete this thought.
Roethlisberger went immediately on the defensive when asked about his health, deferring all such questions to Tomlin. So I tried an end-around and asked simply how he felt when he came back out onto the field:
That obviously didn't get far. The short version of his short answers: He felt "OK" when returning to the huddle and promptly rolled the Steelers 75 yards toward a go-ahead touchdown, and he then spoke of his head coach in a cryptic tone he'd long reserved for Todd Haley.
Nothing to see there, I'm sure.
I could go on. Tomlin also oversaw a defensive scheme, along with Keith Butler -- or ordering Butler, it's no longer clear -- that had linebackers on wide receivers up and down the field because that had worked so wonderfully against the Chargers. He also didn't have his players ready to face an inferior opponent, best evidenced by the repeated losses in the trenches, where everyone had fairly expected the Steelers would dominate.
And yet, none of that bugged me anywhere near as much as this single sequence that didn't cost the Steelers a single point:
That's not a catch. Carrier needs the ground to keep control. Carr realized this right away, which is why he rushed his teammates forward and got off the ensuing snap, before Tomlin could challenge.
Which takes Tomlin off the hook, right?
Well, no, not in the slightest.
Ever heard of Andy Saucier or Kevin Roach?
They have slightly different titles and duties with the Penguins and Pirates, respectively, but their most prominent roles are as the on-site video coordinators for Pittsburgh's hockey and baseball franchises. They monitor every play, as it's happening, to check for anything that might be relayed to Mike Sullivan or Clint Hurdle for possible replay review. In both cases, their judgment is trusted implicitly.
The Steelers, by God, don't employ anyone in this role.
Remember back in Cincinnati when I asked Tomlin why he didn't challenge an obvious James Conner touchdown?
This was the response then: “I didn’t see it. You don’t get opportunities at replay in visiting stadiums.”
He'd later clarify that his process basically boils down to watching the big scoreboard or hoping to hear on his headset from the coaches up in the press box. But neither of those comes close to having a dedicated video coordinator with all kinds of weapons at their disposal.
From Carr's completion to Carrier, to the next snap, 26 seconds elapsed. That's an eternity in the world of a professional video geek. Saucier and/or Roach would have had word to Sullivan and/or Hurdle within seconds.
In this case, I watched Tomlin intently after the catch. He had both hands on his knees the entire time looking right out to the field. I can't confirm this, but I'd like to think he was contemplating his 0-4 record on challenges this winter.
It's beyond embarrassing to still be discussing this.
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One man, above all, can pull this through. But I’m not as convinced as I once was that Tomlin can. Not this time.
Preaching accountability is paramount for a head coach or a leader of any kind, but it's got to be accompanied by introspection and, in turn, humility. This man's best moves as a coach over the years have been to change when needed. Those usually have come in the offseason, but they've come in-season, too, and they've led to success.
So much of the silliness cited above is so easily rectified. It takes the snap of his finger, a few drills Wednesday and a couple extra admonitions through the week.
Instead, this was among his statements Sunday: "We’re going to continue to work. We’re going to absorb the negativity that comes with our current position. We understand that we created it. It’s our job to fix it."
That "absorb the negativity" line, for anyone who hasn't spent a decade around Tomlin, is his us-against-the-world way of bracing himself ... not so much for the actual negativity -- I don't believe he reads, much less heeds, anything from the outside -- but more for any internal wavering in faith in his ways.
It's easy to understand why.
If you're on the defensive front four and you turn around and see six secondary guys in the end zone, what's going through your mind?
If you're Antonio Brown or the increasingly spectacular JuJu Smith-Schuster, what's going though your mind when Samuels keeps getting corkscrewed into the line of scrimmage?
For that matter, if you're anyone on the roster dissecting film of this fiasco the next couple days, what's going through your mind when you see that catch wasn't really a catch but the coach wouldn't hire a five-figure employee to help him out with video reviews?
This isn't impossible. Foster's right to be hopeful. But Tomlin's got to make the most difference.
Tone down the defiance. Learn some lessons. Meet with the quarterback. Grab the chalk in the defensive classroom and spell B-L-I-T-Z on the board. Erase all the linebackers' numbers from the pass coverage pages of the playbook. Oversee an offensive plan that keeps the elite talent involved. And in the name of all that is holy, invite kickers for tryouts. Off the street, if necessary.
It takes a lot to make Jon Gruden look good.
It'll take even more to make the next guy look bad.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Steelers at Raiders, Oakland, Calif., Dec. 9, 2018 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS