Mike Tomlin said this with respect to getting Jaylen Warren -- arguably one of the hottest running backs going in the NFL -- just nine carries throughout Sunday's 13-10 loss to the Browns in Cleveland:
“When you’re unsuccessful, you can look back and make a lot of those types of judgments," Tomlin said. "We don’t live like that. We don’t live in our fears. We don’t second-guess. We live. I stand by whatever decisions, or play selections, or ball distributions we had today.”
By judging how Kenny Pickett's decision-making and performance affected the outcome of Sunday's game, one can only wonder if Tomlin still feels the same way about his quarterback.
Though the Steelers sit at 6-4 and control their own playoff destiny, Pickett's regression is becoming more difficult to ignore. His 15 completions on 28 attempts for 106 yards Sunday symbolize a total failure in playing outside of those very fears that Tomlin has preached against.
And, that is only exacerbating the previously underlying issue the Steelers employ. It's not just on Matt Canada anymore. More of the blame and the failure needs to be placed on the Steelers' quarterback.
Like, for instance, in the multiple failures to recognize open receivers through the elementary designs Canada lays in front of him. Or his inability to effectively complete balls beyond the line of scrimmage. Or his many instances of miscommunication with Diontae Johnson, which resulted in Johnson having to air his grievances to Tomlin on the sideline mid-game.
The "Festivus" holiday doesn't happen until another month from now, but there are plenty more grievances to air out over this offense with fewer than two months to play in the season.
"We've just got to make it right at practice. That's where it starts," Johnson said Monday on the South Side. "Stuff like that happens ... (Pickett's) not perfect, so I can't sit here and blame him. I'm not pointing fingers at nobody. I was frustrated, but, hey, you can't just sit there and blame him. It's just a part of the game."
To use an oxymoron, it became the whole part of the Steelers' passing offense Sunday. It meshes with Najee Harris' flame-thrower comments after the game about the idea of this broken offense being fixable.
“Is it fixable? Yeah it’s fixable. Are we going to fix it? S***," Harris said. "... I don’t know what to do. I just feel like I’m stuck in this situation where I don’t have an answer.”
And, don't think the players are satisfied with being 6-4, either. Harris certainly isn't.
"You can do one of two things. You can look at the record and say, OK, we’re still good right now, or you can look at the record and say if we keep playing this football how long is that s*** going to last," Harris said. "… I look at it like, how long is that s*** going to last?"
That's a great question from Harris.
If only anybody -- especially Tomlin, Canada, and Pickett -- knew the answers.
Pickett believes he can find them, but he will need a little help from his friends.
"Always confident in myself," Pickett said Sunday. "It’s an ultimate team game. We have to come together and figure this thing out.”
All is not lost in 2023, but the loss Sunday was unequivocally the most damning of the season, regardless of how good the Browns' defense is. The Browns only exposed further the dysfunction that has laid a bed underneath stellar plays made in moments by Pickett and the bend-but-don't-break foundation laid by the defense.
The cracks are showing.
"When you lose a division game like that there's always going to be frustrations," Mason Cole said Monday. "It's an emotional game. We're 10 weeks in, the season's long, it's tough on us guys mentally. It's our job to handle that, but emotions right after a loss, I don't pay much attention to that. I let guys sleep on it and handle their thoughts on them before we make big conclusions to what those emotions are. Certainly it's an emotional game and we've got to handle the emotions like professionals."
Fear is an emotion.
Here is the fear the Steelers are living in: Pickett is looking more and more like he is not the guy of the future.
That's merely from the evidence on the field. The game plan is back to leaning on Harris and Warren and branching off of what ever successes they have. It is not opened up for Pickett and, even when it is, Pickett is either missing the throw or looking at the incorrect read. Pickett is averaging 7.0 intended air yards per attempt, 30th in the NFL this season. His 4.6 average yards per completion is 31st. On Sunday, he averaged 2.7 air yards per completion.
When Pickett led five preseason drives to the results of five touchdowns, an enchantment was cast over the sophomore quarterback. That, since, has faded away. With each passing week since Week 1's blowout loss to the 49ers, Pickett has regressed. The ugliest of ugly was in Sunday's loss.
If this persists and Pickett doesn't show improvements from a communication or, simply put, a skill perspective, then action needs to happen in the offseason.
How, though?
Kirk Cousins? Kyler Murray? Justin Fields? ... Josh Dobbs?
What about in the draft? Caleb Williams? Drake Maye? Michael Penix Jr?
Chew on this: Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, and Mason Rudolph account for a grand total of $10,148,917 of a cap hit this season for the Steelers. That number is approximately 5% of the total spending the Steelers have allocated by position. In total, that money parsed to Pickett, Trubisky, and Rudolph combined would be sixth-largest cap hit the Steelers took this season for an individual player, per Spotrac, behind T.J. Watt, Cam Heyward, Johnson, Chukwuma Okorafor, and James Daniels.
If the Steelers are going to commit this much money to eveywhere but the quarterback position now, how do they pivot to the contrary for 2024 or 2025? How could they do that? Would Art Rooney II and his front office be willing to go against their very philosophies that got them in this position in the first place?
This is the bed the Steelers made. This is the machine the Steelers run on.
This is the fear the Steelers manufactured for themselves.
