Kovacevic: Tomlin's time with the Steelers now needs to be ticking away

Mike Tomlin's not going to get fired. 

Not now. Not ever.

I've long believed that Art Rooney wouldn't want to embarrass the Steelers' 17-year head coach, also his close friend, also a legitimately good man who's become part of the fabric of the community to the same extent he's become an essential part of our city's football lore and, for that matter, our nation's football lore. And Rooney won't do that. He just won't. The bond's too tight and, besides, it'd benefit neither man, professionally or personally, to break in any bad way.

Infinitely more likely, as I've always envisioned any potential day of reckoning between this team and this coach, once the schedule's complete and the emotional temps subside, there'd be a mutual parting of some sort. Maybe it'd be as simple as writing him a check and saying thanks. Or maybe it'd be painted as a semi-retirement for Tomlin to take some richly deserved time off. Or maybe, if Tomlin wants to stay in the churn, he'd arrange and accept a head coaching position elsewhere in the league, as he'd doubtless have a dozen-plus offers within a dozen-plus milliseconds of his availability becoming known.

Heck, there could even be a trade. There's ample precedent for such transactions involving NFL coaches, most recently Sean Payton being swapped from the Saints to the Broncos for a first-rounder.

But try to picture Rooney writing up some pink slip for Tomlin and having security escort him out of the facility and ... yeah, no.

That said, and please keep in proper context that I write this with immense respect for achievements already in hand ... Tomlin's tenure here now needs to be ticking away. And Rooney, as the steward of this franchise and its football fortunes that always have to take top priority, needs to be the one ensuring that.

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This isn't, I swear, about the Steelers' putrid 21-18 loss to the Patriots on this Thursday night at Acrisure Stadium.

It isn't about the Steelers, within that, becoming the first team in NFL history with a winning record to lose in consecutive weeks to opponents who were at least eight games below .500, coupling this one with the 24-10 loss to the Cardinals this past Sunday.

It isn't about both the Patriots and Cardinals magically performing at a peak level neither had known for weeks or even months.

It isn't about both being home games.

It isn't even about, believe it or not, the way this entire 2023 season's regressed in most every facet at most every stop.

Nope. Because it's about all of that and so much more. It's about no playoff victories since the most recent one in Kansas City in 2016. It's about 22 NFL teams having won a playoff game since then. It's about setting a league record by giving up 40-plus points in three consecutive playoff losses since then. It's about having an all-time record of 170-99-2, but a pedestrian 24-23-1 in games that weren't started by Ben Roethlisberger. It's about 2023 lining up as a third consecutive season of a negative point differential, a figure that flies in the face of all the non-losing regular seasons. It's about a slew of first-round draft duds not named T.J. Watt over the past eight years. It's about focusing excessively on defense in a league obsessed with offense. It's about a lack of genuinely qualified coordinators and other staff. It's about having kept at least one of those coordinators on far, far too long. It's about a lack of discipline on the field, and sometimes off the field. It's about a lack of internal communication. It's about an antiquated approach to replays and challenges.

Anyone really need me to keep stretching that paragraph from here to the sun?

Cool, since I know all anyone really wants to talk about is the last bad thing we saw, which was, of course, this latest low point to the season.

So let's talk about how the Steelers, down by three in the final three minutes and moving within a yard of midfield, opted for this as the primary option on third-and-2:

"I had George on a slant," Mitch Trubisky would say of George Pickens, his target up there. "I thought it was going to be a little bit different angle coming out, and I put it high trying to lead him up the field. It was a bad throw."

One of several. Trubisky wasn't great, to be kind, in his first game replacing Kenny Pickett. He'd finish 22 of 35 for 190 yards with a touchdown, an interception, two sacks taken and 30 yards rushing.

But to be fair, he's not the one who decided that Najee Harris, Jaylen Warren and the running game couldn't get 2 yards over two plays. Which must've been the thinking, since this was what followed on fourth-and-2:

"I liked the one-on-one with Diontae," Trubisky would recall of Diontae Johnson's single-coverage. "I felt like I could throw a better ball."

He's right. That play was DOA with the release of the ball. 

But to be fair again, that's a prayer. And whether that would've been Matt Canada still sending such an absurd call into the huddle, or now that it's Mike Sullivan and/or Eddie Faulkner, all calls pass through the headset of the head coach. Who has veto authority over everything, obviously. Which means Tomlin could've made a difference with nothing more than a small slice of common sense.

Instead, per his answer to my question at his postgame press conference, he was perfectly fine with heaving one 30 yards downfield when only a couple were needed to avoid, you know, instantly losing the bleeping game:

“It was," he'd reply to the part of my questioning seeking confirmation that this was the coaches' primary call on this play. "We were down there. We play to win. We wanted to be aggressive. We just didn’t get it done.”

Aggressive? Since when?

Since mapping out the below route tree for Pickens, the offense's most dangerous weapon to the extreme that one can still only imagine it?

Those aren't route trees. They're route fungi growing beneath blades of grass and a foot of soil.

And yet, the first time he's targeted deep downfield all night occurs when you're trying to avoid, you know, instantly losing the bleeping game?

Does Tomlin or anyone at South Water Street pay anything beyond patronizing attention to advanced analytics that might avoid massive mistakes like this?

If they did, might they be aware that, for instance, that Warren had led the NFL with 10 broken tackles in the fourth quarter entering this game, compelling evidence that he'll capitalize as well as anyone against a tired defense?

Well, Tomlin and his staff made such use of it that Warren touched the football all of 11 times in the game, including seven runs. In the fourth quarter, including that fateful final drive, he touched the football as often as I did.

Why does this keep happening, even as the broader football world keeps glowing about Warren's performances and potential?

Never underestimate Tomlin's propensity to please his pet people and/or pet projects. Harris has been both. Tomlin's fancied Harris as the franchise's "bellcow" running back from the moment his name was announced as a first-rounder, and he's never let it go. I'm not offering inside info here, either. He'll speak about this openly. And with that, he'll do everything possible to make his perception the truth, no matter what Warren does to undo it.

And what of the perpetually slow starts for the offense?

That came up with Connor Heyward, and his answer, I thought, was telling: “I feel like we’re still searching for what that is. We don’t know what it is but, obviously, it’s not right. We’re not driving the ball. We’re not scoring ... We’re professionals. We’re Pittsburgh Steelers. We’re capable, we have the guys and everything, but it’s Week 14 and we’re still trying to put it together.”

Who's most responsible for slow starts?

And what of penalties, the ugliest of all the uglies from the Arizona game?

It couldn't be that, after a week of preaching "accountability" by Tomlin and his coordinators that, once again, a wide receiver failed to line up where he belonged and forced Trubisky to burn a timeout. This time, it was Pickens with a show of lethargy walking off the line.

This is from the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

MERRIAM-WEBSTER

Quick, name the last player who, upon being counseled/corrected by Tomlin, met anything remotely resembling that definition.

I've long been one to give credit over the years for his handling of some mega-misfits, and I won't take any of it back. But either his skill or his will in this regard has unmistakably eroded in recent years. I might be misreading this, but it's almost as if he feels he's outgrown that phase of his coaching career, that it should be someone else's problem or, in a blind way, not a problem at all. So he'll now deflect and gaslight, blaming a problem on the media's reporting of said problem, even if it's something in plain sight of the entire planet.

Why do players get away with nonsense now under him that they didn't in even the recent past?

Why do players hear or read what he says on a given subject, such as the fuss a few days ago about whether or not the Steelers took the Cardinals lightly, then feel comfortable stating the polar opposite?

Why was Canada permitted to conduct his business in such a private way that the only consistent messaging on offense was that there was nothing of the kind?

There's one common denominator, one place where all arrows ultimately point.

Watch Pat Freiermuth, top of the screen, and no one else on this sequence that'd result in a Trubisky interception by Jabrill Peppers:

Freiermuth quit on his route. I love the kid. I'll accept that it's a lapse. But Tomlin can't afford to be that generous and, yet, I'd still bet he will, based on everything I've been told about the current culture.

So if the designated fixer isn't fixing anything or anyone, who will?

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These Steelers are 7-6, still somehow lurking in the AFC contention shadows. Their final four games come against the Colts (7-5), Bengals (6-6), Seahawks (6-6) and Ravens (9-3). Only the Cincinnati game will be at home. It's quite the gauntlet compared to Cardinals/Patriots. 

I couldn't care less.

I couldn't care less about week-to-week outcomes for the remainder of the regular season, or if they can squeak into the playoffs, or even if they finally squeeze out that elusive W in mid-January.

I don't count at all, so I'm not sharing this as if it matters, but I've covered Tomlin's entire tenure, I've crafted countless columns about his job and his team, and this is the very first in which I've written that I've lost faith and that, as a result, I feel it's time for him to be replaced. I don't do it lightly. Not for him. Not for anyone, even Canada.

I've never covered the Steelers at a low like this. Where the team ranks in the bottom handful of most categories offensively and defensively. Where it's now commonplace for fans to -- justifiably -- boo and chant and jeer the home team. Where tickets to a prime-time game were being basically given out on the secondary market on the afternoon of this kickoff for $19. Where just about everything, aside from the team's bizarre overall record and T.J.'s endless excellence, have fallen so far below what should be this franchise's 'standard' that it's now a slogan only.

And never mind what'll come of this scene once Cam Heyward's retired. Or the couple other truly great players at hand, T.J. and Minkah Fitzpatrick, start to slide. Or, to see it from a different side, once a stark realization hits that Replacing Ben, Part I, will require a much longer and more painful sequel.

Rooney was blessed to be bequeathed the keys to this civic institution of ours and, with few exceptions, he hasn't exactly been buried under some avalanche of challenges. But this is one, and there's nowhere to run or hide from it.

Time to rise up to the role. Time to clean it out whole.

JOE SARGENT / GETTY

Mitch Trubisky's sacked by the Patriots' Mack Wilson in the first half Thursday night at Acrisure Stadium.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Highlights
• Team feed
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard

THE IN-GAME INJURIES

• Steelers: OLB Alex Highsmith (neck) exited in the second quarter and didn't return. NT Keeanu Benton (shoulder) exited in the third quarter and didn't return. OLB T.J. Watt (head) was kicked in the face in the first quarter but missed one snap.

• Patriots: None.

THE MULTIMEDIA

THE SCHEDULE

Next up are the Colts, Dec. 16 in Indianapolis.

THE FEED

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