Less than 24 hours after suffering his first defeat of the 2020 season, Mike Tomlin got right to the point
"I can be succinct," Tomlin opened his weekly news conference. "I live by coaching creed that if you can't gain a yard, you don't deserve to win."
Tomlin specifically pointed to a five failures to gain a yard from the Washington 1-yard line in the first half then failures on 3rd-and-1 and 4th-and-1 with five minutes left in a tie game.
Tomlin predictably said they'll "get back in the lab" and will figure it out. Of course, he has said that a few times already this season but gaining that yard is still a problem and Monday it finally helped cost them a game.
Not that the goal line failure wasn't costly but the Steelers did get the ball back at midfield then James Washington scored on a 50-yard catch and run to make it 14-0.
But if they're not to gain a yard from the opponent's 28-yard line in a tie game with 5 minutes left, at least pick up some points. Yet, obviously, Tomlin did not trust rookie Matthew Wright – signed off the practice squad to replace a hobbled Chris Boswell - to attempt a 45 or 46-yard field goal.
Since Tomlin didn't mention Boswell in jios injury rundown, I asked about Boswell for the game at Buffalo Sunday night and if he is still unavailable does Tomlin need to have a kicker he can trust to attempt such a field goal.
"I'm hopeful he'll be available this week," Tomlin says, "we'll let his participation and preparation be our guide." He sidestepped the second part of the question - or maybe he answered it by not answering it. And counting on Boswell's return
In the meantime, it's back to the lab to try to find that elusive one yard.
