PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was critical of all of the coaching on his staff right now. He said he makes it a focus to improve in preparation or execution. Will he make a change the play-calling because of the lack of success this season through four games?
"Not at this juncture, no," Tomlin said.
Offensive coordinator Matt Canada will call plays this week, no change there. Tomlin did say play-calling, both offensively and defensively, is often a group effort. He said other assistant coaches will occasionally make the call for a play based on their area of expertise or something they strongly believe in. Tomlin said he will suggest a play in certain situations, but there are times it's a collective decision.
There is also the bigger picture of play-calling. That is the development of the game plan during the week. Tomlin said it's not just solely the plays on a sheet.
"How many times we rep the concepts?" Tomlin said Tuesday. "What looks we provide? The realistic component of it. The division of labor within the concepts. There is a lot to that. It's something that is being looked at and looked at very hard."
It's the presentation of the schematics that Tomlin said he is also addressing during practices and meetings. Are they properly allocating the physical reps? What is the fluidity and understanding of the players or better said-are they prepared and do they know the play?. He's putting that on the coaching staff, from offensive coordinator Matt Canada and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin on down.
"As a coach, you start there," Tomlin said. "Particularly at the early portions of the season, forget whether you are playing poorly or you are losing, there is a get-better component of this process. It has a lot to do with coach decision-making."
"How you structure preparation. How you allocate time and preparation in terms of the things that you highlight about what other people do. The amount of physical reps that you tee up for things you prepare to do. All of that is coaching and elements of coaching decision-making and strategy."
What he said many times during his news conference on Tuesday is that he will make those practices more physical in an effort to improve.
4th and 1
It's the play where Kenny Pickett was injured, 4th and 1 from the Texans 33-yard line with 1:16 to play in the third quarter and the Steelers trailing 16-6. Tomlin called time out and then ran a play with Pickett in the shotgun, it was blown up and Pickett was hit and suffered a bone bruise.
"There are a lot of variables at play, the bottom line is it wasn't a good call because it wasn't productive," Tomlin said. "To be completely transparent with you, we lost a lot of short-yardage personality because of (injuries to) Dan Moore and Pat Freiermuth. We lost our big packages because Broderick Jones was already on the field."
"We had to get out of our intended box because of lack of player availability at that point in the game. Such is life, this is the National Football League, there are not 100 guys standing on the sidelines. There is an attrition component to play and it's born out in matchups and born out in decision-making. That's one instance where we were in less than ideal circumstances because of a lack of player availability."
Tomlin said they are on these mistakes. How quickly it will change or even if it will, is going to play out over time.
