Steelers’ Mike Tomlin Under Fire After Slow Start in Colts Loss: ‘Getting Old’

Getty Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is under fire after the team's first loss of the 2024 NFL season.

Head coach Mike Tomlin has been a popular source of blame for Pittsburgh Steelers critics over the past several years. That was the case again after the Steelers lost their first game of the 2024 season in Week 4.

As they have routinely done this season, the Steelers started slowly on offense against the Indianapolis Colts on September 30. But the defense played poorly in the first half as well, allowing more points than it had in the previous two games combined.

The end result was a 17-point hole for the Steelers, which the team never climbed out of in the 27-24 loss.

There was plenty of blame for how the players performed. But Tomlin received some of the harshest criticism after the defeat.

“Whether it’s Smith or Tomlin, these ultraconservative game plans to start games are getting old,” wrote Fittipaldo. “The defenses know exactly what’s coming, and Smith had no answers, at least in the first halves of these games.”

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Ray Fittipaldo gave Tomlin an F grade for his Week 4 performance.

Steelers Play ‘Awful Passive’ Defense Against Colts

The Steelers entered Week 4 ranked first in a lot of different defensive categories. They had yet to allow an opponent to score more than 10 points in a game.

But the Colts had two touchdowns after two drives and 17 points early in the second quarter.

While the offense started slowly again, not scoring a touchdown until the third quarter, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Mark Madden argued Tomlin and the defense lost the game.

“I thought the defense was awful passive,” Madden said on this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast. “I don’t think they were aggressive at all. They kind of laid back. And I thought it’d be all over Flacco. I saw nothing exotic on defense.

“You know what they need to do? They need to move (T.J.) Watt around. They need to have Watt, line up in different places. That’s how other premier pass rushers find openings when they’re getting chipped and double-teamed all the time. Why doesn’t Teryl Austin do that?”

Second-year quarterback Anthony Richardson led the Colts on their first touchdown drive. Richardson exited with an injury on Indianapolis’ second possession, but with veteran backup Joe Flacco, the Colts immediately scored again.

With Flacco playing most of the afternoon, the Colts converted 8 of 15 third-down opportunities. On one second half drive alone, Flacco completed passes on third-and-7 or longer three times for first downs.

Steelers Wire’s Curt Popejoy put Tomlin on blast for how the team handled Flacco replacing Richardson.

“The notion that a unit claiming to be the best defense in the NFL couldn’t adjust to Flacco quickly enough to keep themselves in the game is crazy in today’s NFL,” Popejoy wrote. “The Colts kept the Steelers pass rush in check and Pittsburgh seemed lost as to how to cover a group of Colts receivers who were off to a very slow start this season.”

Mike Tomlin Makes Head-Scratching Decisions

The Steelers head coach didn’t just fall short in his game plan and in-game adjustments. During Week 4, he also struggled with play-calling, clock management and challenge decisions.

Steelers Depot’s Alex Kozora took issue with five strategical choices Tomlin made during the loss.

In the first half, Tomlin didn’t challenge when officials ruled Najee Harris just short of the first-down marker on a third-down run. Replay showed Harris may have picked up the first down.

Tomlin elected to go for the fourth-and-short, but the Steelers failed to convert. The failed conversion gave the Colts a short field, which led to 3 points.

On the ensuing Colts drive, Tomlin curiously challenged an Indianapolis catch that appeared to be an obvious reception. That resulted in a wasted challenge and timeout.

Kozora argued Tomlin also misused his timeouts in the second half.

“You can’t take timeouts with you. But Tomlin did,” Kozora wrote. “On the final possession, the Steelers didn’t use their last timeout. They didn’t use it after the disaster that was the botched snap that lost 12 yards, setting up second-and-22. They didn’t use it when Najee Harris couldn’t stop the clock on the third-and-22 completion, going backwards out of bounds to keep time running.

“That led to a hurried fourth-down call with time running out, a Fields incompletion that ended the game.”

Kozora wrote that he understood Tomlin’s intention. The Steelers head coach explained in his postgame press conference that he wanted to save the timeout to use just before kicking the potential game-tying field goal.

But without the fourth-down conversion, which was a little rushed because the clock was running, Tomlin never received the chance to use that timeout before a field-goal try.