Mike Tomlin Is Using His Whole Toolbox to Keep the Steelers Rolling

The longtime coach deployed perfect in-game tactics in Sunday’s win over the Ravens, to go along with the big-picture decisions he has nailed all season.

Tomlin reacts on the sidelines during the Week 11 game against the Ravens. / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

For years, Mike Tomlin has waded through a dramatically changing NFL by weaponizing a defense that bucks normally luck-adjusted statistics like turnover margin (the Pittsburgh Steelers haven’t finished the season with a negative one since 2018) while most teams have shuffled through one offensive soothsayer after another. But on Sunday, we also saw him weaponize the tools at his own disposal to completely short-circuit a Baltimore Ravens team that had two late chances to tie and/or win the game. 

The first was on the potential game-tying two-point conversion with 1:06 left. Tomlin allowed the Baltimore Ravens to partially reveal what appeared to be a jump-pass before burning one of his remaining timeouts. This forced the Ravens to switch to their Plan B, which very clearly caused some issues that were made evident by Isaiah Likely and Nelson Agholor hand-fighting while lining up next to each other and switching spots in the slot. The result was a play in which Agholor got pushed back off the ball and clogged a pair of pulling blockers who were supposed to shield the way for Lamar Jackson as he rolled out to search for a clean throw or running lane. 

This is significant because many coaches have a section of their playsheet that features some variation of “gotta have it” plays for just this particular occasion. The plays can be assigned to certain fronts, for example, based on a quarterback’s individual comfort level. So, unless the Ravens, in the thick of a chaotic end-of-game series, decided to roll out their decoy play, they were unwittingly forced to show their hand believing that Tomlin would prefer to store his timeouts for the following drive if his offense needed to score.

The second chance was when Pittsburgh got the ball back following the ensuing kickoff, ahead 18–16. After Baltimore used its first timeout, Tomlin switched quarterbacks, sending out Justin Fields to handle second down. Then, after initially putting Russell Wilson back onto the field for third-and-1—and thus allowing the Ravens to show their preferred defensive look to defend the critical play—Tomlin called another timeout and put Fields back into the game.

At the very least, I’d guess this would have thrown Baltimore for a loop because of Tomlin’s preference for veteran players in these situations and also because Fields had just slid a yard shy of the first-down marker on the previous run.

In the span of a few plays, Tomlin used an unexpected timeout on the two-point conversion and a rare timeout following an opponent timeout on third down to, in both cases, basically have the opponent’s preferences laid out for him to examine. 

This is a small window into why the Steelers are rolling at 8–2, with a three-game stretch on tap featuring two contests against the seemingly rock-bottomless Cleveland Browns and one with the inconsistent Cincinnati Bengals. Tomlin’s handling of the minutiae proves how ably he’s handled larger-scale issues that other coaches willingly run from, such as an offense with two startable quarterbacks. The Steelers have yet to lose a game that Russell Wilson has started (he is now 4–0), and Justin Fields handled the changeover with humility. These are the same two quarterbacks who, over the past few seasons, have publicly criticized their offensive coaching staff or have gotten into a series of high-profile screaming matches with coaches and/or teammates. 

This is not to say that Fields or Wilson are bad people. Not in the least. But they were in places that didn’t make them feel comfortable and, more accurately, are now in a place that presents a defined standard of conduct to which everyone must conform. 

Another example? Tomlin sent former Ravens first-round pick Patrick Queen out for the coin toss Sunday, which is a rare preemptive middle finger from a coach who likes to keep the motivation more directly honed. Most of the time the coin toss is simply an exhibition of pregame niceties. But Queen, who was clearly upset about his departure from Baltimore, was a chess piece. Queen finished the game with the team lead in tackles (10). With 38 seconds remaining in the first half, he stripped Likely of the ball and recovered the fumble himself. Pittsburgh kicked a field goal—more than the margin by which they would win the game—a few plays later. On what other team is an off-ball linebacker a game-altering weapon? (As a bonus, look at him after the game. You can’t tell me this wasn’t part of the strategy.)

That’s directly under the purview of the head coach. And in an NFL era where attributing success to a coach can be murky thanks to the increasing importance of coordinators who call lights-out games, leave for head coaching jobs and watch their former offenses collapse like cardboard boats, this season has been a masterclass in CEO-style oversight. He’s won both of his games this year in which the Steelers have not scored an offensive touchdown.

Under normal circumstances, with a normal coach, we would ask an intelligent question about when the luck would run out. With Tomlin, we are smart enough to simply ask: Is there anything that can stop him at this point?