Tomlin Deferring in OT

Tomlins reason for doing this only proves, he knows special teams stink and yet, he does nothing about it. Our special teams coach is the worse and I believe he has the track record to prove I'm right.

 

Tomlin covered this in his post game conference. He said it was about field position, and that Justin Tucker was pinning them back behind the 15 on kickoffs, so he didn't want the offense to get stuck with a long field. The way it worked out, when they got the ball, they had decent field position, so as much as I hated the decision, if that's what he was going for, it worked out. Now if it just wasn't for that fumble......

 

One question I had once the coin toss/decision to defer had happened... did it actually turn out the way that it was planned? There was a significant amount of confusion during the communication between the ref and Heyward, including a "wtf is going on" face from Cam after the ref made the announcement. I came away wondering if we had really gotten what we'd intended to ask for as the outcome (I guess so, but the whole thing was weird).

 

I’ve busted tomlins balls many times on here, but that decision in OT May have been his best move in 13 years in Pittsburgh.

 

Wasn’t his worst that’s for sure but like I said plenty of times already his excuse is no excuse. You’re saying your STs stink and nothing is being done about it

 

The justification is that it worked. The goal was to get the Steelers the ball in better field position than they were likely to get taking the kickoff and only needing a field goal to win. The defense made it work. I hated the call in that moment, but I have to begrudgingly give Tomlin credit for that one.

What we have is a lot of people who are angry and want to blame Tomlin, so they refuse to acknowledge even his good decisions. There were plenty of mistakes by the coaching staff yesterday. The play-calling early was terrible. Samuels was not properly coached before that interception. The special teams are a mess. The defense continues to vacate the middle of the field. The team started slowly again. All of those at least in part due to coaching and most of them are ongoing problems Tomlin hasn't corrected. He deserves to be slammed for that, but not for decisions yielded exactly the result desired.

 

I thought perhaps the official wanted to make sure he heard Heyward right because it is so rare for a team to choose to kick off.

 

Ok, let's reverse gears. Hypothetically, Baltimore wins the toss. Do you think that Harbaugh kicks off or takes the ball? Personally, I believe Harbaugh takes the ball. He's not going to kick the ball off to Devlin Hodges whether the Steelers start at the 15 yard line. The Ravens did not game plan for Hodges. They have absolutely NO idea of what he can do. There could be a fluke play, penalty, anything and the Steelers get a touchdown on their first drive. How would Harbaugh be looked at in that situation? Now go to Tomlin's mindset. He doesn't want to fix the special teams on the fly and even though he has an advantage in Devlin Hodges in the game as a variable, an unknown, he's going to give the opposition an extra possession. The only way it's a brilliant/genius move is if the defense gets a turnover. Did you see Baltimore panic when they went 3 and out? Did they even push the ball to get a first down in OT. They took a checkdown and decided, we'll punt and actually play defense. Maybe we force a turnover. Why? Because the same guy punching at the ball in the first half is the same guy punching the ball out of JuJu's hands in OT. Where's the coaching about securing the ball FIRST and getting 2 arms around that ball? You have to take 2 steps and make a football move to make a catch, so this issue with not having time to secure, bang bang play is an excuse. Guarantee no Steeler coach mentioned Humphrey punching at the ball on JuJu's first TD. I mean if all these other teams didn't keep making great plays every single week on the Steelers the Steelers would be 4-1. That's the only issue I have. The Steelers are 1-4 with a win against a 0-5 team. There's a specific reason for that. Losing by 2 points, 4 points and 3 points is not some accomplishment in this league. Tomlin deferring in OT is justified, only if the Steelers had injuries on the o-line, wr, rb, te, and their emergency qb is hurt. Otherwise, take the ball and go put a drive together and at least try to win the game. No way there's any criticism if the Steelers don't move the ball. If the Ravens stop us, then Defense make a stop and get the ball back. Isn't that what the Ravens just did? You don't give teams extra possessions. Again, if you signed up to be 1-4 you're all good.

 

Why do we take a knee when we have the ball, time left on the clock, and we NEED POINTS? Run a play instead of letting the clock run out?

 

...



Is this REALLY still being discussed?!?! That decision is the absolute LEAST of my concerns! Here is a better question;


Why opt to run the Wildcat in the early stages of the game when the Ravens were already ready for it?!?!

 

If's and but's

Ravens weren't fielding their 4th string rookie QB first game in the game from the bench. They also could reasonably expect to start from the 35 as Pittsburgh had already given up a 41 yard return on a KO that was kicked short of the endzone and most likely wouldn't do that again.

Baltimore took the check down because that's what they were given. He'd already thrown 3 INTs on the day. Y'all are acting ridiculous.

 

Well given tucker can hit 60 yarders and we had a 3rd string qb and or goal line defense was decent I guess it was the right call

 

Looks like someone else that was howling about doing some research needs to look at this....

 

still bitching about Tomlin’s decision to kick in ot.
Read it and weep


https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiTl-f7oIvlAhUymeAKHT2fCpkQzPwBegQIARAC&url=https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2603090-patriots-werent-crazy-statistics-defend-choice-to-kick-in-overtime&psig=AOvVaw175SIVCSEX1m9witizatak&ust=1570575811175679

Teams haven’t had any edge whatsoever when receiving the kick in overtime

 

HCMT's decision was based on sound logic. I can't understand why people would still be grinding on it.

Edit: I do understand, I just don't agree with the vitriol. Of all the things about yesterdays game that deserve attention, I think that subject should be well down the list.

I get people are fed up with Tomlin, and he sometimes frustrates me. But, this team hasn't quit and they played their asses off yesterday. On the wildcat option pass, Samuels could have thrown the ball away. JuJu's fumble was a great defensive play. They were down to their 3rd string QB and it still took a Tucker OT FG to win the game. Like Gerry "Moon" Mullins used to like to say; "Those guys on the opposite sideline were scholarship players, too".

 

tl;dr 8-8 and mainly done by super bowl winning coaches (otherwise some of the leàst successful coaches in NFL history)

 

Yeah but how many of those coaches won their super bowl with Cowher's players?

 

Your link doesn’t go anywhere. Just trying to get me to install an app. I’m not sure what there is to refute. The statistics don’t lie. 67 ot games since the rule change. 32 wins by kicking team and 32 wins by receiving team with 3 ties. It’s a big enough sample size that it’s not a statistical anomaly

 

That was my reading of it as well. The ref was expecting him to say something else, and Heyward looked annoyed because he had to repeat himself. It may have also been that Heyward began by saying which end they wanted to defend, and implying deferring, rather than saying defer straight out.

 

Unless my math is wrong he is including ties as a win. Or maybe he is using a slightly larger sample size. Either way a 2% difference hardly refuted anything and certainly doesn’t paint Tomlin’s decision as being stupid or wrong. Especially when you consider the circumstances.