Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers were on the receiving end of a good, old-fashioned beat down by the Houston Texans on Sunday.
Pittsburgh fell to 2-2 on the season following a 30-6 blowout road loss. Kenny Pickett threw for just 114 yards with zero touchdowns and one interception before exiting in the third quarter with a knee injury (more on that later).
Meanwhile, the Steelers’ previously vaunted defense gave up 451 total yards to rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud and the upstart Texans.
To say that Tomlin was not happy about his team’s performance would be an understatement. In talking to the media after the game, the long-time head coach was asked whether there would be some changes ahead of next week’s game against the division-rival Baltimore Ravens. Tomlin could not have been more clear in his answer.
“Hell yeah we’ve got to make some changes. That was an ugly product we put out there today, and so we’re not going to do the same things and hope for a different outcome. What those changes are, we’ll put together a plan in preparation this week.”
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin after Sunday’s loss
A lot of the focus heading into next week’s big home game against Baltimore will be on offensive coordinator Matt Canada. The last time these Steelers played at home, their fans were heard chanting “fire Canada” in relation to the embattled play caller.
Instead, Tomlin gave him more of a role with Pickett ahead of last week’s win over the Las Vegas Raiders. For at least one week, it worked.
That was not the case in Sunday’s loss to Houston.
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Pittsburgh Steelers’ Matt Canada under fire after Kenny Pickett injury
With Pittsburgh down 16-6 late in the third quarter on Sunday, it was facing a fourth-and-one from the Texans’ 33-yard line. Instead of running it up the middle with Najee Harris, Canada called for a dropback from Pickett. Not only was the result a turnover on downs, Pickett suffered a knee injury after being sacked.
Tomlin didn’t necessarily touch on the play call. But it was a major point of contention around the NFL world. After all, Harris was averaging five yards per rush in the game at that point. Houston would go on to score a touchdown on its next drive, pretty much putting this one away.
Tomlin’s focus was more on how Houston controlled the line of scrimmage in the 30-6 Steelers loss.
“They ran the ball with consistency on us, throughout,” said Tomlin. “We differed in an effort to get ourselves off to a fast start potentially and I thought they did a nice job of establishing tempo and they ran the ball on us. We gotta be better versus the run. We’re not gonna get what we desire to get defensively until we settle the run down. We didn’t do that today.”
Houston ran for 139 yards on the ground and didn’t allow for a single sack of Stroud. Facing T.J. Watt and Co., that’s no small thing.
As for any potential changes heading into next week, it’s more likely to be personnel than coaching.
“We aren’t going to have knee-jerk reactions in terms of making wholesale changes to change that outcome, but we do acknowledge two is a pattern. We’ve had two outings that are not up to snuff in that regard, so it has our attention,” Tomlin said ahead of Week 3.