Steelers Now
When he spoke to the media on Tuesday at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin shied away from levying too much criticism toward his beleaguered secondary, which was torched by the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday night. But it does not seem that was the case when he addressed the game with the team.
Though the deficiencies of the Pittsburgh coverage unit was evident for all to see, Tomlin chose to publicly focus extensively on other shortcoming the Steelers had in Cincinnati, highlighting the team’s run defense, turnover margin and penalties.
When he was asked directly about the play of his team’s secondary, he was brief and conciliatory.
“It certainly hasn’t met my vision to this point, but I’m not discouraged,” he said.
So that left it an open question as to whether Tomlin really believes that the improved run defense will really be the thing that fixes the Steelers’ secondary issues, or if there are structural, talent deployment or personnel issues in the secondary that could be rectified moving forward.
Well, Tomlin might not have told use that he’s unhappy with the way the secondary performed against the Bengals, but he certainly told them.
Steelers cornerback Darius Slay, in an appearance on the Richard Sherman Podcast this week, said that Tomlin definitely communicated his displeasure to the secondary after the loss.
“He ain’t gonna sugarcoat nothing,” Slay said. “There wasn’t too much positive. The only thing positive to come out of this is a learning experience of what we need to do better. We had a little meeting. There’s one thing about Mike T, man. I do appreciate it. He’s thorough. He’s gonna tell you what it is.”
A team source told Steelers Now that Tomlin’s meeting with the defense was not fire and brimstone. He didn’t scream and yell and rant and rave, but made it very clear that he was not pleased with the performance of any part of his defense, specifically including the secondary.
Slay also said that Tomlin referenced the specific importance of the Cincinnati game, and how the Steelers went out and got him, Jalen Ramsey and others with the specific intention of being able to shut down the Bengals’ top two receiving threats in Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Instead, it was a disaster.
“In our first meeting (with the team this summer), he told us what we’re here for,” Slay said. “We had a chance to go out there and we didn’t perform the way we need to. We know we’ve got to be better. And one thing I knew about being in the division — you’ve got another chance. So we’ve got another chance at that.”
With Tomlin at least internally acknowledging that the play of the secondary was nowhere near good enough, maybe they will find a way to correct those issues going forward.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Despite Public Comments, Mike Tomlin Let Steelers Secondary He’s Not OK with Their Play
