Schefter: Mike Tomlin Won’t Be Fired, But ‘Could Decide To Take Some Time Off

[Mojouw]

Are we talking Sean Spence? I thought that his leg injury almost ended up in nerve or vascular damage that could have left him unable to walk properly, if at all. That injury was just brutal. But if you watched him in college at Miami, he was a tackling machine that was always around the ball. Kind of like a Johathan Vilma type LB. If Spence and Shazier could have avoided injuries....

Yup. He was shaping up to be a player that well exceeded his testing numbers but some brutal injuries just robbed him of a longer career. It was to his credit he came back. Twice.

[Steeler-in-west]

So the fact that the Bears had rushed for 222 yards against them and the Jags previously rushed for 231 yards against them had nothing to do with the players on the field? Duck Hodges would have been a good QB for us if only we'd had the right coach?

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Wow, do I disagree with that. In the playoff game Sean Spence was a turnstile offering little more resistance that a wet paper bag. Tomlin was supposed to coach Sean Spence into James Farrior?

i was talking the last 4 games of the regular season. Still he had 5 total tackles and 3 solos in that playoff game. Not totally inept as some people like to make him out to be. Btw, that first game against the Jags were they ran over us for 180 yards? Shazier was in that game. So the narrative that we couldn't stop them because we didn't have our starters is kind of debunked. Again, it all points to being unprepared and getting caught looking past the opponent .... again.

[Born2Steel]

Are you guys hearing all the wildness coming out about Shanahan basically blowing another SB? He said he did what the analytics told him was the better move by taking the ball first. But since the playoff OT rule change there have been zero OT playoff games. Thus zero analytics. There are other things being talked about on this as well. Odd.

[steelcityboyz]

Wait. You’re saying a slightly undersized LB who was a below average NFL athlete by testing numbers and then suffered multiple significant injuries might’ve been a bit physically overmatched?

Nah. Coach more harder.

Nah. Do you think a coach that see's a slightly undersized LB that suffered multiple injuries would start a player that could do the job better? Nah. Leave a liability to be the starter.

[polamalubeast]

i was talking the last 4 games of the regular season. Still he had 5 total tackles and 3 solos in that playoff game. Not totally inept as some people like to make him out to be. Btw, that first game against the Jags were they ran over us for 180 yards? Shazier was in that game. So the narrative that we couldn't stop them because we didn't have our starters is kind of debunked. Again, it all points to being unprepared and getting caught looking past the opponent .... again.

Spence was horrible back in 2017....I don't care about the number of tackle he had in the playoffs game vs jaguars...it mean nothing....I mean as example,in the game between steelers vs seahawks at the end of the year in 2023,Devin Bush(with seattle)had 17 tackles but the steelers had around 200 rushing yards in that game....sorry I am not impress by the tackle stats when your tackle come so often after a 8-10 yards gain.....

For the regular season game vs Jaguars,the jaguars had one of the best running game in the league that year but 90 of those yards come in the final 2 minutes of the game when the game was over...The steelers lost this game because of 5 interception by Ben(career high) and 2 pick 6 after the steelers were up 9-7 to be down 20-9 after that

[Mojouw]

Nah. Do you think a coach that see's a slightly undersized LB that suffered multiple injuries would start a player that could do the job better? Nah. Leave a liability to be the starter.

Do you remember that we’re talking about an injury created mess? Not like they went into the season planning in this.

[steelcityboyz]

Do you remember that we’re talking about an injury created mess? Not like they went into the season planning in this.

Still don't you put your best players on the field? Not players that are only playing at half speed. We agree to disagree, to me that's on the coach.

[86WARD]

Are you guys hearing all the wildness coming out about Shanahan basically blowing another SB? He said he did what the analytics told him was the better move by taking the ball first. But since the playoff OT rule change there have been zero OT playoff games. Thus zero analytics. There are other things being talked about on this as well. Odd.

Even without analytics, you still have to stop one team with your defense so to take the ball first or last is kinda irrelevant in the big scheme. Taking it second gives you a better idea of exactly what you need and probably the advantage but first/second, the idea (as it is 99.999999999999999%) of the game is to stop the offense.

He’s receiving criticism for no reason at all. It’s non-sense.

[Born2Steel]

Even without analytics, you still have to stop one team with your defense so to take the ball first or last is kinda irrelevant in the big scheme. Taking it second gives you a better idea of exactly what you need and probably the advantage but first/second, the idea (as it is 99.999999999999999%) of the game is to stop the offense.

He’s receiving criticism for no reason at all. It’s non-sense.

The bizarre part is saying the decision was based on analytics, when no analytics exist for that specific decision.

Another thing he said in the same interview is that he assumed his assistants were going to explain OT rules for the SB game. He’s thrown both his analytics team and his assistant coaches under the bus. That’s what a lot of talk I’m hearing is about. Not doing basic HC things, like taking up for your guys/taking responsibility, blaming analytics, things veteran coaches shouldn’t do.

[Mojouw]

Still don't you put your best players on the field? Not players that are only playing at half speed. We agree to disagree, to me that's on the coach.

Spence was the “best player” because they were out of guys on the roster. There was no one else.

You could mount an argument that they should’ve done a better job scouring the in season FA lists to find someone more capable. But they went with literally the only player available who already knew the defense.

Spence slotted in next to VW after Shazier and Matekavich got hurt. And I remember both him and VW getting their butts kicked all day.

[86WARD]

The bizarre part is saying the decision was based on analytics, when no analytics exist for that specific decision.

Another thing he said in the same interview is that he assumed his assistants were going to explain OT rules for the SB game. He’s thrown both his analytics team and his assistant coaches under the bus. That’s what a lot of talk I’m hearing is about. Not doing basic HC things, like taking up for your guys/taking responsibility, blaming analytics, things veteran coaches shouldn’t do.

I didn’t realize he was tossing his staff under the bus. That’s kind of BS.

[Mojouw]

I didn’t realize he was tossing his staff under the bus. That’s kind of BS.

Many of these scheme wizards jumped several steps as they climbed the coaching ladder or served limited time in junior positions. Then they get handed the big chair based on scheme knowledge and everyone hopes the leadership stuff just follows.

Doesn’t always work that way.

[El-Gonzo Jackson]

Even without analytics, you still have to stop one team with your defense so to take the ball first or last is kinda irrelevant in the big scheme. Taking it second gives you a better idea of exactly what you need and probably the advantage but first/second, the idea (as it is 99.999999999999999%) of the game is to stop the offense.

He’s receiving criticism for no reason at all. It’s non-sense.

I agree, its nonsense. There was some talk that the 49ers defense was on the field at the end of the game and could use the rest instead of going back out again and playing defense.

So you take the ball, go and score and then stop the other team. Thats the plan. If they gave KC the ball first, then KC scores and you still have to go out and score. They didnt lose the game because they didnt make the right call at the coin toss, they lost he game because they had an injury to one of their best ILB's and likely didnt have a better answer than putting in a reserve LB that wasnt good in coverage.

[DesertSteel]

The bizarre part is saying the decision was based on analytics, when no analytics exist for that specific decision.

There's analytics for similar scenarios. There's also analytics for OT with FGs since they made that change a few years back. Either way, it was a stupid decision that gave Mahomes an advantage. That's one thing you never want to do with Mahomes.

If Tomlin did that, there would be 13 new Fire Tomlin threads on this little site alone.

[Steeler-in-west]

Spence was horrible back in 2017....I don't care about the number of tackle he had in the playoffs game vs jaguars...it mean nothing....I mean as example,in the game between steelers vs seahawks at the end of the year in 2023,Devin Bush(with seattle)had 17 tackles but the steelers had around 200 rushing yards in that game....sorry I am not impress by the tackle stats when your tackle come so often after a 8-10 yards gain.....

For the regular season game vs Jaguars,the jaguars had one of the best running game in the league that year but 90 of those yards come in the final 2 minutes of the game when the game was over...The steelers lost this game because of 5 interception by Ben(career high) and 2 pick 6 after the steelers were up 9-7 to be down 20-9 after that

Whatever, Spence was ok before that game. Maybe the jags made him look bad, they didn’t make shazier look too good either. 91 yards on the day if you want to negate the 90 yard run, which you shouldn’t; happened on 3rd down with just under 2 minutes to play down 14: possible to make it interesting with a quick score.

[El Kabong]

i was talking the last 4 games of the regular season. Still he had 5 total tackles and 3 solos in that playoff game. Not totally inept as some people like to make him out to be. Btw, that first game against the Jags were they ran over us for 180 yards? Shazier was in that game. So the narrative that we couldn't stop them because we didn't have our starters is kind of debunked. Again, it all points to being unprepared and getting caught looking past the opponent .... again.

My point is not just that we lost to the Jags because we didn't have all our starters. My point is the Steeler D sucked vs. the run WITH all of our starters and were somehow EVEN WORSE once Shazier when down and we were left with Spence.

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I agree, its nonsense. There was some talk that the 49ers defense was on the field at the end of the game and could use the rest instead of going back out again and playing defense.

So you take the ball, go and score and then stop the other team. Thats the plan. If they gave KC the ball first, then KC scores and you still have to go out and score. They didnt lose the game because they didnt make the right call at the coin toss, they lost he game because they had an injury to one of their best ILB's and likely didnt have a better answer than putting in a reserve LB that wasnt good in coverage.

What? A loss of a starter at linebacker forced Shanahan to play a lesser player and it ended up costing in a playoff game? Excuses, excuses, Shanahan should have coached harder.

[Steeler-in-west]

My point is not just that we lost to the Jags because we didn't have all our starters. My point is the Steeler D sucked vs. the run WITH all of our starters and were somehow EVEN WORSE once Shazier when down and we were left with Spence.

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What? A loss of a starter at linebacker forced Shanahan to play a lesser player and it ended up costing in a playoff game? Excuses, excuses, Shanahan should have coached harder.

So despite the odds and record you know you got burned last time against the run and your QB had a crappy game. So You do everything you can to stop the run , like maybe bring your strong safety up to take away the plays to the right (doesn’t look like that happened) and get your QB focused, and last thing you want to do is create distractions and bulletin board material for the other team…but I guess we don’t live in our fears. Did something similar happen in Cleveland in 21? Maybe we’ll get it right next time if we get back in contention, maybe a better QB than Ben and better D with better coordinators will help, maybe Ben was the overrated one lol

[El Kabong]

So despite the odds and record you know you got burned last time against the run and your QB had a crappy game. So You do everything you can to stop the run , like maybe bring your strong safety up to take away the plays to the right (doesn’t look like that happened) and get your QB focused, and last thing you want to do is create distractions and bulletin board material for the other team…but I guess we don’t live in our fears. Did something similar happen in Cleveland in 21? Maybe we’ll get it right next time if we get back in contention, maybe a better QB than Ben and better D with better coordinators will help, maybe Ben was the overrated one lol

Well Ben did have a bad INT to set the Jags up in scoring position and a fumble that was returned for a TD. But no, otherwise I think Ben was pretty brilliant that game.

I think they were doing things to try to stop the run but then Bortles would burn them with play action. Keeping in mind the starting secondary for that game was Joe Haden, Artie Burns, Sean Davis, and Mike Mitchell.