Kevin Gorman: Wrapping a bow on season of adversity for Mike Tomlin's Steelers

Mike Tomlin was standing before us on New Year’s Eve with an 8-8 record and a second consecutive season of the Pittsburgh Steelers on the outside looking in on the NFL playoffs.

The Steelers coach wasn’t ready to wrap a bow on 2019.

Nor was he willing to wallow in it.

Except, when Tomlin says “wallow,” it sounds more like “waddle” and, no offense to Devlin Hodges, but the Steelers are done with “Duck” puns.

When Tomlin was talking about how he was “appreciative of the efforts” of the Steelers, he wasn’t talking about losing Ben Roethlisberger but rather the team’s response to the quarterback’s season-ending surgery on his right (throwing) elbow and all of the other injuries that depleted their depth and minimized their margins.

If it’s a credit to Tomlin the Steelers rebounded from a 1-4 start to win seven of their next eight games, it’s also a knock on the 13th-year coach they lost their final three games and failed to qualify for the postseason.

Such are the “Hard Knocks” of the NFL.

Whether the Steelers would do the show if asked provided a moment of levity on Tuesday afternoon at Tomlin’s final news conference at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side. Tomlin tilted his head and said, “Asked?”

The moment of levity in #Steelers coach Mike Tomlin’s final news conference, thanks to a @JColony13 question and @tribjoerutter follow-up about #HardKnocks. pic.twitter.com/E8zRmcoY0O

— Kevin Gorman (@KGorman_Trib) December 31, 2019

Tomlin couldn’t help but laugh along at his own joke, knowing the Steelers are at the league’s mercy on that call. Because they didn’t qualify for the playoffs for a second straight season, the Steelers could be subjected to appearing on the HBO training-camp special. They have as much control over that as they did their playoff fate in Baltimore.

And that still hasn’t sunk in yet for Tomlin.

“I still am a little bit numb, to be quite honest with you,” Tomlin said. “You fight over the course of what is half a calendar year to put yourself in position to be a team in the tournament, and it comes to a screeching halt.

“I’ve been in the business long enough to understand that and what it means and to understand the significance of it. But it doesn’t lessen the disappointment that you have standing here today. At the same time, it doesn’t lessen the resolve that I have as I stand here today, as well.”

The disappointment of missing the playoffs shouldn’t dampen the resolve the Steelers showed in the face of adversity, especially when you consider how the year started for Tomlin. As Tomlin was talking about the Steelers’ 9-6-1 finish of 2018, Antonio Brown was mocking him on social media. Brown forced a trade, making a mockery of the Steelers with his offseason antics until they caved and sent him to Oakland.

That wasn’t the end of the drama. The Steelers allowed Le’Veon Bell to leave in free agency. They were devastated when wide receivers coach Darryl Drake died during training camp at Saint Vincent. Then the Steelers lost Big Ben against Seattle, just days after trading Josh Dobbs to Jacksonville. When free safety Sean Davis was lost to a shoulder injury, they traded their 2020 first-round draft pick to Miami for Minkah Fitzpatrick.

That was the first of many signs Tomlin and the Steelers weren’t giving up on the season. They ended it the same way they started, by losing three consecutive games. In between, the Steelers became a team that found a way to make football fun again and gave Steelers fans reason to cheer.

The Steelers didn’t give up when Mason Rudolph was concussed on a late hit by Baltimore safety Earl Thomas. They didn’t give up when Hodges, an undrafted rookie from Samford who didn’t make the roster out of training camp, was forced to start at the Los Angeles Chargers. They didn’t give up when they lost defensive end Stephon Tuitt to a torn pectoral. They didn’t give up when Myles Garrett hit Rudolph in the head with his own helmet in Cleveland.

That’s a testament to Tomlin’s leadership.

There was talk in mid-October the Washington Redskins would target Tomlin for their head coaching job. After winning four consecutive games and seven in an eight-game span, Tomlin was being bandied about as a candidate for coach of the year. But the Steelers missed the playoffs, so fans are back to wanting Tomlin fired.

Such is life in the National Football League, as Tomlin might say, but frustration can lead to foolishness. Nothing would be more short-sighted than the Steelers firing their coach after he worked wonders for a 13th consecutive non-losing season, especially in going 8-6 without Roethlisberger. Making the playoffs would have been miraculous.

No wonder Tomlin already has started the process of self-evaluation. The Steelers coach knows his team fell short of the standard for a second consecutive season, and it starts with him.

“I believe, regardless of how long I’ve held this job, you have opportunities to get better,” Tomlin said. “You learn from the journey. You better assess it, analyze it in a lot of ways, turn stones over. I’ll be participating in that, as I always do, and look forward to working to improve and find better ways to put together a winning formula. We’ve got to do that, obviously. I’m standing here before you 8-8 and on the outside of the tournament. That’s not a place we want to be.”

Obviously not, but we should be appreciative of the efforts.

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