Lower than 5 minutes into the fourth quarter of Sunday’s recreation in opposition to the Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin elected to punt the ball away dealing with a 4th-and-7 from the Eagles’ 46-yard line. The Steelers by no means noticed the soccer once more on offense and misplaced 27-13.
Per the Surrender Index, that punt was one of the vital cowardly punts of the final 25 years. However as Alex Kozora wrote, do you anticipate an offense to grind out an 11-minute drive to shut out a recreation? That’s an unbelievable feat.
However the Steelers protection was on the sphere for a 13-play landing drive their final day trip. And the offense solely held the ball for round 4 minutes of recreation clock. Whereas Tomlin likes to depend on his protection, they have been in a nasty spot. And the Eagles have been in a position to grind out a 10-plus minute drive to ice the sport.
“There was lots of selections that have been questionable,” mentioned Sporting Information columnist Mike DeCourcy on the #1 Cochran Sports Showdown after the Eagles game. “The choice to punt down two scores with a 4th-and-7 and put your protection again into that grind. And look what occurred, they received floor greater than they already had.”
In all, the Eagles carried the ball 42 occasions for 131 yards and a landing. So the Eagles weren’t persistently gaining huge yards on the bottom, however they remained dedicated to the run recreation and it wore down the Steelers protection.
Tomlin needed to know that the Eagles have been going to do every thing they may to grind out as a lot time as attainable. That might restrict the variety of possessions and time the Steelers needed to rating. Which signifies that each yard and each play was beneficial.
“You could convert there simply to have the chance to get two scores,” DeCourcy mentioned. “You couldn’t be assured even with an inexpensive defensive efficiency that you simply have been going to get two possessions once more in that recreation that will be worthwhile. So that they needed to go for it… I nonetheless imagine it was an enormous mistake.”
On the Eagles’ first two possessions of the second half, they held the ball for no less than six minutes. So it might be affordable to presume the Eagles might grind out one other six-plus minute drive in some unspecified time in the future. The clock and the scoreboard have been definitely in opposition to Mike Tomlin and the Steelers.
However was it a transparent resolution to go for it? Clearly, the analytics assume so. Nonetheless, the Steelers have been dealing with a 4th-and-7 they usually had solely gained 163 yards of complete offense to that time. Tomlin gave more reasoning during his Monday press conference, saying that the gap was just a bit too lengthy for him to be ok with going for it.
We all know that Tomlin likes to put his protection up in opposition to any crew within the league. So he figured that if the punt pinned the Eagles deep, it might give the Steelers a shot to get the ball again and a recent set of downs comparatively rapidly.
Punter Corliss Waterman and the particular groups unit did their job. WR Ben Skowronek downed the ball contained in the 10-yard line (and an Eagles penalty backed them as much as the three). However the protection nonetheless couldn’t get off the sphere.
The Steelers fell to 10-3 with the Baltimore Ravens looming this weekend. Little question there have been lots of issues that went right into a two-score loss on Sunday, however Mike Tomlin’s resolution to punt there will definitely stand out when everybody appears again on the recreation.
