For years, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has been an incredibly polarizing figure among NFL head coaches. His level of regular-season consistency is unmatched in the league but his struggles in the playoffs are a complete mystery.
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell handed out his midseason awards and ranked his top three coach candidates for Coach of the Year. At No. 3 he has Minnesota’s Kevin O’Connell then at No. 2 it’s Dan Quinn of the Washington Commanders. And in the top spot is Tomlin. Here’s a bit of what he had to say about Tomlin.
I’ve been skeptical of the Steelers over the past few years because their underlying performance hasn’t matched their win-loss record, and history tells us that outperforming point differential and record in close games eventually catches up with teams. Well, Pittsburgh has responded to that by simply improving its performance. It’s 6-2 with a Pythagorean expectation of … exactly six wins. It has gone 1-2 in games decided by seven points or fewer, although it does have two victories by exactly eight points. The Steelers are a nightmare to play and have made teams beat themselves. It seems like the head coach, who has somehow never won this award, might have something to do with that.
The Steelers are coming off the bye week and preparing to take on Quinn and those same Commanders.
