Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers recorded their eighth win over the Baltimore Ravens in 9 video games final Sunday. Whereas it will be too simplistic to say it got here down to 1 play, the two-point rejection definitely stands out.
Trailing by eight factors, the Ravens scored with slightly over a minute to play. Simply as they had been set to run a play on a two-point conversion try, Mike Tomlin referred to as a timeout. After they reset, the Steelers noticed a clearly totally different alignment—their second-best play.
And it didn’t seem like a very good one from the beginning. OLB Nick Herbig blew up a number of blockers and CB Joey Porter Jr. put the strain on QB Lamar Jackson. The play failed, the Steelers preserved a two-point lead, and Tomlin’s gambit labored. It even drew reward from Invoice Belichick, broadly thought to be the best coach in NFL historical past.
Steelers DL Cameron Heyward appeared on Contained in the NFL on The CW yesterday with Belichick additionally on the present. After breaking down the profitable two-point protection, Belichick provided yet another kudo. “You already know who else did a very good job is Coach [Mike] Tomlin. That was an incredible timeout”.
In fact, it doesn’t at all times work out that approach. Again in Week 5, Mike Tomlin used a timeout earlier than the Dallas Cowboys’ game-winning landing with 26 seconds to play. In keeping with Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy, that timeout solely helped them get the sting over the Steelers.
“Simply making an attempt to win the sport”, Tomlin defined following that Steelers loss. “Wished to assemble some info, see the construction that they got here out in, get ourselves in the fitting name. It was a fourth-down play. No hesitation about that. We had a chance to win that sport proper there. Overlook what comes after”.
Likewise, Tomlin’s timeout earlier than the Ravens’ two-point conversion try got here in an identical scenario. Whereas the Steelers nonetheless needed to run out over a minute of clock in opposition to three timeouts, they had been in a position to take action with the lead by advantage of stopping the two-point attempt.
“I believe the primary play they had been taking a look at that halfback dive with the cross excessive. However calling that timeout sort of ruffled some feathers there”, Heyward recalled of Tomlin’s timeout in opposition to the Ravens. Stated Ravens HC John Harbaugh after the sport, “We have now two-point performs referred to as – we referred to as a one, they referred to as timeout, we referred to as the subsequent one”.
Sadly for the Ravens, that second play didn’t work out. There isn’t any assure the primary one would have labored both, granted. However when you have the choice of forcing a crew to run its greatest play or second-best play, the selection is obvious. Mike Tomlin took that likelihood, and not less than on this event, it paid off for the Steelers. Now they’re 8-2, accountable for the AFC North, and within the driver’s seat for the highest seed within the AFC playoffs.
