Week 12 of the NFL season began with a classic showdown in the snow, as the Cleveland Browns upset the Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-19. It was Russell Wilson's first loss as a Steeler after starting 4-0, and came down to a Hail Mary attempt that was unsuccessful.
There were several reasons why the two-loss Steelers fell to the two-win Browns, and one of them was head coach Mike Tomlin. He entered this matchup the betting favorite to win NFL Coach of the Year, but has since been surpassed by Dan Campbell of the Detroit Lions, and Jim Harbaugh of the Los Angeles Chargers over at BetMGM Sportsbook.
Obviously the loss didn't help his case when it comes to potentially winning the award, but Tomlin also made a series of questionable decisions that directly hurt his team's chances of winning the game. Let's take a look at them:
- As Jameis Winston and the Browns offense marched 45 yards down the field on nine plays to score the game-winning touchdown, Tomlin burned his second timeout with the clock already stopped.
- On the prior play, Browns offensive lineman Ethan Pocic was called for illegal touching when it looked more like intentional grounding. Tomlin had the chance to accept the penalty, pushing the Browns back to third-and-7, or decline it and force the Browns' hand at fourth-and-2. Cleveland was at Pittsburgh's 25-yard-line, so the Browns may have kicked a field goal to acquire a two-point lead. Tomlin ended up accepting the penalty, and Winston hit Jerry Jeudy for a 15-yard gain on the next play.
- This is a tough decision for any proud coach with a great defense to make, but on first-and-goal from the 9-yard line, the Steelers should have let Nick Chubb score. They didn't, and instead allowed the Browns to run more clock.
- Since Tomlin wasted his second timeout minutes earlier when the clock was already stopped, and wanted to keep his final timeout for a potential game-winning drive, the Browns ran the clock down from 1:43 to 57 seconds after the defense made the wrong decision tackling Chubb on first-and-goal. You can make the argument Tomlin should have called his final timeout here.
This series of missteps forced Wilson to attempt to go 64 yards in 50 seconds with one timeout in the snow -- something he was unable to do. Tomlin is regarded as one of the best head coaches in the NFL, but his decisions on Thursday night made life tougher on his team.
