Fairly or unfairly, former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin gained a reputation within the fan base for his teams losing eminently winnable games in which the Steelers held a clear advantage like they did in NFL Week 6 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Oct. 18.
They were referred to pejoratively in Pittsburgh as “Tomlin games.”
There are no official stats on such contests, as there is no clear definition for exactly what defined a “Tomlin game.” If there’s a most common thread, it’s probably sloppy losses to teams with quarterbacks facing some type of perceived experience or talent deficit relative to the Steelers’ storied history on defense.
The best example was probably the playoff loss to Tim Tebow’s Denver Broncos at the end of the 2011
season, in which the much-maligned quarterback found Demaryius Thomas for a long game-winning touchdown in overtime to end the Steelers’ bid for a second consecutive Super Bowl appearance.
The team’s visit to Raymond James Stadium on Sunday likely met most fans’ criteria. Buccaneers quarterback Jalon Daniels was making just his third NFL start in relief of the injured Baker Mayfield. The rookie went undrafted this past spring before playing his way onto Tampa Bay’s roster.
He fit the profile of a player the Steelers should be expected to beat with the NFL’s highest-paid defense. And after flirting disaster for much of the afternoon, they actually did to avoid losing what might have been the first “Tomlin game” of successor Mike McCarthy’s tenure.
The significance did not seem to be lost on quarterback Aaron Rodgers afterward.
“These are the most important moments for us as a team to grow, because this is a trajectory-altering win today,” he said in his postgame news conference. “You know, you go to 3-3, then you’ve got a Paris trip, that’s just not what you want to do, obviously.
“To be 4-2 now, to win our first road game, to beat a team we should have beat. There’s no two ways around it. You’ve got to beat teams like that if you want to get to where we want to get, and it didn’t look like a win for a long time. So I’m proud of our guys.”
It was, in fact, ugly for quite a while offensively. The short and quick passing game that McCarthy called and Rodgers attempted to execute was frequently disrupted by pressure from Tampa Bay’s front. Third down conversions were rare, and that helped Daniels and Co. jump out to leads of 13-0 and 16-3 entering the fourth quarter.
That was when the Tampa Bay mistakes started. Daniels first threw an interception to fellow rookie Daylen Everette following the Steelers’ first touchdown of the day that made the score 16-10 Buccaneers. The Steelers turned that into a field goal to cut their deficit to three points.
Later in the fourth quarter, former Buccaneer Jamel Dean picked Daniels off and returned the turnover deep into the Tampa Bay red zone. That translated to a game-tying field goal by kicker Chris Boswell a few plays later.
Slowly but surely, Rodgers began to find a rhythm with his receivers to take advantage. Veteran DK Metcalf and rookie Germie Bernard were carrying a heavy load with teammates Michael Pittman Jr., Roman Wilson and Ben Skowronek all out with injuries.
By the time the game reached overtime in a 19-19 tie, Tampa Bay could not stop them. Bernard finished the day with 11 catches for 87 yards for his best day since being drafted by the Steelers in the second round of the April draft in Pittsburgh. Metcalf matched that catch total and put up 93 yards, most of them coming in the fourth quarter and overtime.
Bernard converted his final catch into a 6-yard touchdown that put his team ahead for good in the extra session.
“It was a team effort,” Bernard told reporters afterward. “We did good as an offense. We started off kind of slow, but we just continued to stay resilient. We continued to stay consistent. Aaron trusted me, he found me. Like I always say, I made the most of my opportunities and I did what I could for the team.”
That resilience is likely to gratify a fan base that convinced itself that Tomlin’s teams didn’t have it by the time he stepped down at the end of the 2025 season.
Outside observers might quibble with that notion, considering Tomlin never had a losing season and ranks 10th all-time on NFL’s coaching wins list. But it’s also true that the Steelers have not won a playoff game in close to a decade and have set themselves back with losses that a defeat Sunday may have evoked.
It’s far too early in McCarthy’s tenure to declare this is a new era that will be free of poorly-timed clunkers. It was, at least, noteworthy that the Steelers were able to turn a game like this around at this juncture. Three of the team’s next four games will take them on the road. That includes an international game next week against the New Orleans Saints at the first NFL game in France.
“Tough win,” McCarthy said afterward. “They’re never easy.
“You are what your record is. I believe that. I live that. And I play close attention to that. We needed a win on the road. We got it done today, so this is a big step for us.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Steelers win first 'Tomlin game' of the Mike McCarthy era with comeback
