It's hard to argue that the Denver Broncos don't deserve their trip to Foxboro, but Sunday evening's game shed much more light on its coaches than it did on Tim Tebow's will to win. While the Broncos adjusted and fought and adjusted again, the Steelers remained ignorantly steadfast on their ill-conceived defensive game plan. Just three weeks earlier, the Patriots made it very clear that if you don't give up the big play to the Broncos, you don't give up the victory. And they did it by adjusting to Denver's first two drives. The Steelers, on the other hand, ignored precedent, remained stubborn, dared the deep ball, and never learned their lesson. The final play of the game was the epitome of John Fox's superior understanding of the strategies of reacting to the game when compared to that of Mike Tomlin and his staff.
This refusal to adjust is likely now a common topic of discussion, but, given the well-known condition of Ben Roethlisberger's ankle on Sunday, it brings up something that surprisingly no one talks about. Back on Thursday, December 8, 2011, the Cleveland Browns came into Pittsburgh, ultimately to get beaten, but they essentially ended the Steelers' hopes of a Super Bowl run-- not because of their fierce pass rush, but because of Pittsburgh's stubborn, almost silly offensive play-calling.
Prior to that Thursday night game, only 4 days earlier, the Cleveland Browns had given up 204 yards rushing to Ray Rice, and 290 total yards rushing to the Baltimore Ravens. (Not enough time to study the tape, Tomlin?) A week before that, the Browns had given up 106 yards to Cedric Benson! (I just said Cedric Benson.) Two weeks before that, they gave up 128 yards at home to Steven Jackson, his third biggest rushing game of the season. And the week before that, they gave up 124 yards to Arian Foster and another 115 yards to Ben Tate! All of those games resulted in losses for the Browns. In fact, the Browns finished the season with the 3rd worst rushing defense in the league (behind the Rams and Bucs). The equation is not that difficult. When you face the Cleveland Browns in 2011, you run the ball down their throats-- especially when you have a QB that likes to take hits.
So it puzzles me why, at the 6:08 mark of the 2nd quarter against Cleveland on that fateful Thursday night-- why in the hell Rashard Mendenhall had but 4 carries. Seriously, that is plain dumb. If you are playing the Cleveland Browns in 2011, and your starting back only has 4 carries after 24 minutes of play, you should be taken out back, with Norv Turner and a handful of other unnamed simpletons, and fired on the spot. There is no excuse. The Steelers were winning 7-3, Mendenhall had just ripped off 14 yards on his last 2 carries, and instead of doing the right thing, Tomlin's people did the Mike Martz thing. They insisted on sticking with their ill-fated, inane game plan. But instead of Warner getting hit by Vrabel and consequently throwing the ball to Ty Law who took it the other way to the house, Big Ben took the unnecessary hit, practically broke his ankle, and never recovered. In both cases, the Super Bowl ring was lost.
Most of the Steelers' recent successes have genuinely been earned by their coaches-- superior preparation and an eye for talent. However, in the biggest games on the biggest stages, their ultimate success can arguably be attributed to great luck. But for a mythical offensive pass interference call, a mythical holding call, and a mythical unsportsmanlike conduct call on Hasselbeck, all in Super Bowl XL, Cowher could easily still be ringless (Wikipedia: Super Bowl XL Reaction to officiating). And but for the Arizona Cardinals' safety Aaron Francisco falling down, Santonio Holmes would not have made that critical 40-yard catch-and-run in the waning moments of Super Bowl XLIII, and Tomlin could very likely still be searching...
There's no doubt this game involves a significant amount of luck. But to fail to adjust to the Denver Broncos' scheme, to fail to recognize that the only way Tebow was going to continue to burn you was with the deep ball to Demaryius Thomas, to fail to make any such adjustments down the stretch, especially on the first play of overtime, is beyond perplexing. But this stubbornness shouldn't necessarily surprise us, especially after seeing what led to Big Ben's ankle problems but one month earlier.
