Mike McCarthy is the coach the Steelers need.<\/p>\n
One decision in Sunday\u2019s game provided a microcosm.<\/p>\n
It was fourth-and-1 for the Steelers at Indianapolis\u2019 22. Midway through the fourth quarter. Steelers led, 24-22.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a spot where Mike Tomlin kicks a field goal, goes up by five and lets the defense win the game.<\/p>\n
Or, more likely, lose the game.<\/p>\n
The Steelers don\u2019t have that kind of defense. The NFL isn\u2019t that kind of league.<\/p>\n
Instead, McCarthy goes for it. (No doubt prodded by quarterback Aaron Rodgers.)<\/p>\n
Jaylen Warren moves the sticks.<\/p>\n
The Steelers score a touchdown three plays later.<\/p>\n
Up by nine, not five. Game over.<\/p>\n
Steelers go on to win, 34-22.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not to say that Tomlin never went for it in that situation. There were occasions.<\/p>\n
But Tomlin was defense-minded. The de facto defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n
Tomlin preferred to invest in defense. (As payroll still indicates.)<\/p>\n
Tomlin believed that defense wins games.<\/p>\n
But Tomlin\u2019s defense long since stopped living up to its fictitious billing and inflated paycheck, finishing seventh-worst in yards allowed last season.<\/p>\n
Cue the excuses: The defense was on the field too much, blah, blah, blah.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s NFL is about scoring more, faster.<\/p>\n
It takes a special defense to recalibrate that according to its will. Seattle has that kind of defense.<\/p>\n
The Steelers don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Rodgers and Warren were the Steelers\u2019 most effective players against Indianapolis. Neither plays defense.<\/p>\n
Without Joey Porter Jr. at cornerback, the Steelers neuter their own pass rush by playing almost exclusively zone defense. That can be a ticket to death by a thousand cuts.<\/p>\n
All that is a lot to be traced back to one decision. One play.<\/p>\n
But that decision and play won that game.<\/p>\n
McCarthy won that game.<\/p>\n
He had better keep doing that.<\/p>\n
Because I don\u2019t trust that defense. I don\u2019t trust it to win games. I trust it to, hopefully, do just enough.<\/p>\n
I trust Rodgers to win games. He was an absolute technician against the Colts.<\/p>\n
I trust Warren to win games. Perhaps he\u2019s been a No. 1 back all along.<\/p>\n
I trust McCarthy to win games.<\/p>\n
I also trust the schedule. The Steelers\u2019 next two games are against teams with one victory apiece. Time to stack hotcakes.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t trust DK Metcalf to catch passes. But his escort service on Warren\u2019s 80-yard catch-and-run touchdown was a masterclass in simple downfield blocking. Metcalf set a 50-yard moving pick.<\/p>\n
Remember what Metcalf did there.<\/p>\n
Remember McCarthy\u2019s fourth-quarter decision.<\/p>\n
Moments like that win games.<\/p>\n
Sometimes they win division championships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike McCarthy is the coach the Steelers need. One decision in Sunday\u2019s game provided a microcosm. It was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-882524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}