Mike Tomlin Tuesday: We didn’t have a lot of other options

Once again, it doesn’t seem like a Tuesday unless we are graced with words from Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin from his weekly press conference. Since we aren’t expected to hear from coach Tomlin until the NFL draft in a few weeks, let’s take a look at some of the most interesting quotes Tomlin has given us this past season.

We’ve experienced several “Throwback Tomlin Tuesday” quotes so far this off-season. So far we have re-lived the following:

A nose guard is like Blockbuster video
We weren’t ready for prime time tonight
So that’s how you lay an egg
We’ve got to make plays
I’m not a doctor
We’re excited infusing him into the fold
You have to work in concert as a football team
The competitor in all of us is a little bit pissed off
It feels really good to handle our business
Obviously, the night was not perfect
Why would I sign up for that?
I am not into the hypotheticals

As we continue through the 2019 season, let’s go back to Coach Tomlin’s press conference following the Steelers’ 24-17 victory in Los Angeles against the Chargers on Sunday Night Football. Coach Tomlin was asked about the rookies who made a big impact in the outcome, starting off with Benny Snell Jr and his contributions to the Steelers running game.

Tomlin was asked about the Steelers rushing attack and having its best success to date in the 2019 season.

“We didn’t have a lot of other options. Sometimes that’s life when you’re backed up against it. We needed that, and they delivered.”

It was the first time the Steelers went over 100 yards rushing as a team on the season. A combined 124 rushing yards came from Snell with 75 yards on 17 carries along with James Conner with 41 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown. Quarterback Devlin Hodges also added 8 yards on three rushing attempts.

Coach Tomlin was asked about his rookie quarterback making his first start in the NFL and his expectations of a player thought to be a third-stringer.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence in him,” Tomlin explained. “We haven’t been bashful about that. He’s got a lot of confidence in himself and I think that’s what makes people gravitate to him. We’re not getting over excited. This is a guy that played good tonight with very limited experience, and we’re thankful to get a win and hopefully it will be a good learning experience for him and us collectively as we move forward.”

One thing Coach Tomlin already mentioned which helped support his young quarterback was finally establishing a running game. Coach Tomlin was asked about how much it played a role in protecting his quarterback and getting the victory.

“It was significant, like I mentioned. Too much exposure is not a good thing. It was a significant component of the storyline.”

Another big contributor in putting the Steelers young quarterback in a great situation was the splash plays contributed by rookie Devin Bush early in the game. Coach Tomlin was asked about Bush’s two takeaways, one of which was returned for a touchdown.

“He’s been opportunistic since day zero, and he continues to be. We need it.”

Tomlin continued on about the significance of the defenses play in setting up the offense early in the game.

“Yeah, we needed to do something. We needed to provide the short field for the offense. We were able to do that – we scored. We put them on a short field, they punched it in. Just a lot of good things happened in the early stages of the game based on our given circumstance that really kind of put us in the position to control the flow of the game.”

It was quite an interesting game for the Steelers as they jumped out to a 21-0 halftime lead. Still being up three scores at 24-0 when they entered the fourth quarter, it was the Steelers play early on which gave them enough cushion to hold off the furious come back and secure their second victory of the season heading into their bye week.