Tuesday with Tomlin: Breaking down a loss at Baltimore

Mike Tomlin was a little more forthcoming today when going over the many reasons for the Steelers’ loss at Baltimore, which he blamed mostly on losing the turnover battle following the 20-17 defeat on Sunday.
And he was right, there was plenty of blame to go around.
Certainly, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger did not play well. As Roethlisberger said Tuesday on his weekly call-in to 93.7 The Fan, he felt off all day. That was apparent and led to the two interceptions.
That led to an offense that only converted two of eight third downs. Both of those numbers were troubling to Tomlin. When you only have eight third-down chances, it shows that you aren’t possessing the ball much.
But Tomlin also pointed to a lack of pressure by the defense, which failed to produce a turnover and had only one sack, that coming from cornerback Brandon Boykin.
The Steelers went into the game choosing to rush four most of the time and drop seven into coverage against Ryan Mallett. That didn’t work.
Mallett attempted just three passes in the game over 10 yards, choosing to dump the ball over the middle.
And without any pressure, the Steelers were left with precious little to do about it.
Tomlin – who brushed off my questiona following the game about Baltimore’s effectiveness running the ball – also pointed to that fact as an issue as well. The Ravens didn’t break off a lot of big runs, but they were effective enough, rushing for 121 yards, that coupled with the short passing game, they kept the chains moving.
And when the Steelers did get them backed up a couple of times, Tomlin noted that they allowed them out of those situations, including giving up a long pass down the sideline on second-and-23, one of the few deep passes Mallett attempted.
The fact the defense was having issues getting off the field also forced the Steelers to adjust their offensive game plan.
Because Baltimore held the ball for over 17 minutes in the first half and led 13-3, Tomlin said the Steelers had to go away from their rushing attack to get back into the game.
That time of possession advantage didn’t adjust in the second half as Baltimore held the ball for over 34 minutes.
Everyone wants reasons why the Steelers lost that game. Those would pretty much sum it up.
The quarterback played poorly and the defense wasn’t good enough to account for that.
But those are things we thought might be an issue at times going into this season. If Roethlisberger has a bad game, the defense just isn’t good enough to overcome that.
@ Tomlin said that while he is friends with Buffalo head coach Rex Ryan, he won’t be calling him or anthing like that this week.
The Steelers need to win and have Buffalo beat the Jets at home to get into the playoffs as the sixth seed in the AFC.
It’s unlikely there’s anything Tomlin could say to Ryan that would make him want to beat the Jets any more or less. Ryan was fired by New York in the offseason after six seasons with the Jets.
He acted as if he had won the Super Bowl when the Bills beat the Jets earlier this season in New York. And with an opportunity to knock them out of the playoffs and a chance to finish this season at 8-8, Ryan will have the Bills amped up to play.
That doesn’t mean it will happen. Right now, the Jets are the better team.
But the Bills will give the Jets their best shot.
@ Tomlin said he felt an Antonio Brown catch in the end zone that was originally ruled a touchdown on the first play of the second quarter and then overturned upon review should have stood.
And Brown told Steelers.com’s Mike Prisuta that head official Craig Wrolstad told him that he felt it should have stood as well, but he was overruled by the replay officials in New York.
@ Mike Mitchell (shoulder) and Antwon Blake (back) will both be limited in practice this week.
Sources tell me Mitchell’s shoulder popped out of the socket against the Ravens and had to be put back in place. He’s been playing with this injury for a few weeks now.