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Terrell Edmunds stood with me, eyes in the eye. I did not blink with those big eyes. Did not speak.
Could not speak.
He had just finished the official interviews, the cameras and microphones dispersing away from his booth after explaining the pivot. pass the interference called on him and, of course, this sequel Russell Wilson dagger to DK Metcalf on his head …
… who finally decided the Steelers 28-26 defeat against the Seahawks this Sunday at Heinz Field.
Edmunds and I have talked a lot over the past few months, especially about the opportunity to make a difference, to make a difference and everyone expects a first round pick. I have therefore shared some observations with the kid. For example, he led the defense with 11 tackles, eight solos and a fine for a left pass. Like how this interference, which required a review to be canceled, was no longer a call from the receiver, Tyler Lockett, had to move to a ball impossible to seize. For example, it took Wilson and the prodigy Metcalf to go to great lengths to win … wow, just as perfect coverage?
Nothing.
He forced the smallest version of that familiar smile, thanked politely and walked to the door.
A little later, on the other side of the room, I tried to make a joke with Devin Bush.
About that …
Huge recovery of fumble in the fourth quarter. Almost a touchdown. Super, training for the last player, in addition to his seven tackles.
But come on, tell me that he does not seem to be briefly disoriented and run to the wrong end zone. You know, like Jim Marshall.
"No," Bush came, barely audible, when I raised the issue.
Not even a second?
"I was just looking for some space, if I went back, I thought I would have it."
Difficult loss, dude?
"So difficult, it hurts, that's really the case."
He was sitting alone on a stool, staring into space as I approached. I thanked him for his time and I let him go back to that.
Rudolph Bricklayer could not be left alone. He became the quarter-timer the moment Ben Roethlisberger fell with a elbow injury. He could be the starter next weekend in San Francisco – or beyond, to our knowledge. So, once he was screwed up, he was taken to the press conference stand to stand behind a podium for his interrogation.
Like Edmunds and Bush, he had done well on the field – 12 of 19 for 112 yards and two touchdowns that included this improvised ingenuity with Vance McDonald …
.. and a totally undeserved interception – and he then sounded a similar note.
Someone asked him if he had any idea what could happen in the coming days.
"No. You have the same idea as me," he returned without hesitation, before adding, "We're going to get out of here, we just lost, we have to play better as a team."
____________________
The future of the franchise is good. It is the present that is disturbing.
The Steelers are 0-2. This seems like a good place to start.
In the last twelve years, only 12.2% of NFL teams have reached the playoffs after losing their first two games. It's discouraging. It can be done – the Texans and the Seahawks only did it last year – but it usually takes 10 or 11 wins. So it's going to take a roll, starting with beating the 49ers in what is now essentially an elimination match.
Even worse, by losing both games, no semblance of identity has been established.
Not in one of the three phases, but especially not in the offensive, where they continued Sunday Antonio Brown absence. Oh, McDonald was involved again immediately, perhaps correcting Foxborough's biggest mistake, but JuJu Smith-Schuster offer another wide receiver performance # 2 – five catches, 84 yards, still no touchdown – on a team that desperately needs a # 1. James Conner was stuck at his opening level as well – 45 yards in 15-touch use – before a knee injury put him out.
Even worse all of these injuries. It was Roethlisberger and Conner, but they also lost Vince Williams (tendon), Sean Davis (shoulder) and Anthony Chickillo (heel).
If New England looked like a rocky bottom, it was the moldy subsoil of the latter.
Something must change.
Wait, let me try again: something must really, really change. Because, on the basis of all the above, it seems that the bridge between the present and a promising future should be more advanced in its construction than Mike Tomlin & # 39; s I currently have it.
Example: Donte Moncrief.
I mean, if this guy is not released Monday morning …
… so it will be worth repeating that Tomlin, as part of the opening statement of his post-match, said: "A ball crossed our hands for an interception."
I do not care what Moncrief is the big free agent signatory or that Tomlin and Kevin Colbert will look stupid once he 's gone. I want Moncrief to be qualified as a team leader at the beginning of the Latrobe work period and apparently not realistic, did not make the effort in those losses, including including that one. He does not return to the ball. He does not stiffen for that.
Lack of trust can be forgiven. The lack of heart can not.
And yet, Moncrief and Ryan Switzer, who has a huge heart but can not gain a solitary thumb after taking, was placed ahead of James Washington and Diontae Johnson Even if not a soul in the Steelers employment would deny that the last two have the highest ceilings.
Washington has been targeted a total of seven times in two games, Johnson five. And it was the fishing of Johnson in this game:
I'm going slowly with Johnson. Real recruit. Not Washington. Certainly not both. This is the state of mind of a head coach who is far too determined, instead of focusing on the retooling that is more necessary in the wide receiver than for any other position.
Example: Defend the environment.
Edmunds and Bush are both talented, intelligent and aware. But even with an open discussion of the fact that Wilson and the Seahawks would seek to exploit the grass beyond linebackers, Tomlin and Keith Butler stubbornly stuck with their 3-4 base defense – nose-tack and all – without lifting a finger to support Edmunds and Bush on such roads, especially the two tight-tipped touchdowns, Not going well.
This has stopped being 2009 long ago, gentlemen. Sub-packages of multiple databases are no longer a gadget. They are obligatory.
Example: Anthony Chickillo puff.
He also scented big too Rashaad Penny 37-yard landing in the third quarter. He 's engaged too early and too hard inside, Penny sprinted with a shot from the arm, and see you soon:
Go ahead and bury Chickillo, but know this: he was in a walking boot after the match and he told me that it was to protect a heel injury that he had returned to Foxborough .
So why was he on the ground rather than … wow, T.J. Watt?
Because Tomlin and Butler have decided to embark on this season, they will do more to make their first seven more energetic. That has merits – the defense has recorded far too many shots at 73 – but not in the third quarter of a tight match and, for shouting loudly, do not spell the best player in the team. Watt was back in the game after that, so he was not hurt.
But hey, as long as he was replaced, there would have been no harm in going with it Ola Adeniyi, A young and dynamic defender who proved his efficiency by stopping the race. Oh, and he was healthy.
Example: Vinnie received the green dot.
For those who do not know it, this applies to the defender's headphones that receive radio signals from the sideline. Watt wore it to Foxborough and, although Tomlin acknowledged that it was unusual to attribute this to a player lined up on the far left, he also did not seem to regret it. Then, for these warm-ups, Williams released the green dot, a more logical choice for his perspective from the inside.
A problem: Bush was then stuck on the sidelines.
So it was only when Williams was lost in the second quarter due to a hamstring injury that the expected prospect was returned to the field, saving Tomlin at least a slice of criticism … he will receive anyway. But we understand the idea.
Example: Dan McCullers& # 39; personal fault.
OK not really. Big Dan was hit with a flag during a field test in Seattle for making contact with the head of the long snapper, setting the stage for the first touchdown of the Seahawks. It looked and looked like typical Tomlin /Danny Smith special teams lack discipline but McCullers and Cam Heyward The two of them explained with animation this one and I bought: McCullers was assigned to go to the guard, which he did, but this contact sent him to the center. The rule, new in the NFL, is to prevent the snapper from being "plowed", as David DeCastro described, not any contact. So this official reacted excessively.
Just like the fans, I'm sure of it, at least for turning that towards Tomlin.
It deserves warmth, as I have illustrated it here explicitly. But the tension, the lack of trust between those who love the team and the head coach have never been so low, so much so that he will be blamed for just about everything. And in all areas, perception fades into reality. If fans are fed up with his three playoff victories in the last eight seasons, they're fed up with his failure to make the accounts unaccountable, or to see him at the center. Recent dramas, be it infinitely uglier – – Never pretend that race is not a problem in our society – they are just tired of it.
My God, all those people who leave early in a tight match … in the opening game at home … it's legitimately alarming.
That's another part of what stinks about it. Of all that. The consequences of leaving AB looked like a kickoff. For everyone involved, Tomlin included. But all he has done so far, in addition to the 0-2, is to stay with the status quo.
Example: It was asked if 0-2 felt like a significant hole.
"No, we have the impression that there was a match today where we had the opportunity to win and we did not do it from that point. there is a disappointment, but not a big picture. "
This has been his standard answer forever. Only the result of the day counts. Even after losing in playoffs or after participating in a repechage or training camp, he will never address a topic that looks like a "big picture".
At this moment, I dare to say, it is the image that will matter the most.
____________________
Listen to these guys …
I will correspond to DeCastro and Stephon Tuitt with such fierce opponents, but these conversations and many others I had in the locker room gave the dominant impression that this result was not so disappointing that it was deflating.
And it's a dangerous place.
What's needed in San Francisco, it's twofold:
1. A victory. Duh.
2. This thing of identity
Putting this project in the hands of those who have the most potential seems to me quite obvious, but it does not seem that the person in charge of the same opinion.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
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