Steelers botched several calls in closing minutes of wild playoff loss to Jaguars
The Steelers wilted under the pressure of the postseason
The Jaguars' playoff game against the Steelers on Sunday marked the first time in 10 years that they had made it to the divisional round of the postseason, so if there was going to be a coaching meltdown in Pittsburgh, no one would've been shocked if it came from Jacksonville's sideline.
However, that's not what happened.
During the final minutes of Pittsburgh's 45-42 loss to the Jaguars, the Steelers seemed to suffer a total coaching meltdown and it didn't help that one of their star players also made a huge gaffe at a pivotal point in the game.
Most Steelers fans are probably still in shock by how the final minutes of the game went down. It was mind-boggling to watch and it all started with 2:18 left when Mike Tomlin had to decide whether or not to try an onside kick.
After the Steelers scored a touchdown with 2:18 left to cut the Jaguars' lead down to 42-35, Tomlin made the horrible decision to attempt an onside kick. The decision was so bizarre that most people watching the game were shocked that they were going to try it.
Why why why why why did they onside kick. AWFUL
— Steelers Wire (@TheSteelersWire) January 14, 2018
Why would you onside kick there? Pooch it at worst. Or bang it deep. Terrible decision. #Steelers
— David Todd (@DavidMTodd) January 14, 2018
An onside kick is a smart move if you have no way to stop the clock, but the Steelers had two timeouts left. If they had kicked the ball off and forced a three-and-out, they could have conceivably gotten the ball back at the two-minute warning.
The thing about the onside kick is that the Steelers DID force a three-and-out, but it didn't help at all because the Jaguars were still able get a field goal and push their lead to 10 points. Think about that: Tomlin decided to try the onside kick, the defense did its job and the decision still backfired because the Jaguars scored anyway.
After the game, Tomlin had an interesting explanation for his decision.
"We wanted to get the ball back," Tomlin told NFL Network. "We hadn't stopped them convincingly enough to take any other approach."
One other thing worth mentioning here is that the Steelers are one of the worst teams in the NFL when it comes to onside kicks. Since 2008, the Steelers had gone 0 for 14 with onside recoveries (now 0 for 15) and Chris Boswell definitely didn't help things when he botched the kick.
This #Steelers onside kick was one of the worst I’ve ever seen https://t.co/NwYFPYsAbb pic.twitter.com/yFttjUn6qU
— Big Cat Country (@BigCatCountry) January 15, 2018
Not only was the onside kick a bad decision based on the situation, but it was also a bad decision based on statistics.
Tomlin's next questionable decision came after the onside kick.
On the first play after Jacksonville's recovery, the Jags ran the ball up the middle with Leonard Fournette. The play was blown dead with 2:13 left, but instead of calling a timeout, Tomlin let the clock go all the way down to the two-minute warning. Letting 13 seconds melt off the clock when you're down by a touchdown makes absolutely zero sense.
If the Steelers had used both of their timeouts before the two-minute warning, the Jags could have been facing a third down with about 2:09 left (That estimate is based off the fact that their first and second down plays both only took four seconds off the clock).
Although letting 13 seconds melt off the clock was a bad move by Tomlin, Antonio Brown actually managed to do something even worse. Brown had a huge game, but he did also make one gigantic mistake and that came with 24 seconds left when he caught a short pass from Roethlisberger.

As you can see above, there was no way Brown was going to get into the end zone, so the smart move would have been to get out of bounds. However, that's not what Brown did. For some reason, he let himself get tackled in the field of play, which led to 14 more seconds melting off the clock. After Brown's catch, the Steelers didn't get off their next play until the 10-second mark.
Of course, maybe the Brown play should have never happened because you could also make the strong argument that the Steelers should have gone for a field goal after Roethlisberger got called for intentional grounding with 42 seconds left, which became 32 seconds after a 10-second runoff was enforced.
If the Steelers had kicked a field goal after the penalty, which moved them from the Jaguars' 5-yard line to the 15-yard line, they would have been down one score with about 25 seconds left.
There were a lot of ugly coaching decisions made in this game and almost all of them came from the Steelers' sideline. Not only did the Steelers melt down in the final minutes, but they also had two questionable fourth-and-1 calls earlier in the game. No one does fourth-and-1 better than Ben Roethlisberger, but the Steelers apparently decided to throw stats out the window because they didn't let him try a QB sneak on either attempt.
Ben Roethlisberger on 4th-and-1 rush attempts in his career, including playoffs:
— NFL Research (@NFLResearch) January 14, 2018
19 attempts
18 first downs
Highest success rate (94.7 percent) of any player with over 10 attempts since 2004 (including playoffs)
Steelers on 4th-and-1 today:
0-for-2 (Bell run, Ben pass)
If there was a team that was going to experience playoff jitters and wilt under the pressure of the postseason, it seemed more likely that team would have been the Jaguars, who have never even been to the Super Bowl. Instead, it was the team that's won the Super Bowl six times and can't seem to get any closer to a seventh title.
















