{"id":114858,"date":"2025-10-27T20:44:38","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T00:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/?p=114858"},"modified":"2025-11-04T08:55:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T13:55:28","slug":"nfl-week-8-recap-steelers-mike-tomlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/analysis\/nfl-week-8-recap-steelers-mike-tomlin\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Week 8 Recap: Mike Tomlin Fails Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I know Pittsburgh was a popular play among many last night, but they must have forgotten the fact that the Steelers are who they are and play a very predictable brand of football.<\/p>\n<p>And that brand, defensively, involves a ton of blitzing.<\/p>\n<p>That may have worked against <strong>Justin<\/strong> <strong>Fields<\/strong> and <strong>Joe Flacco<\/strong> and <strong>Dillon<\/strong> <strong>Gabriel<\/strong> and <strong>Carson<\/strong> <strong>Wentz<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>But that wasn\u2019t going to work against <strong>Jordan<\/strong> <strong>Love<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-shortcode\"><iframe title=\"Mike Tomlin\u2019s Predictable Blitz Scheme Backfired Again\" width=\"1100\" height=\"619\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6kbkcHpOIp4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday last week, I mentioned this could be a massive problem for the Steelers.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because against the blitz, Love ranks:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">#1 in success rate (57%)<br \/>\n#1 in accuracy<br \/>\n#2 in EPA per attempt (+0.36)<br \/>\n#7 in yards per attempt (8.7)<\/p>\n<p>And the Packers make teams pay for blitzing:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">#4 in first down rate<br \/>\n#6 in 15+ yard gains per attempt (24%)<br \/>\n#3 in third down conversion rate against the blitz (60%)<\/p>\n<p>Love had played just two teams that blitz at an above average rate this year.<\/p>\n<p>His performances?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">+0.22 EPA per attempt, 47% success rate, and 9.4 yards per attempt with 27 points against the Commanders<br \/>\n+0.38 EPA per attempt, 44% success rate, and 8.5 yards per attempt with 27 points against the Lions<\/p>\n<p>He had a perfect 4:0 touchdown to interception ratio in those games.<\/p>\n<p>The Steelers blitz even <em>MORE<\/em> than both of those teams heading into Week 8.<\/p>\n<p>So what did the Steelers do?<\/p>\n<p>Did they adjust their defensive strategy and reduce their blitzing?<\/p>\n<p>Of course not.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, the Steelers actually blitzed at the <em>HIGHEST RATE OF THE SEASON<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>You cannot make this up.<\/p>\n<p>What were the results?<\/p>\n<p>When Love was blitzed, he delivered:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>12.7 yards per attempt (#3)<\/li>\n<li>3:0 TD:INT (#1)<\/li>\n<li>+0.82 EPA per attempt (#4)<\/li>\n<li>153 passer rating (#2)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When the Steelers didn\u2019t blitz him?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>7.2 yards per attempt<\/li>\n<li>0 TDs<\/li>\n<li>+0.26 EPA per attempt<\/li>\n<li>97 passer rating<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Steelers are one of the most antiquated, predictable teams in the NFL.<\/p>\n<p>The Tomlin strategy might work because he faces enough mediocre to bad quarterbacks who are bad against the blitz.<\/p>\n<p>And Tomlin lets his opponents lose games rather than winning them for the Steelers with tactics, strategy, and ingenuity.<\/p>\n<p>But almost every time they step up against a good QB, these predictable defensive strategies, which don\u2019t adjust or adapt to opponent weaknesses, can be exploited.<\/p>\n\t<div class='sfa-image-adds' style=\"margin-bottom: 20px;\">\n\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/newsletter\/'>\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Sharp-Football-Analysis-Newsletter-Ad.jpg\" class=\"attachment-size-full size-size-full\" alt=\"Sharp Football Analysis Newsletter\" \/>\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I know Pittsburgh was a popular play among many last  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"NFL Week 8 Recap: Mike Tomlin Fails Again","_seopress_titles_desc":"Warren Sharp examines why the Steelers lost to the Packers on Sunday Night Football. Mike Tomlin's predictable approach on defense.","_seopress_robots_index":"","mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-114858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","tag-articles"],"acf":[],"featured_image_urls":{"medium":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-300x200.jpg","thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-150x150.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-768x512.jpg","custom-size":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-694x683.jpg","custom-size-content":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-300x300.jpg","podcast-custom-size":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-350x350.jpg","homecustom-size-content":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-500x500.jpg","viz-thumb":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-255x140.jpg","amp-wp-small":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-100x100.jpg","amp-wp-large":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-738x430.jpg","amp-wp-normal":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-230x160.jpg","blog-large":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-669x446.jpg","blog-medium":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-320x213.jpg","recent-posts":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-700x467.jpg","recent-works-thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-66x44.jpg","fusion-200":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-200x133.jpg","fusion-400":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-400x267.jpg","fusion-600":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-600x400.jpg","fusion-800":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-800x534.jpg","portfolio-full":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-940x627.jpg","portfolio-one":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-540x360.jpg","portfolio-two":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-460x307.jpg","portfolio-three":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-300x200.jpg","portfolio-five":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-177x118.jpg","profile_24":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-24x24.jpg","profile_48":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-48x48.jpg","profile_96":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-96x96.jpg","profile_150":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-150x150.jpg","profile_300":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Mike-Tomlin-2024-Preview-300x300.jpg"},"appp_media":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114858"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114864,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114858\/revisions\/114864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}