Mike Tomlin set poor tone for Steelers days before stunning loss to Joe Flacco, Bengals

The Pittsburgh Steelers missed a golden opportunity to take full control of the AFC North on Thursday night, dropping a wild 33-31 decision to the Cincinnati Bengals. They lost not because of their much-maligned and inconsistent offense, but because their high-priced and much-hyped defense could not get a stop.

Not only could they not get a stop, but they were incapable of slowing down a 40-year-old Joe Flacco who had just joined the Bengals less than two weeks prior in a trade with the Cleveland Browns.

Tomlin's defense — which he called potentially historic before the season — allowed Flacco to complete 31 of 47 passes for 342 yards and three touchdowns. They had no answer for anything Flacco and the Bengals dialed up. It was a complete, teamwide failure from the coaching staff down to the players. 

Tomlin helped set the tone for it three days before they even played the game.

Mike Tomlin lived in his fears against Joe Flacco

During Tomlin's weekly news conference on Monday, he made some eye-opening comments when he called out Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry for trading Flacco within the division, during the season. 

“It doesn’t make sense to me to trade a quarterback that you think enough of to make your Week 1 starter to a division opponent that’s hurting in that area," said Tomlin. "Andrew Berry must be a lot smarter than me or us.”

It's a stunning moment of honesty from an NFL head coach to say something like that about a team you still have to play later in the season. But it continues a trend of Tomlin having a bizarre fear of Flacco. 

He clearly did not want to see him on Thursday night, and he made similar comments going into a game against the Indianapolis Colts a year ago when he told his defense to keep Anthony Richardson "upright" so Flacco did not have to enter the game. Richardson ended up leaving that game with Flacco coming in. Flacco and the Colts won.

While Flacco's performance on Thursday would seem to validate Tomlin's concern, it's still an awful look for Tomlin and the tone he set for his team three days before the game.

By publicly ripping the Browns and Berry, and lamenting the fact he had to face Flacco instead of Jake Browning, he was basically telling the entire world he feared Flacco. Even if it was a sign of respect, it still came across as fear. 

He coached like it on Thursday.

The Steelers brought no extra pressure against Flacco and just seemed content to bring four-man rushes on most plays. They seemed content to play soft zones. They basically gave Flacco time and space to do what he wanted. And he did. 

But what kind of message does it send to your team and defense to hear your head coach three days before the game being pre-occupied with a trade another team made? If he was willing to say that stuff publicly, it stands to reason he had the same mentality with the team when the cameras and recorders were off. 

It was just a bad look by everybody all around.

Tomlin's defense has badly underachieved all season, and Thursday was by far its worst performance of the season. It was perhaps one of the worst performances by a Tomlin defense in his entire head-coaching tenure when you take into account the circumstances of a 40-year-old quarterback playing with a new team.