Tim Benz: Based on his own ‘Tomlinisms,’ Mike Tomlin has failed to meet that ‘standard’ lately

We all know about the “Tomlinisms” from Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. His colorfully descriptive phrases to spin a sound bite.

There’s usually a message underscoring those quotes, too. Truth and lessons underneath.

The problem is, if you judge Tomlin by his own slogans, he hasn’t measured up to them over the last 10 years.

At least not to “the standard” he so frequently mentions. Here are a few examples.

“Smile in the face of adversity”: When the road has gotten rough, there has been a lot more frowning than smiling at Heinz Field in recent years. When things have gotten tough, the Steelers have gotten going …

… right out of the playoffs.

After a 7-2-1 start in 2018, the train started to wobble. Tomlin and his players couldn’t keep it on the tracks. They finished 2-4 and missed the playoffs.

The team certainly did flash a wide grin in 2019, when it managed to go 8-3 in its first 11 games after quarterback Ben Roethlisberger got hurt in Week 2. But it lost the last three games of the year to miss the playoffs.

Then there is this year’s total collapse after an unbeaten 11-0 start.

“It has been a disappointment. I will acknowledge that,” Tomlin said Wednesday. “I’m not going to maintain the status quo and hope that the outcome changes. That’s the definition of insanity.”

Watching the last six weeks of this season certainly made Steelers fans insane. Tomlin got that part right.

We can talk about failing to smile in the face of adversity during individual games over the last two postseason appearances, too. There were lousy starts against the Cleveland Browns this year and the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2017, and Tomlin’s Steelers couldn’t figure a way to stop the bleeding fast enough in either contest.

Both results wound up in playoff embarrassment.

“We don’t live in our fears”: Yes, you do. All the time.

That’s why you decided to punt at the Browns’ 38-yard line while down 28-0 early in the second quarter. Then again on fourth-and-1 when you were trailing 35-23 to open the fourth quarter.

That’s why you didn’t let Matthew Wright try a 45-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter against Washington with the game tied 17-17. Or let your struggling run game try to get one yard. Instead, Roethlisberger threw a prayer to a rookie running back.

You lived in your fears of Dallas’ place-kick block unit to the point that you shunned a late-game short field goal attempt that would’ve put your team up eight points. Instead, the Cowboys remained down by five points and nearly won the game.

Last year, you were afraid of your own offense and poor return teams so much that you decided to kick the ball away in overtime of an eventual loss to Baltimore.

That’s the height of living in your fears.

Now Steelers fans should fear finishing third—or worse—in the AFC North for the foreseeable future.

“A high floor”: This is a phrase Tomlin uses to describe a player —or a team— that is marked by quality consistency of performance.

They/He may be capable of great things on occasion, but they never slip below a winning caliber of play.

I mean, he’s practically describing himself, isn’t he? Sure, Mike Tomlin never dips below .500. He’s always somewhere between 8-12 wins. And if the team isn’t in the playoffs, it’s alive going into the final two weeks.

Great. Here’s the concern. We haven’t seen Tomlin hit a “high ceiling” since 2010. We’ve only seen multiple playoff victories in Pittsburgh once in a season since then.

That’s despite lots of “high ceiling” talent on the roster over those years.

“If you’ve got red paint, paint the barn red”: I’m pretty sure he stole this one from Dick LeBeau, but that’s OK. I get the imagery.

The point is you build your game plan based on the talent you have. The issue is the Steelers don’t have enough red paint.

When injuries or illness struck Devin Bush, Bud Dupree, James Conner and Ben Roethlisberger over the last two years, it proved how thin the Steelers depth is. And I think that’s part of the reason why we’ve witnessed the team fade so dramatically in December lately.

When the paint starts to peel, Tomlin can’t seem to find the proper shade of red to patch the bare spots.

Time to find some more versatile colors to repaint the barn. And since a lot of the barn is going to need to be rebuilt anyway, I’m worried about how much paint Kevin Colbert can afford to buy.

“The standard is the standard”: We’ll end with the big one.

Mike Tomlin referred to “the standard” being “the standard” in the organization since he arrived as Steelers coach in 2007. And for most of his first few years on the job, the team lived up to that credo.

Since the Steelers and New England Patriots are the only NFL teams with six Super Bowl trophies, “the standard” in Pittsburgh is competing for titles. Over the last 10 years, it feels as if the Steelers have flirted with that high bar but have not reached it often enough.

In only two of those seasons (2015, 2016) have the Steelers won a playoff game. That’s the same as the franchise’s slog through the 1980s (1984, 1989).

Tomlin’s teams have never bottomed out like those 1980s editions. But in the decade since Super Bowl XLV, the Steelers have missed the playoffs four times and lost in their first game four times — with no playoff wins over the last four seasons.

All that with Roethlisberger at quarterback for nine of those years. Which is the biggest difference between that comparison to the 1980s.

Based on “the standard” Tomlin is claiming to uphold, for much of the last decade, he hasn’t.

“It is our desire to be competitive,” Tomlin said. “To compete for and pursue a world championship each and every year. As we begin this process to prepare for 2021, that will be our mindset.”

Looking at Roethlisberger’s age and a dreadful salary cap situation looming this offseason, that’s going to be even harder to accomplish next fall.

TribLive Steelers beat writer Joe Rutter joins me for our final Mike Tomlin press conference podcast of 2020-21. We talk about Ben Roethlisberger’s future, salary cap concerns for the offseason and Tomlin’s contract.