Mike Tomlin has never had a losing record over his first 17 seasons at the reins of the Steelers. He’s never relied on good luck to earn the distinction as the only coach ever to reach that milestone and isn’t about to start this week at Indianapolis.
“We’re responsible for the creation of a great day, individually, if we’re positive contributors to it,” said Tomlin, whose Steelers have made the playoffs in each of their three previous 3-0 starts. “And so we’re trying to take the mystique out of some of those things. We are not hoping that we’re going to have a day or hoping that there’s going to be a positive vibe. We’re owning our roles in the creation of it, just like we own our roles in the creation of victory. We are not rabbit’s foot-type people when it comes to creating victory.”
Translation: The Steelers get out of the NFL what they put into the NFL. And good teams don’t need to rely on factors out of their control.
Or in other words, as ESPN’s Andrew Hawkins said this week, T.J. Watt is a good gameplan. So good, in fact, that offenses have chip-blocked Watt on 44 percent of his snaps season – more than double any other defender in the league – and Watt still has three sacks.
Since entering the NFL in 2017, Watt leads the league with 99½ sacks in 107 games. One of five players this year with a sack in each of the first three weeks, he needs at least a share of a sack on Sunday to reach elite company. Watt would surpass Hall of Famer DeMarcus Ware (113 games) as the second-fastest player to reach 100 career sacks since 1982, when the individual sack became an official statistic. Only Hall of Famer Reggie White (96) reached the milestone in fewer NFL games.
As Shane Steichen and the Colts (1-2) prepare to host Pittsburgh (3-0) on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, CBS), they’re obviously aware of Watt. But how they attack Pittsburgh’s defense will likely depend on the play of Watt’s surrounding cast.
Last week, Pittsburgh got two sacks and a forced fumble from Nate Herbig, who’s likely to replace Alex Highsmith (groin) again in the Steelers’ lineup this week.
Pittsburgh’s defense leads the NFL in yards (220.0 allowed per game), points (8.7), first downs (12.7), third-down conversions (21.88 percent) and red-zone percentage (16.67 percent).
Too bad they’re doing it without good luck, because Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson sure could use some on Sunday. Per Doug Clawson from CBS Sports, Richardson is currently riding a three-game stretch in which no player has experienced in four decades.
Richardson is the first player since Randall Cunningham in 1985 with a completion percentage below 50.0, an average per completion of at least 15 yards, at least six interceptions and a rushing total of at least 100 yards over any three-game stretch. Cunningham did it over his first three career games with the Eagles.