Mueller: Steelers' defense fully belongs to Tomlin, for better or worse

Some sports notes to chew on while you re-watch Bills-Chiefs for the fourth time since Sunday:

-The Steelers’ defense was a problem this year, for a variety of reasons. So far, they aren’t behaving as if they think so. There exists an overwhelming sentiment that Teryl Austin will assume Butler’s post, but the Steelers still have to do external interviews. One was with Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, who has run New York’s defense for two years after one in the same post with the Dolphins. Miami’s defense was dead-last in points allowed under Graham, and while he rebounded to guide the league’s ninth-best scoring defense in 2020, the Giants backslid to 23rd in the league in points allowed in 2021.

-Austin, for what it’s worth, has a similar defensive track record; his first year in Detroit, the Lions were superb, ranking second in total defense, and third in scoring defense. The next three years saw them rank 23rd, 13th and 21st in points allowed. His one season in Cincinnati yielded the league’s 30th-ranked scoring defense. The usual caveats about the Lions and Bengals being mostly wretched applies, but there’s still a lot more bad than good where the numbers are concerned.

-Of course, Austin and Graham’s credentials don’t matter as much, because either man, or anyone else the team might hire to succeed Butler, won’t actually call the shots on game day. Butler made that clear when we spoke to him on 93.7’s PM Team Monday. Butler confirmed that Mike Tomlin was the man who called the defense on game day. He also revealed that that arrangement predated his taking over as defensive coordinator, saying, “The last couple years of Dick LeBeau, Mike was calling the defenses there too.”

-As I write this, it appears that Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens will again be shut out of the Hall of Fame in the final year of their 10-year run on the writers’ ballot. I want to stress for the umpteenth time that the writers who don’t vote for them are keeping arguably the greatest player in the sport’s history and one of the greatest pitchers of all time out of Cooperstown while, in at least one case, voting for Joe Nathan. The process is a joke, as are any ballots returned without votes for Bonds and Clemens.

-Speaking of which, if you care about baseball, here’s the latest lockout news: The union reportedly was willing to take earlier free agency off the table, but the league (remember kids, that’s the owners), seems dug in. Per The Athletic’s Evan Drellich, MLB deputy commissioner Dan Halem told the MLBPA earlier this week that the league is “willing to lose games over some of the outstanding issues the sides have.”

-Remember the above when you blame the players for the lockout, which, by definition, was enacted by the owners. As is always the case in these work stoppages, the owners are the ultimate bad guys, and the owners are the ones who don’t care in the slightest whether or not you get to watch baseball this year.

-Kansas City and Buffalo’s divisional-round thriller was the greatest football game I’ve ever watched, but spare me the bellyaching about the unfairness of the NFL’s overtime system. The Bills took the lead with 13 seconds left in regulation. The game never should have gotten to overtime in the first place. The debate on fairness is almost as mind-numbing as Buffalo’s decision not to squib kick the ball and to rush four players instead of three, or even two, on Kansas City’s two plays.

-By the way, it was pretty clear that Buffalo and Kansas City (not to mention Cincinnati and a few other teams) are playing a different game than the Steelers, particularly on offense. As fun as Bills-Chiefs was, it was hard not to watch without feeling a pit in your stomach, because the Steelers look a long way off from contending.

-The Penguins continue to be a marvel. Tristan Jarry has bounced back from last season’s playoff failings in a big way, Kris Letang is having one of the best seasons of his career, and Mike Sullivan is getting balanced contributions from all over the roster. If this keeps up, it just might be enough to earn him a Jack Adams award. Actually, probably not, but it absolutely should be.

-If there’s one thing hanging over the Penguins, it’s the fact that no matter how well Jarry plays in the regular season, he’ll still have to exorcise last year’s playoff demons. That said, considering that this was the first year where it seemed on paper like the team might struggle to even make the postseason, the fact that he’s going to have the chance is a big win.

-The Cincinnati Bengals remind me a lot of the 2013 Pittsburgh Pirates. Likable, talented, definitely a real threat to go all the way, and most of all, a tonic for a fan base that has done almost nothing but suffer for 30-plus years. These aren’t the Burfict and Pacman Bengals; how can a Pittsburgher not root for them at least a little bit?

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Steelers' defense fully belongs to Tomlin, for better or worse