The Pittsburgh Steelers wee plagued by dropped passes in their first loss of the season on Monday, and head coach Mike Tomlin wants that cleaned up going forward — or else.
Steelers wide receiver Diontae Johnson and tight end Eric Ebron dropped multiple key passes in the 23-17 loss to Washington. As Joe Rutter of TribLive.com notes, Johnson also had several drops last week in Pittsburgh’s win over the Baltimore Ravens. Tomlin was asked on Tuesday about the costly physical errors, and he issued a warning to his skill players.
“They can catch the ball or they can get replaced by those who will catch it,” Tomlin said. “It’s as simple as that.”
One of Ebron’s two drops on Monday came in the end zone. Johnson has a total of seven drops on the season, according to Pro Football Reference. That’s the fourth-highest total in the league. Ebron has dropped five passes on the year.
Tomlin added that he expects his players to make “routine plays routinely” and will need to evaluate things further if they can’t do that.
“The coaching of catching the football with those that are employed to do so at this level is not something I’ve got a lot of patience for,” Tomlin said. “It’s not something any of us have a lot of patience for. Those guys’ jobs are to catch the football, particularly the routine ones.”
The Steelers are 12-1 following Monday’s loss, so Tomlin has had to work hard to uncover significant issues he can harp on. You could tell with another one of his recent quotes that he is making a real effort to keep his players grounded, so criticizing pass-catchers for dropping balls likely falls under that umbrella.
