Mike Tomlin’s confusing explanation of clock management all about confidence

At the end of the first half, the Pittsburgh Steelers seemed to have squandered significant time on the clock by not calling timeouts when the Tennessee Titans had the football. This didn’t leave the Steelers offense with enough time to make a serious run to score at the end of the half when they got the ball back.

After the game, head coach Mike Tomlin explained the questionable clock management and it feels like it needs a bit of translation.

“I was more concerned with stopping them than I was with creating a drive opportunity for us,” Tomlin said.

Basically what Tomlin is saying is he didn’t have any faith in his defense so he wanted to keep the clock moving. It also meant Tomlin had even less confidence in his offense to put points on the board regardless of how much time was left, so it was pointless to try to save time.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement but honestly, trying to justify some of the questionable decisions Tomlin makes can be a struggle. Although he’d never admit it, Tomlin has to recognize what his offense and defense do on any given drive is completely impossible to predict and the outcomes are completely unexpected. This is why Tomlin makes these questionable choices to help lessen the damage on either side of the football.