This needs to be the end for Mike Tomlin

Fans booed Renegade. “Fire Tomlin” chants began to ring out in Acrisure Stadium. The choir of disappointment will act as the swan song for Mike Tomlin when all is said and done, and when his time in Pittsburgh inevitably does end, this game will be remembered as when everything finally came crashing down.

With their backs against the wall in a must-win game against another AFC playoff hopeful fighting for their respective postseason lives, the Pittsburgh Steelers were embarrassed in a 26-7 loss to the Buffalo Bills. Buffalo ran for 249 yards, which is a new record for Acrisure Stadium. The Steelers’ offense netted just 166 total yards and averaged 3.9 yards per play.

Offensively, what is there to say that’s new? The receivers are awful. Darnell Washington led the team with 45 receiving yards. DK Metcalf went for just three catches and 32 yards. And while the pass-catchers aren’t good, the beaten-and-battered 42-year-old quarterback isn’t much better at this point.

The miscommunications and inaccuracies on the part of Aaron Rodgers are a real problem. There was a play in the first half in which Roman Wilson won off the line of scrimmage and was open. He ran toward the seam, and Rodgers threw the ball to his outside shoulder. After the incompletion, Rodgers could be seen signalling with his hands that he wanted Wilson to go outside. He is expecting these sub-par receivers to be Jordy Nelson and Davante Adams, and they just aren’t. Overall, Rodgers finished the day with just 10 completions for 117 yards. You can’t win like that.

The most embarrassing stat of all, though – and the biggest indictment on Mike Tomlin and this vastly overpaid defense – is that Josh Allen was sacked a grand total of zero times while missing both of their starting offensive tackles. T.J. Watt continues to show he wasn’t worth giving $40 million a year to. Cam Heyward had more confrontations with Allen and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties than impact plays. Alex Highsmith did next to nothing. It was a disgraceful performance from a unit that Tomlin’s fingerprints are on more than any other, and it continues to fail.

This should be the end of the road for Tomlin. The game has passed him by, as well as his approach to winning. He coaches scared, his teams often look unprepared, and his scheme has been publicly called out by current and former players, all while the team fumbled what should have been a runaway division title.

Now at 6-6, the Tomlin and the Steelers have successfully squandered a season that started with hope, but will end like so many other campaigns over the last decade – a collapse in the second half of the season that leaves the fan base begging for change.

Will they get that change? Hopefully, but there is certainly a greater chance than not that Tomlin goes nowhere because Art Rooney II’s fear of having a losing season and hiring the wrong coach is greater than his desire to win games that matter and get back to being a relevant franchise again.

The change needs to happen, though. Tomlin and his staff have proven to be incapable of doing anything that exceeds mediocrity. They cannot be the ones leading the charge into a new era, nor should they be trusted to find the quarterback to lead them forward. Moving on from Tomlin, as well as trading multiple veterans with big contracts, should be the line in the sand for a new dawn in Pittsburgh, because enough is enough, and the breaking point has been reached.

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