Mark Madden: Steelers should fire Mike Tomlin

Coach Mike Tomlin should be fired the minute this wasted Steelers season ends.

Enough with adhering religiously to what daddy and granddaddy did. When the coach deserves to be fired, fire him.

Never changing coaches is supposed to give the Steelers stability. Do these Steelers look stable to you?

Tomlin’s more recent failings have added up to a bad career. Tomlin belongs nowhere near the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He’s a fraud. He started fast with somebody else’s players, somebody else’s leaders and somebody else’s culture.

But Tomlin hasn’t had a playoff win in the last six seasons. He’s not had a playoff win in 12 of his previous 16 seasons. He’s likely to extend those dubious marks.

Rock bottom arrived Thursday night when the Steelers lost for a second straight time to a team that entered the game at 2-10.

A team with a winning record hadn’t previously lost consecutive games to teams that were at least eight games under .500. It’s an NFL first.

More insanely, both games were at home.

The Steelers came out flat, unprepared and sloppy. The usual mismanagement and coaching malpractice. Visible uncertainty. Bad decisions.

The plane has crashed into the mountain, but afterward Tomlin was stammering about “turnover component” and fighting in the second half.

Tomlin looks and talks like a coach who should be fired. Oblige him.

The NFL Network’s Rich Eisen predicted Tomlin would “do his best work” in the wake of Sunday’s loss to Arizona, somehow crediting Tomlin for putting out a fire that he lit. Except Tomlin didn’t. ESPN’s Mike Greenberg might have to change the definition of “Tomlin-ing,” because it’s stopped meaning something good.

The con of Tomlin as elite coach has been perpetrated for years, primarily by the national media by way of serving agendas. Tomlin is a good coach just because. There’s little clear definition. “The players love playing for Tomlin.”

But there’s no denying what happened this past Sunday and Thursday.

Tomlin’s streak of no losing seasons ever might be headed for an end. That would be good. It would allow for clearer vision and evaluation.

Tomlin is presiding over yet another collapse from a favorable position, following in the footsteps of 2018, ’19 and ’20.

Related:

• Airing of Grievances: Impotent offense, disappointing defense, scattered coaching as Steelers gag against Patriots
• Steelers suffer 2nd straight embarrassing home loss, falling to last-place Patriots
• ‘I feel like I let the guys down:’ Mitch Trubisky struggles in 1st start in a year for Steelers

You’d rather blame quarterback Mitch Trubisky, who was admittedly awful Thursday. He has replaced deposed offensive coordinator Matt Canada as the singular scapegoat. Kenny Pickett gained credibility by not playing.

You’d rather blame the refs for not penalizing the Patriots for jumping offside on a fourth-quarter Steelers punt, flagging long snapper Christian Kuntz for a false start instead. It was a wonky call, but the Steelers would have still been 57 yards away.

You’d rather ignore the horribly overrated and overpaid Steelers defense allowing the NFL’s worst offense to go 75 yards on eight plays and score a touchdown on the game’s first possession Thursday night. Tom Brady didn’t beat the Steelers. Bailey Zappe did.

The Steelers are a mess. Their culture stinks. It’s me-first and leaderless.

It’s not a great roster, but it’s good enough to beat Arizona and New England.

The Steelers’ style is outdated, almost prehistoric compared to the high-octane football that wins in today’s NFL, and Tomlin doesn’t want to evolve.

Tomlin’s at the top of the pyramid for everything that’s gone bad.

The Steelers won’t ever fire Tomlin. Now is when that gets proven, because it’s never been more justified.

The Steelers might be able to trade Tomlin. It’s said that NFL teams would line up to hire Tomlin the minute he’s available.

But the bloom might be off that rose. What happened against Arizona and New England isn’t exactly a secret.

A dark era is upon the Steelers. Get ready for more of the same, and worse.