With less than 4 minutes to go, with the Steelers up 30-28 over the green bay packers, Steelers fan nation wide saw something that we never thought that we would see. Head Coach Mike Tomlin decides to kick an on side kick in an attempt to get that ball back. Now before we get into this topic im going to ask you to do a few things for me….lets forget the fact that the Steelers ultimately won the football game. And secondly, understand that the coaches know more about the football team than we do. I know that we all love to play Monday morning quarterback but let’s not do that on this one. Now im going to tell you why kicking the onside kick were the greatest move mike tomlin has made as a head coach.

I always want the ball in my hands at the end of the game with a chance to win. And coach Tomlin has said on many of times that he has the same kind of philosophy. If Ben Roethlisberger is the Steelers best player, why not have the ball in his hands to win the game. With that train of thought there were only two ways that was going to happen at that point in the game. One would have been to kick the on side kick, and the other would have been to just flat out let the packers’ score, which is something that no one would ever do.  So with that being the way the coach thinks, which of those is the better option?

Secondly, what did the defense show you all game that they could stop the packers from anywhere on the field? In the second half of that game the Steelers defense had only stopped the packers once. Green Bay put together scoring drives of 69 and 62 yards prior to the onside kick drive. Not to mention they made the drives look pretty easy.  As a head coach you have to have a feel of your football team and what is and isn’t working at the time of decision making. Since when is it a law that you have to have confidence in your defense to make a stop? I have no way of knowing for sure but I for one didn’t have faith that they would make the stop. I told the people that I was watching the game with that the Steelers would lose the game 35-30 after Jeff reed hit the 43 yard field goal right before the onside kick.  How would you stop that from becoming the ending? You put the ball back into the hands of the offense.

Third, the Steelers special teams may just be worst than the defense. Kicking the ball deep has back fired on the Steelers all season long. It could be the reason why they have lost some of the games that they have. Not to mention the fact that Jeff Reed isn’t kicking the ball anywhere near the end zone on any of his kickoffs. So if you know your coverage teams stink, and your kicker can’t get a touchback then what is more than likely going too happened? The packers where going to get excellent field position anyway.  And if the packers were going to score it would be better for them to have fewer yards to travel so less time would come off the clock, to get the ball back to the Steelers offense.

And last but certainly not least, IT WOULD HAVE WORKED.  The whole point of a trick play is to catch the other team off guard and that was the perfect onside kick. There was a single packer that had a chance to get that ball. (Yes there were packers in the area but they both got blocked)

Ok so I’m ready to hear those out there that support the other side of this argument but I live by the same rule of an old head coach, you play to win the game.