The Pomp And Joe Show
12PM - The Mike Tomlin Press Conference and our reaction 1-6-2026; Brian Batko on Joey Porter Jr., Tomlin reaction, Rodgers' play
06 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What were the main highlights from Mike Tomlin's press conference?
man i was just thinking how different this week would be if that ball goes through the uprights good lord we'd be in misery the whole week we'd be talking about cliff kingsbury we'd be talking about is the coach on his way out this week that's what we'll be talking about was that the nail in the coffin is aaron rogers done all of that would be topic uh topics on the table instead
We're getting ready to hear from Mike Tomlin for a playoff game, and it's a mighty interesting one. And when I hear somebody as football learned as Nick Farabaugh tell me that the Texans' offensive line is, quote, putrid, man, that just makes me like the Steelers' chances. It really does. If they can keep C.J. Stroud from popping a few big plays down the field against those safeties...
and that's the position that might worry me more than anything going into the playoffs here, then I think the Steelers have a great chance to win this game.
We'll see if the coach agrees. Good afternoon, quickly, I'll give a quick assessment of our last performance. As I told the team yesterday at our two o'clock meeting, we did some things in game that were really awesome.
Chapter 2: How do the Steelers plan to handle the Texans' offensive line?
And we did some things that were JV to be quite honest with you and not only from a playing perspective, but I just thought from a strategic perspective. There was growth opportunities there. I thought that's why it was important that we get in here yesterday and analyze the tape and learn from it. It always provides a good foundation for our next plan. And so that's what yesterday was about.
In review of the game, quickly I'll assess the phases. I thought in general in all three phases we had appropriate physicality. Certainly physicality is a component of the rivalry. And I thought particularly as the game were on, we had the necessary physicality to produce victory. In the special teams game, I thought penalties slowed our efforts.
Chapter 3: What did Mike Tomlin say about the team's physicality in recent games?
In the kickoff return, I thought we were really good from a field position perspective, but we had one ball out beyond the 40. They got negated by a penalty. We had a penalty on our punt team as well. Thankfully, on the re-kick, Corliss did an awesome job on the re-kick, and that doesn't always occur, and so we're thankful for that. But if we're going to...
continue on in this tournament as the road gets narrow. We certainly can't be penalized in that phase of the game, and particularly from a return perspective, negating the chance of any field flipping plays or any significant plays that way. We just can't run the risk of that. I've been pleased with our punting and gunning in the punt phase.
There's been minimal return yards, really over the course of the season.
Chapter 4: What are the injury updates for the Steelers ahead of the playoffs?
We've had minimal return yards. I think we got 170 return yards in the punt return game in 17 games. And that's certainly solid. And I think Sunday night was reflective of that as well. On defense, I thought largely down in and down out, we did what we needed to do to minimize the impact of Derrick Henry. It certainly didn't start that way. He broke that big run early. That's a credit to him.
It's a credit to them strategically in terms of identifying a schematic that they wanted to assault us with. But I just thought down in and down out.
Chapter 5: How does Mike Tomlin view the challenges posed by Aaron Rodgers?
We did what we needed to do schematically in terms of allocating our guys and planning the appropriate front structure. And I think in turn, our guys did what was required of them. We put a lot on our men up front. We create one on ones with our bigs up front. We require our bigs to win those battles. And I just thought guys like Benton and Hayward and Harmon,
did a real nice job of winning those one-on-ones, shedding tacklers, I mean, shedding blocks and getting in on tackles, not giving him clean access to the second and third level, which oftentimes is a recipe for disaster when facing the big runner. We certainly took some schematic risk in an effort to minimize Lamar's talents in the game.
And I think we suffered the consequences from that at times. We overplayed maybe some design runs and we put ourselves in some thinned out coverage circumstances.
Chapter 6: What is the significance of Joey Porter Jr.'s potential extension?
But that's what you do when you plan and plan to win. In the analysis of it, we'd probably do it again, to be quite honest with you. That's the type of challenges that guys like him put you in, in terms of decision making. But certainly we've been in the stadium against those guys a bunch, and we just felt like we couldn't allow him to run wild. When you do that, you got multiple problems.
And so we chose a hill to die on, if you will, thankfully. We didn't, although they did hit some big plays on us, particularly in possession down moments where we were allocating the appropriate number of people.
I think we lost the signal. Let me try to fix this here.
Chapter 7: How has Keanu Benton improved throughout the season?
I know we lost the signal. It seems rather obvious at this point.
Before we found our footing offensively, I thought our ability to get stout after those first two drives and get stops and minimize them probably more than anything on possession downs was a significant component of the game. On offense... I thought, you know, once we got our footing and got going, we stayed in that general direction. Can't say enough about the two running backs.
They were impactful. They were impactful in the run. They were impactful in the check down game, winning one-on-one opportunities in the flat and so forth and turning short games into longer ones. And that, quite frankly, has been a recipe for how we functioned all year, those two guys.
Chapter 8: What are the expectations for the Steelers' performance in the playoffs?
And And their ability to win in the flat and win in check down like circumstances, I thought that was significant. I thought also, as the game we're on, our third down conversion rate, and particularly our ability to win some longer ones. We converted a third and ten, a third and nine, a third and eight, I think, all in the second half.
And I thought that those were building blocks of ball possession and scoring drives. And certainly the efforts of Aaron Rodgers is always helpful, as we've talked a lot in these environments and circumstances. He's just got a unique resume, a unique talent, a unique thirst for significant moments.
And I'm never surprised when he smiles in the face of adversity and delivers for us as he did on Sunday night. And so thankful for that. From an injury perspective, In game, we got some bumps and bruises associated with play. And that may limit some people at the early portions of the week. But thankfully, we came out of it relatively well.
Everyone that returned to action last week, from TJ to Isaac Silmalu to Calvin Austin, James Pierre, Brandon Echols, all were able to participate without any steps backwards, and so thankful for that. We're a relatively healthy group as we lean in on the single elimination tournament, and so excited about that. Now I turn my attention toward Houston. Man, they're a top-notch group.
They need no endorsement from me. They're winners of nine straight. And when you win nine straight games, there's usually a mode of operation, and it certainly is. They're a group that takes very good care of the football as a collective. I think they have 10 turnovers on the season. That's number one in football. I think they're number three with 27 takeaways on defense.
And so you talk about complementary football. They got an offense that's the best in the world at securing it. They got a defense that's third best at taking it away. And I think that's the building blocks of nine consecutive wins. I'll start first on offense. I think the strength of the pack is the pack. I think they've displayed that in a lot of ways over the course of the journey.
Certainly they went through an adjustment at the early stages of the season playing without Joe Mixon. But they've certainly found a nice division of labor in Woody Marks and Mr. Chubb. Those guys have done an awesome job in terms of dividing the labor up and running the ball for those guys. As I mentioned, their ball security is top tier.
Neither one of those guys or no one in their backfield has put the ball on the ground this season. They got some quality young eligibles in Higgins and Noel from Iowa State. They've done a nice job of growing and evolving over the course of the season. They're certainly assets to their passing game and And good supplements to Nico Collins. Collins is a big-time one-on-one playmaker.
He's oftentimes on the backside of formations. You get a single high defensive structure. He's in one-on-ones with corners, and he wins a lot of them. He makes the big boy catches. He can run through traffic and run the end breaking routes. He's good down the field on 50-50 balls. He certainly has our attention as we prepare.
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