The Pittsburgh Steelers are flying high with a dynamic duo and a sack-happy defensive back making plenty of noise. However, head coach Mike Tomlin called out the Browns' general manager for trading Joe Flacco to the Bengals.
Tomlin fired from the hip, according to a post on X by Ari Meirov.
“Shots fired: #Steelers HC Mike Tomlin on Cleveland trading Joe Flacco to the Bengals: Andrew Berry must be a lot smarter than me or us because it doesn’t make sense to me to trade a QB you think enough of to make your opening-day starter to a division opponent that’s hurting in that area. But that’s just my personal feeling.”
Tomlin also said, “You know, to be honest, it was shocking to me.”
Steelers HC Mike Tomlin not happy about facing Joe Flacco
The Steelers will meet the Bengals on Thursday Night Football. And Flacco has a game under his belt, making the Bengals perhaps a tougher challenge for the Steelers.
The Bengals have already improvised plays with Flacco behind center, according to Sports Illustrated. The touchdown toss to Ja’Marr Chase wasn’t the original design.
“It was actually called another play, but I was telling (Flacco) to change it because they were jumping a lot of routes,” Chase said. “But they ended up clouding me instead of running three buzz to my side. It just ended up working. He just threw it up to me, and I just make the catch.”
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor admitted to the playground approach.
“It is not all stuff that is on the call sheet,” Taylor said. “We were having to adlib a little bit as you explore how they are playing our guys. You have to adjust as the game goes, and I thought he did an unbelievable job of handling that, just a description of a play at times.”
And all that stuff probably bites Tomlin, whose team stands in complete command of the AFC North. They have a three-game lead over the second-place Bengals.
Still, Tomlin said the Steelers are doing the right things, according to ESPN.
“Why is it starting to look the way that we desire? We got a full complement of talent,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “When we put this band together, we feel like we can do the things you saw today.”
