Out of the Shadows
Tomlin emerges as worthy successor to Cowher
By Jerry DiPaola

It's not difficult to determine that the Steelers are a better team under Mike Tomlin in 2007 than they were with Bill Cowher in 2006.

Remember math class in first grade? Ten victories in 16 games for Tomlin; eight in 16 for Cowher.

Ten beats eight in any card game and in the NFL standings.

OK, the Steelers are an improved team and the hiring of Tomlin-untested and inexperienced as he was-was an immediate success. At least in the short term.

Since 1969, the Rooneys are 2-0 in hiring great coaches. There's nothing to believe they misfired when choosing Tomlin last January; it's just too early to be sure.

"He handles things the right way," team chairman Dan Rooney said in a story that appeared on Yahoo! Sports. "He's a good man. We're lucky to have him."

But will Tomlin's firm, but low-key, style bring the desired results - that Super Bowl championship that every Steelers fan believes is a birthright? More to the point, will it take him 14 years to win a ring? And if it does, will it be a bad thing? Cowher, in the event you have forgotten, was 0 for 13 in seeking the only goal that ever mattered before winning his only Super Bowl, and his legacy is far from tarnished.

The point is that with only one season to use as a gauge, it's as difficult today to determine if Tomlin is the right man for the job as it was in January when he was chosen over Ken Whisenhunt and Russ Grimm.

With most of the season behind him, Whisenhunt was 8-8 with an unsettled quarterback situation in Arizona; Tomlin was 10-6 with Ben Roethlisberger having an outstanding year - maybe his best ever in terms of individual achievements.

Tomlin was fortunate that the Steelers drafted and groomed Roethlisberger before he got there. Whisenhunt wasn't as fortunate, losing Matt Leinart to injury, and turning to 36-year-old Kurt Warner, who threw five interceptions in a big December loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

This is not to cast a shadow on Tomlin, a bright man who has captured the attention of his players and clearly knows the game and what it takes to win in the National Football League. It's just to show a little bit of disgust when Roethlisberger never misses a chance to criticize his former coach who brought him to victory in Super Bowl XL. Especially when Roethlisberger didn't work as hard in the 2006 offseason before his motorcycle accident as he did after Tomlin was hired in the winter of '07.

Here's what Roethlisberger told writer Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports after the decisive loss to the New England Patriots:

"I just like that he (Tomlin) doesn't yell during the game. He's not a screamer or a yeller. He respects the guys, and guys respect him - especially on Sundays. If this had happened last year, we'd have been yelled at, and guys would've remembered it long after the game. But coach Tomlin is so much more laid back than what we were used to."

Veteran outside linebacker Clark Haggans is similarly impressed with his coach.

"He's straight-up," Haggans said. "When he got the job, there was all that talk about how young he is, but he has that special quality that inspires players. He's the same whether we win or lose, and he doesn't sugarcoat anything; he has none of that in his blood. What you see is what you get. I dig him. I really like his style. I think he's cool as hell."

With those words, Haggans could have been talking about Cowher. Indeed, Tomlin and Cowher are alike in many ways. Both men find time for their families, even in the increasingly chaotic and demanding world of the NFL - a trait that is not lost on the Rooneys. Both men believe in physical play and a strong running game.

But there are differences. Tomlin is cool, calm and under control during games. Cowher almost punched a Jaguars defensive back one hot night in Jacksonville, and he seldom hid his wrath toward any of his own players who had carelessly wandered beyond the boundaries of smart play. He yelled at punter Josh Miller at Three Rivers Stadium, Heinz Field and even at the team's Christmas party one year when Cowher believed Miller could have postponed his season-ending shoulder surgery for the sake of the team.

Yes, Cowher had his warts, but for Roethlisberger to make it sound as if Cowher hurt the team with his unique coaching style-even if it included as much spittle as instruction-is unfair to a coach who went to six AFC championship games, two Super Bowls and was 161-99-1 in 15 seasons.

Not to criticize what Tomlin did this season because he was guiding one of the best teams in the AFC for most of the season, but the Steelers lost four of their first six road games, recorded one sack in 123 opposition pass attempts in one pitiful late-season stretch and suffered the silliness of free safety Anthony Smith's big mouth.

In contrast, Cowher presided over a 2005-06 stretch in which the Steelers were 6-0 on the road, including three playoff victories and one in the Super Bowl. The pass rush was also better under Cowher, who let Joey Porter and Lee Flowers talk trash because they earned that right and could back it up.

Maybe Tomlin called Smith into his office, shut the door and made the paint peel off the walls with a loud, forceful admonition (which is what Cowher would have done), but he gave the public no such indication.

Of Smith's guarantee that the Steelers would beat the undefeated Patriots, Tomlin said: "Don't write checks you can't cash."

Tomlin's cute cliches in news conferences are a far cry from Cowher's passionate speeches to reporters that often were exact replicas of what he said to his team the day before in meetings. Tomlin has a lot of work to do to get the Steelers at a level that Cowher achieved when he went to the playoffs for the first six and four of the last six years of his tenure.

The 34-13 loss to the Patriots was an indicator of just how far the Steelers are from the greatness their fans demand.

"If that's the measuring stick, we're not even close," Tomlin said.

He handled the explosive turmoil of Pro Bowl guard Alan Faneca's dissatisfaction with his contract without losing the team or Faneca.

But now he must:
o   Find a way to either romance Faneca into staying for less money than he can make somewhere else or find a man to replace him.
o   Improve an offensive line that allowed 47 sacks of Roethlisberger in the regularseason.
o   Find depth at wide receiver and move on without barely acceptable backups Nate Washington and Cedric Wilson.
o   Take on the annual task of upgrading special-teams play (even Cowher never mastered that).
o   Turn his top two draft choices, rookie linebackers Lawrence Timmons and LaMarr Woodley, into the kind of pass rushers Cowher nurtured and developed in Greg Lloyd, Kevin Greene, Jason Gildon and Porter.

If Timmons and Woodley aren't terrorizing quarterbacks next season, good, tough questions will emerge about Tomlin's first draft class.

Timmons was the 15th overall choice in the draft, but his inability to do what second-year pro Elvis Dumervil has done for the Denver Broncos (20.5 sacks in 32 games to Timmons' 0 in 16) should be troubling to the Steelers.

The Steelers have much work to do before they can become a consistent playoff threat in the NFL. Linemen, pass catchers and pass rushers must be found and/or developed. Tomlin's team-as it is constructed now-is just not good enough (with or without the existence of the New England Patriots).

Like it or not, Tomlin's legacy in Pittsburgh won't be shaped until he loses his first AFC championship game. That day is coming-believe me, it is coming-and when it does, Steelers fans will know they finally have an able replacement for Bill Cowher.