Steelers out to ruin Tomsula’s return
San Francisco head coach Jim Tomsula, a Western Pennsylvania native, gestures before Monday’s game against Minnesota. Tomsula is 2-0 as a head coach in the NFL.
The Steelers defense struggled last Thursday at New England. There were multiple communication breakdowns, which led to Patriots receivers being left uncovered.
PITTSBURGH – The Steelers’ home opener will be a homecoming game for San Francisco head coach Jim Tomsula.
The Homestead native and Steel Valley High School graduate returns unbeaten, having won a game in 2010 as interim head coach and last week in the 49ers’ home opener against the Minnesota Vikings.
You can take the boy out of Western Pennsylvania, but, apparently, you can’t take Western Pennsylvania out of the boy.
Led by second-year running back Carlos Hyde’s NFL-best 168 yards, the 49ers rushed for a team-record 230 yards in their 20-3 victory over the Vikings last week, something that had Tomsula, a former defensive lineman and defensive line coach, smiling.
“Running the football is something I grew up with,” said Tomsula. “You have the Western Pa. belly, the old fullback belly, run it up the gut, coming straight out of Pittsburgh. To me, that’s the essence of football.”
Tomsula would like nothing better than to run right over the Steelers – the team he rooted for growing up – and move on to a 3-0 start to his career as a head coach.
The Steelers (0-1), meanwhile, will be out to send him out of Pittsburgh with his first career loss.
New defensive coordinator Keith Butler remains true to the Steelers’ 3-4 defensive front, but is asking the linemen to be more active and get up the field. The Steelers feel that will better help them stop the zone stretch running plays that teams such as San Francisco use, which have given them fits for years.
“We play a more aggressive front now, compared to before,” Butler said. “So, we will see how that works out.”
The Steelers hope it works out a little better than last week, when they were beaten 28-21 at New England. The team had several communication breakdowns on defense, getting stuck with just 10 players on the field on at least two occasions and failing to cover receivers at times.
Butler took responsibility for those mistakes but also noted because of injuries, the Steelers had several players who hadn’t seen much action in the preseason.
“There are always issues if you haven’t practiced together,” Butler conceeded. “When 11 guys play together, they get to know each other and understand the body language of others. There are a lot of things that go into trying to coordinate a defense, especially when the other team is trying to hurry you up. We knew it was coming, but they did a good job of trying to hurry us up. We just didn’t execute what we should have.”
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady took advantage of that confusion and snapped the ball quickly before the Steelers could set their defense.
The Steelers might be tempted to do the same to San Francisco, which has a number of new starters.
In quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, they have a veteran who likes to run a fast-paced, no-huddle offense and has the weapons to do so effectively. That would force the 49ers, who controlled the line of scrimmage defensively against the Vikings, holding Adrian Peterson to 31 yards on 10 carries, to go to their nickel or dime packages, something the Steelers did last week against the Patriots.
The Steelers also feel they should have an advantage playing at home, especially with the 49ers playing on a short week and in a 1 p.m. game in the Eastern Time Zone.
They’ll also gather some energy from the home crowd.
“Every time you come out of the tunnel at Heinz Field it is awesome,” said Roethlisberger. “It might be a little more special because it’s the first one of the year, but I love seeing the Terrible Towels and the stadium shake. It’s pretty cool.”
It will be cool as well for Tomsula, though he’ll be on the opposite sideline.
“I am not going to lie and say it’s not a little different,” Tomsula admitted. “I am back in Pittsburgh for every summer. My family and I go back to Pittsburgh and we are there for a couple of weeks. That’s our time to visit.
“This isn’t a family trip. I don’t have any plans regarding any of that. … We have a game to play. We did all of our visits over the summer, and I will be back there in the offseason again.”
Roethlisberger threw multiple TD passes in eight of his past 10 games against NFC opponents. … Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown has an NFL-record seven or more catches in 12 consecutive games. … The 49ers lead the all-time series against the Steelers, 11-9, and have won five of the past seven meetings. The Steelers won the last matchup in Pittsburgh, 37-16, in 2007, head coach Mike Tomlin’s first year.