PITTSBURGH — The Steelers play the Jaguars on Sunday, and the Jaguars are a bad team. The Steelers then play their rivalry game against the Baltimore Ravens on Thanksgiving night in a rematch of a game the Steelers won 28-24 just a few weeks ago.
Mike Tomlin had his weekly news conference Tuesday to discuss the Jaguars game, and so of course the circumstances meant he faced the inevitable "trap game" questions.
Most coaches get insulted by the line of questioning because it shows a lack of respect for their next opponent. And even though the trap game discussion is wonderful talk-show fodder, it usually is more fiction than fact. Teams sometimes aren't ready to play or don't play well, but rarely is it because they are looking ahead to some bigger game. They just didn't play well or didn't prepare well enough.
Also, the bad team in the "trap game" equation usually is a desperate team trying hard to get a win, so they play as well as they can, so sometimes the upset is just the underdog playing its best game of the season.
That brings me back to Tomlin and the trap game discussion at his news conference. Not surprisingly, it didn't go the way of creating a larger discussion — mostly because Tomlin is generally not interested in media- and fan-driven narratives.
"I'm not into the trap game discussion," Tomlin said. "I understand that's a thing you guys like to talk about. This is the NFL. More than anything, you guys know my attitude regarding that. We are not a Big Ten team playing a MAC opponent this week, and every time we step into a stadium, we're playing professional players and coaches.
"We have a ridiculous level of respect for that. We understand what we're going into in Jacksonville. It's a group that is trying to kick our butt, a professional group, a capable group. We're preparing with that understanding."
Tomlin is absolutely right about one thing — the "trap game" stuff, if it exists, is more of a college thing than it is the NFL. People fail to recognize how good the players in the NFL are. I've listened to personnel experts say the difference between the best teams and the worst teams might be as little as five or 10% of the roster. Everybody has NFL players and they are all capable of making plays and helping teams win games.
College is different, and there probably is a little more emotion with younger players. There are also probably more distractions for and perhaps even a little bit of naivete about the importance of preparing the right way every week.
The upsets in the NFL, especially when the favorite is the road team, are usually overstated. Professional players for the most part know how to prepare for games and get ready to play.
Tomlin understands this better than just about anyone and will never buy into these kinds of questions. Tomlin is an excellent coach in a lot of ways, but one of his best assets is that he is all business, all the time. Tomlin isn't warm and fuzzy and looking to dive into subjects other than his football team and the upcoming football game.
He is a leader of a football team and he understands that, and it is one reason why he gets his players to follow him. He is laser-focused on the task at hand and he isn't into silly media narratives. And he probably learned a little bit from the circus created by Antonio Brown and company that probably led to a lack of focus — and he won't let that happen again.
I think that's one reason the Steelers do have a chance to go undefeated. They are good enough to do it, and I think they have a head coach who will keep them focused on winning games, one at a time. As they win more and the playoffs get closer, it is going to be important for the Steelers to not get ahead of themselves and stay focused on preparing for football games.
Tomlin wouldn't bite on the trap game stuff. He was not interested in long drawn out conversations about the Steelers' record or even their run game. He is not going to lose track of what's important and he won't allow his team to have their eyes taken off the prize of a Super Bowl championship.
