Mike Tomlin's stock is at an all-time low at M&T Bank Stadium.
Baltimore Ravens fans did not take kindly to replays showing the Pittsburgh Steelers coach hovering within a hair of Jacoby Jones on a third-quarter Baltimore kickoff return.
Check the tape above. Tomlin can be seen standing in the stripe of white paint that nestles the field, facing away from Jones as he comes racing up the sideline during his 73-yard return.
The replay clearly shows Tomlin shifting his eyes from the video board to Jones, hopping out of the way just in time. No contact was made, but Tomlin's proximity to the field of play appeared to be a factor in Jones deciding to cut back toward the middle of the field where he was tackled by Pittsburgh's Cortez Allen.
Judge for yourselves.
Tomlin explained the play after the game: "I always watch the returns on the Jumbotron; it provides a better perspective for me. Obviously, I lost my placement as he broke free, and saw at the last second how close I was to the field of play."
"It broke my stride a little bit," Jones admitted, "(but) I still shouldn't have got caught."
One Ravens player might have been more miffed than others, though.
"Mike Tomlin stopped us one time, I think," Joe Flacco said.
The Ravens QB famously came in for a little controversy himself on a kickoff play at the end of last season's Super Bowl.
"I kind of took flak for that ... that's exactly what he (Tomlin) just did," Flacco said. "He was looking at the big screen the whole entire time. He knew where he was, and he knew where Jacoby was. He pulled my move."
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