Second Season to Test Tomlin

Chuck Noll went 1-13 in his first year as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ coach. Bill Cowher started his Steelers coaching career with an 11-5 record.

Mike Tomlin went 10-6 in his debut on the Pittsburgh sidelines.

Those numbers really don’t mean anything.

Everyone knows what Noll and Cowher went on to accomplish.

Noll was a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame after transforming the Steelers from NFL patsy to a four-time Super Bowl winner.

Cowher, meanwhile, averaged 10 wins in 15 seasons and probably landed his ticket in Canton, Ohio, by turning an 11-5 showing in 2005 to a Super Bowl victory as the wild card.

Tomlin, however, has a long way to go before he can be compared to his two predecessors.

For starters, Tomlin won’t have a cake schedule in 2008 as was the case in his rookie campaign.

The Steelers beat only two teams with winning records last year when they swept their two AFC North games with Cleveland and downed Seattle.

The Steelers’ other seven wins came against teams which finished with a combined 28-68.

If that weren’t bad enough one of the Steelers’ losses was in overtime to the New York Jets. which won only three other games. The Steelers needed a field goal to drop the 1-15 Dolphins, 3-0, in the rain on a Monday night.

The Steelers’ reward for winning the AFC North title in 2007 was one of the NFL’s toughest schedules.

The Steelers have to face the six teams considered at the top of the power rankings: New England, Indianapolis, San Diego, Dallas, Jacksonville and the New York Giants.

If that’s not enough to worry about, Cleveland is tabbed as the AFC North favorite by some of the so-called NFL experts.

Tomlin’s first season was a bit misleading since the Steelers were 7-2 after nine games and closed with four losses in their last five contests.

It didn’t help that the NFL’s leading rusher at the time, Willie Parker, broke his leg in the opening minutes of the next-to-last regular season game at St. Louis and defensive end Aaron Smith missed the final four games with injuries.

Drafting Rashard Mendenhall first was a safeguard in case Parker goes down, but the Steelers didn’t strengthen the defensive line by either the draft or free agency.

If Smith, Casey Hampton or Brett Keisel gets hurt, the Steelers are in serious trouble.

The same goes for Ben Roethlisberger on offense.

Without Roethlisberger, the Steelers aren’t going anywhere.