Mike Tomlin's defense enjoyed a strong outing vs. Tom Brady's Patriots during the 2011 regular season using a defense that employed press man coverage. On Sunday, Tomlin's unit was back in it's traditional zone coverage, a coverage Brady picked apart to the tune of 384 yards and three touchdowns in New England's victory in the 2016 AFC Championship Game.

After the game, Tomlin did not question the defensive game used against the Patriots, a team that scored seven more points against his defense than they did during the teams' Week 7 matchup despite being without All-Pro tight end, Rob Gronkowski.

"Obviously, you weigh those options in preparation," Tomlin said when asked about if he considered using press man coverage leading up to Sunday's game. "We stand by what we did during the game, we just didn’t do it well enough."

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Cornerback Ross Cockrell agreed with Tomlin, reiterating what he coach said about the secondary simply not making enough plays against Brady and New England's passing attack.

"We just have to do a good job tackling after the catch," Cockrell said, per Steelers.com. "That's what we prided ourselves on doing all year, and we didn't do that today. (We could have) knocked some of those passes down, that would have stopped some of that hurry up. But unfortunately, that's what we didn't do today as a defensive backs unit, and that was a big difference in the game."

Tomlin, who watched his defense allow less than 20 points in five of the team's games during it's nine game winning streak, said that the tempo of the game is what disappointed him most as well as what hurt his team the most. While the Steelers' offense struggled to score points, the defense was often put in bad spots that they were unable to overcome, as Brady continued to use Chris Hogan to the tune of 9 catches for 180 yards and 2 touchdowns.

"The style of play of the game was more disappointing," Tomlin said. "That’s not what we wanted. They are to be commended for that."

While the Steelers had success with press man coverage back in 2011, Pittsburgh's defense was completely different back then, as the Steelers' secondary at that time consisted of Ike Taylor, Ryan Clark and Troy Polamalu. Playing with rookies Artie Burns and Sean Davis in his backfield, Tomlin did what had to do: keep the routine the same while allowing his young players to play to their strengths.

Tomlin, a former defensive backs coach on a Super Bowl winning team in Tampa Bay, pushed the right buttons during the team's nine game winning streak, and they shouldn't be called into question now, as the Steelers young defensive backfield looks to apply the lessons learned in Sunday's game into their preparations for the 2017 season.