Initial Thoughts on the bills game

[insaniti]

Tomlin always coaches scared in the playoffs. Look at what green bay did, they went in and said **** it, got nothing to lose. Played loose, played aggressive, mixed up defensive tendencies. We came out tight, ran the same ****, played not to lose and lost.

 

[steelcan58]

Neither of them are as negligent as Minka Fukcing Fukcspatrick! **** him, that heartless *****!

Minkah was playing injured. Can't tell me otherwise.

 

[Steel G]

Minkah was playing injured. Can't tell me otherwise.

So? When's the last time he made a game changing play? He has this great rep, but he hasn't shown much of anything the last few years. He's not worth the cash. Hell, the past 3 weeks the secondary was better without him and Kazee.

 

[SteelerSask2]

So? When's the last time he made a game changing play? He has this great rep, but he hasn't shown much of anything the last few years. He's not worth the cash. Hell, the past 3 weeks the secondary was better without him and Kazee.

Truthfully this is not incorrect. And Peterson was better at Safety. He was terrible today.

 

[Steelmann]

No playoffs wins in 8 seasons. Lost 5 consecutive playoff games with a combined score of 66-0 at the end of the 1st quarter.

Kudos for that 66-0 stat. I knew it was bad…..but holy ****.

 

[str8liner]

So? When's the last time he made a game changing play? He has this great rep, but he hasn't shown much of anything the last few years. He's not worth the cash. Hell, the past 3 weeks the secondary was better without him and Kazee.

When they announced he was playing I thought, ut oh there goes the secondary.......

I noticed this when he was out before.

 

[MT~Forged]

That would be stupid. Why give a guy long term job security for the same **** over and over.

It’s the Rooney way

 

[MTC]

My girl stopped watching the Pirates after they showed no desire to improve. I think from a coaching perspective they are showing the same thing. Just filling their pockets from the money we give them and not caring. I think my health is more important at this point. I can't let them be the nail. I don't mind losing seasons if they are trying something different to improve. But if you are out there just trying to line your pockets without a care in the world. Yeah we will see...

The older I get this is the more I realize how impractical these games are for me to get worked up over.

These teams represent nostalgia so we hold onto them for that purpose. However money has very much changed that.

 

[MTC]

Penguins here. I know the boys are getting old, but they're still fun the watch. I'm going to enjoy what we have left in Sidney Crosby.

It's going to get ugly soon. That is until they find that next superstar.

They've stuck HOF talent gold with Mario,Jagr and Crosby over the years.

Crosby has always competed his *** off for years. Dude is a grinder at his sport.
Has won almost every major accolade at the pro level. Stanley cup, olympic medals and individual achievements. Gonna miss that dude when he retires

 

[topseed]

1) The Steelers needed to be +2 in the turnover department to win this game. -2 made it impossible, even with the momentum swing of the field goal block.
2) Running over and over on first down...there has to be a plan for play-action, right? They get the PI call, it's first-and-goal from the 3...perfect time for play-action, right? Nope. Najee up the middle for a loss of a yard. Then they go 5-wide from the 4 on second down with an immobile QB. INT. Game pretty much over. Sweet.
3) Watching the time drip away, then calling an inexplicable timeout with 2 seconds left in the half is the new crown jewel of Tomlin's rather rich history of clock mismanagement. I wouldn't have been surprised if the Bills had faked the kneel-down, and threw it up over a stunned Pittsburgh defense for a 68-yard coup de grace.
4) Good fight to come back in the second half, but even at 24-17, deep down we all knew it was too little, too late.
5) Tomlin looks shot. That, along with his abrupt walk-off, lends to me at least some hope for the possiblilty that he might have coached his last game for the Steelers.

 

[topseed]

No playoffs wins in 8 seasons. Lost 5 consecutive playoff games with a combined score of 66-0 at the end of the 1st quarter. Are the coaches not having their team prepared to play or are we to believe that it's on the players?

It's "only" been no playoff wins in 7 seasons. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Nice tidbit on the 66-0 number. To add to that, here's the halftime scores of the last four Steelers postseason games:

2017: Jacksonville 28-14
2020: Cleveland 35-10
2021: Kansas City 21-7
2023: Buffalo 21-7

So they've given up at least 3 first half touchdowns in every game, and also trailed by at least 14 points at the end of each second quarter. I mean, that has to be some kind of record.

 

[keslerclan]

We have a defensive minded head coach and spend a fortune on his defense, yet, they usually need o play an entire half of shoddy defense before we start looking like an NFL defense. We are horrible with or without TJ too. That's because we rely on our high paid players to do it all. The other teams know it and all they have to do is game plan to neutralize the few players that we have. We did play better defense without Minkah too. Maybe he was better at game planning from the sidelines or maybe the game plan was different when he wasn't trying to do it all on the field. Minkah should be an Ed Reed for us, staying back and playing the FS role like Ryan Clark but NO HCMT wants his Derrick Brooks and Minkah will never be that player.

On offense, we have a handful of plays that have had success. We have no choice but to mix them in to the garbage plays to disguise them. This was known.
Our punter is garbage and has been for years. Our OL is better at run-blocking, just like last year BUT you cannot call run plays with 8-9 players in the box. That's not the OLs fault. The pass blocking has gotten worse with Jones, as he cannot handle inside moves at all. It would be worse if we put him at LT, imo. We need a real OL coach, a C and a scheme that is not this one.

Typical start to a game. Totally unprepared for what the entire world knows are our deficiencies. We game planned better when we were missing most of our defensive backfield.

The offense I can understand, a **** sandwich will always be a **** sandwich. The defensive excuses are just that...excuses. We've had the same up and down defensive results regardless of injuries for years. Hell, this year we seemed to play better with scrubs in the game-plan. That means they CAN plan when their expectations are lowered. This is disappointing and has gotten old.

The "culture" allowed on this team has neutered it's leaders. Celebrating routine plays, plays when we are down massively is nauseating to watch. It started on defense with Mike Mitchell and on offense with AB. Everyone has to have a planned dance. What a joke. This is football. They don't even do that crap in ladies sports. IMO, if we don't change the culture, we will remain the team that can look good with bad players and bad with good players.

 

[Fiji Mariner]

I know it won't be popular. But if he is extended that will show they have no intention of competing for anything. If you are going to Pirates the approach to Steelers football I will have to step away.

Can't have my nerves up year after year after year and I had a loss that has me up and down as it is.

I never thought I would say that but things are overwhelming without the team I love adding to it. At least try to be competitive. Try.

An extension signals time to take a break for me
It would be insane to do otherwise

And by break I mean new team cuz I make way too much off gambling football to stop watching on the count of my beloved team opening a can of Idiocracy

 

[Fiji Mariner]

I am just lucky we got an extra week of football. 1 more good draft. another stud on the oline and a training camp to get the stench of Canada off this team.

Next year will be better..........

So we’re getting a competent coaching staff and QB?

Or does magic Mike just need another year to figure things out?

 

[steelcan58]

So? When's the last time he made a game changing play? He has this great rep, but he hasn't shown much of anything the last few years. He's not worth the cash. Hell, the past 3 weeks the secondary was better without him and Kazee.

I can't disagree with the first part of what you said. I thought when Minkah first came to the Steelers a lot of his INTs were opportunistic. Tipped balls, QB and receiver not on the same page etc. I think he's a little over paid in the grand scheme of things. But I was replying to he has no heart and he's a terrible player.

Minkah is no a game changer like Troy but he's far from being a hack like some are making him out to be.

 

[Troglodyte]

Minkah was playing injured. Can't tell me otherwise.

Then he shouldn’t have been playing. His lack of effort on the Allen run rivals that of Pickens and DJs blocking earlier in the season.

 

[SteelerSask2]

I would sincerely love for one if the national media types to explain to me why Bill Belichik with his 8 SB appearances and 6 wins is out. Mike McCarthy who has pretty much exactly same record as Tomlin and only did with Dallas what Tomlin did with Killer Bs like 10 years ago (badly underperform) is good to be fired. But somehow Tomlin is Untouchable. Why? Explain to me why?

 

[Coryea]

I would sincerely love for one if the national media types to explain to me why Bill Belichik with his 8 SB appearances and 6 wins is out. Mike McCarthy who has pretty much exactly same record as Tomlin and only did with Dallas what Tomlin did with Killer Bs like 10 years ago (badly underperform) is good to be fired. But somehow Tomlin is Untouchable. Why? Explain to me why?

I've been asking the exact same thing, McCarthy has 3 straight 12 win seasons and won a playoff road game last season. One of the first things I saw on twitter after the game was some national idiot saying how great Tomlin was for getting this team to the playoffs, only he could do that, blah, blah, blah.

 

[Coryea]

Yet again, TE's kill us right down the middle of the field.

 

[SteelerSask2]

Yet again, TE's kill us right down the middle of the field.

The Steelers play a lot of man concepts with help over the top. The TD after Pickens fumble great example. Safeties widened and left Jack basically carrying TE down seem. Cmon.

 

[Drink IRON City]

What I don't understand is to me going up there to Buffalo you have to take chances. Every early pass was short and to the sidelines. To me in this situation you have to be willing to lose big to win, if that makes sense. Why not? Playing their way they were down 21-0.

You just witnessed the “Tomlinization” effect. Look at MASON’s first three games…….. opened up passing and the RUN game came forth.

Give Tomlin the time and he curtailed that offense into what you saw in Buffalo, nothing risky.


Salute the nation

 

[SteelerFan448]

The "culture" allowed on this team has neutered it's leaders. Celebrating routine plays, plays when we are down massively is nauseating to watch. It started on defense with Mike Mitchell and on offense with AB. Everyone has to have a planned dance. What a joke. This is football. They don't even do that crap in ladies sports. IMO, if we don't change the culture, we will remain the team that can look good with bad players and bad with good players.

What leaders? Heyward? He's always been an excuse maker when the team fails. Watt? He's not a vocal leader. Minkah? I have no idea. Literally anyone else on the team? This isn't the Steelers of the 2000s that was loaded with leadership. They had leaders that were both stars and role players as well as players in between. Not anymore.

 

[Coryea]

What leaders? Heyward? He's always been an excuse maker when the team fails. Watt? He's not a vocal leader. Minkah? I have no idea. Literally anyone else on the team? This isn't the Steelers of the 2000s that was loaded with leadership. They had leaders that were both stars and role players as well as players in between. Not anymore.

Players can't be leaders here when then HC doesn't lead himself, how is anyone expected to lead when you have Tomlin not holding anyone accountable?

 

[JMM]

Players can't be leaders here when then HC doesn't lead himself, how is anyone expected to lead when you have Tomlin not holding anyone accountable?

I'd say Naj is the closest player they have to being a leader. The team is in disarray and he's the only one with the guts to put it on the line and say what needed to be said.

 

[topseed]

The "culture" allowed on this team has neutered it's leaders. Celebrating routine plays, plays when we are down massively is nauseating to watch. It started on defense with Mike Mitchell and on offense with AB. Everyone has to have a planned dance. What a joke. This is football. They don't even do that crap in ladies sports. IMO, if we don't change the culture, we will remain the team that can look good with bad players and bad with good players.

Yeah, I seem to remember #38 (whoever that is) doing the finger-wag after a routine incompletion. I believe that the score was 21-0 at the time. Not a good look.