BigApple, first off the article stated that Tomlin was among the least respected coaches in the league. The scores went from 1 to 5 with 5 being the TOP score and he received 28 scores of 1 or 2. This is reiterated several times in the article so it is likely NOT a typo. In fact we are later told that Tomlin received nine scores of 1. That means he got nineteen 2s. It is stated VERY CLEARLY that the top score is 5 so there's no way to misinterpret how Tomlin actually did in the poll. More likely the author is purposefully misleading the readers and trying to (cleverly) make it appear that Tomlin is highly respected. Careful reading shows otherwise. The only OTHER option is that the author and his or her editor is completely incompetent.
I gave Tomlin a few years. I was a lenient as I could be but the simple fact is, he never improves. It's been covered in the thread. He doesn't make in-game adjustments. He doesn't have the players prepared for opponents ahead of the game. He has NEVER drafted a dominant player. There hasn't been ONE single player drafted during Tomlin's tenure (And I know Tomlin isn't the only guy behind the draft,) who has even been particularly impressive much less dominant. Wallace may have come right when Tomlin got here or right at the end of Cowher's tenure, I can't remember. Sanders was Ok. Brown is fine but he's not Jerry Rice, is he? Pouncey spends more time injured than anything else and as a center he's slightly better than average. DeCastro's most devastating block was to Pouncey. I won't even START talking about our defensive picks. There's not one of them worth typing about. (Sorry guys. I know you're trying.) I get that those rookie sensation players that step in and dominate are rare, but we haven't seen one of those guys for years and years. People like to say that Troy sucked his first year, but that just wasn't true. He was raw, but he didn't suck. He was undisciplined but he wasn't awful.
And then you look at Tomlin's time management, his inability to deal with player discipline, (for God's sake our two main RB's were getting frickin STONED on the way to the airport. Who's in charge Mike?) his inability to motivate players or communicate with the media beyond the most ridiculous metaphors and catch-prhases. "We're gonna turn over stones." We're going to unleash hell." At least Cowher simply said, "It is what it is." Or he just glared at the reporters.
As for Cowher's last season, pretty much everyone here was irritated and felt he was mailing it in. We WERE frothing at the mouth and bitching up a blue streak. Later when we found out that his wife was diagnosed and dying of cancer we felt like shitheels, probably like you do now... The fact is though, there's really only two teams in this division. Aside from a rare act of mercy from God above the Bengals and Browns are atrocious. That leaves us and the Ravens. Admittedly the Ravens are tough. They're going to bring it every time we play them and THEY get it that there's only two teams in the division. As much a dick as Harbaugh is he realizes all they have to do is beat Cinci, Cleveland and us in Baltimore and they probably pretty much have the division sewn up because sooner or later Tomlin is going to "turn over stones."
He's going to fail to plan for some game and refuse to take into account that our offensive line can't handle defensive end X or our linebackers are completely mismatched against the Patriots tight ends. So, when the game starts getting completely out of hand, rather than sitting down at half time and coming up with some kind of solution, he'll doggedly roll out the same damn game plan that utterly failed in the first half and somehow assume things will work better. OR let's look at scenario two - imagine that the Steelers offense has done a GREAT job in the first half but the opponent goes and does something all ******-up like making adjustments at halftime. Rather than going to his coordinators and telling them to change stuff up, Mike will just sit there on the sideline with a confused-as-**** look on his face as the game slips away utterly baffled as to why the offense failed to execute in the second half.
(Just more stones in need of overturning...)
And finally, JDell, I did competitive theater for 3 years in high school and won state three times in three different events. So I'm absolutely certain I could ACT like a better athlete than you ever were. Therefore I believe I can say with complete authority that your motivation is all wrong here.
