Tampa Bay and New York Jets....

[Coryea]

as bad as everyone says ben looked, he still completed 70% of his passes, with 3 drops and wheaton running the wrong route on two occassions.
The first INT was Bryant not coming back to the ball, rookie mistake, as pointed out by a sports talking head on the radio this morning. The 2nd pick was a horrible throw, but Wheaton is running across the middle with his hand up, Ben throws it and Wheaton quit on it, at least try to break the damn thing up.

as a coach, how do you look at jets (tough front 7, crap secondary), then look at what we have been doing well, throwing the ball downfield. After looking at that, how do you come to the conclusion that best game plan would be to challenge their front 7 with the running game and horizontal passes, instead of what we have been doing great?

 

[FordFairLane]

I agree with you. I am saying everyone had a hand in this mess.

The coaches and the game planning.

Big Ben looking lost.

AB and the other WR's with some bonehead moments.

The defense, while not terrible, had a disastrous 1st quarter.

I just think if you reduce the 4 uncharacteristic turnovers to maybe 2 or 3- the game takes an entirely different direction.

I just cant see both BB and AB having a Sunday like this (in the near future), so all of this 'sky is falling' talk is unnecessary.

This is my point Tomlin is the head coach. It is his job to have this team prepared and motivated to play football. The team looked lethargic, undisaplined, unmotivated, and unprepared and all those things are the coaches job to do. If a guy is wide open and Ben throws to a triple covered guy for a pick it is 100% his fault. If AB drops an easy pass or muffs a punt it is his fault. But if the team is not prepared or motivated it is Tomlins fault. When you play the Bucs, Jets, Jags, etc your goal should be to win by 4 touchdowns so if you have a few bad calls or mistakes you only win by a few touchdowns not lose the GD game.

We have 6 games left and for me these games should decide Tomlins coaching future. If he gets us in the playoffs he stays if we miss the playoffs don't let the door hit you on the way out.

 

[AggieSteel]

Individual mistakes = players' fault

A continuous pattern of players on both sides of the ball making several mistakes over and over again = Coaches' fault

 

[Xc944]

Clearly his message last week was for Ben to throw the ball away twice . For AB to put the ball on the ground twice. Also, he must have allowed Suisham the week off, which would explain his missed chipped shot.

Everyone wants a scapegoat- but yest' loss was a result of EVERYONE's lack of performance. Coaches and players.

Surprised you can type with tomlins manhood so far down your throat

 

[Litos]

Surprised you can type with tomlins manhood so far down your throat

don't know why you have to come up with insults when there is a discussion going on. Go back to play with the kids while the grown men talk

 

[Steeltime]

Everyone wants a scapegoat- but yest' loss was a result of EVERYONE's lack of performance. Coaches and players.

Who is responsible for getting consistent performance from his players? Not world-beating, elite-level play, just something close to a B+ effort week in and week out?

The buck stops with Tomlin. Avoiding the endless repetition of horrible performances against seriously lousy competition, and costing the team win after win after win after win and the playoffs in the process, is his job.

Basically, his most important job.

Would you be satisfied with any other profession failing in performing the most fundamental tasks, time and again?

How about your doctor? Lawyer? Accountant? Mechanic? HVAC repairman? If you hired those guys, and they @#$%&ed up the task 4 times per year, on basic ****, and cost you a ton of money, YOU WOULD FIRE THEM AND GET SOMEBODY BETTER.

 

[Bigappleyinzer]

Who is responsible for getting consistent performance from his players? Not world-beating, elite-level play, just something close to a B+ effort week in and week out?

The buck stops with Tomlin. Avoiding the endless repetition of horrible performances against seriously lousy competition, and costing the team win after win after win after win and the playoffs in the process, is his job.

Basically, his most important job.

Would you be satisfied with any other profession failing in performing the most fundamental tasks, time and again?

How about your doctor? Lawyer? Accountant? Mechanic? HVAC repairman? If you hired those guys, and they @#$%&ed up the task 4 times per year, on basic ****, and cost you a ton of money, YOU WOULD FIRE THEM AND GET SOMEBODY BETTER.

Bro, I think you may have me mistaken. At no point am I excuse Tomlin or any other coach.

They came out flat. The game plan was way to conservative to start the game. That is all on the coach (Tomlin). And I would have some serious concerns if we looked the same against the Titans.

But a road game (after 3 big wins) after your best players give the ball away 4 times is gonna be tough for any coach to overcome. You cant convince me that Brown and BB dont know by now to take care of the ball- that is on them.

Like I said this was an all around piss job. But still no reason for the chicken littles to start their song and dance of "Fire XYZ"

 

[wig]

We don't control who get's fired. That's ridiculous.

But it's a complete crap-shoot whether or not the Titans kick their ***** next week. There's no reason whatsoever to assume the coaches have any idea how to game plan for the Titans and there's no hope that the players as a complete unit are talented enough to beat the Titans without a consolidated game-plan to take advantage of any weaknesses the Titans have as a team.

Therefore it's hit and miss whether they win that game or not. On a short week where they have to travel, on National Television. Ya. I can totally see the Titans destroying them and Tomlin looking out at the field with a complete "What do we do now" look on his face. Because he'll be thinking "What do we do now?" And Haley will be thinking "Let's do a screen pass." (Of course we'll have to assume the Titans will have 10 guys on the line of scrimmage, but that won't matter to Haley. Screen passes are high percentage. But just in case, let's throw one that develops 8 yards behind the line of scrimmage so there's no doubt we secure the reception and have some room to set the blocks. Ya! That's the ticket. We'll just take turns alternating sides of the field and running backs and receivers and I think that will march the ball right down the field.

Meanwhile, Tomlin will be standing there, fingering the challenge flag thinking "What do we do?"

 

[deljzc]

It is amazing to me how every time I want to get excited about this team, Tomlin/GM/players/coaches (whoever you want to blame) pulls the rug out from under me and they have a loss like yesterday that gets me upset, makes me scratch my head and completely lose faith that our organization is anything more than mediocre.

I STILL say 11-5 and divisional title. Don't ask me how. Don't ask me to tell you the exact games.

I just have a feeling this is an "up year" for Tomlin/Colbert/players and I still say next year we will underachieve like crazy and miss the playoffs (for whatever reason you pull out of the hat).

We're just not as good as the people in charge THINK we are. And that overconfidence trickles down to the players. Subconsciously according to Tomlin, Colbert and Rooney the reasons we don't make it are small. An injury here, bad execution there, turnover differential that can't really be "fixed", law of averages. The good games overshadow the bad games to them. The recent home game victories is what we ARE, the bad road losses are not what we are.

It's that kind of glass-half-full self-evaluation that's been going on around here for years and years and I truly believe it is holding us back in improving the roster every off-season.

It's just the same. It's not going to change this off-season. It's not going to change next year. It's just not going to change.

 

[oicu8ad]

All we have to do is squeak in the playoffs and we have a real chance. As long as no ****** teams make it to the playoffs, we should be ok.

 

[AggieSteel]

We're just not as good as the people in charge THINK we are. And that overconfidence trickles down to the players. Subconsciously according to Tomlin, Colbert and Rooney the reasons we don't make it are small. An injury here, bad execution there, turnover differential that can't really be "fixed", law of averages. The good games overshadow the bad games to them. The recent home game victories is what we ARE, the bad road losses are not what we are.

It's that kind of glass-half-full self-evaluation that's been going on around here for years and years and I truly believe it is holding us back in improving the roster every off-season.

It's just the same. It's not going to change this off-season. It's not going to change next year. It's just not going to change.

Spot on sir..

 

[Omar10213245]

All we have to do is squeak in the playoffs and we have a real chance. As long as no ****** teams make it to the playoffs, we should be ok.

Lmao this had me rolling, well done sir

 

[wig]

By that logic, and given the only hope on Earth that the Steelers could make the playoffs is through a wild-card then they should be nearly unstoppable.

Because every other team will be ludicrously overmatched compared to the Steelers. Unless through some complete freak-of-nature occurrence the Steelers manage to beat superior AFC opponents to get to the Superbowl only to face an NFC wildcard team who only got that far because all the other NFC teams they came up against either got food-poisoning the night before the game or came down with team-wide mono days before the game so they were unable to play at a level commensurate of a middle school team from an Ammish community.

Therefore the Steelers will be forced to walk into the Superbowl as hapless favorites against a team so mathematically overmatched that Vegas and anybody in their right mind knows instantly that Tomlin et al will have the Steelers taking horse-tranquilizers halfway into the 2nd quarter as a clever gimmick while playing Keisel at halfback and Deebo at flanker.

And as an electrifying NEW twist Tomlin will roll out his new shocker defensive weapon Big Ben, the Cover Corner of your Worst Nightmare! We call him "The Island!"

 

[Steel Ballin]

as bad as everyone says ben looked, he still completed 70% of his passes, with 3 drops and wheaton running the wrong route on two occassions.
The first INT was Bryant not coming back to the ball, rookie mistake, as pointed out by a sports talking head on the radio this morning. The 2nd pick was a horrible throw, but Wheaton is running across the middle with his hand up, Ben throws it and Wheaton quit on it, at least try to break the damn thing up.

as a coach, how do you look at jets (tough front 7, crap secondary), then look at what we have been doing well, throwing the ball downfield. After looking at that, how do you come to the conclusion that best game plan would be to challenge their front 7 with the running game and horizontal passes, instead of what we have been doing great?

This 100%. Every play seem to funnel right at the heart of their D....the strongest part..their D-line and inside backers. Absolutely asinine game plan.

 

[Badcat]

This team is so inconsistent it's hard to figure out if they're a bad team that has good games or a good team that has bad games. I think the Steelers are a team of egos, limited talent, and no leadership or direction. Hire a head coach with fire in his gut and passion exudes from his pores. Tomlin is a mouth piece. I loved him at first, but his **** is getting old.

 

[awboatguy]

What were your expectations after the 12-4 season and loss to the Tim Tebows? Then what was your expectation the year after the 8-8 season? Then after the next 8-8 season? Then this year. Then next year. Even if you don't think they are the pats* or broncos that means you think they are the 3rd best team in the AFC right? Shouldn't the 3rd best team win their division and win their home field playoff game? You think that is going to happen with this team?

We haven't been the same since we got Tebow'd.

 

[awboatguy]

This team is so inconsistent it's hard to figure out if they're a bad team that has good games or a good team that has bad games. I think the Steelers are a team of egos, limited talent, and no leadership or direction. Hire a head coach with fire in his gut and passion exudes from his pores. Tomlin is a mouth piece. I loved him at first, but his **** is getting old.

Very well stated Badcat.

 

[Vader]

We haven't been the same since we got Tebow'd.

They road the defense as far as they could. It was a typical BA offense scoring only 20 PPG. The defense gave up 30 points once all year. Just look at some of the opposition scoring: 0,0, 9, 3, 7, 9...... six games with a total of 28 points given up. They gave up 14.2 PPG for the year.

I don't think it was a mental thing after the loss. I think the talent level has dropped on defense and they haven't been able to fill the holes. Remember there is no one left from the 08 and 09 drafts.

 

[Wingman]

They road the defense as far as they could. It was a typical BA offense scoring only 20 PPG. The defense gave up 30 points once all year. Just look at some of the opposition scoring: 0,0, 9, 3, 7, 9...... six games with a total of 28 points given up. They gave up 14.2 PPG for the year.

I don't think it was a mental thing after the loss. I think the talent level has dropped on defense and they haven't been able to fill the holes. Remember there is no one left from the 08 and 09 drafts.

Great post vader. I also wanted to add that the rule changes have favored the offense and punished the defense more lately than in our years past that you quoted as well. Does not make your points less valid. But even with all that the defense only gave up 20 points last game and that should be good enough for a win. Gay missed an interception but it is likely that it would not have gone for a score and would have required effort from the offense.

In looking at the loss to the yets I drop that big steamer on the offensive side of the ball, they sucked the golf ball through the garden hose on game day that's for sure.

 

[Drink IRON City]

They road the defense as far as they could. It was a typical BA offense scoring only 20 PPG. The defense gave up 30 points once all year. Just look at some of the opposition scoring: 0,0, 9, 3, 7, 9...... six games with a total of 28 points given up. They gave up 14.2 PPG for the year.

I don't think it was a mental thing after the loss. I think the talent level has dropped on defense and they haven't been able to fill the holes. Remember there is no one left from the 08 and 09 drafts.

Great Post Vader, thank you for your knowledge. The rules have changed in favor of the Offense. I feel the rule changes have overly upset the balance between the offense and defense. The game of football was meant for both sides to have near the same advantage, with one exception, surprise. The surprise being the snap count / play call / etc.. Todays NFL is definitely tilted in the offense favor. That still doesn't allow sub-talent on defense. A strong defense, in different mode, than the old days of pure physical. Our talent has definitely shrunk, under this leadership. The opposing team's offense is going to score, as well as ours. Our defense just needs to keep them lower than our O, on game day. Who would have thought we needed the "D" to keep them to 4-field goals, this last sunday.



Salute the nation

 

[pevans1000]

I really want to like Tomlin. As a general rule, I have nothing but love for those who brought a title to the Burgh. I have given him the benefit of the doubt, recognizing that a downswing was likely given the commitment from ownership to keeping the team together as long as possible, and probably 1 or 2 years too long. That said, the problem of losing to really bad teams has gone too far. I will not trust this coaching staff until they get to the playoffs again and show they can develop a deep, young squad.

That said, I have been thinking about what causes this underachieving. The narrative that the coaching staff is unprepared or looks past teams, while convenient, does not strike me as on the mark. First, I don't have any reason to believe there was a lack of preparation and I have seen nothing from Tomlin to suggest a lack of drive. Coaches like Lebeau and even Haley have been around too long to get lackadaisical during 1of 16 weeks. While it would be grounds for termination if Tomlin and his staff did not adequately prepare for these games, I'm not ready to say that is the case.

I am actually going to go the other direction, which may be even more damning to the coaches, so please don't read this as excusing them from being accountable. I think the problem is that we don't treat these games like games we absolutely should not just win, but dominate. We routinely come out in conservative offensive an defensive gameplans that push us toward competitive games. This past week is a good example. Wed deferred (something I like most weeks but not when you could get up on a 1-8 team, turn Mike Vick into a passer and watch them quit), came out in a nickle, don't give up the deep ball defense that let them take a lot of time off the clock (but ultimately kept them out of the endzone), went run-run to start on offense and started horizontal, presumably to slow down the rush, etc. I think this team needs to act like the team we expected them to be and run blitz early, forcing Vick to beat them with his arm and then attacking the corners. It is not the Xs and Os, but the mentality. Prepare your team to dominate, gameplan to dominate and, assuming you really are teh better team, you should dominate 9 times out of 10. Prepare for a close battle and early mistakes will bury you.

 

[Wingman]

This 100%. Every play seem to funnel right at the heart of their D....the strongest part..their D-line and inside backers. Absolutely asinine game plan.

I would contend that there is no play that does not funnel right into the heart of this D. A down the field passing attack gets into this as well, they have a large number of sacks and hits on the qb, rushing the passer is one of their strengths. It would be hard for Ben to throw the ball while on his back. The defense gave up 20 points to a team that finally managed to stop giving the ball away. The defense dropped one interception. Due to injuries the defense was with out many players that had been starters or backups and was fielding the bottom of the roster. Looking at that holding the other team to 20 points was a decent accomplishment, not taking in the fact that the offense gave them the ball on multiple occasions with a short field!

The entire offense **** the bed. The offensive line, the receivers, the hall of fame quarterback. I wonder if all the extra work that had been talked about in previous games was not put in for this one. If that is the case it is solely on the *** hat players that choose not to put in the extra time. I believe that the scheduling of practices and study time for lack of a better phrase is limited by the collective bargaining agreement. This is an unknown and I am not sure how we would know but I will toss this one mostly on the players. Four turn overs, a muffed snap by Ben that netted a big loss can make the best game plan look like **** because it never gets to happen.

Past losses that the team looked foolish on are one thing, losses due to dumbassery by the coaches are another, this one was earned by an offensive unit that did not give a ****.

 

[Drink IRON City]

Here here Wingman, Great post. You could see exactly what you are saying by noticing the lackadaisical body language, of the offensive players. Getting up and walking back to huddle, when the clock wasn't your friend. Trying for the extra game breaker, when getting out of bounds should have been the real goal, cause 4 extra yards didn't mean as much as the 10seconds lost, back talking amongst the players. **** like that, is an unfocused, careless group. weather on Ben or top coach, it was still there and I could see it on a bar TV. Here's to more discipline in our next game, and lots of urgency to boot!!!!!!



Salute the nation