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Midseason positives

M

madinsomniac

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So here we are after week 9, halfway through the season... plenty to ***** about, but lets look at some massive positives instead

1. The team is in first place in the division, with a two game lead over the ravens and 2.5 over the Bengals

2.The team has the two best wins in the division. A win over New England, and a win over the Colts... both 7-2 and division leaders.
- the browns boast the next best win... amazingly vs Green Bay... their other win is vs a bad miami team

- the Ravens have 3 wins... their best is vs the 5-3 bears... but the bears havent beaten a team with a winning record yet this season, in fact of the three teams they beat, those teams only have one collective win vs a team with a winning record, the aforementioned Browns win vs GB

-The bengals have two ok wins, Vs the steelers and vs the Jags when Burrow was still playing.


3. The offense seems to be actually NFL quality this year...

4. The Special teams are overall having maybe their best collective season under Tomlin. Nothing great outside of Field goals, but no weaknesses either...

5. The Oline has gotten miles better than it was in the first quarter of the season

6. Rodgers isnt totally spent yet

7. They are using Washington more and more.

8. The D, for all its flaws, is averaging 2 takeaways per game.

9. I believe Mike Tomlin is 5 wins away from Tying Noll for the team regular season victories, and 13 away from tying the total win record, so getting to 10-7 this year and next will give him both records.

10. The Trade deadline is two days away abd we are probably buyers... thats exciting!
 
The O is holding up their end, averaging about 27 ppg, about one TD more than last year.
The D has been pretty bad until today when they got 6 turnovers but continued their trend of allowing a lot of points in the 4th quarter.
 
Ron Burgundy said:
The O is holding up their end, averaging about 27 ppg, about one TD more than last year.
The D has been pretty bad until today when they got 6 turnovers but continued their trend of allowing a lot of points in the 4th quarter.
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To be fair, a lot of teams are sieves in the 4th

A few years back defenses finally fundamentally adjusted to the dink and dunk offenses that were killing it in the 2010's... but now offenses adjusted again, mostly by going hyper aggressive... the flood defense Cinci popularized when going to the super bowl ultimately might have forced Offenses to get more technical and challenge coverages more. Qbs throw into tighter windows and arent as scared off by presnap looks that are fake...

Most offenses arent afraid of turnovers anymore. And there are loads more dummy routes built to pull off coverage.

I mean teams like Cinci throw at coverages all day long expecting them either to break down when stressed or to have their guys make an absurd play... but most teams trailing are extremely willing to force balls and frankly most Ds are not built to handle that well...

Every week we see absurd comebacks now

We just backed the wrong horse going defense first in an offensive league
 
So one of the less quoted, but important stats in sports is SOV ( strength of victory) its similar to strength of schedule, but only incorporates teams a team beat.
It can be easily skewered... but if you know what to look for, it is a useful stat to show overall quality of wins.... and actually a key tiebreaker.

Right now the Giants lead the NFL in it by a wide margin... the Giants suck, but their two victories are against the 6-3 chargers and the 6-2 Eagles
That means their SOV is .705 (12 wins out of 17 games)

Its actually typical for real bad teams to lead in this, cause often their one or two wins often come vs good teams for some reason, while better teams are dragged down by beating scrubs

For that reason its best to look at it in two groups, teams with winning records and teams with losing records.

Among teams with winning records, only the Eagles and Steelers have a SOV at .500 or higher right now...
 
A W is a W, I'll take it all day. To make Taylor a non-factor in a season he is a legit MVP candidate was impressive. Just hoping that terrible loss to the effing Bungles doesn't cost them down the road. This season will come down to the two Ratbird games. I can't imagine many people here thought they were winning that game today. A nice win in the conference.
 
Chicoman said:
Never! Never ever compare Mike Tomlin to The Emperor Chaz! I don't care how many wins Tomlin has.....he will never! NEVER EVER be better than Chuck Noll!
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I mean, Shottenheimer has 200 wins and he isnt better than most of the top 20 win coaches... Emmit Smith has more rushing yards than any other Back, but talent wise, he couldnt hold the jock strap of most of the top 10 backs in league history... Frank Gore is 3rd all time... above Barry Sanders...

Individual Records are nice but they dont mean you are overall better
 
Chicoman said:
Never! Never ever compare Mike Tomlin to The Emperor Chaz! I don't care how many wins Tomlin has.....he will never! NEVER EVER be better than Chuck Noll!
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Exactly Chico! It all began with the Emperor. Prior to his arrival things were definitely ****** up in Steelerland.
He knew how to build championship football teams and it started with Mean Joe Green.
 
They absolutely must stack a couple more wins together here by kicking the Charger’s *** and then avenging the earlier loss to the Bengals.
Tomlin must keep this defense on an upward trajectory and not revert to what it was.
The offense I think badly needs a weapon, a WR to take some heat away from DK.
They need to get Muth more involved and Jonnu Smith as well. If they’re not going to utilize Jonnu then dangle him in a trade with a draft pick to try and get a good WR.
Do something to help this offense please. You can see the frustration on Aaron’s face at times like what the **** are we doing here?
 
1. Aaron Rodgers has played well and been good in leadership role as well.
2. An improved running game. It's nice to have a RB capable of gaining over 4.0 YPC.
3. The offense has played better this year, particularly putting up points.
4. Sometimes it's been slow, but we've seen both the offensive and defensive coaching staffs make adjustments this season.
5. 2 of 3 losses have come against very good NFC teams.
6. The Steelers are currently leading the division and in the playoff picture.
7. They've achieved this with the defense playing awful for most of the season.
 
Steelmann said:
I’d have to say our best positive compared to last season has to be the OLine. Without the improvement,Rodgers probably would have been injured by now.
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Not convinced they’re much better, Rodgers is getting rid of the ball in record time and the run game is averaging 3.8 YPC.
 
SteelerFan448 said:
1. Aaron Rodgers has played well and been good in leadership role as well.
2. An improved running game. It's nice to have a RB capable of gaining over 4.0 YPC.
3. The offense has played better this year, particularly putting up points.
4. Sometimes it's been slow, but we've seen both the offensive and defensive coaching staffs make adjustments this season.
5. 2 of 3 losses have come against very good NFC teams.
6. The Steelers are currently leading the division and in the playoff picture.
7. They've achieved this with the defense playing awful for most of the season.
Click to expand...
Take away the Bengals game and he is averaging 3.5 yards a carry in 7 games he has broken 50 yards 3 times. cincy 127. packers 62. browns 52. 4 of 7 games he failed to achieve 3.5 ypc. colts. 1.9 ypc, pats 2.6 ypc, seahawks and jets 3.4 ypc. the cincy game at 7.9 ypc has skewed his stats.

Sorry just not a fan of JW. he is not a feature back. I will be shocked if he hits a 1000 yrds this year and smart money says he will not have a 4 ypc avg.

everything else in your post is spot on but I just don't think Warren will even match the numbers Harris put up let alone beat them. not saying that we should have extended Harris I just wish we would have got an upgrade via trade or FA not give Warren more money to put up the same or maybe even worse numbers than Najee.
 
warriors42 said:
Take away the Bengals game and he is averaging 3.5 yards a carry in 7 games he has broken 50 yards 3 times. cincy 127. packers 62. browns 52. 4 of 7 games he failed to achieve 3.5 ypc. colts. 1.9 ypc, pats 2.6 ypc, seahawks and jets 3.4 ypc. the cincy game at 7.9 ypc has skewed his stats.

Sorry just not a fan of JW. he is not a feature back. I will be shocked if he hits a 1000 yrds this year and smart money says he will not have a 4 ypc avg.

everything else in your post is spot on but I just don't think Warren will even match the numbers Harris put up let alone beat them. not saying that we should have extended Harris I just wish we would have got an upgrade via trade or FA not give Warren more money to put up the same or maybe even worse numbers than Najee.
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I think they are rotating him with the other backs as they should. Less important for me who is the lead back more so are they using them effectively while managing their snaps? They seem to be doing just that. I also don’t see him as a featured back on an island but a featured back within a rotation? I am fine with it.
 
warriors42 said:
Take away the Bengals game and he is averaging 3.5 yards a carry in 7 games he has broken 50 yards 3 times. cincy 127. packers 62. browns 52. 4 of 7 games he failed to achieve 3.5 ypc. colts. 1.9 ypc, pats 2.6 ypc, seahawks and jets 3.4 ypc. the cincy game at 7.9 ypc has skewed his stats.

Sorry just not a fan of JW. he is not a feature back. I will be shocked if he hits a 1000 yrds this year and smart money says he will not have a 4 ypc avg.

everything else in your post is spot on but I just don't think Warren will even match the numbers Harris put up let alone beat them. not saying that we should have extended Harris I just wish we would have got an upgrade via trade or FA not give Warren more money to put up the same or maybe even worse numbers than Najee.
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No no no no no.
Coach and Lloyd both told us for years that najee sucked. 3.9YPC! They both said JW was indeed the better back if only our stupid coaches could see thst!!
Both of those posters could not be wrong
 
WindyCitySteel said:
Not convinced they’re much better, Rodgers is getting rid of the ball in record time and the run game is averaging 3.8 YPC.
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I definitely think they have improved from last season. I’m not saying they are pro bowlers. But the arrow is pointing up rather than the downward trend it’s been in for years. Yes Rodgers is getting rid of it fast. Just like Ben was doing his last couple years. Personally I think they are calling way too many of those behind the line of scrimmage passes. I believe they should be throwing it down the field more. I also think Rodgers has panicked a few times and got rid of the old pigskin too fast. A little bit of happy feet. We will see. I think the OLine is getting better each game. We will have to agree to disagree. 🍻
 
Steelmann said:
I definitely think they have improved from last season. I’m not saying they are pro bowlers. But the arrow is pointing up rather than the downward trend it’s been in for years. Yes Rodgers is getting rid of it fast. Just like Ben was doing his last couple years. Personally I think they are calling way too many of those behind the line of scrimmage passes. I believe they should be throwing it down the field more. I also think Rodgers has panicked a few times and got rid of the old pigskin too fast. A little bit of happy feet. We will see. I think the OLine is getting better each game. We will have to agree to disagree. 🍻
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I agree with this. I've seen some clean pockets that Rodgers has danced around in when he had the chance to step up and make a throw.
 
Steelmann said:
I definitely think they have improved from last season. I’m not saying they are pro bowlers. But the arrow is pointing up rather than the downward trend it’s been in for years. Yes Rodgers is getting rid of it fast. Just like Ben was doing his last couple years. Personally I think they are calling way too many of those behind the line of scrimmage passes. I believe they should be throwing it down the field more. I also think Rodgers has panicked a few times and got rid of the old pigskin too fast. A little bit of happy feet. We will see. I think the OLine is getting better each game. We will have to agree to disagree. 🍻
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I mean, thats just offense in the NFL now. Defenses are all about the pass rush so teams do lots of quick stuff to slow them down and get them into coverage more
 
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