Reasons we lost are many. Here are a few observations from this game:
1) Tomlin and staff are simply not on the level that New England's coaching staff is and it shows. Their defense had a good plan to stop any big plays
2) Ben, again did not play his best in a road game. He had a good stretch in the 2nd quarter but overall I'd give him a C+ today. Nothing special from him.
3) Losing L. Bell hurt but it wasn't like they were using him a lot in the gameplan - more on this in a moment.
4) Sammie Coates better get an eye exam in the off-season. The guy had 3 balls hit both hands and he missed all three. I wasn't a big fan of the first drive, 3rd and 1 call but Ben put the ball on his hands on that deeper pass. He has to catch that. Should have run Bell on that 3rd and 1, especially since he picked up 9 in 2 runs and seemed to be finding holes. No momentum to start the game.
5) WR unit has to be better next year. Coates dropped several. Hamilton dropped a TD. This team needs 2 more dependable weapons in the passing game. Lots of questions with Bryant, Coates, Rogers, Ayers and a very expensive TE who can't seem to find the field.
6) Offensive play calling in this game was rather lackluster and predictable. Haley has his moments but tonight wasn't one of them. He needs to expand his game a bit.
7) Defense - Butler was taken to school just like his previous boss was. Played the same system and got the same result. Is it arrogance or ignorance?
8) Defense - New England wins on the scheme matchup. Pittsburgh cannot cover Julian Edelman with Lawrence Timmons and yet they try over and over again. We cannot cover any New England WR with James Harrison and yet we try. We fail on scheme. I'm going to say it out loud. The 3-4 zone matchup does not work against Belichek anymore. If it ever worked, that game was played prior to 1999. He's figured out how to exploit this system with this personnel package. We cannot cover WR with outside linebackers like the ones on this roster. If we want to cover WR with LB then we better start drafting smaller and faster LB. Why, why, why will the Steelers not line up in press man-to-man, and blitz Brady every play. Hit him repeatedly because when that happens he doesn't like it and can get rattled. The pretty boy can't stand contact. Sure, we give up some big plays for scores but guess what - we give up scores anyway.
9) Defense - No pressure, no pressure, no pressure all night. One reason is our DB are 10 yards off the line of scrimmage so Brady can dump the ball immediately. We don't cover the short pass and we don't get pressure. Game was lost before it was played.
10) Defense -the secondary looked lost and out of sorts many times tonight, left several completely uncovered. Maybe Butler was drunk when he put the game plan together? Were the signals not getting in correctly? Who knows but it sure looked like our defense was running different plays on the same play. Looked bad.
11) Todd Haley should never be permitted to call another play from the 1 yard line. Never. Ever.
12) 22-0. 22 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. That should be tattooed on Tomlin's and Butler's foreheads. That screams having a bad plan and then being too stubborn to change it. They have no clue how to stop Brady but they have certainly figured out what Brady likes to play against.
Frustrated like all of you but it's worse when you see a team that is so badly out-coached every time these teams match up. Even if we had better players, it's not going to matter until the scheme against the Patriots changes.
See you at the Draft.
