Regarding observations that "It's not the coach's fault" ... I respond.

[topseed]

Suisham missed a 23rd yard FG and can't kick an on-sides kick to save his life.

You mean except for the onside kick that he hit perfectly right before that, when they were offsides, right?

 

[Rival Sons]

The Jets outgained us 164-5 in the first quarter, that is all on our head coach who again had us unprepared and flat to start a game.

 

[Idioteque]

Disagree.

In that situation, a 1st down is comparatively easy. A TD is a very high probability outcome with the 1st down. The chances of a TD in going for it there is high.

On the other hand, the chances of a TD where the Steelers have the ball later in the game at the Jets' 25 yard line is much, much, much lower, while the chances of a field goal are very high.

Trailing by 17 on the road in the 4th quarter, the challenge is to find the 2 TD's. The field goal cannot be the score that drives the team's thinking. The field goal is the score than can be found with no timeouts, two moderate completions and 35 yards of offense ... like the team did in the 2nd quarter.

In that situation, what are the chances the team can find a TD? Basically zero in my eyes. Get the goddam TD when you have the ball inside the the 10 yard line.

Right, but if you fail there, you pretty much lose. Difference is two scores or three scores. And I can't call a 4th-and-9 easy or high-probability.

 

[awboatguy]

These are professional football players. Quit treating them like high schoolers that need somebody to scream at them to get them motivated. Man the **** up and get yourself ready to play. Game planning is the coaches responsibility the week leading up the game. Walking out between the white lines on Sunday and performing better than the guy lined up across from you in your responsibility. It's a weak minded team. Does Tomlin and the staff share the blame? Yeah, they do but I put a a lot more onus on players getting embarrassed on Sundays. Play like you have some ******* pride! I didn't see a whole lot of getting outsmarted by trickery or wrinkles in the gameplan by the Jets today. I saw guys getting beat out there, missing tons of tackles and making horrible decisions with the football. My biggest beef with the coaching today was not attacking the weak DB's of the Jets all day long.

Players need to play, but coaches are the tacticians who prepare, ensure it's rehearsed, and make adjustments during the plans execution to ensure the team is in a position to win. Tomlin never does that. His record speaks for itself in games like this. One constant core over the past several years is Ben, Tomlin, and LeBeau. You're right. It's probably Ben.

 

[Gareth]

reminds me of the Bruce days...

The Bruce went deep way too often with no play action at all.

Haley seems to forget that deep is an option at all.


With our weapons we should air it out at least once a quarter.

It will back them up and open the run...

Which, of course, will open the play action deep ball.

It's not rocket surgery....keep balanced enough to keep the d guessing and USE ALL YOUR WEAPONS EVERY ******* GAME!!!

 

[steelhurt]

The head coach must take responsibility for his team's play on the field. This is a bush league coach who has no business being a head coach in the NFL. If he coached for any other team his *** would be so hot now and would well be on his way to unemployment after the season.

 

[Bigappleyinzer]

The head coach must take responsibility for his team's play on the field. This is a bush league coach who has no business being a head coach in the NFL. If he coached for any other team his *** would be so hot now and would well be on his way to unemployment after the season.

You clearly have a hard on for Tomlin. For you to suggest that a coach who is sitting at 6-4 and in the middle of the playoff should and would be on the hot seat, is borderline redicuolous.

We should not have lost yesterday- Obviously. But you can stop with the hyperbole.

 

[steelhurt]

You clearly have a hard on for Tomlin. For you to suggest that a coach who is sitting at 6-4 and in the middle of the playoff should and would be on the hot seat, is borderline redicuolous.

We should not have lost yesterday- Obviously. But you can stop with the hyperbole.

Its the same trend year in and out. They play down to the teams they should beat. They have lost to two teams that have a combined win total of 3 games this year. Its not about being 6-4, its about not being consistent and beating teams that everyone else has beaten and that you should beat. These are the games that keep you out of the playoffs. Ask the team about last year when they went 8-8 if they only had one more win. Yep, they lost to a bad Raiders team, a bad Browns team, a bad Vikings team, a bad Titans team. If you want mediocrity then by all means Tomlin is your man. You can go through with blinders on but he's the issue with this team. This is his team, his players through some of the most horrific drafts this team has ever known, and his poor F/A acquisitions. They are what they are and the only saving grace is Ben. Take him out of the equation and Tomlin would have been booted long ago. Cowher won with average to below average QB's but he managed to win. Imagine a team going to the SB and nearly beating a great Cowboy team with Neil O'Donnell.

What you had here is the Rooney's getting too arrogant and hiring a guy that was clearly not qualified. Had you ever even heard of Tomlin before he interviewed with the Steelers? I'll bet you hadn't. He came from virtually out the blue. They hire this guy with the table set with players from Cowher's era still in their prime. All he had to do was stay the **** out of the way. What he proceeded to do was draft terribly and not make one significant F/A signing worth a damn. The only thing giving this team any hope is Ben and when he goes if this guy is still around, then watch out.

 

[wig]

Unacceptable for a team that wants to contend for the playoffs.

That's over now.

It's not going to happen. With a Titans loss next week, leading to 6-5 we have a run of games that we can't win.

Saints, Bengals (twice), Falcons and Chiefs. We can't beat the Browns, the Bucs or the Jets. You seriously think we're going to beat ANY of those guys or at least enough of them to make the playoffs?

Honestly?

This team doesn't have enough focus to string two wins together. I love that they got the record for Roethlisberger, but that was the Steeler superbowl. Enjoy it. Do your first-down celebration thing like AB. Because this team does NOT have the focus to string enough wins together against REAL teams to get to the playoffs.

The JETS put 17 points up on this team before they even got off the ******* BUS. Do you think they're going to beat the Saints? Or the Bengals? Or the Chiefs? Sure, they may win one or two of those games. They may manage to squeak out a 9 win season and make Tomlin look like a freaking super-hero.

**** we'll be on an upswing.

This team lacks focus. I don't know how they get it back. But they need it. There is no reason on heaven or earth they should lose that game. Aside from the fact that they just aren't GOOD ENOUGH to beat the Jets. And if they aren't good enough to beat the Jets right now, they sure as hell aren't going to beat the Saints or the Bengals or the Falcons or the Chiefs with enough wins to crawl into the post-season.

So take that **** to your bulletin board Mike. Shut up with your bullshit rhetoric. You cant' coach. You can't motivate. You can't gameplan. Your players aren't talented enough to overcome your shortcomings. They aren't good enough to simply beat the guys across from them. It all comes down to a mediocre team with less than mediocre leadership. IE 8-8.

I do appreciate the records though and I do love the team. I don't care that you're mediocre. You're my mediocre football team and I'll support you anyway. I'm just not going to sit here and pretend you're a playoff caliber team. You don't deserve a trophy just for showing up. The other team just kicked your ***. Go home and mow the lawn.

 

[Bigappleyinzer]

Its the same trend year in and out. They play down to the teams they should beat. They have lost to two teams that have a combined win total of 3 games this year. Its not about being 6-4, its about not being consistent and beating teams that everyone else has beaten and that you should beat. These are the games that keep you out of the playoffs. Ask the team about last year when they went 8-8 if they only had one more win. Yep, they lost to a bad Raiders team, a bad Browns team, a bad Vikings team, a bad Titans team. If you want mediocrity then by all means Tomlin is your man. You can go through with blinders on but he's the issue with this team. This is his team, his players through some of the most horrific drafts this team has ever known, and his poor F/A acquisitions. They are what they are and the only saving grace is Ben. Take him out of the equation and Tomlin would have been booted long ago. Cowher won with average to below average QB's but he managed to win. Imagine a team going to the SB and nearly beating a great Cowboy team with Neil O'Donnell.

What you had here is the Rooney's getting too arrogant and hiring a guy that was clearly not qualified. Had you ever even heard of Tomlin before he interviewed with the Steelers? I'll bet you hadn't. He came from virtually out the blue. They hire this guy with the table set with players from Cowher's era still in their prime. All he had to do was stay the **** out of the way. What he proceeded to do was draft terribly and not make one significant F/A signing worth a damn. The only thing giving this team any hope is Ben and when he goes if this guy is still around, then watch out.

Wow-

First and foremost, how was/is Tomlin so unqualified when he has taken us to 2 SB with a 0.630 winning percentage. Yep! Clearly the Rooney's made a mistake there.

Also, lets stop with this Cowher's players crap. Do people say Gruden only won his SB b/c of Dungy players? Or that Jim Harbaugh is only succeeding b/c of Singeltary's players? No. Players are not self coached from years prior. Hampton wasnt thinking, "oh man, what would Cowher have me do in this situation". The only problem we have was not getting rid of these guys and offering aging superstars big contracts that has hemmed our salary cap. We got guys like Heath and Troy, who are 30+ and wouldnt even start for most teams, making over 5mm/year. Which makes FA slightly more difficult.

Lastly- check '08, '10, '11, '12. I think we may have lost to one team below 0.500. You know why? Because we were a young talented team. While the last couple of years we have been old and average (0.500) at best. So why is it so hard to comprehend how we could lost to bad teams? We simply were not very good. For crissakes- our offense for 4 games last year featured 2 RB's that are no longer in the league!

 

[Vader]

The reason why people don't say Gruden won a SB with Dungy's players is because Dungy didn't win with them. Nobody say Harbaugh is winning with Singletary's players is because Singletary didn't win with them and most of them are gone now. Singletary didn't coach that long and drafted very few players. He was hired mid season one year.

Also if you think getting rid of Cowher's players sooner would have helped then you are delusional. Hell Tomlin has to call them back because he can't draft or coach up anyone to play. He called back Harrison and Keisel.

 

[Coryea]

Umm off the top of my head, we lost to Oakland, Tenn, Cleveland, Dallas, and the Chargers in 2012

 

[mightyguru]

Haley's playcalling, at times, is a huge head-scratcher for me.

 

[steelhurt]

Wow-

First and foremost, how was/is Tomlin so unqualified when he has taken us to 2 SB with a 0.630 winning percentage. Yep! Clearly the Rooney's made a mistake there.

Also, lets stop with this Cowher's players crap. Do people say Gruden only won his SB b/c of Dungy players? Or that Jim Harbaugh is only succeeding b/c of Singeltary's players? No. Players are not self coached from years prior. Hampton wasnt thinking, "oh man, what would Cowher have me do in this situation". The only problem we have was not getting rid of these guys and offering aging superstars big contracts that has hemmed our salary cap. We got guys like Heath and Troy, who are 30+ and wouldnt even start for most teams, making over 5mm/year. Which makes FA slightly more difficult.

Lastly- check '08, '10, '11, '12. I think we may have lost to one team below 0.500. You know why? Because we were a young talented team. While the last couple of years we have been old and average (0.500) at best. So why is it so hard to comprehend how we could lost to bad teams? We simply were not very good. For crissakes- our offense for 4 games last year featured 2 RB's that are no longer in the league!

You just said it in your last paragraph; thank you! Those years were with players that still had productive playing time. They're for the most gone now give or take a Ben and Heath on offense, Ike and Troy on defense. Ike and Troy are merely shells of themselves. As for Harrison and Kiesel, these were desperation moves because these players drafted by your Tomlin haven't quite cut it have they? They got old which happens to all teams but a good leader reloads. Cowher continued to reload with talented players but aside from the WR position, it hasn't happened here. You want to go though your years believing in this guy, that fine, your prerogative. Not me, I'm not sold and have never been. He's had 8 years to reload and keep adding talent but he has built a mediocre team and if you like mediocrity, he's your man.

 

[Coryea]

OK, let's not call them Cowher's players, let's call them the players that were here when he took over. Ben, Troy still the best safety on this team, IKE is our no. 1 CB, Miller our best TE, Keisel and Harrison had to be brought back in. It's clearly easy to see as those players that were here before he got here leave the team gets worse.

 

[Coryea]

Why leave 2009 out? Were we young and hungry in 2008 and 2010, but not in 2009?

 

[wig]

Uh. I gotta say BigApple, in the last 2 years 10 games Tomlin and staff have been .520

He's had ample time to make some moves. He's nowhere near .620 lately.

 

[Bigappleyinzer]

Why leave 2009 out? Were we young and hungry in 2008 and 2010, but not in 2009?

I was allowing for some SB hangover- but if you want to be a dick...

Using that argument, I could say that Tomlin took an under-performing 8-8 squad and made them into division champs his first year.

 

[Steeltime]

Right, but if you fail there, you pretty much lose. Difference is two scores or three scores. And I can't call a 4th-and-9 easy or high-probability.

I am speaking of the 4th and 2, earlier in the quarter.

After the quarter change, when I saw the field goal unit on the field, I did other things.

Tomlin can go @$%& himself. 4th and 2, opponent's 6 yard line, down by 17, on the road, and you KICK A GODDAM FIELD GOAL???

 

[steelhurt]

Yes, what about 2009 Appleyinzer? I guess we got old for a year then. Tom is correct, leave Cowher out of the equation. Point being Tomlin has had 8 drafts and F/A opportunities to reload but what has he done? Ziggy Hood was his best impression of Aaron Smith, Uncle Jarvis was supposed to be James Harrison impersonator, Mike Adams was supposed to be that next great LT we've been looking for, Steve McClendon was supposed to make us put Big Snack in our rear view mirrors, Jason Worrlids was supposed to be that young talented consistent Lamar Woodley before he got fat and lazy, and Cortez Allen was supposed to make us forget about Keenan who? Of course lets not forget about the F/A's that Tomlin has brought in. Wait, I don't see anything resembling a James Farrior, a Jerome Bettis who was brought in via trade, a Mewelde Moore, a Ryan Clarke, a Jeff Hartings, a Kevin Greene. No we have Mike Mitchell, Artie Moats, Cam Thomas. Great job of reloading Tomlin. No one left from the 2008 and 2009 drafts. That's great! There should be guys here now starting from those drafts. But I forgot, we went to two super bowls with Tomlin. What do you want to bet if Tomlin is hire as coach of say the Jags 8 seasons ago where he literally would have to build the team from scratch, or even the Bucs, he would have never sniffed a SB. He'd would have been an assistant somewhere because we would have been fired long ago.

 

[Steeltime]

Wow-

First and foremost, how was/is Tomlin so unqualified when he has taken us to 2 SB with a 0.630 winning percentage. Yep! Clearly the Rooney's made a mistake there.

So what winning percentage would you find unacceptable? Please, share with us.

If that winning percentage is below .521, then you may want to re-think your Tomlin support.

Also, lets stop with this Cowher's players crap.

Even if the observation is 100% correct? Stop, because it hurts your feelings?

21 of the 22 starters on the 2008 team were drafted, developed, and/or obtained by Cowher.

Repeat - 21 out of 22. 95.4%.

The team is now Tomlin's. The holdovers are Ben, Heath, Troy, Ike, and Kiesel. Oh, those are 5 of the best 12 players on the team, I submit - 8 effing years since Cowher left. 8 years is a freaking eternity in the NFL, and 5 of the better players on the team are holdovers from Cowher.

And as Tomlin's players - Ziggy Hood, Timmons, Mitchell, Allen, Thomas, Pouncey, Beachum, et al. - take over, the team gets worse.

2012: 8-8 with losses to the Titans, Browns, Cowboys, Chargers.
2013: 8-8 with losses to the Titans, Vikings, Raiders and Dolphins.
2014: 6-4 with losses to the Buccaneers and Jets.

22-20 record, where any decent coach should have won 7 of those embarrassing losses.

We are not posting our Tomlin criticism if he simply did what every other NFL coach seems to be able to do - win 70% of the games against dogshit opponents, and post a 29-13 record and at least 2 playoff berths in these seasons.

He can't, so he deserves every gram of criticism directed at him. The idea that he took over a Super Bowl roster, with a franchise QB, 3 future HOF talents still in their prime, a dominant defense, and won a ton of games with those players - none of whom he had any role in developing - somehow immunizes him from criticism is just wrong.

 

[Bigappleyinzer]

Uh. I gotta say BigApple, in the last 2 years 10 games Tomlin and staff have been .520

He's had ample time to make some moves. He's nowhere near .620 lately.

This is the problem right here with some of you-

We are 0.520 during a transition period and some of you are pretending as if we are severely underperforming. What was Cowher’s record when he was turning over the roster? Hell- there is probably 28 teams that would love a transition period that kept them in playoff contention.

I know the argument will be- “bu bu bu but we have Ben, we shouldn’t have down years!”. Well Ben was half the reason we lost yesterday! Can you imagine Peyton/Brady/Rodgers playing like Ben did yesterday? Rodgers and Brady throw for a combined 6 TDs with 0 int’s against the same defense that we struggled to move the ball against.

The team is slowly coming together, but these reactionary threads are getting ridiculous. At first everyone thinks we are a 8-8 team going thru some growing pains. Then we string together some wins, now everyone is expecting no less than a 1st round bye. We lose yesterday, now everyone is back to their 6-10 predictions. Its almost comical.

 

[Bigappleyinzer]

So what winning percentage would you find unacceptable? Please, share with us.

If that winning percentage is below .521, then you may want to re-think your Tomlin support.



Even if the observation is 100% correct? Stop, because it hurts your feelings?

21 of the 22 starters on the 2008 team were drafted, developed, and/or obtained by Cowher.

Repeat - 21 out of 22. 95.4%.

The team is now Tomlin's. The holdovers are Ben, Heath, Troy, Ike, and Kiesel. Oh, those are 5 of the best 12 players on the team, I submit - 8 effing years since Cowher left. 8 years is a freaking eternity in the NFL, and 5 of the better players on the team are holdovers from Cowher.

And as Tomlin's players - Ziggy Hood, Timmons, Mitchell, Allen, Thomas, Pouncey, Beachum, et al. - take over, the team gets worse.

2012: 8-8 with losses to the Titans, Browns, Cowboys, Chargers.
2013: 8-8 with losses to the Titans, Vikings, Raiders and Dolphins.
2014: 6-4 with losses to the Buccaneers and Jets.

22-20 record, where any decent coach should have won 7 of those embarrassing losses.

We are not posting our Tomlin criticism if he simply did what every other NFL coach seems to be able to do - win 70% of the games against dogshit opponents, and post a 29-13 record and at least 2 playoff berths in these seasons.

He can't, so he deserves every gram of criticism directed at him. The idea that he took over a Super Bowl roster, with a franchise QB, 3 future HOF talents still in their prime, a dominant defense, and won a ton of games with those players - none of whom he had any role in developing - somehow immunizes him from criticism is just wrong.

Dude, stop it. Those 4 wouldn’t even be starting on most other teams. The only reason we still are holding on to them is because:

1.) We gave them idiotic contracts and cant get rid of them
2.) or they were the best we could get (hometown discount) b/c our salary cap is so fukked

Those dont really sound like coaching issues...

Like I said before- you obviously have a hard on for Tomlin. Cowher had the same down season as MT, but I find hilarious that you are struggling to give Tomlin the same time to right the ship. Lots of season to be played

 

[TDX27]

There was definitely execution issues (4 fumbles) but, year in, year out, to lose to teams like this goes right to the team not being prepared. I don't know if they take the week off and don't practice or what but you must look at the coaches not having the team prepared to execute in these games. 3 years in a row with different players and still the same result. This is inexcusable and, to me, still must have all coaches on the hot seat.

 

[Vader]

Dude, stop it. Those 4 wouldn’t even be starting on most other teams. The only reason we still are holding on to them is because:

1.) We gave them idiotic contracts and cant get rid of them
2.) or they were the best we could get (hometown discount) b/c our salary cap is so fukked

Those dont really sound like coaching issues...

Like I said before- you obviously have a hard on for Tomlin. Cowher had the same down season as MT, but I find hilarious that you are struggling to give Tomlin the same time to right the ship. Lots of season to be played

Name the contract. Who can't they get rid of. And please explain why the salary cap is ******. I'd love to hear this.