I still can't quite wrap my head around it. Week 17 we go into Cleveland with our backup QB, minus our two best players on defense, with nothing to play for against a team fighting for their playoffs lives and we play a competitive game and almost win it. Then the very next week against the very same team in a "one and done" situation we are at basically full strength at home and we totally **** the bed in an embarrassing loss. Thats complacency. Thats mailing it in. Thats a lack of pride that starts at the top and is endemic in the organization. Changes have to be made and ownership needs to be held accountable to make them.
What a difference a week makes
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No, we actually played a worse team on Sunday night. No head coach and missing a bunch of other coaches, all backups on the OL, missing other key defenders.
Tomlin doesn't need to have any urgency to win, he's nice and comfy in his position. He knows he isn't going anywhere.
I will be honest the loss does not surprise me at all. They simply from a football standpoint were a smoke and mirrors team trying to hide glaring weaknesses. Like if you can't run. Especially if you cannot run at all when they know you will likely run, you got a big problem. The magnitude of the loss was more than I expected, but that was turnovers. Looking a tit in hindsight, the coach needed to slow it down, simplified the offense and just let them get their feet under themselves instead of compounding the problem.
And lack of any kind of defense.
I always like being in a situation where we have something to play for right up until the end of the season. I would rather see starters rested throughout the year once games are well in hand, eg pulling Ben in the 4th quarter to allow playing time for backups. Never been a big proponent of sitting players for the final game especially if it has meaning to the other team making the playoffs. It is not like we had played decent football in a month or so except for the 2nd half vs COLTS... We did not do everything in our power to eliminate Cleveland in week 17 and it came back to bite us in the *** in the playoffs. The first play of the game set the tone and it snowballed. It was an embarrassing loss to end a season for a team that started off 11-0. I agree changes need to be made. We have an important year ahead and huge decisions to make. Better to start sooner than later with those HUGE ones.
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All smiles when that direct deposit hits,I'm sure. It will be the same next year and the year after. That culture is set in stone. You can actually tell which teams really want to win a championship. The Steelers haven't been one of those in a long time. You only need to look at what preparation goes into it. Steamed garbage? Maybe a beer chugging contest? It looks like absolutely nothing ever and always. It sucks.
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You could say similar things about their performance against the jags in their previous playoff debacle 3 years ago:
-turnovers out the ***
-outcoached, outmotivated, outprepared
-we were the less physical team by a mile
-long periods of the game where the entire team had its head up its *** leading to easy opponent scores
-laying an egg at home against an inferior roster
-Steeler players running their mouth in the lead up to the game and clearly giving the other team bulletin board material
All goes back to leadership
-turnovers out the ***
-outcoached, outmotivated, outprepared
-we were the less physical team by a mile
-long periods of the game where the entire team had its head up its *** leading to easy opponent scores
-laying an egg at home against an inferior roster
-Steeler players running their mouth in the lead up to the game and clearly giving the other team bulletin board material
All goes back to leadership
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You are not going to win any game when you airmail Snap 20yds on the first play for a TD, then follow it up with 4INTs. You guys are living in a fantasy world where you thought we had a chance in this game.
I just rewatched the game, and this game was never close, and the only play we could have had a lead, the entire game, was the opening kickoff...
I just rewatched the game, and this game was never close, and the only play we could have had a lead, the entire game, was the opening kickoff...
We score a TD instead of punting on 4th and 1 and it is a one score game. Despite the turnovers, the Steelers win that game if they have ANY resemblance of a defense.
I agree, we should have gone for it on 4th and 1, and that is on Tomlin. But we weren't winning that game, especially since the Browns forgot they could run the ball until the very next drive...
I can't help to wonder what the outcome would have been if Butler called the defense. Because if Butler called it on the last regular season game, and Tomlin in the playoff game, he has some splainin to do Lucy.
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I wouldn't have the stomach to rewatch this one. And I've rewatched losses. It also seems to me that all their problems happened between the hash marks. All their success happened from the hashmark to the sidelines. And two corners out might have had something to do with that. Which begs, why weren't they living outside the numbers at the beginning of the game. Like I agree, the oversnap was huge and by the way that should have only been a huge loss and punt. Ben and Conner stood and looked at each other there. But that is seven points. Which is easily made up later if you don't compound the problems. Another hidden gem was calling timeout before half when Cleveland appeared to be content with their lead. That really took wind out even though the Steelers recouped 3 on the late field goal. Like I said many times Tomlin has zero feel. **** just blows up in his face non stop.
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We have seen this over and over and over and over and over again. Year after year after year after year after year after year.... It's a broken record, but we talk about the same exact things and they never change. They certainly never change in season. It's like they start the season with a certain script for the way they'll play and never deviate from it. It always ends in a ball of fire the same way it did the years before.
i got nothing really to add, I just think more people should see it.
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The only one seemly having **** thrown at for this embarrassment is Ben. The front page on the net all titles pertaining to the Steelers is Ben. Not one coach not one other player. Yes Ben threw four interceptions. What other player then stood out that wanted to turn the game around. Certainly not any player on defense. If the rumor is true that Tomlin took over the defense than the big finger needs pointed at him. Yes Ben has not looked sharp and yes he is at the end but really he is the bad guy. Tomlin as yet and will never take the blame for being out coached and out prepared for any game let alone against the Browns. We all watched and wondered how is it when Ben seems to be calling the plays we move the ball. Really do we believe that in any NFL fans conversation, that anyone knows the name of our offensive or defensive coordinators. Half the time we have to look their names up.. The coaches script the game plan....this game same thing throw underneath, run up the middle , defense no pressure, no tackling, no coverage.......yes that dam Ben should have been sidelined. The team showed no leadership, desire or a hint of physicality. Of course either does our head coach, fourth and one, you had Cleveland thinking, you had nothing to loose and you punt..
Momentum Momentum......... the game was out of hand but we were making progress..... could we have won......doubtful......... but not going for it on 4th and 1 signalled surrender.
How jacked would we have been if we made it a one score game ............and how nervous would Cleveland be after seeing that lead be brought down to one score with most of the 4th quarter still remaining
that coaching decision was the end of the game for me
Edmunds should be released shortly...
His pathetic display of tackling was downright embarrassing..
For a HC that is supposedly a defensive guru and DB position coach, this team either cannot draft, horribly develops, or has an awful scheme for DB's to excel in. Maybe it is a combination of the three. If our front 6 (since we insist on running 2 DL most of the time) cannot get pressure on the QB, hardly any of our DB can cover to save their life.
The issue was Cleveland with no practices or in person sessions made adjustments and game planned from what happened week 17.
They ran away from Watt, our dline kept slanting to our left and Cleveland just ran to our right leaving huge running lanes. Then they used to quick passes to get the ball out of Mayfields hands fast because week 17 we were pressuring him without our best pass rushers. So Tomlin calls the defense he runs his Tampa 2 **** leaving the safeties deep, making those quick route easy to complete and he kept having Derek Brooks, I mean Spillane who hadn't played in weeks that wasn't in shape man to man on Landry.
Then when Highsmith got injured instead of ditching the damn 2 DL crap and going with 3 when Clevelandis trying to kill clock, he brings in Marsh who is like our 4th string OLB who has been here 5 mins to get pushed all over the place.
I'm not sure why none of that worked
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They ran away from Watt, our dline kept slanting to our left and Cleveland just ran to our right leaving huge running lanes. Then they used to quick passes to get the ball out of Mayfields hands fast because week 17 we were pressuring him without our best pass rushers. So Tomlin calls the defense he runs his Tampa 2 **** leaving the safeties deep, making those quick route easy to complete and he kept having Derek Brooks, I mean Spillane who hadn't played in weeks that wasn't in shape man to man on Landry.
Then when Highsmith got injured instead of ditching the damn 2 DL crap and going with 3 when Clevelandis trying to kill clock, he brings in Marsh who is like our 4th string OLB who has been here 5 mins to get pushed all over the place.
I'm not sure why none of that worked
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And just two things - TWO - are constants for the teams spanning 2007 through 2021: Ben Roethlisberger and Mike Tomlin. Anybody who thinks Ben is the problem apparently did not watch the 2019 season.
Therefore, the ONLY constant - the guy who coached and LOST to the 5-11 Raiders in 2009, the 5-11 Cleveland Browns in 2009, the 4-12 Chiefs in 2009, the Tebow-led Broncos in a playoff game in 2011, the 4-12 Raiders in 2012, the 5-11 Browns in 2012, the 4-12 Raiders in 2013, the 4-12 Jets in 2014, the 7-9 Browns in 2014, a home playoff game to the Blake Bortles led Jaguars in 2017, the 4-11-1 Bengals in 2020, and an ***-kicking in a home playoff game to the 2020 Brownies - is Mike Tomlin.
His excuse basket was filled in 2009 as far as I am concerned. The litany of losses to vastly inferior teams is the only constant. The failure to beat a better team in the playoffs is a constant. The habit of losing to inferior teams in the playoffs is a constant. Seriously, what is Mike Tomlin's best-coached game? Beating Arizona in SB XLIII behind a great drive by Ben and Santonio Holmes ... after falling behind an okay Arizona team in the 4th quarter.
That's his great moment. Coming back to nip Arizona 12 years ago.
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Ben is the guy who once backpedaled and changed direction over 40 yards to tackle a Colts player by a shoestring to preserve a historic win and legacy of a legendary running back who fumbled in a playoff game.
He's light years removed from that guy.
He's light years removed from that guy.
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Yep, he hasn't been able to do that for years, but we've put all our efforts into building the defense with 9 first rounders, who Tomlin called all the plays for and they got embarrassed. We've failed to rebuild the oline and instead watched fall of a cliff and drag the rest of the O with it
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???
I'm not worried about Ben's nimbleness on turnovers.
I'm worried about his loss of mobility and his inability to make plays downfield while on the move. That was the signature of a young Ben in his prime, and without it, he's a shell of what made him great. Ben actually was able to escape the pocket and pass on the run one time on Sunday -- I thought we were going to get a glimpse of the past -- then his throw landed woefully short by about 6 or 8 yards.
Sad.