Complete F'n debacle

[bmoritz]

Wow, more excuses for Tomlin. I don't think anybody would deny the #1 reason we lost is because of Ben's INTs. Followed closely by ******* refs. But are you really okay with this constant stupidity with the clock from Tomlin?

I don't get the non-stop excuses. I swear some of you value Tomlin over the team.

 

[Stainless]

This team was coached well enough to win, but the players executed poorly enough to have cost us the game. I just cant gather in my head how this loss goes to Tomlin again....and its the same cast and crew that places him in the crosshairs of criticism when Ben obviously played one of his shittiest halves of football and gave the ball back to Cincy twice in the final seven minutes. Threw as many INTs THIS GAME as his backups threw combined in the four games he missed. Bens number one job is execution...his number two job is protect the damn football. If he throws 3 INTs any game we know the outcome. One thing is for sure...coaching didn't design it that way.

I don't think anyone is blaming the loss solely on Tomlin, or at least I hope they aren't. Clearly it wasn't all his fault. But based upon his clock management yesterday, he certainly cannot be absolved of any responsibility in the loss. The dude clearly does not grasp the finer points of his job. Given our situation towards the end of the game, you aren't going to find a coach that knows what he's doing allow 30+ seconds to run off the clock with even 1 timeout at their disposal, let alone 3 timeouts. That was downright terrible coaching/strategy and anyone compelled to argue otherwise should find something else to discuss.

 

[Troglodyte]

This team was coached well enough to win, but the players executed poorly enough to have cost us the game. I just cant gather in my head how this loss goes to Tomlin again....and its the same cast and crew that places him in the crosshairs of criticism when Ben obviously played one of his shittiest halves of football and gave the ball back to Cincy twice in the final seven minutes. Threw as many INTs THIS GAME as his backups threw combined in the four games he missed. Bens number one job is execution...his number two job is protect the damn football. If he throws 3 INTs any game we know the outcome. One thing is for sure...coaching didn't design it that way.

There will always be execution mistakes. There's no excuse for mental errors. Excusing Tomlin's clock management is like excusing dead-ball personal fouls. There's no excuse for it.

 

[shastatwist]

I'm not a true conspiracy therois, but after whatching NFL football for so many years, I'm starting to think perhaps they want the undefeated teams, such as Patriots and Bengals in the AFC Championship playoff game to setup the ratings and maximize the revenues !! Just saying, just saying!

 

[mdk2]

I'm not a true conspiracy therois, but after whatching NFL football for so many years, I'm starting to think perhaps they want the undefeated teams, such as Patriots and Bengals in the AFC Championship playoff game to setup the ratings and maximize the revenues !! Just saying, just saying!

Bengals making it to the AFCC would mean they would have to win a playoff game. If that happens, we'll know for sure that the NFL is fixed.

 

[topseed]

Tombert would much rather waste a roster spot than cut a relatively high draft pick and admit they made a mistake. It ain't Management 101 but it's up around Management 401 or whatever they call the Organizational Behavior course these days. By far the most valuable class I had in grad school.

Yet they cut Doran Grant, the highest draft choice in the 2015 draft to not make his team's final roster. At a position of great need. Go figure.

 

[blitzburghv5]

Wow, more excuses for Tomlin. I don't think anybody would deny the #1 reason we lost is because of Ben's INTs. Followed closely by ******* refs. But are you really okay with this constant stupidity with the clock from Tomlin?

I don't get the non-stop excuses. I swear some of you value Tomlin over the team.

Okay..so, lets say hypothetically he calls that time out, and preserves that (hindsight) 38 seconds which we don't know exists until AFTER the fact. He calls the timeout, Next play on a second down or third down, Hugh Jax dials up a rollout pass to the TE Eifert and they get a new set of downs and then in essence forces us to us all of our time outs and then IF we get the ball back, have no timeouts left and have to drive the length of the field with minimal time left ?

Bottom line is youre assuming Cincy just plays it ultra conservative and runs it up the gut They strategize as well. Ben makes three turnovers.....THREE !!! Coaches, analysts and the biggest football minds harp to heaven about protecting the damn football but youre gonna sight one ******* timeout call and say that's the focus of the game slipping away ? Please man......Ben ****** this one up, and he admitted as much already...my neighbor who's a Bengals fan said its obvious as to why his team won....Bells untimely injury and Bens turnovers.

 

[bmoritz]

The Bengals did play ultra conservative and run it up the gut, so I don't see your point. We can all play the hypothetical game until our faces are blue, but my point is, it's football 101. In that situation, you NEED all the time you can get, and a decent high school football coach knows to use a timeout there. It's common sense. And this is not new, it happens game in and game out, Tomlin has NO CLUE how to run the clock/timeouts. And I already said that Ben's play was the biggest factor in the loss, so why are you arguing that?

 

[topseed]

Okay..so, lets say hypothetically he calls that time out, and preserves that (hindsight) 38 seconds which we don't know exists until AFTER the fact. He calls the timeout, Next play on a second down or third down, Hugh Jax dials up a rollout pass to the TE Eifert and they get a new set of downs and then in essence forces us to us all of our time outs and then IF we get the ball back, have no timeouts left and have to drive the length of the field with minimal time left ?

Bottom line is youre assuming Cincy just plays it ultra conservative and runs it up the gut They strategize as well. Ben makes three turnovers.....THREE !!! Coaches, analysts and the biggest football minds harp to heaven about protecting the damn football but youre gonna sight one ******* timeout call and say that's the focus of the game slipping away ? Please man......Ben ****** this one up, and he admitted as much already...my neighbor who's a Bengals fan said its obvious as to why his team won....Bells untimely injury and Bens turnovers.

There is no way Marvin Lewis puts the ball in the air there. Zero chance. The only thing the Bengals are "dialing up" in either circumstance is a run up the middle. You don't have to assume **** when you know your opponent well enough.

 

[Steelerfreak]

I guess this is the best place to post this thought screaming to be released from my mind....

Ive been watching football for 40 years..... has anyone EVER seem a flag for defensive pass interference picked up without the use of the words, uncatchable or tipped?
I swear I NEVER saw this before. EVER.

 

[Skott]

All Im gonna say is this...

If they are gonna use Brown as a damn RB then let him get the kick offs and punts too. He clearly wants the ball.

And cut Archer who has done nothing. Go find a dedicated return guy or use that roster spot for a football player, or a RB or a damn ice cream machine on the sidelines....******* something!

And if Tomlin can't figure out how to manage a game, he should be fired. His antics are getting old....really old.

As for all these penalties...its the same damn guys every game. Is our Oline too fat and slow?

I watch a lot of other teams, and I never see these tricky tacky calls that the Steelers always get popped with. Last night in the Dallas game the guys go back and forth every play. Never a penalty...we do it once and it's 15 yards.

Bullshit.

For all his talk about give me the ball...Brown needs to pay the **** attention and start catching the ball.

 

[Stainless]

For all his talk about give me the ball...Brown needs to pay the **** attention and start catching the ball.

I believe they showed a stat on his drops yesterday. At that point, which I think was right after a drop, he had 6, which I believe was the fewest in the league.

 

[SteelerAl]

There was nothing wrong with checking if / when Blake stepped out of bounds on the interception. When the official steps under the hood, he can check pretty much anything that happened in the play although he can't access a subjective penalty like holding or pass interference.

 

[SteelerAl]

Okay..so, lets say hypothetically he calls that time out, and preserves that (hindsight) 38 seconds which we don't know exists until AFTER the fact. He calls the timeout, Next play on a second down or third down, Hugh Jax dials up a rollout pass to the TE Eifert and they get a new set of downs and then in essence forces us to us all of our time outs and then IF we get the ball back, have no timeouts left and have to drive the length of the field with minimal time left ?

Bottom line is youre assuming Cincy just plays it ultra conservative and runs it up the gut They strategize as well.

I agree with this and I agreed at the time with how Tomlin handled the clock (although Tomlin may have been doing it for a different reason). By letting the 2-minute warning pass and then using your timeouts, you are basically making sure the Bengals don't throw the ball (and make a first down which would virtually end the game). If the Bengals have 3rd down and 8 with 2:15 on the clock (and we have one timeout), it's a much easier decision to put the ball in the air. As Tomlin played it, it was virtually assured the Bengals would run 3 times and kick the FG.

What really screwed us was Ben holding the ball too long and taking a sack on the first play of the last drive. You lose a ton of time when that happens (WRs have to run all the way back to LOS). That is a recurring theme with Ben...taking an unnecessary sack when we are in desperation mode and throwing the ball away would save us 35 seconds.

 

[SteelerFan448]

Wow, more excuses for Tomlin. I don't think anybody would deny the #1 reason we lost is because of Ben's INTs. Followed closely by ******* refs. But are you really okay with this constant stupidity with the clock from Tomlin?

I don't get the non-stop excuses. I swear some of you value Tomlin over the team.

Maybe I missed the comments on this, but where did we have issues with the refs yesterday? Honest question here.

 

[Skott]

I believe they showed a stat on his drops yesterday. At that point, which I think was right after a drop, he had 6, which I believe was the fewest in the league.

Very posible, but at least 3 of those 6 drops were pretty important and costly.

 

[keslerclan]

Maybe I missed the comments on this, but where did we have issues with the refs yesterday? Honest question here.

The only 2 that stand out to me are the non-call on Bryant's non-catch in the endzone. He was CLEARLY interfered with in the gifs posted on SD and the net. (the ball still hit him in the hands and would have been enough to win us the game had he caught it)

The other was the suspect call (only because it's so commonly done without a taunting call) against Mitchell which changed the momentum that the defense had gathered. The Heath holding call after the ****** spot which was successfully challenged was a "payback" call and was never replayed on air.

If I had to complain about the officiating in the game it would be the inconsistent calls and more often the suspect 'spotting' of the ball. The Bungles had a few suspect first downs which were head scratchers to me.

However, we lost the game IMO, due to Ben trying to do too much (he cannot help himself, he is impatient). This is what will keep him out of being considered a top 3 QB. He looked downfield often trying to get 'all at once' results, which he must learn to control. He had underneath stuff all day and outlet passes available which he should have been taking instead. He DID have a TD DROP by Bryant which would have been enough to win the game BUT he MUST learn to be more patient or we will continue to suffer offensively, IMO.

He must rely on the RAC abilities of his targets because ALL of them have it including the RB and TE. Brady seems to do fine with NEVER throwing the ball more than 0-10 yards against any defense. Sometimes, the dink n dunk is just what is needed to open up the back end of the field.