Tale of the tape...the real reason we lost this game

[Buddy Dial]

Are we looking at this wrong?

The common theme around here is that the Steelers play terribly and down to the level of some inferior opponents ie. TB, Jax, Jets. Think about this, what with our poor drafts, bad free agent decisions, loss of core Cowher players, and major coaching problems, what if we are right now actually one of the terrible inferior teams in the league but with one major difference, we have a potential HOF QB who can win some games. Maybe we are not the worst of the worst teams but pretty friggn low on the “dreg list“. Our Colts, Ravens wins were perhaps aided by those teams playing down to our level, that in combination with our QB getting really hot, allowed us to get the wins. In our losses to other bad teams he did not play outstanding games and our normal suspect OL & defense didn’t hold up. If this is true, the rest of the schedule for the most part solely depends on Ben. Even if he plays well it does not guarantee anything, certainly not better than 8-8 for this team! There are always game changing factors (ie. turnovers) from game to game and this theory may be over simplified but with few exceptions our overall roster sucks.

 

[Coryea]

Someone was on DVE this morning and said on the first int, Bryant made a rookie mistake and didn't come back for the ball, probably saw the goal line and tried to stay in the end zone instead of coming to the ball.

 

[steelhurt]

I think we got lulled to sleep the past few weeks and thought this team was better than what they actually are. I still think this is a middle of the road team that resembles at times a very good one because of Ben. When Ben is off and the game plan out and out just sucks, we're done.

 

[mightyguru]

The bad plays by Ben and AB meant we were doomed from the start, imho.

If your best players **** up, you lose. **** this " not prepared" bullshit. Ridiculous.

Tomlin had them unprepared because Ben threw 2 ints and AB fumbled twice? Some of you people are absurd.

The only thing that bugged me was the weird playcalling....repeatedly, we ran into the strength of the team...their D-line, and got stuffed. Stupid.

 

[madtacker]

Love Ben but elite QB's don't have 5 or 6 bad games a season.

Not placing much blame on him but the team goes as he goes. We don't win those last 3 games with out him playing lights out like he did.

This was our chance to get over the hump finally & make a serious run, and shake the stench of the past few yrs and we didn't get it done.

There was a time early in his career where you just knew he was going to win somehow.

The jets left that game on the table all day for them to take back and they didn't.

IMO he is a HOF'er and I love him but this team has taken on his ID. Which is up and down.

I am sorry but we need him to carry this team and a eleven yr vet with weapons has to do better than 10 13 points a game in todays NFL.

Again I will overlook any great QB having a few bad games a year but 5 or 6 isn't going to get it done.

 

[blitzburghv5]

nothing short of bone dumb

really the gameplan sucked

if they would have just tried to attack their weakness instead of showing everyone how smart they were, I feel strongly the Steelers would have won.

No way no way this club should miss the playoffs. They showed the NFL what they are capable of.

Anything less is underperforming and it should cost the head coach his job....................

The thing is, even with the gameplan, this game was winnable...we werent dominated at all. We just shot ourselves in the foot all goddamned day. It was just a ****** bad day..when you have a QB that throws an easy pick into TRIPLE COVERAGE after having 45 seconds to throw the ball, and a kicker missing a chippy, its not your day most likely. We werent leavin MetLife with a win. They made sure of that. They played like bafoons on offense. Hell even Gay dropped an easy pick which couldve likely been a pick 6.

Its more than frustratin to watch this team revert back to its redzone deficiencies pre-Monday night (vs Texans) and go zero-for in this game. I believed they were coached well enough to win. But that ****** output on the field dismantled any chance of success.

One thing i will put on coaches (offensively) ...DO AWAY WITH THE BUBBLE SCREENS AND THE SCREEN PASSES...Ben cant sell a screen to save his life...he doesnt even look the defense off and even throws it into congestion. He sucks at it so why does Haley keep resortin to it ? THATS MY BEEF WITH COACHING.

 

[Steelerfan]

Are we looking at this wrong?

The common theme around here is that the Steelers play terribly and down to the level of some inferior opponents ie. TB, Jax, Jets. Think about this, what with our poor drafts, bad free agent decisions, loss of core Cowher players, and major coaching problems, what if we are right now actually one of the terrible inferior teams in the league but with one major difference, we have a potential HOF QB who can win some games. Maybe we are not the worst of the worst teams but pretty friggn low on the “dreg list“. Our Colts, Ravens wins were perhaps aided by those teams playing down to our level, that in combination with our QB getting really hot, allowed us to get the wins. In our losses to other bad teams he did not play outstanding games and our normal suspect OL & defense didn’t hold up. If this is true, the rest of the schedule for the most part solely depends on Ben. Even if he plays well it does not guarantee anything, certainly not better than 8-8 for this team! There are always game changing factors (ie. turnovers) from game to game and this theory may be over simplified but with few exceptions our overall roster sucks.

We're not a 2-8 team. We're not the Bears. We are not one of the lower-tier teams. We are a mediocre 8-8 team. That's not acceptable to me, but it could be worse.

 

[Steeltime]

**** this " not prepared" bullshit. Ridiculous.

The only thing that bugged me was the weird playcalling....repeatedly, we ran into the strength of the team...their D-line, and got stuffed. Stupid.

Uhhh ... do you not see what you did there?

Oh, and 1st quarter yardage: One of the worst teams in the NFL 165 yards, Steelers 4.

Yeah, sure, they were plenty prepared. No doubt.

 

[strat68]

We came out flat and unprepared, Percy Harvin is on the field and we looked like we never saw a reverse before, we gave cushions and easy throws to a QB that can't read a defense.

The Jets have a good front 7, we haven't been able to run to well the last few weeks, Ben and Brown are on fire, the Jets have ****** secondary. So you would think you would want to spread them out and get some of their front seven off the field and throw at them. Hell no let's establish a run game, then get forced into 3rd and longs vs a blitzing team. ******* Brilliant!

According to Tunch the Jets secondary was playing soft and not giving up intermediate/long passes. But the Steelers did not adjust either.

 

[Coryea]

According to Tunch the Jets secondary was playing soft and not giving up intermediate/long passes. But the Steelers did not adjust either.

I've heard this, but how many teams go into a game saying we'll let them have the deep/intermediate passes? All teams try to protect from the deep pass, IMO it didn't look like the short stuff was open either, so our wr's were shut down by a dog **** secondary then?

 

[SteelerFan448]

I've heard this, but how many teams go into a game saying we'll let them have the deep/intermediate passes? All teams try to protect from the deep pass, IMO it didn't look like the short stuff was open either, so our wr's were shut down by a dog **** secondary then?

Exactly. I take my chances with Brown, Bryant, Miller and Bell going against that terrible secondary as opposed to play it safe.

 

[Vader]

According to Tunch the Jets secondary was playing soft and not giving up intermediate/long passes. But the Steelers did not adjust either.

Tunch used one play to show it. That was the first drive of the 2nd half so the Steelers were trying to get deep on that play. However they didn't use that defense all the time. IF they had used it all the time then the short stuff would have worked fine. But if you watch the 1st half they played closer to the line. They didn't use deep quarters often (if at all). They only rushed 3 on that play. You didn't see that much during the game.

 

[Wingman]

Just looking at the high lights played because I could not watch the game the defense the jets put out was good. It was not great but it was different enough that they were able to make it tough on the steelers. Some one needs to drug test the whole ******* offense to see if they got in the dobbie brothers stash and were stoned for the game. Ben failed to handle the snap on one play, sushi missed one, Brown drops a punt, Brown doesn't put the ball away on a screen, Ben throws a high fly ball and it gets picked, He throws another trying to force it into a tight area to Bryant and the lousy defensive back of the jets makes a great play on the break up and another grabs the ball. Great plays by the jets, the offense **** the bed big time.

The defense stopped the jets in the redzone on more than one occasion, the other team was held to 20 points! The steelers offense with all of the talent could not get 21 points.

 

[Wingman]

We're not a 2-8 team. We're not the Bears. We are not one of the lower-tier teams. We are a mediocre 8-8 team. That's not acceptable to me, but it could be worse.

We have a ways to go to get to 8 and 8. If we have more games like that we will not get there.

 

[Buddy Dial]

We're not a 2-8 team. We're not the Bears. We are not one of the lower-tier teams. We are a mediocre 8-8 team. That's not acceptable to me, but it could be worse.

Your absolutely right we are now a mediocre 8-8 team with a potential HOF QB in the prime of his career. The point is without Ben but with a Dalton, Hoyer, Flacco, Cutler or other good but not top 5 QB, with our lackluster roster, we would very much be a lower tier team. Thankfully we don't have to face the Bears this year at Soldier Field, even with Ben I wouldn't like our chances.

 

[Drink IRON City]

As said, Our team takes on the coaches identity. For what it's worth, our coach is lackadaisical, lower end knowledge of the game, talent value deficient, amongst other things. Our team shows this all the time. No urgency between plays, effort to get extra "single" yard, when out of bounds is the real football play, slack talent all over the defense, etc.. Any QB besides Ben R. wouldn't last behind this low end OL. No argument!!! With this loss, we do win this next one as some players will rise and take it upon themselves, during the week, to rise the intensity of others. Also the coaching staff has been feeling and will be, feeling the heat all week. I expect a little better preparation from them.



Salute the nation

 

[pevans1000]

I really want to like Tomlin. As a general rule, I have nothing but love for those who brought a title to the Burgh. I have given him the benefit of the doubt, recognizing that a downswing was likely given the commitment from ownership to keeping the team together as long as possible, and probably 1 or 2 years too long. That said, the problem of losing to really bad teams has gone too far. I will not trust this coaching staff until they get to the playoffs again and show they can develop a deep, young squad.

That said, I have been thinking about what causes this underachieving. The narrative that the coaching staff is unprepared or looks past teams, while convenient, does not strike me as on the mark. First, I don't have any reason to believe there was a lack of preparation and I have seen nothing from Tomlin to suggest a lack of drive. Coaches like Lebeau and even Haley have been around too long to get lackadaisical during 1of 16 weeks. While it would be grounds for termination if Tomlin and his staff did not adequately prepare for these games, I'm not ready to say that is the case.

I am actually going to go the other direction, which may be even more damning to the coaches, so please don't read this as excusing them from being accountable. I think the problem is that we don't treat these games like games we absolutely should not just win, but dominate. We routinely come out in conservative offensive an defensive gameplans that push us toward competitive games. This past week is a good example. Wed deferred (something I like most weeks but not when you could get up on a 1-8 team, turn Mike Vick into a passer and watch them quit), came out in a nickle, don't give up the deep ball defense that let them take a lot of time off the clock (but ultimately kept them out of the endzone), went run-run to start on offense and started horizontal, presumably to slow down the rush, etc. I think this team needs to act like the team we expected them to be and run blitz early, forcing Vick to beat them with his arm and then attacking the corners. It is not the Xs and Os, but the mentality. Prepare your team to dominate, gameplan to dominate and, assuming you really are teh better team, you should dominate 9 times out of 10. Prepare for a close battle and early mistakes will bury you.

 

[blitzburghv5]

When Brown fumbled that football twice, you immediately thought "Tomlin sucks..........."...When Ben threw both those INTs, you immediately conjured up images of Tomlin being inefficient....... You immediately absolved the players of any guilt in this loss even though pundits around the league stated those two individuals played the biggest role in the loss and the players themselves took responsibility.

Let me ask you something...assuming youve played the game of football....If a coach makes you part of the team, coaches you up, goes over drills/technique repeatedly, execution of plays during practice for weeks, makes you a starter because youve outperformed your peers and through the coarse of a few games you prove youre capable, if for the next game you go out and make a bonehead mistake like drop a pass (the only pass youve dropped) or run an incorrect route and it lands in the hands of the safety for a pick six which ultimately costs the team the game, are YOU personally gonna take responsibility or are you gonna suggest that YOUR COACH failed you and didnt prepare you to play that day ?

Preparation is done during camp, in practice in between games and pre-game meetings (mental aspect aka gettin hyped)....theres walk-throughs conducted the day before the games with most teams. As a player on that team, can you assess whether you or your mates are ill-prepared to play that game that day ? Can you tell if the coaches have ill-prepared you prior to kickoff ? At what point would YOU realize you werent ready to play ? Is it after youve gotten your *** whipped up and down the field for the first 4 series ?

Listen, its my opinion these guys get coached up in practice, .....plays are ran repeatedly, film reviewed, gameplans are set...these are professional athletes..the best in the game. What we seen on Sunday was professional athletes have lapses in judgement or make huge mistakes. Things done out of their character. Brown NEVER muffs punts...he never fumbles. Ben ....well that was just a bullshit throw even high schoolers know better than to attempt, but in most cases hes smarter than that. Bobbled snaps---trying to read too fast before doin whats most important and collecting the ****** ball from center.... Coaching isnt and wasnt to blame because had those four turnovers never occured, we win this game goin away and no one is talkin about Tomlin or coaching........well, correction, this group loves to hammer this topic ad nauseum so there still wouldve been grumblin and pissin regardless.

Folk love to blame coaches for everything......EVERYTHING.....cause you CANT fire your superstars, so coaching is the scapegoat.....when **** goes wrong on the field, blame the coach. No one on this team is blaming coaching..........seems the offenders took responsibility and owned it. But the group resorts to its favorite past time---HAMMER ON COACH T !!!! As if he dialed up these mistakes or coached em up improperly or suggested they ease up because its THE ****** JETS !!! We have a HOF QB puttin up a **** of a game at this stage of his career ? HE needs to be hammered more than any coach.....wouldnt you agree ?

 

[steel pirate]

Was that really an offsides on the first onside kick? That was one of the few times all game that we actually executed a play well.

Were we out of challenges or was that something that you can't challenge? Looked legit to me but they only showed the replay once. I might have missed it. I don't keep up to date with all the rule changes every year. Guess you still can't challenge offsides. Cowher probably would have threw the red flag anyway.

 

[pevans1000]

Why does it keep happening, though?

Folk love to blame coaches for everything......EVERYTHING.....cause you CANT fire your superstars, so coaching is the scapegoat.....when **** goes wrong on the field, blame the coach. No one on this team is blaming coaching..........seems the offenders took responsibility and owned it. But the group resorts to its favorite past time---HAMMER ON COACH T !!!! As if he dialed up these mistakes or coached em up improperly or suggested they ease up because its THE ****** JETS !!! We have a HOF QB puttin up a **** of a game at this stage of his career ? HE needs to be hammered more than any coach.....wouldnt you agree ?

I would agree but this keeps happening and different players are making the mistakes each game. As I mentioned above, I assume they were prepared, I just think they were prepared as if this was Baltimore and we expected a close game, rather than prepared to come out and step on their throats. Just a theory. If not that or something else, why do different teams/players keep making these mistakes under this coaching staff?

 

[antdrewjosh]

When Brown fumbled that football twice, you immediately thought "Tomlin sucks..........."...When Ben threw both those INTs, you immediately conjured up images of Tomlin being inefficient....... You immediately absolved the players of any guilt in this loss even though pundits around the league stated those two individuals played the biggest role in the loss and the players themselves took responsibility.

Let me ask you something...assuming youve played the game of football....If a coach makes you part of the team, coaches you up, goes over drills/technique repeatedly, execution of plays during practice for weeks, makes you a starter because youve outperformed your peers and through the coarse of a few games you prove youre capable, if for the next game you go out and make a bonehead mistake like drop a pass (the only pass youve dropped) or run an incorrect route and it lands in the hands of the safety for a pick six which ultimately costs the team the game, are YOU personally gonna take responsibility or are you gonna suggest that YOUR COACH failed you and didnt prepare you to play that day ?

Preparation is done during camp, in practice in between games and pre-game meetings (mental aspect aka gettin hyped)....theres walk-throughs conducted the day before the games with most teams. As a player on that team, can you assess whether you or your mates are ill-prepared to play that game that day ? Can you tell if the coaches have ill-prepared you prior to kickoff ? At what point would YOU realize you werent ready to play ? Is it after youve gotten your *** whipped up and down the field for the first 4 series ?

Listen, its my opinion these guys get coached up in practice, .....plays are ran repeatedly, film reviewed, gameplans are set...these are professional athletes..the best in the game. What we seen on Sunday was professional athletes have lapses in judgement or make huge mistakes. Things done out of their character. Brown NEVER muffs punts...he never fumbles. Ben ....well that was just a bullshit throw even high schoolers know better than to attempt, but in most cases hes smarter than that. Bobbled snaps---trying to read too fast before doin whats most important and collecting the ****** ball from center.... Coaching isnt and wasnt to blame because had those four turnovers never occured, we win this game goin away and no one is talkin about Tomlin or coaching........well, correction, this group loves to hammer this topic ad nauseum so there still wouldve been grumblin and pissin regardless.

Folk love to blame coaches for everything......EVERYTHING.....cause you CANT fire your superstars, so coaching is the scapegoat.....when **** goes wrong on the field, blame the coach. No one on this team is blaming coaching..........seems the offenders took responsibility and owned it. But the group resorts to its favorite past time---HAMMER ON COACH T !!!! As if he dialed up these mistakes or coached em up improperly or suggested they ease up because its THE ****** JETS !!! We have a HOF QB puttin up a **** of a game at this stage of his career ? HE needs to be hammered more than any coach.....wouldnt you agree ?

This is my position in a nutshell. Great post.

 

[blitzburghv5]

I would agree but this keeps happening and different players are making the mistakes each game. As I mentioned above, I assume they were prepared, I just think they were prepared as if this was Baltimore and we expected a close game, rather than prepared to come out and step on their throats. Just a theory. If not that or something else, why do different teams/players keep making these mistakes under this coaching staff?

We havent turned the ball over much this season.....what mistakes ? Ben hasnt thrown INTs very much this season (had only three comin into this game)...fumbled/bobbled snaps ? We hadnt had these issues...the issues we have seen is breakdowns in coverage on defense, blown blocking assignments on the Oline....and penalties.....Sunday we had maybe three infractions (2 on a kickoff) all game.

When you go 0-3 in the redzone to go with 4 TO's youre not gonna beat anyone (that includes Oak or Jax) ..at that point youre giving away points and in the NFL you cant do that. -2 TO margin, you can overcome....-3 its difficult....but -4 kiss that game goodbye. I recall a game (Cowher coached) vs an expansion team (Texans)..we had over 422+ total yards to their 47 total yards. 24 first downs to their THREE......and we lost 24-6 ..AT HOME.............because of turnovers. The great equalizer....makes a good team look horrible while making a horrible team look competitive. Thats what occured on Sunday. We werent whipped by anybody...we werent dominated. But the outcome couldve been worse (near pick in the fourth qtr dropped by the Jets DB).

 

[pevans1000]

We havent turned the ball over much this season.....what mistakes ? Ben hasnt thrown INTs very much this season (had only three comin into this game)...fumbled/bobbled snaps ? We hadnt had these issues...the issues we have seen is breakdowns in coverage on defense, blown blocking assignments on the Oline....and penalties.....Sunday we had maybe three infractions (2 on a kickoff) all game.

When you go 0-3 in the redzone to go with 4 TO's youre not gonna beat anyone (that includes Oak or Jax) ..at that point youre giving away points and in the NFL you cant do that. -2 TO margin, you can overcome....-3 its difficult....but -4 kiss that game goodbye. I recall a game (Cowher coached) vs an expansion team (Texans)..we had over 422+ total yards to their 47 total yards. 24 first downs to their THREE......and we lost 24-6 ..AT HOME.............because of turnovers. The great equalizer....makes a good team look horrible while making a horrible team look competitive. Thats what occured on Sunday. We werent whipped by anybody...we werent dominated. But the outcome couldve been worse (near pick in the fourth qtr dropped by the Jets DB).

I meant the same issues crop up year after year when we lose to bad teams. Different players contribute to those loses; the one constant is the coach. And Ben, who has consistently played poorly in these types of loses.

 

[Vader]

I meant the same issues crop up year after year when we lose to bad teams. Different players contribute to those loses; the one constant is the coach. And Ben, who has consistently played poorly in these types of loses.

Just curious but what are Ben's number in these types of loses?

 

[keslerclan]

I really want to like Tomlin. As a general rule, I have nothing but love for those who brought a title to the Burgh. I have given him the benefit of the doubt, recognizing that a downswing was likely given the commitment from ownership to keeping the team together as long as possible, and probably 1 or 2 years too long. That said, the problem of losing to really bad teams has gone too far. I will not trust this coaching staff until they get to the playoffs again and show they can develop a deep, young squad.

That said, I have been thinking about what causes this underachieving. The narrative that the coaching staff is unprepared or looks past teams, while convenient, does not strike me as on the mark. First, I don't have any reason to believe there was a lack of preparation and I have seen nothing from Tomlin to suggest a lack of drive. Coaches like Lebeau and even Haley have been around too long to get lackadaisical during 1of 16 weeks. While it would be grounds for termination if Tomlin and his staff did not adequately prepare for these games, I'm not ready to say that is the case.

I am actually going to go the other direction, which may be even more damning to the coaches, so please don't read this as excusing them from being accountable. I think the problem is that we don't treat these games like games we absolutely should not just win, but dominate. We routinely come out in conservative offensive an defensive gameplans that push us toward competitive games. This past week is a good example. Wed deferred (something I like most weeks but not when you could get up on a 1-8 team, turn Mike Vick into a passer and watch them quit), came out in a nickle, don't give up the deep ball defense that let them take a lot of time off the clock (but ultimately kept them out of the endzone), went run-run to start on offense and started horizontal, presumably to slow down the rush, etc. I think this team needs to act like the team we expected them to be and run blitz early, forcing Vick to beat them with his arm and then attacking the corners. It is not the Xs and Os, but the mentality. Prepare your team to dominate, gameplan to dominate and, assuming you really are teh better team, you should dominate 9 times out of 10. Prepare for a close battle and early mistakes will bury you.

Nice post!

I agree that the players are responsible for having up and down games BUT why do they play down to teams we should beat and up to those we shouldn't? That is a mentality issue. I agree, we need to play as IF we can beat our man. Cannot Bryant or Brown just go out and BEAT a 3rd CB trying to cover him? Yes, they should. What is their best route to WIN against the opponent? Let's try that. Why play with a game-plan which is similar every week when our opponents are different? Why play as if we are the underdog when we should play like the rabid one?

IF we have it in us to play up to the best opponents we will face then we can do it against everyone right? Why don't we then? Go for the throat from the beginning and let the chips fall. Why have players play anything but aggressive? (we know what has been the norm if we don't) Let them know you are going to go for it ALL and expect them to perform. Do the things you EXECUTE well against them. We know Bryant is a 'foul magnet' so throw it over the top (with max protect) and let him fight for it. He is big and fast for a reason. Let him prove it. Flacco lives off of the jump-ball and penalties. We don't need to be tricky all the time when our best player is matched up against their weak player. We need to take advantage of it. The easy TD to Bryant could have been run by Moore who is a better route runner. If you're going to Bryant, of course they expect the fade...so, give it to them. Think they are gonna get taller or be able to jump higher than our tallest receiver?

Sure, Brown had a bad game. Is he really our best guy to be catching screens and running through tackles? Nope. Let him do what he does best, come-backs, crossing routes and sidelines throws. When you run a play that nobody expects you to run...there's a logical reason for it. It's dumb! Why can't we just line up and let our playmakers "make plays"? At least until someone shows they can stop them.

Why not have Bell run a wheel with a TE release into the voided part of the field? Dunno? Maybe because it makes too much sense. This game was hard to watch for sure.