What A Difference A Week Makes

[Cras108er]

Maybe I'm in the minority here, with all the injuries, I've never seen this as a playoff team, they simply aren't.

Hoping for wins against the Bengals and Jets, maybe the Browns, but does anyone see more than 8 wins?

I watch this year for entertainment, and not expectations.

This! I feel about the team the way I did in the 80’s. We’re pretty average. We have bits and pieces, but not enough to really compete consistently against playoff caliber teams, especially with the injuries we’ve incurred this year.

As a fan base we have come to expect to be in the playoff conversation every year. That’s just not realistic for any team. The crazy thing is that a down year for us is 8-8. Some teams would kill for that kind of year.

I was a fan in the 70’s and it took me a few years to adjust my expectations. I’m going through the same process now. Like you, my expectations are pretty pedestrian these days.

 

[str8liner]

I said the same thing the other night in another thread. Went from thinking 10-6 was not only doable, it was highly likely....

I know better than to get my hopes up for anything with this team.

Like I have said before, if injuries don't get them, the play calling will and there is always player drama and suspensions waiting in the wings for backup....

 

[Spike]

We could easily lose the next 3 now

so yeah, that's a bit of a change of direction

 

[Hines57]

I'm just glad that for now the Minkah trade isn't a top ten pick going to Miami.

 

[Spike]

I'm just glad that for now the Minkah trade isn't a top ten pick going to Miami.

"for now"

we could still lose out

5-11 could do it

 

[ZonaBurgh]

I was a pretty big defender of Rudolph, but last game was not really defensible. He missed easy throws, threw bad INTs, no pocket awareness, etc etc...He did not have help with WRs dropping the ball and what not, but it was a pretty terrible QB display. The team will not win another game if he plays like that again.

I can't put all of this on Rudolph, I really can't. Receivers, when healthy, and occasionally open, drop the ball. Same with the RB's attempting to run through a brick wall.

Play calling can certainly be questioned as well as the impact of losing Munch. With Ben lost for the season, it's been a team effort on the offensive side of the ball for the results produced.

 

[oicu8ad]

I can't put all of this on Rudolph, I really can't. Receivers, when healthy, and occasionally open, drop the ball. Same with the RB's attempting to run through a brick wall.

Play calling can certainly be questioned as well as the impact of losing Munch. With Ben lost for the season, it's been a team effort on the offensive side of the ball for the results produced.

Much of the receivers dropping the ball is due to Mason being off target. While I am always the first to say if it hits you in the hands, you better catch the ******* ball, the QB HAS to help you out and make good throws. Mason is consistent at inaccurate throws.

 

[SteelerSask2]

Realistically, before Ben and everyone else on offense got hurt this was at best a 10-6 team with Tomlin's usual first-round playoff exit. With Ben out, the OL aging, and second-string and practice squad players at RB and WR we're looking at 8-8 at best but Tomlin keeps his "never a losing record" streak intact. Hopefully that's good enough for the Redskins to make an offer that the Steelers will take.

Post of the week right there and its only Monday.

 

[Hines57]

"for now"

we could still lose out

5-11 could do it

naw I think we're trending for 8-8. The optimistic side of me says we can win more games but not after Rudolph **** the bed against a bad Browns team. We need a healthy running back who can run between the tackles. Samuels isn't that guy.

 

[steelhurt]

The wheels have finally fallen off on Tomlin and he has zero clue what to do. His answer is to sign scrubs rather than bringing in proven veterans at least to finish the season on a respectable note.
What harm in bringing in Eli, Dez, and Pryor and signing two of them for this season only. Same with RB. Bring in CJ Anderson who I think is still out there and Ajai and sign the best one for this season.
Get used to it since this will be life with Tomlin going forward.


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[Spike]

We need a healthy running back who can run between the tackles. Samuels isn't that guy.

Tomlin ran the wheels off Conner, hes on the shelf for the rest of the year now probably

 

[Drink IRON City]

Tomlin ran the wheels off Conner, hes on the shelf for the rest of the year now probably

IR him and make a roster spot open if he is missing the rest of the season.




Salute the nation

 

[wig]

I was as amazed and thrilled as anybody last week when they were in the catbird seat.

Realistically, Tomlin's ceiling is getting to the playoffs. That is literally the very best you can expect of him. Currently, I would say the entire organization's goal is to get to 8-8 and not give Miami a great pick for Minkah. And honestly, that would be incredible at this point in the season. Assuming JuJu and D.J. are out for any period of time, they just don't have enough savvy players to be consistent. The running game has been patchwork all season. The only decent coach they had left and within half a year the offensive line has completely regressed. Rudolph seems completely terrified to make a mistake, which of course leads to lots of mistakes. The Browns not only cream the #1 running back (Who probably shouldn't have even been in the game), but they crush our (cough cough) #1 and earhole our emerging #2 and THEN just to put a cherry on top, they club our struggling QB like he's a baby seal. (And admittedly he kind of plays like a baby seal...) Bringing in veteran talent with the QBs we have is pointless. You'd just be throwing money away. They don't have time to develop any chemistry or timing with our QBs and they'd make virtually no difference at all at the end. You'd just be flushing money down the toilet. Best to save whatever you can and with the decent cap space available next year go look for a FA that might make the kind of impact on offense that Minkah has made on defense.

I don't think the Steelers will play a "vengeance game" in a couple weeks. I expect the word will come down from the top that they need to be professional and play a clean game. Since the Browns season is over as ours is, they have nothing to play for but trying to establish a physical identity on defense. In short, I expect it will be another brutal game for the Steelers.

 

[Spike]

IR him and make a roster spot open if he is missing the rest of the season.

What good would that do? Steelers obviously arent going to sign anyone good to rep!ace him and we already cornered the market on practice squad players

 

[TDX27]

Much of the receivers dropping the ball is due to Mason being off target. While I am always the first to say if it hits you in the hands, you better catch the ******* ball, the QB HAS to help you out and make good throws. Mason is consistent at inaccurate throws.

I'l have to disagree there. A couple games ago, we had no fewer than 6 drops that hit the receivers in both hands. If it hits you in the hands, you must catch it. We have at least 3 or 4 of those a game. Hell, early in the season Moncreif had 4 himself in one game. And even JuJu has dropped at least half a dozen that hit him in both hands.

 

[oicu8ad]

I'l have to disagree there. A couple games ago, we had no fewer than 6 drops that hit the receivers in both hands. If it hits you in the hands, you must catch it. We have at least 3 or 4 of those a game. Hell, early in the season Moncreif had 4 himself in one game. And even JuJu has dropped at least half a dozen that hit him in both hands.

I totally agree that the WR's are dropping balls that they should catch. But you have to agree that Mason is off target more than he is on target. Unless you are not watching.

 

[Hoot]

But you have to agree that Mason is off target more than he is on target. Unless you are not watching.

He throws a lot of passes behind or short of his receivers. My initial reaction (and it is initial because i have not had time to rewatch all his plays to confirm) is that he is not stepping into a good many of his throws. Sometimes you can blame the protection for that, but MR also needs to learn to take those little steps around the pocket as it moves to allow defenders to go past him and open a place to step. Watch any good pocket passer and you will see little step left or right or even up into the pocket to avoid a defender. MR doesn't seem to to that very well thus he has little room to step into a lot of his throws. I don't know how fixable that is. I guess the better question before deciding on any remediation plan would be to look at his college tape. Was he that flat footed in the pocket in college? I don't know. I never watched him play.

 

[Coryea]

It's really simple, if you're the opposing team, just run the ball, play ball control and don't let our defense tee off on your QB that can cause turnovers. No one is scared of this offense. If this defense doesn't get turnovers, we'll have an extremely difficult time winning.

 

[TDX27]

I totally agree that the WR's are dropping balls that they should catch. But you have to agree that Mason is off target more than he is on target. Unless you are not watching.

Sure, he has been off target at times. No question. But, what has made things worse is when he is on target, guys drop easy balls and guys are rarely getting open.

This entire on target thing takes me back to a few games ago when he threw a great pass that hit JuJu in the middle of the field and should have been an easy catch and easy first down. The replay shows the pass.on target in between the defenders and JuJu alligator armed it even though no one ever touched him before or after the drop. Coach kept saying it was a bad throw yet the replay told the truth. So, there is some misconception out there about his throws being on or off target.

Not one thing has gone Rudolph's way this year as he tries to be the starter of this team, not one. To say he is a bust right now is just completely naive. Just like Tomlin is getting a pass on this year, Rudolph should be getting a pass as well. Let's just hope we have a couple legit WR's for him to throw to this weekend but if JuJu and Diontae don't play, he won't. And, those bitching that he sucks will be bitching even more.

 

[slashsteel]

I am giving neither passes for the season. I expect better than what we saw Thursday...

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