I am very interested in how the Rooney's will view this season.

And I hope after reviewing, that they make
enough changes to get us to the next level
were we should be. I cannot believe that they
are happy campers after watching this year unfold?
We need alot of changes Art II /Dan.You guys are smart football people
Lets get this fan base re energized. There are so many
question marks with this team and the COACHES
that the Steelers FO should be working their asses off.
trying to find the best players and coaches possible
to reload. We will all be waiting and watching. Thanks

 

Its the Rooneys, they will do nothing. Haven't you been paying attention?

 

+1. it's one bad season, everybody needs to take a deep breath. even cowher had a couple 7-9 and 9-7 seasons.

 

normally I would agree with that statement, but after the artII's oc fiasco last year I'm not so sure.

 

Am hoping for some big improvements this year as well

 

I guess I'm not sure what your expecting..... Tomlin will be here, Haley will be here unless some dumbass owner wants his as an HC, LeBeau will be here if he wants.
Mendenhall and Wallace are gone, but they'd leave even if the Steelers somehow managed to win the Divsion and a playoff round or two.
Ben is here to stay.
They'll get rid of some age and salary cap, but if they are bold and dymanic there by letting go Harrison and Polamalu, there'll be a lot of unhappy campers around here.
They don't have much cap room to make huge splashes in free agency and the 2013 draft will reveal itself over the years.

So what do you expect?

Tell Haley and Ben to get along better? Make Ben study film more? Work on conditioning?
Hell, I don't know that they don't do this already.
Change/tweak the Off/Def Schemes-- that won't happen much if the coaching staff stays the same.

You guys always talk about the "Steeler Way", well the Steeler Way is not to make huge changes, and guess what? they won't.

 

I am pretty tired of hearing that the Haley hire was a fiasco. Do you guys realize that we used our 2nd ,3rd and 4th string RB's 90% of the year? Do you realize we used our 2nd and 3rd string QB's for nearly 25% of the year? Do you realize we used our 3rd string RT for nearly half the year? 2nd string RG and moved a guy to play LG that was playing RG most of the year? Moved our all pro center to play RG a couple of games and our WR's were pretty banged up too. Cotchery missed a few games, AB missed some games, Wallace....did he show up yet? Heath was the only bright spot all year and now he is done...hopefully he can recover by the beginning of opening day next year. I'd say Haley did a decent job considering all the changes and injuries to this offense all year. SO to all the BA lovers and haters of TH, STFU, this team was decimated by injuries on both sides of the ball and we are lucky to have even been in it this long.

 

While I agree it is not time to panic, this team seems to have way more talent than the teams Cowher had losing seasons with. That is why this is so disappointing. Injuries aside, seemed like a season of talent wasted.

 

This right here is what I find funny. The majority of these things, especially the O line issues, existed under Arians as well but people weren't allowed to use them to explain the offensive short comings. Trying to look objectively at the situation was met with "injuries are excuses" etc etc etc. Now those same people are quick to point out all of the injuries and other issues to explain Haleys short comings. The short sightedness and inconsistency is laughable at best, sad at worst.

I think it was summed up best in another thread where someone said that there were people who were so vested in bashing Arians, in so deep with their disdain, that they are now so hitched to Haley that they cannot criticize him even a little bit for fear that it would somehow be admitting that letting go of Arians was a mistake.

Heres is the bottom line:
After 1 year its painfully obvious that the OC was not the problem. Hiring Haley was a mistake and BA was the fall guy, the scape goat for a decimated O line. Bruce Arians was fine at OC and is doing a great job in Indy. But as an Arians apologist Im not going to rub it in.

That being said, Im all for sticking with Haley. There were flashes of good things this year just like with Arians in the past. And just like Arians last year the O line was absolutely decimated with injuries. Im still waiting for someone to tell me what the longest consecutive game streak is with the same 5 guys starting on O line. My guess is that its been no more than 3 games over the PAST TWO seasons. The facts are that the Steelers have suffered an inordinate amount of injuries on the O line THE PAST TWO seasons. And thats the biggest problem with the offense. This year just as it was last year. And spare me the "standard is the standard" and "next man up" and "injuries are excuses" comments. Those things are for the coaching staff and players to say to the media. As fans its perfectly acceptable when analyzing your teams performance. Its the result of sh*tty luck thats all. Not Tomlins fault. Not Arians fault. Not Haleys fault. And not the strength and conditioning coach's fault either.

Im actually anxious to see what Haleys offense can do with a relatively consistently healthy O line, just as I wanted to the same under Arians last year. My guess is that it would look very similar to Arians '10 team that beat Arizona in the Super Bowl. A team that ranked 14th offensively (passing O too) even though they didn't have Ben for the first 1/4 of the season. Their passing O would have been FOURTH IN THE LEAGUE that year had Ben played all 16 games (based on YPG of the 12 games Ben did play).

 

only steelers fans think this team was a very talented team that would win the division and make the playoffs. just about everybody in the football world had us finishing 3rd in the division and missing the playoffs. Cowher always have very good teams. he just lacked a great QB for most of his tenure.

 

I'll exercise my option to not STFU, but appreciate the directive.

BA also operated with a plethora of o-line injuries and Ben missing a multitude of games to injury or suspension so, uh . . . yeah.

If the Rooney's were to take ANY action here (which they should), it would be to conduct a sort of season-ending 'exit interview' with all personnel and get a feel for their team. I believe they would find that the players, as a whole, don't particularly care for Todd Haley (and that's putting it lightly). Mike Wallace even recently was quoted as saying something to the effect of "players don't necessarily need to get along with the coaches." It makes me wonder if Mike Wallace's poor season wasn't partially impacted by his complete distaste in the way he was used (or NOT used) in the offense this season and/or his personal feelings for TH as a person (but this is PURELY speculation -- other than Wallace's quote, of course).

Now, the Rooneys need to decide what is in the best interest of the organization moving forward. Personally, I think Haley's resume should have prevented him from being hired in the first place. But, now that he's here, I hope(d?) for the best. I just don't see it though. I view his first year as a disaster. I really do. Sitting in the stands for eight games this season (home and away), I can state with certainty that Ben had very little place to go with the football, some of the formations were mind-boggling and, at times, all too predictable (there was NOTHING in the way of "well-designed plays" unless you loved the halfback toss for an interception). I've participated in team sports and I can tell you this: when a coach has removed the fun from the game, you mentally check out. I feel like that's what our offensive players did this season. Particularly towards the end. Oftentimes, no matter how strong a competitor you are, you would rather see the season over with than have to show up for a playoff game. I've been there. It sucks.

 

Exactly right Bobbybiz, the offensive line has been the issue in years past as well, the difference this year was the depth that we had to go to on the line and how many injuries there were....on top of all that, we had injuries to all the RB's, all the WR's and QB's. We also just lost Heath even though it doesnt matter for the playoffs anymore, if we did make the playoffs or still had a chance to make the playoffs, it would be without Heath too.
I havent even touched on the defensive side of the balll where we had to resort to a safety playing CB for us when that player never actually ever even played safety for us before....it was a year of catastrophic injury....we did well to even stay in contention.
I am ok with writing this year off as the injury bug affected us all...one thing is blatantly clear is that it was not the OC's fault for sure.

 

When you say COACHES, I assume you're referring to Tomlin. I hear all the time that Tomlin won with Cowher's players. The same could be said of Cowher, who initially won with Knoll's players. Let's take a closer look at how well Cowher fared.

Year Record Result
1992 11-5 Lost to Buffalo in Div Round 3-24

1993 9-7 Lost to Kansas City in Wild Card 24-27

1994 12-4 Lost to San Diego in Conf Champ 13-17

1995 11-5 Lost to Dallas in Super Bowl 17-27

1996 10-6 Lost to New England in Div Round 3-28

1997 11-5 Lost to Denver in Conf Champ 21-24

1998 7-9 No Playoffs

1999 6-10 No Playoffs

2000 9-7 No Playoffs

2001 13-3 Lost to New England in Conf Champ 17-24

2001 10-5-1 Lost to Tennessee in Div Round 31-34

2002 6-10 No Playoffs

2003 15-1 Lost to New England in Conf Champ 27-41

2004 11-5 Won Super Bowl over Seattle 21-10

2005 8-8 No Playoffs

QB 1992-1995 Neil O'Donnell
QB 1996-2001 Kordell Stewart
QB 2002 Kordell Stewart/Tommy Maddox
QB 2003 Tommy Maddox
QB 2004- Ben Roethlisberger

People say that Cowher didn't have a good QB until Ben but his teams did well enough with them to make it to Div Rounds, Conference Championships and the Super Bowl. Could it be that Cowher was out-coached when he lost to San Diego in the Conference Championship or to New England? If the Rooney's start a couching carousel it will be disastrous for this organization. We already ran BA out of town. How did that work out?

 

As per Rooney's, they will do nothing after one bad season. It will be some comestic changes, Kugler, Amos and a few older players leaving but it will be more status quo for the steelers.

No big name free agents or moving up in the draft. We will stay the course and see what shakes out.

 

I don't hold up much hope for the Rooneys making major changes - as others have said - that is not their way. When you look at it realistically, we never have a really good offense. Didn't under Cowher and don't under Tomlin. I believe that is because of the Rooney's philosophy on football. They are defense first, offense second. That is why our D ranks at the top every year and the O doesn't. Why else would they hire a D Coordinator to be the HC when you already have the best D Coordinator in the business? Remember Cowher was a D Coordinator as well before the Steelers HC. I don't look for much to change - D will be very good next year and the O will not. I have seen it for too long to expect anything different.

 

The QBs were good enough to get Cowher's teams to the playoffs. They made it to Div Rounds, Conference Championships and even the Super Bowl. So those QBs where good enough to get him there but once there I guess they were horrible no good bums. No way it could be that Cowher was out-coached in those games. And he didn't always have good teams. He had a 3-year stretch with no playoffs. And the year after winning the SB with Ben the team went 8-8. How did that happen? I mean we're talking Big Ben and Bill Cowher. I guess Ben isn't a great QB after all.

 

The roster will be revamped if for no other reason than....the cap makes us have no choice. The team MUST play with a larger sense of urgency. The D did that on Sunday....the offense, not so much.

 

Cowhers team went 8-8 after the Super Bowl because his wife was dealing with and dying from cancer. He was not interested in coaching at that point when his priorities were obviously elsewhere as they should have been. It was made out to be about money when in fact all Cowher wanted to do was take his wife back home to NC so she could be with family.

 

Well, I think injuries have certainly plagued this team (last year's playoff vs. Denver, for example--I think we had 6 starters sidelined). However...I don't think the o-line injuries have been the biggest reason for our offensive woes in recent years. Rather, I think the biggest problem has been the lack of talent on the offensive line. The o-line simply has been unable to run the ball effectively against good opponents and has struggled immensely with pass protection (this year was a marked improvement, however).

So, I am looking forward to acquiring (or developing) a greater level of talent on the o-line. And, then, I hope they can stay healthy.

 

not necessarily. they dumped Gilbride after one year. I think Haley has proven to be at least as inept as gilbride was.

 

the only QB cowher had that I would even rate as good was Niel. Stewart and Maddox were terrible. It's actually a testament to just how good Bettis and the D were in those years. after all, that's how he got the nickname the bus. was single handedly able to carry the entire offense.

but what so many people don't seem to get is that the game has changed so much since then. dink and dunk and relying of a running game and stiff D isn't going to get you to the big dance. in today's NFL you better be able to throw down field. otherwise you'll win some games, even make the playoffs. but you'll never seriously compete for a championship.

 

This year will be SuperBowl 48. The Rooneys will treat this year the same way the other 40 times the Steelers didnt make it to the SuperBowl. Reload and try again. Just remember, the Steelers are 8-40 at making the SuperBowl... but that is still better then anyone else.

 

Kaye Cowher's death was tragic, however, she wasn't diagnosed with skin cancer until February 2010 and passed away July 2010. So her issue was not a factor in any way of Bill Cowher and the Steelers going 8-8.

 

Didn't we go 6-10 and the next year draft ben who led us to THREE superbowls. Im hoping the front office can come up with a pick like that! Im over the negative stuff and I have moved on to the offseason so I'm hoping we right the ship next year. Lets get the mental mistakes fixed, get the rookies into the weight room and deeper into the playbooks and draft some future hall of famers.

We need another 70's draft wasn't it 73 or 74 when we drafted 4 hall of famers in one draft? I'll settle for one or two in this next draft!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The injuries last year were every bit as significant from this year.

Ben was significantly injured last year too, remember?

D injuries had little to do with the offense. Both last year and this year, regardless of injuries they were a top defensive unit in the league.