Tomlin vs Cowher

I love Tomlin, but I think I'd jump at the chance to bring Cowher back.

People seem to despise the way Tomlin speaks, but I love it. I think other people would love it too if the team backed up his words. The unleashing of hell will always be a punchline around here.

I don't think Tomlin lacks control, or speaks out of his rear or anything like that . . . I think he's a great coach. The reason why I love Cowher so much is that I believe he possesses something Tomlin doesn't: an eye for talent.

I believe we have struggled this season because we're just not very good. We have been bombing out in the draft in recent years. You can only have so many consecutive first and second round misses before your team starts to do a nose-dive.

We saw this coming. This 'age' problem. The bigger problem is that we didn't do anything to replace them with quality players. McClendon, Heyward, and Hood are not Hampton, Smith, and Keisel. Not even close. We're in big trouble up front. Harrison and Woodley can't stay on the field and Worilds and Carter can't hold their jocks. Farrior and Foote are now Timmons and . . . who . . . Sylvester? Polamalu and Clark will soon be Mundy and Clark? Believe it or not, our corners will soon be the strength of our defense. I thought Cortez Allen had an AWESOME game against A.J. Green and Keenan Lewis has shown some signs of strong play. But this defense as a whole is a mess. You can throw '#1 defense' out all you want. This defense isn't very good.

Offensively, we are also a mess but I think that comes more from scheme (but I'm not gonna get into more Haley-bashing here).

My main point is that I really miss what Cowher brought to the table . . . in April.

 

well first, Duh. cowher's going to the HOF. but second, cowher had a few of these disappointing seasons too. in fact, almost got fired after one of them. before the first SB win there were no shortages of "fire bill cowher" threads on the teams MB.

 

Cowher wouldnt be able to do what he did before. He could work the team hard in practice back in his day.. thx the the new CBA, thats gone and the players know it.

 

Why is Cowher going to the HOF? Because he won one Super Bowl in 18 years?

 

DAMN SKIPPY HE IS
IT'S CALLED THE HOMER MISNOMER
if John Merrick was our coach he too would be right beside the chin.

 

Well, I was never on the 'fire Cowher' bandwagon.

You understand an 'off' season happens now and again. I appreciated the fact he had us in the AFCCG 6 out of 15 seasons. If you told me we'd be in the AFCCG every 2 or 3 years, I'd be ecstatic. The fact we only won 2 of the 6 didn't bother me too much. The San Diego game, in my opinion, was the biggest disappointment in franchise history but it was just a really weird game. And the '01 New England loss was a weird game too (special teams nightmare). Other than that, all the rest went about as I expected. You can't ask to have the best team in the league every year -- that's a bit unrealistic. But you can hope to be a contender on a consistent basis and that's where Cowher had us.


What I loved about Cowher is that he was consistently plugging guys in and getting production out of them. We always seemed to be stocked with quality depth. Not so much these days . . .

 

I will agree with your post 100 percent Dick. I had a family friend once tell me that he didn't think Cowher was a good coach and I was shocked by the statement until he explained his point of view and I stepped back and looked at it and he was right. Cowher was great at finding guys to plug into his system and get the most from them at their position. I don't think you could find a better judge of talent for what type of player he was looking for for his football team. However he wasn't great at adapting to anything new and teaching the game in all its forms to his players. Just look at his total loss as to how to best us Stewart at the QB position or the failed K-Gun experiment the year after Maddox but up huge passing numbers with Ward and Burress. The reason they put up those huge numbers was because teams were selling out to stop Bettis and the ground game at the expense of the passing game. Without that threat they could play sound pass defense and not have to worry because everyone knew Bettis doesn't beat you in the first he beats you in the third and fourth when you're run down. Trying to get the ground game going in the late portions of the third just didn't work and thus it failed and they returned to Cowher's traditional type of football. I wish they would hire him as a consultant personally if they are trying to re-establish that team identity. He could find the best players for that type of scheme.

 

Cowher did have some down years. However, one thing I did like about him is there were a couple season where they were on the verge of missing the playoffs even though the talent was there, and he was able to right the ship through various means.

Tomlin just didn't have a lot of answers or mid season changes for what was going on this year....

 

Both coaches were/are good in their own way. There's a fine line between winning and losing in the NFL. Just ask the Tom Coughlin this season. Cowher had a lot of roster turnover before the salary cap when players routinely left for other teams. Thus far, Tomlin has not had to deal with that so much but looking at all the players whose contracts expire after 2012 he may be dealing with that type of situation as well.

 

Hold on a second. Was Cowher drafting the players or was Tom Donahoe and then Kevin Colbert?

 

Not sure with Colbert, I think they had a collaborative effort that was very focused since Cowher knew what he wanted in the non skill position guys. Which is why you saw the plug and play types at LB, DLine, Oline, FB and so on with little drop off in play from guy to guy when they were inserted. The skills positions were a mixed bag because Cowher at heart was conservative with a play tough defense and run the football approach. so where to fit highly athletic and highly skilled players on his team was hit and miss at times. As far as Tom Donahoe goes not sure there. They had friction the last few years Tom was there, clashes with Cowher on what each one wanted. But I think it is safe to say even now with Tomlin and Colbert that the head coach had a list of players and types of players he wants to see in a draft or free agency and Colbert looks at what standards the owners set and what is out there and they come to consensus on where they place each layer and position value wise. Cowher had a type of player he liked and just seemed to know what worked best with his system. Tomlin I think is still finding his way in that regard just my two cents.

 

I believe it was collaborative with Cowher having a tremendous amount of input. So much input that it became a power struggle with Donahoe to the point both were willing to offer their resignations -- Donahoe's was accepted -- then he went to Buffalo and, lo and behold, couldn't duplicate what he did in Pittsburgh while Cowher flourished.

 

Havent you heard, John Madden set the new standard after 10 years of coaching and 1 SB win he went in, so yeah, Cowher could go, and he coached longer than Madden, and had a better winning percentage as well as appearing in two superbowls......

 

It's very difficult to compare Cowher and Tomlin (or, as Peter King did: Tomlin and Shula). THE GAME HAS CHANGED. Shula coached in a period where it took some time to build a team, but then once you did, you could keep those players in the fold. It took Noll four years to build a winner, and we all know what happened for the eight seasons that followed. Cowher came in as salaries were escalating and free agency was beginning. Under Cowher/Donahoe, the Steelers drafted well but could not keep the players for long. The Cowher "down years" were a result of losing talent because the Steelers had become a farm system for bigger spenders (signing bonuses didn't count against the cap back then).

 

The Steelers under Tomlin lack an identity. There isn't an underlying football philosophy and I remember seeing "red flags" when Tomlin was hired and he simply kept the coaches Cowher had in place. Many believed that was smart. It certainly was the "easy approach." Problem is, Tomlin has 100% completely failed to put a stamp on this team. 5+ season into it, and we now see the mess: a "players coach" who lets the assistants do the work, and there is absolutely zero accountability from the man who is supposed to be in charge.

Sorry if I'm being overreacting to the downward slide of the season, but this is sort of what I see. My faith in Tomlin has dropped considerably.