Possible and speculative reason for losing "trap" games?

Many athletes and teams organize their practices over a season to peak at particular times. Wimbledon in tennis, national championships in various sports, Olympics in gymnastics and swimming, etc. Athletes often vary their practice intensity so they are best prepared for the big events.

Given the length of the NFL season (training camp, pre-season, grueling 17 game schedule), I wonder if the Steelers (and others) do the same. It is so hard to maintain both physical and mental toughness for such a long period of time. Identify those games that look like easier wins, and that week slack off a bit on preparation. Hopefully skill alone may win the day anyway, but you're willing to risk that for a longer term vision.

I know, I know, this was a key game for playoff contention, but maybe pre-season, preparation for this game was part of a grand scheme. And with a Thursday night game following, maybe a bit of a let-up in practice was planned, though it backfired. And they should have won - if Pickett doesn't get hurt, or they score on fourth and 1, they probably win easily. The wheels came off after that. And if they win, there would now be no talk about not being prepared.

Pure speculation, but there is ample evidence over the years that something is going on for these games that should be easy wins. Maybe there is a method, though flawed, in the madness.

 

If Pickett doesn't get hurt we win easily? What has Pickett done to deserve that kind of respect? It's not like we lost by a FG. The Cardinals kicked our ass. When has Pickett put up more than the 24 points we would have needed to win?

I disagree with the entire take, but I strongly disagree with the assessment of us ever winning easily. We blew that game in many different ways. Pickett going down didn't change a thing, IMO. As for scoring on 4th down, well you can always point to plays on the other side of the ball too. Maybe if the Cardinals made this play i t's 31-10 instead. Harris was wide open on that 4th down play. Pickett didn't see him and instead took off running.

 

Notice that nobody on the defense mentioned taking the cards lightly? We are very young on offense and don’t have a leader there. Picket would be the obvious choice, but he’s been largely terrible so people are less likely to follow him. Johnson has been around the longest and would probably be a viable option except for his moments of shear stupidity. It seemed tomlin was trying to groom Harris for the role of leader on offense, but it doesn’t appear his teammates are taking that role seriously

 

That whole Cardinals disaster came down to the idiotic decision to go for the 4th and goal. If they kick the FG and go up by 3 that changed the whole trajectory of the game. Instead they miserably fail and give Arizona a spark that culminates in a 99 yard drive. Then the first drive of the second half Mitch can't hold onto the bad snap and all of a sudden the score is 17-3. I still think if we just kick the FG that we go into halftime leading 6-3 and it dramatically changes how both teams call plays after that.

 

Pickett is not the only weapon on offense. Warren and Harris would likely have had a banner day if we don't get that far behind quickly. That would be bunch of plays, not just one.

Sure they played horribly, and maybe some players took them lightly, but I understand it is a long season and it is tough to be "up" for every game.

 

I dont get how and please explain to me, coz im definitely missing something here. How can this version of the Steelers consider any game against any team a trap game???
Steelers are statistically ranked in the bottom of the league on both sides of the ball. They are offensively one of the worst teams in the NFL right now.
So once again how in the world can you even mention TRAP GAME???

 

It might have, but Steelers had absolutely no answer for the TE McBride. Once they started throwing his way the game was over.

 

If they had good, quality veteran back-up QB, they likely win. Pickett leaves too many plays on the table. I agree with Hanratty's take. Even though I didn't have a real issue with them going for it. The call to run out of the shot-gun was silly. Either way, there was enough blame to go around. I think with a Charlie Batch, they probably win.

 

We suck, they are all trap games.

 

Steelers went down opening drive on Cards.
Moved the ball right down the field. Then of course can't get a TD settle for 3.
Could of been 7-0 instead 3-0

Cards make it 3-3

Steelers drive down can't get it for a TD for 1 yard.

Could of been like 14-3... nope 3-3 still.

Cards then go the whole distance 99 yards ( some of the drive really aided by ref calls)

Cards make it 10-3 going into halftime and get ball to start 2nd half.

If Steelers just start a game like they should, and make a bad team go kind of like " oh here we go again"

They would take care of business and beat a bad team.

Plus you throw in bad mis handled snap, gave them the ball at Steelers 25 yard line or whatever.

Boswell misses a FG. 3 special teams penalties etc. etc.

You shoot yourself in the foot. Shoot yourself in the foot enough, anybody can beat you.

Steelers beat themselves as much as the Cards beat them Sunday.

 

Agreed, there was no need to go for it, just take the three point lead. It was hubris and bravado that like you said, backfired

 

It’s been happening for a long time. Basically, in the entire Tomlin era, yes?
I mean the Chin had his own issues of losing games and so did Chaz in his later years but not a systemic pattern of bad teams playing in our house whipping our arses. No sir, that appears to be a part of the Tomlin era. Now, the question for him and all of us is why and more importantly how do we solve it? Denying it’s a pattern will only damage us further and it will never be fixed.

 

How many times has this been said this year alone, even in the games we won if we could have/would have taken care of business early, we would not have been on desperation mode the last minute of the game. Those things happen in the NFL, but we seem to make it mandatory. I went through the 80's like many here, I don't want to be a whiner, but this crap really is old. As has been stated, when you lost at 3 rivers, regardless of the score you felt the team knew they had really screwed up because the home field advantage really had become an image to uphold. The effort (or lack of) and calamity I have seen in the last couple of years makes it seem (true or not) that home really has no meaning.

 

I really did not mind the decision, the running game was clicking, but the play calls were unimaginative,

 

It’s easy to say this knowing that they didn’t make it. They should’ve been able to pick that up. We’ve seen Najee carrying 7-8 guys picking up tough yards. It was definitely the right call though. The Cardinals had done nothing on offense at that point. You take that gamble with the way that your defense and their offense were playing at the time. It’s just a shame that they couldn’t pick it up and then Roberts went down almost immediately after.

 

If you read the game thread I immediately called for them to kick the FG long before the play took place. It was a terrible call to go for it with a new QB coming into the game. The Cardinals knew Trubisky wasn't going to throw and Harris was the only one else in the back field. All Arizona had to do was send everyone after Harris and the play as I expected failed miserably. They should have kicked the FG and taken the lead and that isn't second guessing, a lot of us on the game thread were pleading to kick the FG and not go for it long before the play took place.

 

How come when You say this everyone agrees, but when I said it....I get disagrees???
What's up with that???

 

You weren't the only one, and I said exactly this.

 

You, me and a couple of other people were pleading for them to kick the FG.

 

I would have been fine if they kicked the field goal. I kind of understood why they would go for it being that close. It's glass half-full, glass half-empty. Did they go for it because they have trouble scoring points or do you kick the FG for the same reason? The play call was abysmal. Why you go shot gun fourth and goal is stupefying. Bring in Heyward as a FB, bring in an extra lineman, put Mitch under center and let Harris hammer it in there. I'm guessing you run out of the shot gun as sort of a decoy? It fooled no one.

 

My problem is always..
1. Take the easy 3 unless You are down by multiple scores, or You need a td to win....You already had 3 shots....that's what our Kicker is for.
2. Once Trubisky came in nobody on D thought it was anything, but a run. Almost no team calls for a pass 1st play when the backup comes in.

 

Yes if KP didn’t get hurt maybe you go for that but when Mitch came in the pass was off the table so it was a bad move to go for 7.

 

Your point is valid. I looked at it different. I assumed we were going to be 9-4 and this was going to be an awesome weekend following the AFC teams. I looked at records and Pickett looked like he was coming alive so I made a bad assumption. I still think it may have been a different outcome if Pickett didn't get injured but other posters made good points against that.

 

Some posters say this crap happened all the time during the Chin's time and of course it did at times but never like the embarrassment Tomlin teams have brought upon us. I think the worse for Chin was home against the Chargers in AFCCG. Tomlin really had the team prepared for the Jags in Pittsburgh, didn't he

 

It wasn’t a terrible call. They were on the one yard line at home against the 31st ranked run defense in the nfl. The Cardinals offense had done nothing at that point. Obviously the thinking was “we should get this but if not we’ll still have them pinned up against their own goal line against our defense”.

Did you also predict that Roberts would get hurt and that they would go 99 yards for a td? Psychic abilities to predict that is the only thing that would’ve justified being against the call to go for it.