Apathy is Truly Setting In

McCarthy sucks

 

So you're a fair-weather fan, noted.

 

Once again, so maybe it will sink in for the folks with this take. Just because you don't like what an owner is doing does not mean they do not care.

 

it might.

how can you defend what has become indefensible?

he just might not care. we don't know. he might just be content being a rich fat cat and not about winning.

actions speak louder than words, is the age old saying.

 

I've been one of the people blasting this team this season, but not because I think the team sucks. I've repeatedly said we have a lot of talent on this team. We have holes sure, but so does every team. The salary cap pretty much guarantees teams will have holes. We have enough skill that we should have been far better. I know we had QB issues, but how much of that was on the coaching? Our offensive game plans and philosophy was horrible. We didn't do the QB's any favours. Tomlin chose to retain Matt Canada despite all the signs pointing to him being a colossal failure. That's on Tomlin. He screwed the team this year by keeping Canada.

I believe strongly that Tomlin has been our downfall, so it's difficult to watch year after year seeing the same failures and zero action by ownership. It's hard to continue to be passionate after a while.

 

I get the apathy. You just need to set realistic expectations this is not an elite franchise right now. I am not angry that Tomlin is back next year, I was expecting him to be back. By all means, crap all over Tomlin and AR II, I plan on doing so quite often.

My motto is in 'Khan we Trust' for now.We are in a down period and eventually Khan will get to bring in a new head coach.

Just be realistic they are likely already eliminated from winning the Superbowl in 2024. Burrow will be back next year, so it means the Steelers will likely go back to bottom of the AFC North. Realistically, there are some holes in this roster, especially in the trenches.

We will have bottom tier coaching with Tomlin and simply don't have the QB on the roster yet to compete in the AFC.

 

The franchises that consistently lose have issues with apathy and poor leadership. A bad owner or a bad GM or a bad coach will ruin the culture and turning that around often takes a miracle. There's a reason half of the NFL rarely competes. Like a marriage, when apathy sets in it's over. Our ticket sales reflect that so it has to show up in the teams profits. Rooney is more patient than most owners. He's not an ego maniac he doesn't need playoff wins every year. Jerry Jones wants playoff games and a ring before he dies...becuase of his ego. Ironically that's probably exactly what will cost the cowboys from ever winning one anytime soon. But the Cowboys certainly are not apathetic.

I believe the NFL knows this is not good for business so they do what they can to help the franchises that fail consistently. Seeing the Steelers and Patriots struggle is probably not a bad thing if you are an NFL stock holder. It's not good for the NFL if half the markets think they have no chance every season. I'm not a conspiracy theorist but the officiating often decides games and the NFL could care less. If they did care they would make changes. They're more focused on making sure no employee of the NFL ever says a bad thing about officiating. If they want the league to stay fresh and give some franchises hope they probably need to influence the outcomes. Some owners are more concerned about the health of the NFL vs the health of their franchise. I think the Rooneys are one of them. They know the steelers have the ratings and following that the rest of the league can only dream about.

 

The Killer Bee era was a built to win era that was wasted imo.

 

You do realize that Austin has been the defensive coordinator for only two seasons so this was his first playoff game, right? There are legitimate criticisms to be made of Austin, but you came nowhere near any of them.

 

Yes, squandering that opportunity is something I never want to think about much. It makes me sick. It should go down as one of the top 5 worst coaching failures in the last 20 years.

That was a perfect example of Tomlin's shortcomings. He's predictable to a fault. He all too often plays games not to lose vs game planning to beat the other team. That's why we lose to bad teams. that's why we get our asses handed to us in the post season. Come playoff time opponents attack our weaknesses while we try to get conservative. Coaches good at X's and O's make us look foolish.

The reason Ben is destined to the HOF is for his 4th quarter heroics. His talent w/ Brown and Bell made that happen in the 4th quarter when game planning is out the window. If there's a theme with Tomlin it is getting your ass handed to you in Q1 and then needing heroics to win it in the 4th.

Why are we consistently over matched in Q1? This goes back to losing to the Packers in the SB. Tomlin's entire career he has shown we do a terrible job of game planning. We do what the opponents expect us to do and that's usually predictable conservative play calling. And that is on both sides of the ball. So that's all on Tomlin. That predictability gives guys like Tom Brady, Aaron Rogers, and Allen an easy win. Decent coaches love it. Tomlin did try to out think himself and fix his predictability. Remember going for 2 on every TD and throwing bombs on 3rd and short ? That was Tomlin thinking he was creative.

Take that ability to win a game late away from Tomlin and we get embarrassed against anyone with an offense. That's why we have stunk for the last 5 or so years. When Ben couldn't do it anymore we needed elite defensive play and that usually only works on teams with mediocre QB's.

 

Remind me when they were last at the bottom?

 

I'm a few years older than you n Steelers games have been a MUST watch since the Cowher years

Last 2 seasons I've been golfing on Sundays w having the broadcast on my phone. With a HS off n rinse n repeat game plans I'd rather be outside I DVR the games n can rewatch when get home, but

Will see if this continues, but Steelers n Tomlin need to show me something otherwise I'll keep trying to shoot 89 or lower lol

 

1988

 

You do realize Austin is just running Tomlin's defense right? Austin is essentially an assistant DC to Mike Tomlin. Our inability to cover the middle of the field has been a Tomlin problem his entire career. Also thinking we can challenge QB's like Allen and Brady with zone coverages at the worst possible time is a trend that existed since Tomlin took over the defense from DL. Good Qb's have no issue attacking the middle of the field and given our predictable we are on defense it's easy to create plays that open up the middle of the field.

I also think much of our defensive issues the last 5 years are actually poor planning with personnel. We thought small fast ILB's that could cover Te's was the way to go. That blew up in our face as teams just ran the ball down our throats. We really needed physical safeties and a dominant front 3 to pull that off and failed on both fronts. That's why we got dramatically better when Minkah showed up. We got better when our D-line improved. We struggled to find good ILB's . It's especially difficult if your D-line is not physical enough. Cam was the only baller for years on our D-line.

Point being it was a poor scheme to try and implement. It was flawed and easily exploited. Just like Matt Canada's system, easily exploited. Maybe the system works great if we had the personnel to execute it. They either misjudged the talent or thought it didn't matter.

 

Oh that's right...before Burrow was born. Thanks!

 

Fair enough. They haven't finished last since like 1988 or something but certainly would have this year would have been had Burrow not been hurt. They could have still made the playoffs, the AFC North was the best division this year.

My point is the Steelers are more likely to be at the bottom next year than the top. All the other teams have better QB's and offensive coaching...which is what matters in the current pass happy NFL.

 

Maybe so...but we also don't have a talent like Burrow at QB. This is very much a QB driven league so without a guy like that it will be very hard to win a division. Especially when your division has 2.

I personally don't think Cleveland will be as consistent next year. This is not to say that playing for third is ideal, but it is where we are on paper until we get the QB thing figured out.

I am more optimistic today than yesterday with Tomlin emphatically saying they will go outside the organization for an OC.

 

I agree! Loved watching those games back in the late 80's/90s and 2000s up until the last 6 years or so!

There's an ol' adage about these kind of situations. It basically says, continuing to do the same things (when they are obviously not working), is the definition of insanity! I think this organization is there! The obvious drop off from when Ben and many other players left the team, is glaringly apparent. Can you imagine this defense without TJ? We have seen it! This season, he was out and we lost almost all of those games, if not all of them. Football is the main true team sport IMO. If one guy, affects your defense that much, that's a big problem!

Steelers have a lot of issues but QB is not one of those! KP is still a very good QB that suffered through some; terrible playcalling and leadership, many guys on O being injured for most of his 11 games (DJ, Muth, Najee, etc)b but he was still 7-4 as the starter with all of that adversity!

My opinion, they need to bring in a new HC and staff to right this ship! If not that, they at LEAST, need a new OC and DC. The defense's main issues are some scheme but mostly technique issues! For example; the CBs (when playing press or C2 at 5 yards off) and LBs, do not reroute receivers off the LOS (which helps disrupt timing in routes). Good teams reroute receivers off the LOS! And C2, will NOT work without reroutes, period! The other piece is the tackling (or lack there of). Guys are dipping their heads, taking poor angles, going for a knockout versus; getting low and working high (like an airplane taking off), getting their shoulder on the BC, head across and shooting their arms through to wrap up and drive your feet. "Shooting the arms" is the way you should dislodge the ball because you should be focused on wrapping up. That (going for the strip) should be a Secondary (meaning 2nd) piece to wrapping up the BC (which should be first- Primary). These are glaring issues. Here's the number one way you can see what a HC considers important...... THEY ACTUALLY DO IT! All coaches will say, "oh of course (this or that) is important to us but if you're not seeing it, they are just babbling. Talk is cheap! Without changes in these coordinator positions, we are looking at more of the same! Obviously the trenches (especially O Line) need to be addressed in FA and the Draft. They need a DB and a Dawg at LB. No QBs, no WRs, maybe another RB but no TE.

Go Steelers!

 

i often quote the Iron Maiden song, "The Wasted Years" when discussing this era....

 

I think there's a better chance of you making onto the PGA Tour before Tomlin will ever win another playoff game

 

Dallas hasn't been to a conference championship game since the end of the 1995 season, and the NFC hasn't been that great since then.

 

I was specifically talking about this season .

 

I swear one of these years the smoke and mirrors will completely come crashing down. Somehow MT always has the team slightly above .500 and I really scratch my head on it.

 

LoL. See Ya. I don't believe anyone forces anyone to be a fan. Don't like it don't watch. That's what I do if I don't like something.

 

I can’t tell if this post is the outlook from the beginning of this past season or got next year, but all I’m seeing is the same result.