Splash play philosophy

Tomlin has repeatedly referred to the need for splash plays, and I think that is the cornerstone of the whole team’s approach, and is based on TJ Watt. The defense is geared toward getting pressure on the QB, mainly by Watt or Highsmith or Herbig, with prevent coverage behind them with at least one deep safety. If th pressure gets there, good things happen for the defense, setting up the offense. If the pressure doesn’t get there, even mediocre QBs have time and receivers are pretty wide open - not many contested catches. Stopping a drive is tough if there isn’t some big play due to pressure, or the offense is just bad.

This approach has carried over to the offense. When Fields was QB, offense was very conservative, requiring the defense to keep the game close, which they did for the most part. With Wilson and Pickens, the deep ball splash play is now the hallmark. On how many 3rd and short is there a long ball - looking for a splash plays instead of keeping the drive alive? If that doesn’t happen, drives stall.

With the lack of splash plays in the last few games, especially against good teams, the Steelers look dismal. I don’t think they are built for long, sustained drives, or consistency for that matter, as splash plays are hard to come by.

I wish the philosophy was consistent, sound football and dominating schemes, rather than relying on the big play.

But if they can get a few, I think they can beat anyone.

 

Didn't read all that.

 

Kidding. Obviously.
Just always wanted to type that.

Always liked tour avatar. Pretty cool.

 

Thanks. Steelers nation is everywhere.

 

I still don't know what a splash play is.

 

One form of it is a randomly occurring event dependent on opponent’s mistakes, and/or bounces of an oval shaped object (ie football) going towards one of the Steelers players.

usually, over the course of a season, it becomes difficult to count on such randomness to always go in one’s favor.

It’s a good strategy to employ when your goal is to get a non-losing season as it’s possible to beat crappy teams on a consistent basis, but it pretty much guarantees losing to better teams in playoffs.

 

I’d say on defense it is things like a strip sack, great interception, blocked punt, or similar thing. A Troy Polamalu highlight reel would be examples of splash plays.

 

Wonder is Tomlin plays this before game time to get the boys all FIRED UP!!!

 

At his press conference today, basically all he talked about was splash plays. It's our entire identity and his entire game plan.
Only problem is splash plays are far less common against the top teams in the league, so we're always going to be behind the 8 ball against the other elite teams.
He also said Pickens didn't give up on his route last week...so I don't think he has any clue what he's talking about.
God I hate Tomlin.

 

I don't necessarily disagree with that philosophy, more on defense than offense though. It's very hard in NFL to get a 10 plus play drive for a score. Somewhere in there you're likely to make a critical mistake. The thing is, when they make that mistake you must make them pay. We've seen it in several our recent games where we couldn't do that. We've forced a lot of near turnovers with fumbles we couldn't recover and tipped balls we didn't intercept when we should have.

I know it doesn't work this way, but it feels like we're overdue for some bounces to go our way on those fumbles.

On offense though, going for too many splash plays risks turnovers or low time of possession at least. In that case your defense gets tired and spells trouble.

 

Tomlin’s low IQ babble about splash plays absolves him from actually doing any scheming and teaching good fundamental football. I bet Chuck Noll would have hated the term splash plays because you cannot plan for them. You can plan for good fundamentals like gap control, setting the edge etc. Tomlin’s defense is essentially playing with 9 men because there are at least 2 players who don’t know what they are supposed to do. That is why they consistently give up third and long. I hate Art Jr. even more. Nepotism got him control of the football team, and he rather be invited to the right parties than have a winning team. He went to the one of the most exclusive high school in the world, only to land up at Pitt, and then go to a third rate law school. He probably failed his bar. Stupid ficker.

 

They are what other teams have been doing to the Steelers the last few weeks.

 

There's good reason to emphasize splash plays. Because they win games. The analytics are pretty clear on this. There's different definitions on what constitutes a big play but usually it's something like run plays over 12 yds, pass plays over 20 yds, turnovers created by the D, sacks, special team scores. The team that has more of those in a game wins about 75% of the time.

Having said all that there's definitely a school of thought that the best way to maximize the number of splash plays your offense makes and minimize the number your opponent makes is by maximing your snaps and minimizing the other teams snaps.

 

Art is the largest reason for current stare of Steelers, IMO

Zero to low football acumen and honestly seems to not really have the drive to win like his Father

Until he goes away I expect little deviation from last 8 seasons

2025 PERFECT time to move on from Tomlin

Hire Ben Johnson
Have a TON of cap room n move franchise into 21st century.

Steelers org is EXTREMELY stale n in need of a solid amt of fresh air

But.........

 

And by playing sound football. If your in good defensive position, there's less open spots for the QB to throw to. The tighter the throws, the more likely they are to be contested or picked off. All Tomlin talks about is splash plays, yet our team is failing at the basics of football.

 

I always thought the Steelers front office was thought very highly of. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore.
The Athletic has an article about front office rankings. The Steelers aren't as high as I would have expected, and not as high as I'm sure they once were.
The rankings are from other front office executives, not just arbitrary rankings.

Like you said, it just feels like we're stuck in a previous era and refuse to adapt. It's gotten stale. Arthur Smith isn't a bad OC at all. He might very well be the best guy that was available, but it still feels like a stale hire, if that makes any sense.

 

Can the head coach create a culture where fundamentals are emphasized and highly valued? Absolutely.

But, actually coaching basics like technique, gap responsibility, route running, etc is the job of the position coaches not the head coach.

You can argue he's weak at getting the right guys to do this or doesn't emphasize it enough, but those details aren't his job.

 

I said it elsewhere, but the Steelers ownership and FO are stuck in the past. It's worked for them in the past, but times and the game change and they refuse to. Having the highest paid D in the league tells you that. That's what they value even though the game has made it less so. You have to change and adapt or you whither.

 

Bounces went their way in the Eagles game and they still lost. It is a dumb azz philosophy that won't beat contenders on a consistent basis. Sounds like this is the type of philosophy you employ when you live in your fears. It screams we are not good enough to stand toe to toe with the best.

 

All I want for Xmas is Steelers to have a good consistent defense like the Eagles and Chiefs. Like Blitzburgh of the 90s, Big Nasty D of the early 00s and Super Bowl D of the mid to late 00s. Is that too much to ask?

A defense that relies on splash plays will eventually fail against the better teams.

 

Steelers are currently 8th best in the league on 3rd and long defense.

 

The main issue is less the dependence on splash and a more basic dependence on creating pressure from a front 4.

We need creative blitz packages - good things seem to happen when Watt is moved around or dropped into coverage. Against both the Chiefs and Ravens the defense seemed very vanilla

 

They were really good when TJ was wreaking havoc. Ever since TJ hasn’t been effective, it’s way down. TJ is playing with injuries and is wearing down. Steelers are 1-13 when TJ isn’t playing. It seems the entire defense relies on one guy’s production. My analysis isn’t from this year but observing Tomlin’s defense through the years. Coaching makes a difference. Above average qb seem to dissect Tomlin’s defense like hot knife through butter. I guess everyone except Lamar Jackson.

 

Spot on and it is infuriating football to watch. Its as if we have a lack of coaching ability or acumen to actually out scheme somebody to win. Why can’t we consistently force three and out on defense or ut together long drives that end in a touchdown? It is very frustrating to watch.