Tank for a QB?

As I was reading this I was woundering if it was a first hand account from previous lives

 

Mac Jones fooled you also?!


Sheesh.... if that was one of the bigger whiffs we have ever had I'd think me and you are both fine ha ha.

 

Since we are discussing tanking, let's do a hypothetical.

First week in December of 2005. (You don't have any knowledge past that date.)

The Steelers are 7-5, but have lost 3 in a row. And as some people have posted in this forum, good teams don't lose 3 in a row. That streak had a 26-7 thrashing by the 12-0 Colts, a loss to the Bengals (9-3 leading the division by 2 games), and an inferior Ravens team (4-8).
In the wild card hunt, they are behind the 9-3 Jaguars, 8-4 Chiefs, and the 8-4 Chargers. Even if the Steelers sneak into the playoffs, they are unlikely to beat the Broncos (9-3) and have no chance against the Colts.
They are about to play the 9-3 Bears. Another loss would put them at 7-6.

Did Cowher make the right decision to not tank the rest of the season to get a better draft pick the next year?

 

The Steelers were a very good team that was coming off a 15-1 season. The reason they were only 7-5 late in 2005 was because Ben missed 3 games that season and the Steelers were 1-2 without him. When he came back healthy late in the year then they were once again an elite team that was a threat to win it all which they did.

 

And they already had their franchise QB, so there was no need for a high draft pick.

 

Let me be clear that I am in the "do not tank under any circumstance" camp.
So I'm not saying the 2005 Steelers should have tanked, but that they could have chosen to after that Dec 4th loss, and they would have missed out on an opportunity.

(Consider the 2019 49ers. They were coming off a 4-12 season, hadn't had a winning season in 6 years, and were projected to have a ceiling of 8-8. On paper, that wasn't a 13-3 team that goes to the SB.)

High draft picks are not just for potential franchise QBs.
The Bengals got their franchise QB with the pick #1 in 2020. But I'd argue that Burrows didn't go from "good" to "elite" until the team got Chase the next year with the #5 pick.

Let me start off by saying I'm not talking about how I personally feel about that very good 11-5 team, but how they could have been perceived by fans who think the team is hopeless unless they are clear favorites to win the SB. If someone was looking for reasons to "tank" to get better draft picks, they had reasons at that time in the 2005 season.

That 15-1 team the previous year played a weak schedule (3rd out of 4 division, from the 2003 team that went 6-10). We talk about how the 2020 team was not as good as their 11-0 start; the 2004 team was not as good as their 15-1 regular season record. In the playoffs, they had to go to overtime to beat the wild card Jets team, and then got demolished in the championship game. Their last 6 games (including the playoffs) they averaged almost 3 turnovers a game. The offense ranking was outside the top-10. None of that screams "elite".

For the 2005 season, the preseason Vegas odds were still less than 10 wins, 4th in the AFC, despite going 15-1 the year before. Odds-makers considered them very good, but not elite. Ben was the starter in the 2nd and 3rd game of that losing streak in the middle of the season. The Steelers needed to win all 4 of their last games, and the Chiefs had to lose their Dallas game in the last minute, just to make the playoffs. (That wouldn't have seemed likely in early December 2005.)

Some people in this forum say with absolute certainty that the current Steelers have no chance of winning even a single playoff game, let alone if they make the playoffs this year.
In 2005, the Steelers were slight favorites in Cincinnati, but the Vegas line was 8.5 for the Colts and 4.5 for the Broncos. If the team is huge underdogs, why bother playing, right?

 

I never said it's an automatic loss when you're the underdog... c'mon, don't say things we never said!

I'll never tank when you're in a playoff race in the last month of the season either... But if you start 2-6, like the Steelers sometimes did, it's better to think about the future and play your young players instead of winning at all costs since unless you are in a terrible division,making the playoffs after a 2-6 start almost never happen... It's not the same if you're 7-5 or 7-7 like two years ago and you're still in the race.

For the 15-1 season in 2004... The difference between 2004 and 2005: in 2004, they peaked in the middle of the season when they beat the Pats and the Eagles easily in back-to-back weeks at home and they were undefeated... In 2005, they peaked at the right time, especially for Ben... In 2004, they were behind at home for only under 10 minutes for the entire regular season, all in the game against the Bengals in Week 4.This is dominant!

 

I brought this exact thing up before, and now because we know the turn out, people look at it differently, but I clearly remember the message board back then, and people were losing their $hit, and the here we go again with loser Cowher.....he will never win the big games. Though now those that said that then, now can't remember feeling that way.

 

Did You actually watch that game???
I'm telling you right now, we don't win that game if Carson doesn't get hurt. He was shredding our much vaulted Cowher/ LeBeau Defense....just like he had a few weeks before. Everyone that watched that game knows this, even if they don't want to admit it.
It's part of the got lucky, that I told You all SB teams get sometime throughout the season.

 

Palmer had only attempted one pass in that game!

Palmer wouldn't have mattered much in that game. The Steelers offense had four TDs on four drives at one point, and it could have been more if the game had been closer. Palmer doesn't play defense, and the Bengals defense was just awful in the second half of the season. The only thing you had to do against that defense was not make turnovers, and you were going to score a lot of points, and that's what the Steelers did, and they didn't do it at home against that team in December.Palmer was also 0-3 against Cowher in Cincy(1-5 overall at home vs Pittsburgh) in his career and the steelers sent them on vacation the following year too in the final game of the season

The great Peyton Manning wasn't very good the following week against us, and the 2005 Colts were their best team in the Manning era. It was the biggest upset in the Steelers' run,a much better team that the bengals.The steelers were the favorite vs Bengals even if they were on the road

Yes, I agree that luck matters, but you can't relate it to that every time.

 

So You didn't watch it??? Your looking up things.
He had one pass of 66 yards , and it was the same type of pass that He torched our so called excellence D on just weeks before, with scoring 38 points. I know you didn't watch it, because everyone that did when He hit that big 66 yard pass 1st thing against us in the playoffs were like ......here we go again.....because just weeks before we couldn't stop him.

 

I watched that game, I remember like crazy, and I remembered all week after that game that the Steelers had no chance against the Colts unless the Steelers injured Manning.

Yes, I remember the first play of their offense, but I've seen a million times a team start strong and lose the game afterward.The steelers also won easily in Cincy earlier in 2005 despite a great start for the bengals offense...I could also make an argument that the Bengals wouldn't have made the playoffs if Ben hadn't been hurt for 4 games and the Steelers would have been a 13-3 team at least and Ben wouldn't have thrown 3 interceptions in the game at home vs Bengals in December.... One less win for the Bengals in the regular season and no playoffs for them

Again, the Bengals' defense was trash if they didn't have turnovers, and the Steelers had four TDs on four drives at one point.Their defense had no answer

 

You didn't watch it live . You may have watched it since then. You don't have to make stuff up.
LoL
You appear to not have watched Indy.....Nobody at that time was scared of P. Manning in the playoffs. He was mister choke....like Lamar Jackson is now.

 

I've been watching football since the 2001 season, so yes, I watched that game live.... No matter what you say, I watched that entire playoff run, what you say doesn't matter. Before that game i was confident the steelers were going to win because of the poor bengals defense....i was much less confident vs colts( I thought 2005 was going to be the year of the colts, but it ended up being the year after.), confident vs broncos and very nervous but still confident for the super bowl

As for Peyton Manning, he's been to four Super Bowls, including a Super Bowl win the following season.... You probably thought the Pats-Colts game was over in the 2006 title game when they were down 21-3. And yes, I remember the reputation that Manning had in the playoffs, but I also know that things can change very quickly. It's one of the things I learned most from watching sports.

 

You are like a classic Bengals fan....