2026 Free Agent Thread

Did you actually watch games during the Cowher era or just read stats?

Fir those of us that did and if, as an added bonus, were on Steelers message boards in that era as well - we can all attest that EVERYONE complained about Cowher’s teams starting games and seasons slowly.

People used to call for Cowher’s firing over the “issue”.

I’m so tired of Steelers fans putting Cowher up for saint hood. He had plenty of flaws. Just like any other coach.

 

It's strange. Sometimes the further in the mirror someone gets, the less you see their flaws.

I have openly criticized both coaches when I didn't agree with things that they did, but I am grateful that we have been lucky enough to have Noll, Cowher, and Tomlin.

It's OK to be critical of some of the things they do but be smart enough to appreciate the big picture and realize that they have all been a large part of the successes of the franchise.

It's like earlier in the thread we have people arguing saying Ben sucks, LeBeau sucks, Tomlin sucks. For God's sake, they all walk into the Hall of Fame. What the hell are we talking about here?

 

conservative or not,the steelers were the best first quarter scoring team in the league in 2004 and 2005 and Ben had way more passing attempts in the first half in both of those years(the fast start the steelers had in Indy and Denver in the playoffs in 2005 was often the norm back of those years).....When the steelers had the lead in the second half,it was the cowherball time

 

It was not a problem when he had Ben in 2004,2005....It don't matter if they were conservative or not but they were a great first quarter team in those years with Ben

 

Agreed. And so was Noll. And so was Tomlin.

The constant complaining and comparisons among the three is just loud fan nonsense.

It would be interesting to see how Cowher would have adapted to the what the NFL is now.

 

Yeah.

I wasn't trying to take anything away from Cowher. He is in the HOF or will be or whatever for a number of reasons. He was a great coach. So was Tomlin. I know I hold the minority opinion on that. Don't care.

Also am old enough now that it irritates me that people who I do not think watched the past "live" try and tell me how it was. But that is a me issue and not anyone's fault.

Overall, I just don' think that most people like to acknowledge the harsh reality that you can get it all right and still not succeed or achieve your goals. People like to blame someone. Particularly sports fans. Sometimes there is just no one single thing to lay the blame on.

I really don't want to start this whole discussion again....but those mid-2000's or whatever Steelers teams were just some of the most snakebit teams I've ever seen. No luck but bad luck for large stretches.

 

Was not trying to argue that Cowher was not a great coach. He was excellent.

Only wanted to point out his teams had their flaws as well and I am tired of the folks who talk like they did not.

 

Cool. You found two seasons and made an argument out of it with no context. Wonderful. Ultimately, meaningless.

 

Cowher was a better coach than Tomlin... even with the '94 AFC Championship debacle vs Chargers. Hindsight is 20/20 and it is very clear now.

And yes... you are right. Cowher was accused of playing "Marty Ball" more times than I can count. Steelers on numerous seasons started out with a losing record during September from '92 through '06. I remember it well.... and I don't need stats for this recollection.

 

For the record, I would much rather our new coach, McCarthy... be more like Cowher than Tomlin. Slow start in September... and then clicking on all cylinders in December when it counts. Tomlin was the polar opposite... good starts and horrific finishes in December and January.

 

Any coach that gets a team to the Super Bowl deserves credit..
But Barry Switzer is an unexplainable exception. He was as disengaged as one could ever be in charge of a team that was on autopilot.
He was as useless as a knitted condom.
I've never seen anything like it.

 

OC Ernie Zampese and DC Dave Campo.... both were good coordinators.

 

After the SB win in 05/06 season I flew back to PA to visit family. I was picked up at the Pittsburgh airport by one of my folks classmate who was like an uncle to me. On the drive up to Marienville he said that Cowher wasn't a good coach. I was upset because Cowher was my generation's coach. He played tough defense and power run game. As we talked I was forced to really look at Cowher and his teams over the years and realize that there were things he did well and others he didnt. He was able to find plug and play guys that could fit right into his system but he wasn't an innovator who changed the game or anything. It's always interesting when you can look at something like Cowhers career in Pittsburgh and remember it fondly while also realizing the critical aspects of it.

 

I’ve never seen a knitted condom either

 

SCI Forest ?

No explanation needed

 

That's really cool! I would not have guessed that. Again...maybe just my stupid human memory.

Do you have links that show the data?

I'd be really interested to see it.

My recollection of those playoff games was that the reason passing first was effective is that it caught them on their back foot because we were so run heavy early. But again...just my memory.

 

Amen to this!

I'm sure that people will soften on Tomlin in the future just like they did with Cowher.

Just the "Groundhog Day" type seasons got tiresome.

 

2004

https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/1st-quarter-points-per-game?date=2005-02-07

2005

https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/1st-quarter-points-per-game?date=2006-02-06

 

If this is for the pass attempts for Ben

In 2004 it was 167 in the first half and 127 in the second half(20 in those was his first game ever vs Baltimore when the steelers were down 20-0 when Ben come in)


https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/R/RoetBe00/splits/2004/

In 2005,it was 154 pass attempts in the first half,114 in the second half

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/R/RoetBe00/splits/2005/

 

In reality though, no they're not.

 

Here's some more info from PFF re: run/pass splits in 2005 and 2006.
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/pit/2005_splits.htm
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/pit/2006_splits.htm

2005 1st Q: 46.6% passing (111 rush to 97 pass)
2005 2nd Q: 47.8% passing (121 rush to 111 pass)
2005 1st Half: 47.3% (232 rush to 208 pass)

2006 1st Q: 49.0% passing (122 rush to 117 pass)
2006 2nd Q: 53.4% passing (109 rush to 125 pass)
2006 1st Half: 51.2% (231 rush to 242 pass)

2005 + 2006 1st half: 49.3% (463 run, 450 pass)

So I'm not sure it's correct to say Ben had way more passing attempts in the first half in both of those years (I'm not sure what "way more" is compared to, but I have 2007 data at the end of the post...you can see we threw a lot more early in games after Cowher retired).

On the whole, we ran more than we passed. And that was true in 3 of the 4 data sets here.

I don't know what the average run/pass splits were in 1st and 2nd Qs in those two years, but the AI told me that the total average was 55% passing 45% rushing in 2005 and 58% pass to 42% rush in 2006.

My guess is that (1) we had more (maybe significantly more) run share than most NFL teams early in games in 2005 and 2006 and (2) we were efficient with our possessions because (i) our running game was good and (ii) early career Ben was a unicorn, the likes of which I don't think the league will ever see again (re: play style).

--------

Data from 2007 (Post Cowher)

2007 1st Q: 54.7% passing (87 rush to 105 pass)
2007 2nd Q: 53.2% passing (130 rush to 148 pass)
2007 1st Half: 53.83% (217 rush to 253 pass)

Closer to the overall average here: ~ 56.5% to 43.5%.