The lethal combination of Tomlin and Rooney

Serious question/thought

Last year if Rodgers had a slump there was no way Tomlin would yank him

This year I am not so sure with M&M does Rodgers get benched if he plays poorly

Plus I don’t know how but they truly do have to see what they have in Howard and Allar before the next draft and FA season

Baker may be available for example

 

Thanks for the data!

I'm a believer that slow starts often killed us in the playoffs.

Especially that Jags game were we needed to get an early lead to take their running game out of it, give the 50-less D some help, and make Bortles beat us.

Our first three drives.

• 3 and out
• INT on the 18 (which led to a TD for JAX)
• Turnover on downs

Ben has great total stats in this game. But the sequence of returns really mattered.

These slow starts were a pattern for Ben/Tomlin in the playoffs. Especially as he got older. Hard to know for sure which one contributed more. My default is that QB>>HC. Especially for a guy like Ben, who wasn't shy about telling us when he'd just be drawing up plays in the dirt no matter what was called in on the head set.

We saw an even worse version of this against CLE. I think he would have retired with Pouncey is this game wasn't so terrible.

 

Happy to help!

 

I have trouble keeping up with whack a troll during the game day threads because I go to many of the games

So your particular emphasis and participation will be highly regarded in that area

 

He was washed by then that was the game where the offense punted on like their first 6-7 possessions of the game IIRC.

 

I'll be honest, I wanted the Steelers to move on from Rogers because he just delays the inevitable in hopes of a last hurrah. And we have enough talent to spark that last hurrah, but another year without a future QB hurts us in the long run. If McCarthy can somehow overcome the long standing lack of discipline, players like TJ, Cam, Alex, Joey, Pat, Jalen, etc. are capable of producing wins and stability.

But, no matter how this year goes, we are literally back to the drawing board unless Will or Drew is the next Ben.

 

I will get to go to a couple games, maybe we can have a beer. I was at the final regular season game and ended up have a beer with a couple Ravens fans mid-way through the third quarter ..... they didn't seem interested in another one after the game.

 

I don't agree with Rodgers starting another year at QB. It's like Groundhog Day. We keep trotting out older (Rodgers, Wilson) or backup caliber QBs (Trubisky, Fields, Pickett), delaying the acquisition of a young, true franchise QB.

 

The play calling was also awful in the first 2 drives....3 bubble screen in the first drive and in the second drive,the first 2 plays was a run in the middle to put us in 3rd down and 11.Of course,it was a interception after that but not a guarenteed the steelers would stop the jaguars if they would punt,who would been the most likely scenario if it would not been a interception

For the 3rd drive,the steelers were stop on 4th down and one by a awful call by Haley when he call a outside run for Bell against a fast defense and they were down 21-0 after that

 

Fans like 43 love to brag about Ben's stats against Jacksonville in the playoffs, but that slow start included two turnovers and them being down 28-7.

 

You lost when you tried to claim a Cowher team never got ran on and dominated, sit this out .

 

All you care about is stats and not winning the game .

 

No...This loss is still too paintful for me

 

The slow start is more on the defense and coaching staff that on Ben...Look at my post 610,play calling was just brutal to start the game

 

You do realize that those two early turnovers led to 14 points for Jacksonville, going three and out is not on the defense.

 

Mayfield is a decent QB, but I don't know if he's any more capable of winning a playoff game now in 2026 than Rodgers or Wilson. Mayfield would be more of the same... mostly good results in the regular season, but more ineptitude in the playoffs like we've seen from Rodgers and Wilson. And further delaying a badly needed youth movement at QB. A lot of that was poor play by the OL... so QBs can't take all the blame for recent playoff losses.

 

They were down 21-0 too.Can't ask for a fast start with a sorry playcalling like that and you have to play catch up after that...I mean I don't think you read the post 610...The first 3 and out was for sure not on Ben,same thing when they were on 3rd down and 11 in the second drive...What make you believe that the steelers would stop the jaguars at scoring a TD if Ben would not throw a interception on the 3rd down and 11

The script for that game on offense by the coaching staff was so poor.They had no urgency and they were down 7-0 before their first drive in a very poor field position

 

I realize this an extreme over-simplification ......... but ........ you don't win big in the NFL unless you have an elite QB. Do WHATEVER it takes to get an elite QB!

 

Without Ben giving up that fumble return for a TD maybe the Steelers win the game 42-38 .

 

Just my $0.02, but I think it's pretty tough to expect the other team to punt when they start their drive on your 11 after a turnover.

FWIW, I think Jax was a horrible match up for us. My guess is part of the conservative play calling early was the regular season game where we turned the ball over 5 times.

Certainly the coaching and defense could have been better in that game. But we needed our HoF QB to have a good start. He turned it over on our 11 in the first Q. And fumbled for a DTD in the 2nd Q.

Then, he was almost able to dig us out of that hole. Because we were never really out of any game with Ben at QB.

I think this game is an example of how Ben is the biggest reason for our playoff wins and losses under Tomlin. This was probably somewhat true when he was with Cowher. But Cowher benefited from having Ben at a lower cap% (but not the bargain basement cap% that would come with rookie pay caps).

Sadly, we saw a replay (but worse) against CLE.

Play by play is here if you want to check it out...I've looked at this one too many times. Glutton for punishment I guess.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/201801140pit.htm#all_pbp

 

Sure but if the steelers punt,the jaguars would been close in the field goal range at the start of the drive

 

Sure. Tough to punt after a pick, though.

And if we get to erase one of Ben's turnovers in that game, it's not the pick inside our own redzone that I want back.

And even if we did force a punt there, the way the D played that day doesn't exactly give a lot of confidence that they wouldn't have given up a TD anyway. We really needed to take their run game away by putting points up early.

That game was a total team loss.

All the players.

All the coaches.

And it really was the beginning of the end for the Ben era (although I think that was really the regular season game against the Jags that year). Seems like the Jags kind of figured something out re: Ben (or Ben+Tomlin if you prefer).

Without checking (past this game which I've done a lot), I'm guessing that this game and after with Ben our offense generally sucked in the playoffs when the score was within 10 points (which sadly is probably not too many drives across those three games: JAX, CLE, KC).

Anyway...I prefer to remember Ben in his prime (like in the Ben vs. Brees thread). His last three playoff games are frustrating to think about.

 

I hope you're right.

 

I hope that you're right.

I think it would be better for Rooney (and fans) to be focused more on the medium term (next couple of seasons) rather than what happens specifically this year. But we wouldn't have brought Rogers back if that was the case IMO.

I think I'll have the same prediction I've had for the last few years. 8-9 wins, with a higher probability of it being lower than 8 vs. higher than 9. But the team has proven me wrong the last couple seasons. Hope that continues. Hard to pick a record with this team because I think we'll likely be pretty bad if AR gets hurt.

Re: Fundamentals. I disagree with your assessment at the end pretty strongly. I think it's actually kind of the opposite.

I think the way we took teams without great talent to the playoffs was relying almost strictly on fundamentals in a conservative play style. Because we'd play enough teams with better talent and worse coaching who would beat themselves if we kept it close for long enough. Then we'd see teams with much better talent and good coaching in the playoffs. And being good at the fundamentals only gets you so far...especially without any elite talent.

Unfortunately, it was some of the least entertaining football I've ever watched. Especially in the Kenny/Canada era.