The lethal combination of Tomlin and Rooney

My guess is that it's going to be the same as last year.

Rodgers starts unless (1) he's hurt or (2) we're out of the playoffs. At least I hope we pull him if (2).

 

We didn’t make it past the 50 until 6 minutes into the 3rd quarter.

We had like 20 yards at halftime.

 

What a coincidence
That’s my wife’s nickname
It’s a small world

 

What did he say...something like "no one thinks we can win, let's just go out and have fun"?

I'm guessing you remember Najee's reaction to that.

I think at least part of that game was him not wanting his last game to be like the CLE game.

I prefer to think of the end of Ben's career as being the last two regular season games against CLE and BAL.

 

I guess what I meant by fundamentals and poor coaching was less about X's and O's and more about discipline and philosophy.

Tomlin methodically maintained a staff of plain, vanilla, lackluster, coaches in the belief that he didn't need anybody but himself.

 

So, you're still sticking to blaming Big Ben for every loss Tomlin ever had, huh?

Are you sure that game planning in the playoffs didn't have anything to do with all the slow starts?

You still believe that Tomlin's defenses getting whacked over and over again while giving up huge yards and points had nothing to do with coaching?

It's time to wake up, face reality, and stop spreading your nonsense.

It's during the playoffs that all the teams are game planning for their opponents. When a team is consistently getting dominated right out of the gate in games, it doesn't just mean the other team is playing better. It screams that the coaching staff didn't do a good job preparing for the playoff games and were being completely outcoached by the opposing team's coaching staff.

The coaches have at least one week to watch film of the opponent, study all their tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses, and then formulate a plan to take apart that week's playoff opponent with the best preparation possible. Unfortunately, horrible starts to playoff games became the trademark of Tomlin-coached Steelers teams.

Tomlin's defenses seriously underperforming when teams were most prepared to face them and more game planning was the focus in playoff football. This is undeniable.

Sorry to burst your bubble. Simply stating fact.

I love Tomlin as a coach and appreciate his time as the Steelers coach. I just can't stand when I hear someone miss the points that anyone should be able to see, and blame someone else for all Tomlin's weaknesses.

 

If I remember correctly the defense scored 7 points vs KC early in the game.

The offense was TRASH that game.

But I agree the defense never lived up to its billing during the playoffs the last decade. We paid way too much money for defenses that were bad.

Ben tho, was also trash the last decade of playoff games. He did play well vs the Pats but man, he had some really slow starts and wtf moments later in his career.

 

Remember the steelers did not score over 7 points in the first quarter on offense since the retirement of Roethlisberger.Around 65 games,close to a nfl record.Maybe Ben was not the problem for the slow start,especially he was great in the first quarter under Cowher

 

Yep.

Blown out in a game where we got a DTD.

That is not common.

But I also think we were the largest underdogs in playoff history for that game. So maybe it's not surprising.

Too bad, because it was probably Watt's best playoff game too. It would have been unexpected because he was a rookie (and a raw prospect), but it would have been great to get that game out of TJ when we played the Jags.

I think it's true that we had some bad defensive performances. But I think people often use score to make that point. And there were lots of DTDs in the playoffs (e.g., GB, Jax, CLE, HOUx2 - not Ben obviously). But we also had a lot of DTDs for under Tomlin too.

I think I looked at it before and the average DTD (for or against) in playoff games under Tomlin was > 0.5 in the playoffs? Something close to that anyway. I think it's got to be among the highest for coaches with some minimum number of playoff games.

 

I think the stat I remember was not scoring a TD on the first drive, rather than not scoring 7 points in the 1st Q. But it might be both. Edited to add: It would also be worth knowing what our record in that stretch was. I bet it was > 0.500 (which is better than the random expected value...and likely better than the expected value given the talent we had). And ultimately, the goal of the NFL is to have more points than the other team at the end of the 4th, not the 1st.

Canada was a terrible OC. Tomlin has to wear that hire.

The rest of this is having very bad QB play for that stretch. Mitch/Kenny, Kenny/Mitch/Mason.

I think it's understandable not to want those guys throwing the ball all over the field. Assuming the goal is to score 7 points for the Steelers.

With what we saw of Mitch "unchained", I think he'd easily put up 7 points in the 1st. Just not for us.

 

I can gave a pass for some game like the one vs chiefs(they had no chance)bills(no Watt),texans or even the browns(it was still their worst game of the season by the defense but the offense did not help them)but game like patriots(very poor gameplan)jaguars or Baltimore,it was just brutal

 

The stats is about not scoring over 7 points in the first quarter(link below)...The steelers of the last 5 years were not the only steelers teams to have bad QB in the last 80 years but this is the only team who did not have a single great first quarter in that span

https://steelersdepot.com/2025/12/s...chise-record-with-latest-1st-quarter-showing/

 

I think the Pats game was less terrible that it seems when you remember that Bell got hurt.

The Jags were a horrible matchup for us. And we scored for them once. And almost scored for them a second time (pick at our 11).

All of these games were embarrassing, I was most surprised by the Baltimore game. I thought we were underdogs. But the inability to stop the run in that game was just terrible.

Aside: It's probably not the reason we lost because of all the turnovers, but Cam's game in the CLE playoff game was probably the worst game of his life. Didn't do anything against a guy getting something like his 3rd start or something. This is obviously also a coaching fail. Their coach wasn't even there...although it's not clear you necessarily need to be when the other team spots you 7 on the first play then gives you 4 more turnovers.

 

Of course he was trash in that game. I do want to point out the play of that offensive line as well. He looked done in that game. Similar to how Rodgers looked in the game against the Texans last year. That's what it looks like when a quarterback can't move, the offensive line can't hold up, and guys can't get open.

There's no doubt that Ben had his bad moments too. This doesn't absolve him of that. I just can't stand this thought of the people that just want to defend Mike Tomlin at all costs. I'm not a Tomlin hater. Never have been. I played quarterback in college and although I didn't play at a level that even comes close to NFL level, I understand what I'm looking at and when teams are being completely outcoached in games. Sure, Ben and some of the players have had some stinkers, but the horrible starts to games over and over again points directly to coaching and game planning.

The team that controls the beginning of the game and gets on top by a couple scores controls the entire dynamic of the game. It is something that has to be overcome, and that's not easy to do against the best teams in the NFL that you are facing. That's when great coaching is supposed to give you an advantage by figuring out how to game plan a team to the point to give your team the best shot to win. Getting boat raced over and over again is the most damning thing in Tomlin's resume IMO.

 

The pats offense had only 1 punt in that game.No excuse to play soft zone defense against Brady all game long despite Brady had torched us every time we played the zone defense against him...But the steelers did not change the strategy despite that...Remember Gronk was out for this game too

Turnovers are not the reason why the opposing team have over 400 yards per game in the 7 game losing streak...The pass defense were brutal,tweet from 2024



and the next playoffs game,they gave up almost 300 rushing yards in Baltimore

 

Wow...even worst than I remembered. Thanks.

Don't know if it spans the entire 5 seasons, but our cumulative record in those 5 seasons was 48-36-1. That's a win% of 0.565.

Which I think is better than one would expect with an anemic offense in today's NFL.

Some pretty good coaches have a pretty similar career win% to that number:

• One of them is a very famous Steelers coach with a career win% of 0.566. If you look through the last few pages, you'll see that it wasn't someone with the first names Bill or Mike.
• Bill parcells had a career win% of 0.569.
• Pete Carroll 0.563.
• Marv Levy 0.561.

You can sort this like by win%
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NFL_head_coach_wins_leaders

 

Funny like I was told about Tomlin after Ben left that its Tomlins fault they didn't get a better Qb, and yet it somehow wasn't Cowhers fault for not getting one??
LoL. I forgot about that great Qb tree that just grows outside of the NFL locker rooms. LoL.
Simple matter of fact is.....
Cowher went to his 1st SB with a Qb that Noll picked, and nobody said anything, and never went back till he got Ben.
I would say
Cowher overall record: 161 - 99- 1 , and 2 SB appearances, and 1 win.
Tomlins overall record 201- 125 - 2, and 2 SB appearances, and one win.
If anyone looking at the facts of this say one is way better than the other , You are going feelings over facts pure, and simple.

 

Bill Cowher's playoff record: 12-9
Mike Tomlin's playoff record: 8-12

 

Like how You cherry pick.
Again overall record. That means everything added together, and not cherry picked for those that don't know.
Cowher: 161- 99-1, and 2 SB appearances, and 1 SB win.
Tomlin: 201 - 125 - 2, and 2 SB appearances, and 1 win.
Fact over feelings.
Neither is better than the other.

 

Playoffs are now cherry pick for you?

I mean playoffs game are always the most important games of the year!

 

Well it's a very large cherry to pick. Cowher won playoff games with O'Donnell, Tomczak, Stewart and Maddox.

 

Which means cherry picked??
Taking all the games they coached, or just picking out certain games they coached??
LoL

 

Again the playoffs game are the most important game of the year.

 

HMMM. You mean Chuck Nolls O'Donnell, with Nolls Defense, and the HOF RB the Bus. See how stupid that is.
Overall record without cherry picking. Which mean every single game they coached.
Cowher: 161- 99- 1, and 2 SB appearances, and 1 SB win.
Tomlin: 201- 125- 2, and 2 SB appearances, and 1 SB win.
Without feelings, or cherry picking the facts show they are very close to the same HC outside of pigmentation of the skin.