When was the turning point?

I am curious what people think was the turning point for this Steelers team. Seems they have lost an identity recent years, and I wondered when it began. Here are possible candidates - most likely a combination of these, in no particular order:

• Losing the last Superbowl to the Packers.
• Losing to Tebow
• The retirement/ouster of Hines
• The hiring of Tomlin
• The hiring of Haley
• Ben's extensive rib injury last year
• The loss of Casey Hampton
• The retirement of Aaron Smith
• The retirement (ahem) of Bruce Arians
• Ben's marriage and fatherhood
• The Curse of Injuries

Any others I am missing?

 

I will pick 4 from this list that I myself think contribute to our demise.....

Ouster of Ward..Wont call it a retirement!
Retirement of Smith
Loss of Hampton.......These three alone took all leadership from locker room which we have not regained.
Loss to Tebow. From which we have not recovered because of the afore mentioned lack of leadership. Coaches included.

 

I agree with the ouster of ward. We lost our go to guy on third down, a guy who would block in the running game, and a guy who gave a dam about the organization.

 

Missed one, the retirement of Farrior, who I believe was more important than Smith and Hampton from a leadership perspective.

 

IMO ...
Obviously, when the Rooneys bypassed Whiz and Grimm who were very familiar with the "Steeler Identity" in favor of hiring someone from the outside who wasn't.

Tomlin was hired, and BA was promoted to OC, which rang the deathbell for the "Steeler identity" on offense ... a smashmouth running game. On the defensive side of the ball, it has been the natural loss/retirement of defensive leaders like Smith, Hampton, etc coupled with less than stellar drafting of their replacements. The same loss of leaders also occured on offense with Bettis, Ward, etc.

The drafting became noticeably worse on both sides of the ball, when Doug Whaley (who knew what the sort of the players the Steelers had always looked for) was replaced.

The Rooneys know they made a mistake and the primary result it caused. That's why they've been applying pressure to the current coaching staff to try and get the running game turned around now for the last 2+ years.

 

losing to tebow

 

Definitely losing to Tebow. It represented the lack of ANY sort of coaching sense, and playing down to our competition finally caught up to us

 

the bros. rooney ouster.

 

Hmm. I don't know. As critical as I have been of Tomlin, I am not sure Whisenhunt would have turned out any better. Maybe. But Grimm? Absolutely not.

 

And you know this how?
What's your opinion as to what the turning point was?

 

How about the retirement of Cowher?

To me, that was the turning point. Why? If we think about it, Cowher's departure was an unprecedented one for the Steelers' organization--or most others, for that matter. He had won a Super Bowl just a season before; he left a roster full of players with rings. A few coaches have retired right after winning the SB...Parcells and Walsh come to mind. Cowher's situation most closely resembled Gibbs', who left the Redskins after the 92 season. It's a situation that leaves a franchise "up in the air." Because the roaster is there, but the franchise has to be very careful about who is hired: it must be a guy who can continue leading that group, but it must also be a guy who can continue to draft and develop talent. Tomlin was good at the former and not the latter.

It's much easier for a franchise to start over, start from scratch, and clean the slate. It's what they did with Noll. It's sort of what they did with Cowher. But that's not what happened when Tomlin came in. For the benefit of the franchise, Cowher left at the wrong time: the team had not hit rock bottom yet.

 

Why were we only 8-8 in 2006 again?

 

I know it was never mentioned , or if it was only briefly, but I truly think Cowher quit for one reason and one reason only! His wife was dying of cancer and she wanted to die or at least be in her home state of NC. Bill knew he couldnt coach and be by her side. 2006 was a year filled with distraction and unknown circumstances that we will never completely understand, but I think 2006 was an anomaly based on what was happening personally and nothing else.

 

I can't say that this was the defining moment or cause (there were certainly a number of contributing reasons), but they sure haven't been the same since.

 

I'm not sure I get the question, but I'll try to answer it: The team didn't hit rock bottom in 2006. The team was still "there." The Redskins had a similar season in 1992, after winning the Super Bowl. They finished 9-7 that year. My point is, that "season removed," with a mediocre season AFTER winning a SB, is a very difficult situation for the organization....and one that makes hiring a new HC especially difficult.

 

I think getting destroyed by San Fran, on MNF, with Ben hobbled (he should have NEVER started that game in the first place) sort of set everything up.

Then again: how about that 2011 opener when Baltimore completely destroyed them in every facet of the game?

 

I agree with most of this. The problem is, all the players we lost were basically at the end of their productive career. And I know people talk about Hines still having gas in the tank, and being a "leader" and whatnot, but I tend to stick with what I see on the field.

The case in point is Hampton. He struggled a lot in his last season here. It was clearly time to go. And unlike Ward, I don't particularly remember him being a "leader". I remember him turning up routinely to camp out of shape, which I wouldn't particularly see as a leadership quality...

 

The run up to SB45 (loss to Packers). I've been saying this for a while, now. I saw the issues creeping in, back then. Of course, if you're talking about the No-Line then we have to go back to the run up to SB43 (Win against Cardinals)... maybe even earlier... when did the Steelers ditch Faneca?

 

This was definitely a milestone in the downfall. I have called this one out, before. You can see the difference in the way the Steeler D tries to tackle, now. I think that's one reason there are missed tackles.

 

That play made it clear that the offensive player is in control and has absolutely no responsibility in H2H. There are several others. And then there were the no-flags on back to back seasons when Ward was given blatant H2H contact (Ravens and Patriots IIRC).

 

Spot on.

 

Combination of rules changes and losing valuable leaders to the team. Rukus was spot on when it comes to the H2H rules and how they affected our team. I do believe part of this identity crisis is losing our vet leaders. Not saying that we let them go too soon, it just means we have to rely on different people to be the leader. This identity issue could linger until one (or a small group) of the younger players step in to a leadership role.