This is Tomlins Team

Hard work alone doesn't always get the job done. Sometimes you need to work smart, not hard. It's definitely Tomlin's team and the players definitely like and respect him, although I don't really think anyone has ever disputed that. He just isn't a very smart coach and as a result, our team doesn't always play smart football. We make too many mistakes

 

I've said that before. They need to design practices with key skills embedded. Someone needs to reach out and figure out a way to get the basics into these guys heads. No way as a third year man you should have 3 kick interference penalties in a year. Same with not knowing to cover a football on a punt. (seen twice this year)

Although I did like the hustle on defense when the ball came free this year. In years past it seemed they were slow to realize a ball was on the ground. This year they looked hungry to make plays.

 

I think there's certainly a team identity now.
It's aggressive and risk-taking, which is going to piss some people off who want the more conservative approach. With Tomlin and Haley, we won't see that.
I think what we're seeing at the end of this season is us move towards the end of the transition period after the old greats retired. We just need a good draft... which is no certain thing.

 

I thought Haley was brought into be conservative though and not get Ben killed? Honestly I miss the coach Whiz days and how effective we were on 3rd down back then.

 

Quotes aside, this has been Tomlin's team for some time. I've never bought into '08 being like the Seifert led 49ers. Good, bad, or indifferent the days of getting up by 10 and taking the air out of the ball are over. This team is a down to the wire, hope it ends in your favor for quite some time. I still am not ready to call our WR core the best in football. We had the ball with a chance to win SB 45, IMHO our WR group was not prepared for such a feat. We had the ball with a chance to win at Denver. IMHO, our WR group (without Brown) was not prepared for such a feat. Now, is that a signature of Tomlin versus Cowher, I'm not really sure. But it is what it is. And this has been Tomlin's team for quite some time.

 

Although there may be some truth to that, that's definitely not the only reason he was brought in. He was brought in because the Rooneys obviously believed he would help us win. Protecting Ben may have been one aspect of that decision.

We were a little more conservative in the past few years. This year though, we seemed to abandon that approach a bit. Yes, we have weapons that can go deep, but Brown and Bryant can also take a short pass all the way. They are both deadly with the ball in their hands. How much of that is the team wanting those kinds of plays vs Ben choosing the deep route when other guys are open, we'll never know. I know the Steelers organization has this attitude of letting Ben be Ben and not wanting to mess with that. I wish they would mess with it just a little bit though. Ben loves to go deep, but I do think he needs to be reigned in sometimes. A shorter pass is more likely to succeed than a 40 yard bomb

 

It's Tomlin's team that hasn't won a playoff game in 5 years.

Bengals won that game for us, to give Tomlin credit for that win is rediculous. We were beaten and given a win. We should have beaten the Broncos. We have more talent , even with injuries. Manning looks horrid.

 

I disagree, the only reason we were beaten in the Bengals game is because Ben got hurt and momentum shifted. Had he not, I'm inclined to believe he would have put points on the board during the 4th. Besides, had the refs not blown the fumble call, they would have been up by 22. They went in to the Denver game without Brown. I'm a firm believer once again that if he is playing, they have more points.

 

When Ben's done he is done,

 

You're not going far enough. Not only would we have had more points, we would have flat out been playing in New England tomorrow. We really didn't have a possession receiver that was as extremely reliable as AB. Even Heath dropped a catch that would have been a first close to FG range. Even that first deep out to Wheaton would have probably went to AB and he probably would have been able to adjust to it and catch it. If AB had been in that game then the incompetence of Jordan Barry wouldn't have been nearly as consequential. I'm not a Tomlin cheerleader by any means but he had us ready to play that game. There were some decisions I disagreed with but overall we played well enough to win and if we had been able to manage field position and had AB we would have flat out beat them down. Even with Ben's gimp arm.

 

Yep, he was the MVP. Look at other teams without their MVP, they aren't even competitive versus terrible teams. Like Dallas

 

I'm not sure I follow that logic on the Bengals game. The final result came down to far more than the two penalties at the end of the game.

I'm also not convinced that we have more talent than Denver. On a par, perhaps, but looking beyond the QB and RB positions, and they have the best defense in the league and some surefire weapons at receiver. We still should have beaten them on the day, but on paper there was a significant difference in the talent the two teams were fielding.

 

Winning playoff games isn't the only measure of success. The ownership understands that.

The Steelers made enough plays to beat the Bengals. To bad you can't see it that way.

It's truly debatable if the Steelers have more talent than Denver. It's not sensible to suggest that an injured Steelers team had more talent than Denver.

 

Yeah I mean offensively we are maybe the most talented team in the league and are definitely more talented than Denver on that side of the ball. However, on d it's not even close. They are stacked maybe even more than Seattle. They've got playmakers are pretty much every defensive position. They might even have the best corner tandem in the league.

 

How soon we forget, if it wasn't for the Buffalo Bills are season would have been over.

 

First of all LUCK put us in that game in the first place. The bills saved our season after we lost to the Raven's in a MUST win game. take off your black and gold sun glasses and be honest. If our FO isn't honest about our team then we will NOT get better.

Secondly the Bengals had the game won. They won because they sacked our QB for a huge loss and knocked him out for a few series. Our horrible back up came in and turned the ball over on a great INT by Burfict. Not sure how you can poo poo the fact that it was the Bengals who earned that sack near our endzone btw..which also gave them great field position ...which turned the game. They then had the ball with the win...and they followed that up with a fumble and 2 penalties that did cost them the game. That first 15 yarder saved us as we were down to 4th and long and time ticking down, and out of FG range. SO yes you can say the Bengals won that game for us. If Burfict doesn't knock Brown out, they win the game. How anyone can honestly say we BEAT the Bengals? To say we out played them or out coached them is ridiculous. We beat the Bengals because they build teams with horrible character, weak minded, selfish players..and it blew up in their face.

That was a game we should kicked the crap out of the Bengals. They had their back up QB playing and he was not good. It should have never came down to a FG in the first place. Denver was the same situation. We had no business losing to that team. Manning looked like a 60 year old. We could get no pressure and we couldn't score TD's. Leaning on a 4th string RB to win a playoff game turned out to be a bad idea. Who knew.

 

that's why they play the games
who knew

all I know is I have 3 of 4 teams to win it all and I swear
if TB wins I will never ever evr evr evr wager again
NOT

 

You can't compare a Hall of Famer that he had a deep relationship to for many years (he helped him through a lot of personal troubles) to a coach that's just a little older than he is that he sees as his coach and possibly one of his peers.

 

And they did the same thing to Brady and the Patriots in Denver. I guess all the teams have to rely on luck sometimes.

They out played the Bengals for the largest stretch of that game. No way do they even get back into that game if they don't start playing off with the cushions again (Mindboggling huh?)

The honesty you seek is that the players to make the team better are mostly already on the roster! You have to start playing these guys as the season goes on if you expect them to actually develop! Golden played much better than Allen for the most part. When he did make a mistake, he was able to rebound because he's more athletic. McClendon needs to be back at DE. If he's at DE they have a much better rotation and they stay fresh late in games. Also, the amount of snaps Heyward and Tuitt logged is not sustainable!

Maybe the team stops trying to play every game close to the vest!

 

Has a winning record without Ben (Vick, Landry, batch, leftwich, Dixon)

Try again

 

it wont be tomlin's team until ben retires