General reaction thread

I feel like everyone's feelings are all over the place, so I wanted a consolidated location to post.

But, I'm so confused at what I'm seeing on this board right now. We're all a bit frustrated as the Broncos game should have 100% been a win for the Steelers, but they absolutely DOMINATED that game. Pittsburgh was NOT manhandled like they were for 90% of the Jags' game.

Bad games happen, and the Steelers have had their share of them (Browns was equally as unfortunate), but anyone who thinks this game makes Pittsburgh any less potent or a threat, especially with how easily they dominant a talented defense, is silly.

A couple things go our way and we win by 15+. It's just football, man.

We do have to find a way to run the ball when it matters, but when you're two big passing plays (that were WIDE OPEN and just missed) away from a near-600-yard passing performance, it's hard to steer clear of the game plan.

Give me some thoughts, guys, I'm interested to see what everyone else thinks.

 

Not overreacting but I couldn't sleep lol. We stole the jags game but gave away the denver one. I guess i could live with that and not the other way around.

 

We beat ouselves! I still cant wrap my head around throwing the ball 50+ times against a team that was 27th against the run. RUN the ball. Makes no sense to me.

 

The record should be better for the garbage teams they have played.

Chiefs are only good team so far and look what happened.

 

After the Grimble fumble/touchback... I knew the game was not going to go well, even after the JuJu TD. Denver, Oakland, Foxborough and Philly are all where Steelers teams go to die. Those places are pretty much poison and bad karma for the Steelers.

 

The frustration for me is the Steelers can play so bad and still be in games. That tells me their practice habits are not the greatest. I am from St. Louis and I would hear stories about the 1999 Rams, where they would never drop a pass or put the ball on the ground all week in practice. Vince Lombardi said it best, "If you strive for perfection, you may not reach it, but you will catch excellence along the way." The best I can tell from my couch, the Steelers do not have this mindset.

 

Good point, if this was the first time this year it has happened. Games like these are REPEATS! May not be the same mistakes each time but nonetheless they are avoidable and not what "good" teams do. When you continue to see the same things over and over what's that tell you?

 

don't forget chicago. Spot on. Same results every time, only the mindset of fans think differently lol

 

Turnovers <<<<

If they can get one thing cleaned up, they are contenders.

The sad thing is I turned the game on literally to watch the Conner fumble followed by Ben's pick. Turned it back off lol.

 

The last three years, the team was +2, +5, and +2 in turnovers. I'm impressed that they are -7 this year, and still only have 3 losses.

So that gives me hope (what they can do if they can improve the TO situation) and dread (if they don't).

 

I know I'm not there to see how practice is conducted but if you look at the way we start games and the way we look after byes it has to be considered that our practice habits might not be at their best. The mental mistakes we see week in and week out also bolster what you are seeing from your couch. Our teams practice habits are probably about the same as most teams in the league but I'm sure there are a few teams that do a better job. Mental mistakes and situational awareness will always be this teams biggest obstacle and it's pretty safe to assume we can and should be doing a better job at cleaning that up. That goes for the players and the coaches.

 

This game had no business being remotely close, let alone an L......
We totally beat ourselves and have no one to blame but ourselves

 

You're right... Steelers haven't beat the Bears at Chicago since '95. Likewise with the Raiders in Oakland in '95. The '95 team was badass.

 

If recent history, say in the last 20 years of so, is to be believed, the Steelers will need to beat the Bengals just to get into the playoffs.

Rule one. Do not believe what you read in the press or hear on TV. These folks are paid to tow the company line or to generate interest. If your eyes are telling you something, believe it. The Steeler defense is NOT good. Do NOT believe the hype, believe your eyes.

Rule two. Remove the rose colored glasses. I no longer live in Western Pa so I am looking at the forest from afar and believe me, I see the trees. Again, do not let your heart override your head. It is nice to love the Steelers at all costs but more times than not, truth hurts.

Rule three. Bums tend to have historic games against the Steelers. They seem to bring out the best of these one hit wonders who are only one hit wonders because they had career days against the Steelers.

Rule four. Dalton is out for Cincy. This means their second string QB will be guiding the team into Pittsburgh. See rule three.

Rule five. Passing for 800 yards a game does not guarantee a win. More often than not, if you need to throw for 800 yards for a win, your defense is probably giving up 750 yards per game. As I said in another thread, it seems that Ben has had a lot of 400+ games while losing. Someone can correct me on this, but it sure seems like he has thrown for a ton of yards and not come away with a win. Again, if you have to throw for 500, maybe the defense is giving up a ton of points.

Rule six. History repeats itself, believe it. Proof? Count the number of times the Steelers have screwed the pooch against crappy teams over the years. Again, see rule three.

This list in no way is complete, they are just a bunch of observations from watching the Steelers since the mid 60's. I can honestly say, that the blocked FG did it for me. I knew the game was over at that point because these games almost always go down the toilet with the Steelers. The touchback was just further confirmation. After the fumble by Conner, I took the dog out for a walk because I knew the game was over at that point. I was not alone either as my neighbor who is a huge Steeler fan was out in his yard messing around with his Christmas lights. So, he felt the same way I guess. Momentum is a funny thing. You can suck the whole game by just hanging around and then get one or two plays and win the game.

Now, given history, I would prepare for San Diego to beat us as well as NE and the Saints at a minimum. We will need to beat the Bengals to get in and I am not so sure their backup does not go for a career day against us. Remember, Cincy will have absolutely nothing to lose and can throw caution to the wind. Of course I wont mind eating crow if the Steelers can somehow beat the Chargers and Pats. I don't care about the Saints because they are in the NFC. Beating the Pats though would make my day.

rutan

 

FYI. Did a little research and Ben is 4-9 in games where the throws for 400+ yards. Not counting playoffs, I think.

Goes to show you that if Ben throws for 400, there is a good chance the Steelers will lose.

 

This.



Winning streaks are difficult to continue to keep in the NFL. Furthermore, Pittsburgh is still the best team in the NFL on the road through 17 games; 15-2-1 dating back to last yesr.



Again..

 

My general reaction is that people need to calm themselevs down on Terrell Edmunds as a whole. Dude has not been playing the position for years like the other safety taken earlier in this draft class that has been excelling; Derwin James.



The man in my avatar did not "light it up" all at once either. If anything, history is repeating itself in the aspect that many fans want Kevin Colbert ousted for picking Edmunds and how "bad" his rookie season is going; the exact same narrative that was stated about Troy's rookie season. Every rookie is not going to light the world on fire; first round or otherwise. Some players do take time. Eric Ebron, Cameron Erving, Eric Fisher, Trae Waynes, Byron Murphy, Ryan Kelly, Todd Gurley. You get the overall point.



If anything, any bad reps will be good teaching tools for Terrel given his circumstances. He really was supposed to be deployed in dime packages first then slowly inserted later in the season, not the other way around. The fact that, statistically speaking, his best game was yesterday, I would say that the arrow is pointing up.

 

I got 4-9, including playoffs.

 

That narrative was never stated during Troy's rookie season. Troy had showed enough by this point for anyone with a football clue to know he was going to be a superstar. Edmunds has shown zero compared to Troy. The comparison is a fairy tale.

 

From ESPN's Scott Brown. Published on April 10th, 2015.



"The Steelers have traded up in the first round of the NFL draft just twice since Kevin Colbert joined the organization in 2000 as the director of player operations. Colbert, now the Steelers’ general manager, and coach Bill Cowher struck gold when they moved from 27th to 16th in the first round to take Polamalu. The Steelers gave up third- and sixth-round draft picks to swap spots with the Chiefs in the first round. Steelers fans could be forgiven if they initially wondered whether Pittsburgh had made a mistake. Polamalu did not start a game in 2003 as he struggled, as most rookies do, to learn the defense. But he led the Steelers with 25 special-teams tackles."


Fans thought that, at the time, trading up for Polamalu was a mistake. Given the fact that he did not start nor make any impact, many fans did in fact want Colbert gone after that season. However, as we all know, paitence yielded its reward. Year two is when Polamalu's Hall of Fame career began to take off. The rest is history.


History is again repeating itself in the vein that fans, yet again, want Colbert gone after picking someone who has not done much in his first season (debatable but I digress regardless). Again though, I am not saying Terrell is the second coming of Troy. No one is. I am stating, however, is that we actually need to let young Terrell develop before labeling him a disappointment; a bust doubly so.



Much like Troy, let us give Terrell the benefit of the doubt. He will develop in time. It is not all going to happen all at once a la Derwin James.

 

Trust me man, there's no comparison. No parallels to be drawn.
Is that article (written 12 years after the fact) what you're basing your opinion on?

 

Given the events of what happened shortly after the 2003 Regular Season concluded? Yes.


As I said, Troy was not lighting it up all at once. I did not suspect Terrell would either. I am impressed with how well he has managed himself given the fact he was supposed to be eased into the rotation and not fed to the proverbial wolves.



Be that as it may, Terrell is not transforming into Troy as stated before. There is no changing that. What is being stated by me is that some need to give the player the chance before craving his gravestone prematurely.

 

the problem with these types of stats I dont think they are that bad on run defense. If memory serves they had two bad games against the run

 

Agree. And that is on the head coach for creating that environment.