Wk 13.... . The good, the bad and the ugly

Not sure if it was mentioned yet, but add a horrible playing field to the ugly. Although a crappy playing surface was fitting for 2 crappy teams to play on.

 

heinz warned us all? haah.. that's hilarious.

 

Only took you five years of predicting doom and gloom around here to get what he wanted

 

I remember, but I'm not sure of the team's status heading into that game. In this case, the Steelers had lost two in a row and they are facing the two toughest games remaining on their schedule, so a loss would make it likely that they miss the playoffs. It was a game they had to have and he gave it away.

Also, it's worse because this time they didn't get away with it.

 

I think so, too, but I'm not sure.

 

He needed to take into account the state of his offense and why the other team was bad. The Raiders' offense isn't awful. It's the defense that is pathetic. They suck against the run, but the Steelers had already shown they couldn't take advantage of that without Conner. The Steelers' defense has already shown it can't be trusted even in games when it starts strong. That means they needed Roethlisberger to help them pile up points in the second half. It never should have come down to the final five minutes.

 

Yeah this time was definitely worse.
Just pointing out that this isn’t the first time Tomlin has had his head up his ass.

 

This is exactly as I saw it too. He was just praying that Dobbs wouldn't cough the ball up (which he did) and as long as they kept that 4 point lead he wasn't going to risk further injury to BB, knowing the upcoming schedule. As soon as the D gave up the lead late, he had no choice but to put Kirk Gibson....er....Big Ben back in. Ben did his magic on cue, but then the D had to take the field unfortunately again. I'm not sure the O would have moved the ball if Ben was put back in earlier than he was because they would have been playing not to lose rather than a desperate come from behind situation where BB excels. Better clock management at the end would have allowed them (possibly) to find a firmer hash mark for Boz to attempt the game tying FG but it was probably only a 50/50 chance he makes it. The real pisser to me was how brilliantly (and unexpectedly) that hook and ladder play worked out near the end only to have it wasted on a horridly maintained field.

Final note - were Tomlin and the players possibly sneaking peaks at the scoreboard knowing that they would not lose any ground immediately above or below them should they lose?

 

Yep - as they say, even a broken clock is correct twice a day.

 

There was a LB chasing after him, but that may have been blown coverage - not sure either.

 

The Steelers were moving fairly easily on the Raiders. Oakland gets very little pressure on the passer. They happened to confuse the offensive line once on a stunt, which led to the sack that injured Roethlisberger. After the opening drive, that was the only real stop the Raiders got against the Steelers with Roethlisberger. as I already mentioned, he was in there for six drives. The last five ended either in a touchdown or a missed field goal, and I'd be willing to bet they would have made it to the end zone if they had another 30 seconds at the end of regulation.

Of course, on some level Tomlin and the players are playing on the assumption that they can win beat either the Patriots, the Saints or both. Of course, we know that is a stupid assumption.

 

I don’t always think the Steelers are going to win every game, but I hope and cheer for them to. I couldn’t imagine getting geared up for a game and telling anyone who’ll listen how bad we are and how we’re going to lose.
I know what our problems are. I just don’t see it as fun to be a fan of a team if all you’re going to do is complain about everything. Believe me I get just as pissed as a lot of people do, I just try and keep things in perspective.

 

Preaching to the choir, but I agree with your assessment Scribe. Unfortunately the film we are visualizing in our minds doesn't coincide with reality, as evidenced these past 3 weeks. RIP 2018!

 

Told you weeks ago man that this team and the defense looked just like they did the last 2 years. They honestly look even worse than last yr. At least last yr we for the most part got by all the weak teams. This yr we cant beat elite nor bad teams we just beat a couple teams that were in worse shape at the moment than we were.

 

While I'm dating myself here, I think I left my emotional soul on the fields following the heartbreaking 94 and 95 seasons. Any success they have had since then, especially SB XL and XLIII were pleasant and rewarding surprises with BB being a major contributor. It will be a dark day in the Burgh when he steps down or has to step down. I'm sure the Chowder heads would agree at their end.

 

Which is why the dbag is on ignore for me haha

 

It was Hilton. On the replay, he expected the guy to break for the outside corner. When the guy went the other way, Hilton semi-slipped trying to change direction.

 

So he had the wrong cleats also

 

The good: I knew Washington was capable of running and catching a slant and a curl. Kid is catching a lot of flack for being a disappointment when they weren't giving him anything but low percentage opportunities.

 

Thank you. That saves me from having to go back and look at the replay. I was wondering how he lost the guy when he seemed to have tight coverage.

 

He caught two passes for 11 yards and somehow that was good? The low standards some of you are applying to Washington amaze me.

 

My point is he could of and should of been used in other ways besides bombs and out cuts. I said for the past couple weeks he could of been running higher percentage routes like slants and curls and apparently he is quite capable of that. Maybe it's something he just learned after being called out in the media. I guess Ben deserves the credit for that.

 

Or perhaps he has been running some of those routes, too, all along and nobody noticed because he hasn't been getting open.

 

Or perhaps not. It works both ways. Hard to believe he wouldn't have any opportunities to be open on a slant. Don't recall a single one being attempted in his direction.