Our Offense: First to Worst

Steady level of play have you watched them, Allen is a train wreck, He has passed for more than 250 yards just 4 times this whole season and while he likes to run the ball he has fumbled 14 times.......14!!!!

Yes their defense can win games and they have a good running game but my response wasn't about that it was about you saying they took the Rats and NE to the wire. Well we did the same with the best teams in each league, hell we even held Mr. MVP Jackson to one of if not the worst game of the season with a 20 QBR and 3 int's. I have said these teams Bills and us are mirror teams built on great defense and bad QB play.

Now as for your last part on why we lost Sunday imo it had a lot to do with our OC. I mean you bring up a power run game look at our game. We start right off with Conner running the ball like a beast and then go away from it. Then later on inside the 10 we run that stupid wildcat..........come on man it is hard to play a good defense and your OC at the same time. Allen did out play Duck and that was another big reason but then again Duck is our 4th stringer and Allen is a first rounder who is in his 2nd year. We are playing with house money they are full strength and they won 17-10, imo hardly dominant. jmo

 

This right here, a lot of people are not seeing this. Also imo Finney played lights out when he was in there as well.

 

Added Bush, Barron, Nelson also. Popcorn has the ilb he needs for his system & Minkah plays the FS position better than most. I hope they can progress next year or at least carry Ben & his untimely ints.

 

Hmmm...facts. Minkah gave this defense teeth. Kudos for the staff for making a trade. I'm sure Tomlin had something to do with that. But Tomlin isn't responsible for Bud's improvement and giving us the necessary bookend to compliment TJ. Bud's contract more likely did that.

Tomlin couldn't coach up the secondary even though he's supposedly a defensive coach. And let me remind you, with facts, that many people questioned, nay, lamented, giving up a first rounder for Minkah because his contribution to this iteration of our defense was unknown. It could have gone either way. Kudos for getting lucky, I mean, getting it right, Tomlin. There. Credit given.

But it is hard to argue that our secondary still sucks in coverage and cannot hold up without pressure on the qb. When our rush doesn't disrupt the opposing qb, there are receivers running free.

So no, I didn't intentionally leave out our defense's success to strengthen my narrative. I left them out of the conversation because I simply wasn't talking about them.

Hope those facts didn't get too much in the way for you.

 

We're bottom 7 in passing yards, picks, rushing yards, total yards, and points. That's enough for me to take liberties and say "worst." I could have said, "One of the best in football to one of the worst in football" but that would have been too wordy for the title of the post. It was about our dramatic regression, not semantics.

 

You touched on one of my points. I agree give him credit for winning with less but at the same time it’s fair to be critical of what I think has been underachieving with more. You see some people only want to be on one side or the other. Like I said he’s done a fantastic job of keeping us in the hunt this year. Previous years my opinion...not so much.

As far as coordinators. I feel the HC should be able to step in when and where needed to pick up the slack of his coordinators especially when the buck stops with him. If you were to tell me a HC made a significant turnaround from one year to the next with the same talent and personnel I would give all the credit for doing more with less. We made a heavy investment on defense. Trading up for Bush...which I know you loved. Signing Nelson to a hearty deal and serious draft capital to go get Minkah. That’s why I’m not willing to heap all the credit on MT for the turnaround. People love to make excuses and say it’s the players, it’s the players but now MT turned this defense around. I already outlined why I feel this defense has suddenly become great again. The talent can’t be ignored and guys are having career years. He’s the HC he deserves credit for everything good and criticism for everything bad and I don’t think it’s unfair to recognize both sides of the debate.

To me the season will be judged just like I judge every season. Did we bring home a championship? Fair or unfair that how I see it. If things play out and we get into the playoffs I will consider it a job well done by MT but at the end of the day it will very likely end up as another year not achieving the ultimate goal. My expectations of my sports teams are high. That’s how I roll....( must be the Yankees fan in me)

 

He’s been decent. The other 3 suck especially Pouncy and Vill

 

Wow, way overthinking this. In 2017 the 3 B's accounted for nearly 67% of the Steelers O. In 2018 Bell was gone, but Conner and JuJu had spectacular years, along with AB.
This year Ben is down all but 5 quarters, AB is gone..and Conner and JuJu have had significant injuries. Not much need to be said about QB production.

He is only capable of working with what he has??? What has he got? he isn't good enough to prepare for the loss of his stars?? What coach is, to this level of loss? At one point they were starting 3rd and 4th string QB's, WR's and RB's. They were signing players off other teams PS to start for us, damn man...I understand if your dislike Tomlin, but only God himself could have worked a miracle with this collection of players.

 

Playoffs are a different game all together my friend. Remember Joe Flacco from years ago?! Could not do well at all in the Regular Season. When it came playoffs time, different story.


Who knows what Josh Allen can do in the playoffs?! I doubt he will perform like Joe did back in the early 2010s but I also doubt he will perform as bad as you say he does.

 

What the hell do you expect, with losing a Hall Of Fame QB, the best WR in the game. Moncrief was a free agent bust, JuJu and Conner has missed many games, and they're using practice squad WRs and RBs. They also had to play two backup QBs who had no experience coming into this season.

 

How can you ask and then answer your own question about what BB would do if he were here? How in the hell would you even know that? You can't, just an opinion. Wasn't trying to get into a pissing match or be called names for just wondering if anyone could have done something to lessen the impact of what happened. This is exactly what I asked before and all I got was repetitious babble about what everyone here has heard a thousand time about our misfortunes and what happened to the team and then something about the Patriots HC BB. Sounds like your a little jumpy and thought this was a bash MT post. That wasn't my intent so stand down about that.

 

Team reminds me of the teeter totter syndrome. One year the offenses is up and defense is down, the next year the defense is up and the offense is down. What will next year be? Both up would be nice including solid ST performance.

 

Duck looking for an open receiver!

 

If you put masons pre snap reads with ducks confidence they would be Landry Jones lol

 

Here is the thing you are missing what I am saying. I agree with a lot of what you say but my main point is with the OP saying MT was not COTY material. Tell me right now do you think MT has done a good enough job to be mentioned as a COTY, cause I do. This is all coming from a guy who you know very well wanted MT gone before this year started, and here I am sticking up for him.....WTF??? I think the would is coming to an end, whats next a good word or two about DB55..............

I know what you are saying about how to judge a season and I agree but I disagree about this season. Not many coaches can keep there team relevant losing their pro bowl QB, starting center, wr, rb, de, te....omg did I forget anyone I am sure I did. Add to that losing the best wr in the game and the fa you brought in to help fill that void was a total bust. Or how about the loss of a oline coach and the death of the wr coach which allowed us to bring in Ray Sherman......puke!!!!! Hard to expect a SB this year and I just can't see many if any coaches getting there with these problems. Now does that erase the past heck no but IMO it gives him a pass for this year.

 

Thank you kind sir

 

Yes playoff are a different game and then game/teams will get harder. They will not have the likes of the Jets, Bungals, Dolphins(twice), Broncos, Redskins counting for 6 of them 10 wins. You are right nobody can tell how Josh will do but you can only go by how he has performed so far and it isn't that good. However that defense like ours can take over a game and maybe win one or two, I am not doubting that.

 

I hear ya ..I hear ya. Sure he should be in the COTY conversation. How much that actually means to me is very little. Personal awards don’t mean anything to me. I understand all that was lost and I also acknowledge all that was gained to turn this defense around. I’m not expecting a championship this year and I surely won’t blame MT for not winning one. I wouldn’t expect any more out of any other coach either but at the end of the day it’s highly likely we don’t win a SB and regardless of circumstances it’s a lost season. Fun while it lasted but that’s about it...

Like I’ve stated many times before I’m more unhappy about our coordinators and when I see wildcat at the goal line and all the other dumb decisions this coaching staff has made going back quite a few years I put that on the HC. The buck stops with him and we’ve seen more than our fair share of boneheaded things. Preparation related and between the lines there’s been many to choose from. Many people like to wipe the slate clean every year and sometimes on a weekly basis. I like to look at the overall picture. Has he done well? Yes. Is he immune to criticism like so many around here seem unwilling to offer up? No.

 

Let's sign Him up, then.

 

Did we suffer a SIGNIFICANT drop in performance? Yes. Were injuries the ONLY reason for that? No. Am I on a message board to talk about the issues? Yes. What do I expect? Discussion. Not sure where the confusion is.

 

Again, playoffs are different. What a Quarterback does in the Regular Season is no guarantee to translate into the post season. Heck, Nick Foles had a historic run in 2017 in the playoffs; a Super Bowl MVP award the feather to his cap. While that run was no doubt impressive, he also had, and again, two key components;


1.) Power run game


And most importantly


2.) Punishing defense



It has been proven since Super Bowl I. Pittsburgh has six of those as further confirmation. So long as your Quarterback plays well enough in addition to having the other two, your chances of a Super Bowl appearance are much greater than without.

 

Bills one & done, take it to the bank.

 

They could very easily beat Houston if that is the matchup. Houston is very inconsistent

 

I am fairly sure the Deities that be are neutral when it comes to sporting operations, except of course when Tomlin throws the challenge flag. There seems to be a particular joy to frustrate Steeler fans immensely for those moments.