Playoff history by coach

The Steelers only played the Pats once in the playoffs in the 2010's. The Steelers couldn't get by Bortles, Mayfield, or Tebow.

Cowher, OTOH, faced them in the postseason twice in four seasons.

 

No comparison is apples to apples, it was an analysis of the data on hand.

Tomlin is considered a top ten coach by the media, which is fair, because they win regular season games. 3 shaky playoff wins in 10 years with a lot of talent isn't up to The Standard, though.

During the first ten years of Cowher's tenure the Steelers regularly bled key free agents that had to be replaced, and of course he never had the franchise QB until Ben. The more context you add, the better it looks for Bill.

 

Your interpretation does not constitute as a clarification of my statement either. My point is that making the playoffs is not as simple as one makes it out to be. Plenty of factors go into play here.



Most important aspects though are coaching, talent, luck and attrition. If you can have a good amount of those four, you are to do well in the playoffs. If you do not, no playoffs unless there is extreme levels of luck involved.




So again, comparing different eras, different coaching styles used primarily in said eras no less, is silly.

 

Cowher also went 1-4 in the AFCCG at home, I'm sure you will come up with some excuse for that lousy record .

 

The really bad loss was to the Chargers. Elway vs. Kordell, Brady/Bledsoe vs. Kordell, rookie Ben vs. Brady are not terrible losses.

 

The Steelers were still favored to win in 2001

 

My apartment got destroyed by my drunken roommate.

76 Loss to the Raiders still stings to this very day.

 

It's counted among his losses as favorites.

 

Steelers annihilated the Colts with Tomczak in '96 season playoffs.
Steelers beat the rival Ravens with Stewart in '01 season playoffs.
Steelers came back from 2 scores down to beat the Browns with Maddox in '02 season playoffs.

Those are 3 strong playoff wins on Cowher's resume, with 3 different journeyman QBs. Since XLV...Tomlin loses to Tebow, gets a gift win from Pacman and Birth Defect, struggles in the 2nd half vs. Dolphins with Matt Moore at QB.... and was a able to only kick 3 FGs vs. a Chiefs team with rookie Mahomes on the bench. All with 2-time Super Bowl Champion and future HOF'er Ben Roethlisberger at QB.

 

How often was Tomlin outgunned in the playoffs if we take Ben's actual performance in the playoffs and not our inflated idea of what he should do? Because the fact is that as much as we can bag on Tomlin about the playoff failures Ben deserves at least as much blame. His career playoff numbers are not good. If you compare his regular season numbers to his playoff numbers and then do the same for the other supposedly elite QBs over Ben's career, Ben takes a bigger step back in the playoffs than the other elite guys.

 

You don't get to ding Tomlin for losing with Ben without accounting for Ben being a big part of most of those losses. Even the games where he had big final numbers usually included him putting us in a huge hole early thanks to way too many turnovers.

 

Agree.... Ben's playoff performance since SBXLV has been average at best and he deserves much of the blame. Tomlin deserves a lot of the blame for lack of preparation in recent playoff losses to Patriots, Jaguars and Browns. In all 3 instances, the team was completely flat and lethargic on both sides of the ball.

 

Fortunately there is plenty of blame to spread around.

 

Well, it all starts at the top... and Tomlin is the HC.

 

He deserves his share of the blame but I personally tend to blame the players more than the coaches since the players are the ones actually playing. Ben has been a small-time playoff performer for years now.

 

I look at it differently. Offense and defense get roughly 60 plays a game. Plays rarely include every player having an active role or impact. So with VERY loosely applied math, give each player 30 opportunities to impact a play positively or negatively over the course of 30 minutes of offense/defense. The coaches, however, spend almost an entire week preparing the team for 60 minutes of competition. The product on the field is more on the coaches than the players. The players are expected to follow the gameplan implemented by the coaches. They are expected to execute the plays they practiced. They run the plays called from the sideline (or box, or the QB at times). And when things aren't going according to plan, it's not the players who right the ship. It's the coaches.

Players have impact on individual plays, coaches impact games/seasons.

 

That's fair but when your franchise QB repeatedly puts you in a hole thanks to turnovers there isn't a whole lot a coach can do about it.

 

The coach can bench the franchise QB. It's happened before.

 

Peyton Manning says Hello. So does Dan Marino.

 

He also lost to journeyman Stan Humphries in the AFCCG, the worst loss in Steelers playoff history .

 

TO's are a symptom of poor preparation, flat team getting whipped everywhere will inevitably lead to turnovers.

 

Not even close to the worst. SD was 11-5 that year. Tomlin took a 12-4 team to Denver and lost to an 8-8 team with a gimmick at QB.

 

AFCCG at home>Divisional round

 

I have pointed out on many occasions on this message board that Cowher bears the burden of the worst playoff loss in Steelers history. Just a FYI.

 

Here are the regular and playoff TD%s and INT%s for Ben and some of his contemporaries (and Marino). Manning, who was a playoff choke over the course of his career, is the only one to turn into a turnover machine at the same rate Ben does in the playoffs (compared to their regular season performances):

Ben Regular Season TD% 5.1 INT% 2.6 Playoffs TD% 4.6 (-.5) INT% 3.8 (+1.2)
Peyton Manning Regular Season TD% 5.7 INT% 2.7 Playoffs TD% 3.9 (-1.8) INT% 2.4 (+1.2)
Marino Regular Season TD% 5.0 INT% 3.0 Playoffs TD% 4.7 (-.3) INT% 3.5 (+.5)
Philip Rivers Regular Season TD% 5.2 INT% 2.6 Playoffs TD% 4.0 (-1.2) INT% 2.5 (-.1)
Brees Regular Season TD% 5.4 INT% 2.3 Playoffs TD% 5.1 (-.3) INT% 2.1 (-.2)
Brady Regular Season TD% 5.5 INT% 1.8 Playoffs TD% 4.7 (-.8) INT% 2.2 (+.4)
Eli Manning Regular Season TD% 4.5 INT% 3.0 Playoffs TD% 4.5 (0) INT% 2.3 (+.7)
Rodgers Regular Season TD% 6.3 INT% 1.4 Playoffs TD% 6.0 (-.3) INT% 1.7 (+.3)
Flacco Regular Season TD% 3.7 INT% 2.4 Playoffs TD% 5.6 (+1.9) INT% 2.2 (-.2)

People act like Tomlin should be winning the Super Bowl every year because he has Ben but they ignore that Ben has not been good in the playoffs. For sure Tomlin deserves some blame for that but I think the majority of it falls on Ben.

ETA: The difference between the TD% and INT% in the playoffs is closer for Ben than for any of the other QBs and it isn't even close. Ben's TD% is .8 higher than his INT%. The next closest is Marino at 1.2. Then Peyton with 1.5. All the others blow that out of the water. Ben in the playoffs is barely throwing more TDs than INTs.