Man, this hurts!

I will give you the Duck/Mason QB'd year but the playoff record has been terrible in the last ten years, 2011 loss to Tebow, 2014 to Ravens, 2015 to Denver again, 2017 to Jags, 2020 to Browns. I will concede KC and New England owns us because Tomlin and Lebeau could never get together and change a defensive strategy that didnt work against Brady. I don't feel like going back into the individual seasons where our teams were not prepared and lost to inferior teams that we should have dominated, managed the clock terribly in numerous games, the drama of Brown in the locker room, allowing Ben and Brown to have separate rules, etc. The whole idea of fans being spoiled is ridiculous. I'm judging the team on their talent level and what I have witnessed for a long time with Tomlin which gets swept under the rug of non losing seasons. Do you believe if Bill B, or Coughlin, or Carroll, etc had our team over the last 10 years we would not have performed better in the post season? We agree to disagree, I think based on the talent we had that 2 playoff wins with a gift from Cincy on a mental meltdown is underachieving.

 

So basically the draft missed with key picks more than it hit. Bush is showing he was vastly overrated. Dan Moore and Kendrick Greene are backups at best. Justin Layne is a distant memory should have gone undrafted.

Colbert did some good things, but he missed in his attempt to stop the Steelers from going into a rebuilding term which they are clearly in now.

It's ok it happens I'm not losing sleep over it. They still have some good players to build on.

Pickett will be fine. At least give him a year or two to fully evaluate. The game is faster than college so I'm not panicking a rookie QB is missing the open WR on occasion.

 

Agreed that this team has underperformed for a long time for whatever reason but, we didn't lose to Tebow. Granted, he's God's chosen guy but, he can't throw and catch at the same time. Fans love to claim that we lost to one guy like it's a Scarlet letter! Truth is, there were 21 other guys there plus special teams.

 

That's where I disagree with you. Your expectations are lower than mine. I'm not a Browns Fan or a Jets fan and our roster over 10 years was way better so my review of the teams performance is different than a Browns Fan or Jets fan. Just having a non losing season isn't what I expect as a fan with the talent we had.

 

Obviously, but if I said we lost to a Brady QB Team vs a Colt McCoy QB team our reactions would be much different, no??

 

Not mine. And no one ever says we lost to a Tebow TEAM. It's always, "we lost to Tebow"
Brady is the luckiest winner ever!

 

Carroll had one of the best defenses of all time, and he only has one Super Bowl to show for it, there's no shame in losing to Denver in 2015 they were the Super Bowl champs.

 

The way you talk down to people all the time and you’re surprised that you’re catching some flack. Come on Knox. In all seriousness I responded to your claim and then you clarified you meant something different. It’s all good. I get it you’re looking purely postseason success. I’m looking at overall success.

 

Ok now I get where you stand, you are looking at overall (which I assume just means a winning season and qualifying for the playoffs) and I'm in the camp of post season wins and the Lombardi's.

 

Did we have complete teams?

 

Agreed, but if someone expects more I can't equate that to being soft. I have the Jordan mindset, nothing matters other than winning period. Just like I tell my son, I don't expect perfect grades, but everyone can give a perfect effort. So when they Black and Gold look prepared and leave it all on the field and lose, I can live with that. But when they get outcoached, outschemed, make multiple mental gaffes and play undisciplined as I fan I can't accept that.

 

No, nobody does, but the comparison to the Jets and Browns, we had a way better roster.

 

Some fans have a hard time grasping the whole non-losing season Thang. It’s not like when we start to season my personal goal for the team is to just finish 500 or above.
I’m always hopeful that we can get to and win the Super Bowl.
Winning the division, making the playoffs are good things.
Losing in the playoffs stinks, but it doesn’t mean we haven’t been successful or had good seasons. We just haven’t reached the ultimate goal.

It’s seasons like this where are you really find out who’s who in the fan base.

 

When we have some adversity added to the mix like we have this particular season and certain fans can’t handle it and act like little children throwing a temper tantrum then yeah they are soft.

 

I will always be a fan and frankly I don't expect us to win another game this season. I look at how we lost vs just having lost. Did the team seem to be prepared, did the defensive and offensive schemes makes sense vs the opponent (example Lebeau playing a zone time after time against Brady), were we undisciplined (i.e. how many illegal man downfield penalties does it take to address it), how did we adjust at halftime, etc. Frankly this year I'm looking at how Kenny Pickett develops throughout the season, do our players play all four quarters and not quit, are WR's blocking with effort, do we manage the clock well, etc. Never was yes man, never will be. So a fan doesn't mean you can't critique the team. Being a fan means you root for them the whole season good or bad, but it also means you can have an opinion that its time for management to make a full coaching change.

 

Is critiquing the coach and the results throwing a temper tantrum. I just looked all my toys are still in my crib!!

 

This.

 

we better reverse this we were the city of champions now the city of LOSERS

 

I know You know football....So You know this.
You usually build a team to beat Your Home division 1st....correct???
Now You expect a team to change what they are great at , and have drafted for....for one game ....example:NE. Although You must defeat most of Your division just to get there, and You may not face them anyway.
It's the same reason Bill Belichick has had problems with running Qbs, but since He only has to face them just so often He doesn't change what He's drafted for, and coached for just one game. Now if that is what You face in Your division 2- 4 - 6 times a year that's a different thing.

 

No not at all. Now if you’re going to go and start several threads throughout the week basically saying the same thing then yeah probably.

 

AGreed personnel limits what you can do, but do you all remember the home game we had against Brady (I believe a night game) and we actually jammed the receivers and disrupted the timing and beat Brady pretty well if my aging memory serves. Then didn't we revert right back to a zone in the playoff and line up virtually 10 yards off the receivers and everyone here knew that game was over after the first series. You have to be able to adapt to your opponent (and yes personnel will limit what you can adapt to) but it always seems we go down with the gameplan even if its not working. Frankly I didn't think Cowher was great at it all either. But look what Reid did against Tenn, after the 2nd half they started to counter what Tenn was doing defensively.

 

That isn’t the point. Y’all sit there and cry about not winning a playoff game, but ignore the fact we rarely had a complete team. Decent offense coupled with a meh defense or vice versa. We have been very lucky in that we haven’t had a true rebuilding in over two decades. It happens to every team and it’s part of the normal cycle. We managed to put it off due largely to good coaching. As I said 9 months ago we are rebuilding. It’s painful. It sucks, but it’s normal. So y’all can sit there and *****, moan, and pound away at your keyboards until your blue in the face. The rest of us will sit back, laugh, and appreciate the comedy provided.

 

It's not hard to understand, it's just misleading.

Ben was one of the best QBs of all time in his prime. Undoubtedly he had a huge influence on games. Teams with good players tend to do better than teams with bad ones.
But... he didn't play defense. He didn't play ST (except those few times he punted obvs).

Consider this: in 2019 and 2021 (record 8-8 and 9-7-1), the defense held opponents to the fewest number of TDs in the past 12 years. Doesn't that have something to do with the final season record...? 2019 played mostly without Ben, of course.

It's not an either/or between QB and HC. Otherwise it would suggest that when Brady left NE and they had a losing season, he was papering over Belichick's faults.

 

Different thing. Like I said with My example of Belichick....because He is mainly a man team....He almost always loses to running Qbs, and because We are a mainly zone team with some man concept.....We do well with Running Qbs usually.
You just don't change Your scheme, and what You've been drafting for one team.....it's why certain teams have certain teams numbers....it's why Tomlin was 5-2 against Andy Reid until Mahomes pulled Reids a$$ out of the fire.
Same reason Bill Belichick has never beat Cam, or Lamar Jackson, and He's played both multiple times.