What if...

I listed the mistakes elsewhere and actually forgot Killebrew and the lack of answers for pressure packages. There were so many unforced errors that it wasn't easy to remember them all.

Some of the mistakes were unusual, like Killebrew's ugly game, but others have been happening all season without the coaches finding a way to address any of them. The adjustments to pressure packages and Cole's poor snaps are the latter. Both are partially due to the Steelers' inexplicable decision to refuse to put resources into finding a good center. They have been passing on good ones in the draft for years. It wasn't just Linderbaum, who I and others here wanted. It was Creed Humphrey in the second round the year before. It was Tyler Biadasz, who they passed on for McFarland and Dotson, but he stepped in as a starter for the Cowboys as a rookie. This has been a problem for a long time and it severely disrupts the offense.

 

If one player puts it out there that the cardinals were overlooked, you had better believe it was a widespread opinion and the majority of players thought the same way

 

Take TJ out of the equation if you want to. You still have a situation where your starting QB, LG, and ILB are out for the game. You have a starting safety playing one handed. Those are pretty hard circumstances to overcome, especially given the Steelers offensive shortcomings.

 

Despite all of the injuries, I expect the Steelers to be better than a 2-10 team when playing them at home, and come out with a victory.

Think about it: it was a 2-10 team that had not won a road game for over 12 months!

Watt got injured in garbage time - the game was lost by then.

Minkah got hurt very late in the game - the game was lost by then.

Mitch replacing Puke-itt is not that much of a down grade, if not an upgrade - and Mitch ran that 4th and 1 play as well as Puke-itt could have. No TD even if Puke-itt wasn't injured since that was the stupidest play call ever.

The center cannot snap properly when in shotgun formation *ALL FREAKING SEASON* - what makes coaches/fans expect he would suddenly be better against a 2-10 team? Can't blame that on the center if the coach decides to a) keep playing a bad player, b) not practice enough to improve the snaps.

Cardinals getting all the bounces?? Give me a break... what kind of a lame ass excuse is that for not beating a 2-10 team at home?? What's the world come to that the Steelers blame "not getting all the bounces" as the reason to lose to a 2-10 team when the playoffs are on the line in DECEMBER??

 

I've been calling for Tomlin to be fired for a very long time. At this point, individual wins and losses mean nothing. I think he's the most overrated coach in the league, maybe in the history of the league. Not the worst, the most overrated, there's a difference.

Even 1 season is a small sample size. I don't care if we're 7-5 or 4-8 at this point. I know what this team is and what it's going to continue to be.

 

our center was I guess I couldn't believe he sucked so bad

 

Oh I forgot to mention, the game was at home in December in Pittsburgh against a west coast team who plays in the desert!

If anything, Cardinals were jet lagged, not used to east coast time, and not used to playing in cold/wet weather.

Yet somehow, all of the elements related to cold December weather helped the Cardinals beat the Steelers.

 

I'm with you. I have been calling for Tomlin's head for quite a while as well. I am just saying that this particular loss doesn't fall directly on him IMO. Everything went wrong.

 

we are raising he-- again on ourselves.

 

I will ask my original question again.

If you knew about all the injuries that would take place during the game, would you still have expected to win prior to the game?

 

2 more game wins Tomlin to keep your non-losing season going

 

What if I told you it doesn’t matter the scenario, the Steelers will never win a Super Bowl as long as Mike Tomlin is coach? That bet would be pretty good.

 

Pickett wouldn't have gotten injured if de didn't completely miss a WIDE OPEN Calvin Austin on that play for an easy TD!

 

Nope.

 

I disagree about getting bounces. Teams that play better seem to get the bounces. That's the nature of all sports. Play sloppy and it appears you're not getting the bounces. Minkah was hurt late in the game. Watt was hurt late in the game. Is Pickett even better than Mitch? In all honesty, I'm not sure who is better. They might be the same, a mediocre career backup.

So really, I don't really apply most of those factors to this game. SF losing a pro-bowl level QB is very different than us losing Kenny, considering his body of work this season. He's had 1 good game against a team that sat in man all game long and seemed to forget that Kenny can't read zone coverage.

We need a QB. I'm not convinced Kenny will ever be that guy. But in years past Tomlin has had a HOF QB, the top WR in the league, the top RB in the league, very good defensive pieces. NE smashed us in the playoffs. Jacksonville embarrassed us the next year. The next year we started strong but fell apart and missed the playoffs. We were mocked in the media for drama inside the locker room, mistake prone play, etc. The next season I believe we were 1-5 before Ben went down. The next season Cleveland embarrassed us in the playoffs with a backup QB. That doesn't even get into the Tebow disaster, missing the playoffs 2 years in a row, then scoring only 17 points against the Ravens despite having the highest scoring team in league history.

We can look at all those seasons and find injuries, bad luck, bad weather, bad play, etc. It's been 12 years of basically no success. It's not like we haven't had talent, we've had a ton of talent over the years. I'm tired of the same results every year.

 

If I knew that Watt and Minkah would get injured late when the game was already all but decided, would that affect my prediction? Nope, my prediction would still be the same.
If I knew Pickett would get hurt and Mitch would come in, would that change anything for me? Nope. Both are mediocre.

So no, to answer your question, even with those things known, I would still predict a win against a team that is one of the worst in the league.

 

Of course it does, but things started going wrong before any of the injuries happened.

 

Fitzpatrick was injured in the second quarter. The score was tied, 3-3. He didn't even realize it was broken at first, then kept playing. He was dealing with it throughout the 99-yard touchdown drive. The long delays actually helped him stay in the game. It gave them time to put a cast on it.

 

None of those circumstances were in effect until late in the second quarter. That doesn't explain why they were tied, 3-3, with one of the worst teams in the NFL when they should have had a double-digit lead.

 

Yeah.. he made some of our lesser Centers over the years look great. Green, Hartwig, etc.

 

I wouldn't say easy. He was open, but I'm not sure if he had a great passing lane. I need to watch it again. I'm not sure how much of the issue is coaching. Are they telling him to follow his progressions from the snap or giving him the freedom to read how things look at the snap and adjust? I'm guessing Austin was his third or fourth option on the play, so the key would have been to see how the Cardinals dropped at the snap and that it would leave Austin open with the opportunity to run it in. It looked very similar to the pass to Warren against the Browns that got blown up and everybody ripped the coaches and Pickett for it.

 

Remember when the Steelers had a great tradition at center? They went from Mansfield to Webster to Dawson. Even Hartings was a decent bridge to Pouncey. Since the final seasons of Pouncey, the position has been a disaster.

 

Hartings was a Guard for the Lions and he converted to Center when he arrived at Steelers.

 

How dare they try to make a guard into a center!? Dawson also played both positions in college.

 

I look at it as we would have gladly taken 1 and 1 out of that game and the Bengals game a month ago before Burrow got hurt. Sad that I look at things this way under Tommy Boy but here we are.