Do we make/miss Playoffs?

We're the 11th highest scoring offense despite being slightly below average in YPG/YPC passing and rushing. We're the 3rd cheapest offense based on cap spending, and getting what we can out of the obvious constraints on the roster (no WR2, 4 OL on rookie deals, etc.). The offense is holding up its end of the bargain per dollar... its the defense that has been unacceptable.

 

I shouldn’t be calling guys on the boards names but I just don’t get how anyone at this point can defend him??? It’s absolutely mind boggling. How many pitiful years do we need to see before a change is made? Unless you are happy with 9/10 wins and no playoff victory which all of these guys claim they are not!!!

 

The offense yards per game is bottom 6. Points are certainly better because we do get a lot of turnovers and early in the year we were very good in the red zone TD%

 

Maybe the MNF against Miami can be flexed to Tuesday morning Nickelodeon ch.

That could be a finale for a lot of people.

 

Believing we can still win the division and still make the playoffs is not the same as defending anyone. I think fans take their dislike of the coach to the point of wanting the team to lose just to prove their point. You can actually want to move on and up, while also wanting team success and believing it's possible, and at the highest level.

 

I hope we win every game with him as HC while we are still mathematically alive but I realized long ago we will never be a serious contender as long as he is here. His expiration was around 5-7 years ago.

 

Ima paraphrase comments by Sawyer and Cam today. And I don't think they were intending to attack the staff, but inadvertently attacked the staff

Sawyer, Steelers playbook is easier to learn than Ohio State's.

Cam, perfect execution can overcome lack of perfect play

I'd say Cam is attacking both the players and coaching here.

 

Yes the Slime animation would be perfect for them.

 

I want to see real slime dropped on them

 

You are basically guessing given this team and the division this season. Press your Luck. I am guessing they hit a Whammy the last game and miss the playoffs. This team doesn't really do anything well, Rodgers is banged up, and are exceptionally poor in coaching and pass defense.

Steelers Schedule
Bills - Loss. Josh Allen is going to feast on this buttercream defense and Tomlin will be unable to exploit the Bills defense. Allen owns the Steelers and the Invisible TJ and Cam won't get pressure on him.
Ravens - Loss. They beat us in Baltimore.
Dolphins - Win, especially if the temperature is below 40 degrees.
Lions - Loss. They are going crush the Steelers.
Browns - Win. Our offense does the bare minimum against their defense, we inexplicably lets Shadeur or Gabriel look like an actual NFL QB, but a late FG by Bos pulls this game out.
Ravens - Loss. The team goes into the final game with their chests puffed out with a win over the Browns. We follow a lackluster win with an absolute beat down in Acrisure Stadium. Coach Tomlin's cheeks tighten, lives in his fears, and they run the ball down our throat.

Final Record - 8-9

Ravens Schedule
Bengals - Loss. I think Burrow goes off in his return and pulls this out.
Steelers - Win. They beat us in Baltimore.
Bengals - Win. The Ravens catch the Bengals in the rematch.
Patriots - Loss. The Patriots are a better team.
Packers - Loss. This one is in Green Bay. I think the Packers bring it as seeding is on the line for them.
Steelers - Win. The rare season sweep happens. The Ravens will run the ball down our throat and stomp us. Seems to happen when there are actual stakes.

Final Record - 9-8

I think it would be absolutely poetic (nauseating too) that Tomlin's first losing season also happens at the same time the Ravens win the division at Acrisure Stadium in front of our owner.

 

With hopefully the entire stadium chanting FIRE TOMLIN! FIRE TOMLIN!

 

Steelers are going to finish the regular season 6-0

 

It's not that black and white. I know MT is a good coach. It's just been proven over and over for too long now. That is not even part of the debate for me.
Think of Andy Reid. Pederson and Sirianni are not better coaches than Reid. Yet they both took the eagles to championship wins when Reid didn't. Did the Eagles make the correct move getting rid of Reid? It would seem so, but that fact doesn't make Reid a bad coach or aged out of his element.


Should the Steelers move on from MT for the same reasons the Eagles moved on from Reid? Maybe they should. But when I defend MT for being a good coach, it's not the same conversation. Too many people that played the game. Too many people that have coached this game. They all speak too highly of MT as a HC.
All coaches have their system. Is it the coaches job to get the players to buy in on that system? To a certain extent, yes. But this is a job for all those millionaires. The coach can say this is the system we are running and if you all buy in, we can win championships. Then you have a WR that thinks this system gives all the glory to the TEs, so he's not buying in. That's on him. That's not a coaching problem.
QBs are not equal. Trubisky was so bad we thought KP looked decent. AR is not getting benched like Trubisky did for a rookie. Not even the same situation. That's not being stubborn, that's doing what gives us the best chance to win now.
This team CAN win the division this season. If enough of those 53 buy in, we WILL.

 

I understand some level of loyalty. I grew up cheering for MT teams (was 16 when he was hired)... But the realistic part of this is that if we were going to succeed with him, there would be signs of it anywhere the past 15 years. There just isn't anything that points to us being able to turn this around with MT. Its fine. Even the best coaches have an expiration date. Tomlin's is long past imo.

 

All signs point to NO

 

I don't think we can make it without beating the Ravens twice.

This year the Steelers are playing a Jekyll and Hyde strategy. You just don't know who you're going to get. Either a team that's looking like a playoff team or one that looks like it should get the number one draft pick. It's frustrating to us fans and it seems impossible to make a realistic prediction of what the Steelers will do even next week, let alone by the end of the season.

Taking a stab at it, I think that we could be looking at our first losing season in two decades. Rogers is not 100%. Metcalf seems to be nursing an injury. Porter has an injury. Ekuala is suspended for five games. Harmon, highsmith, and Jones are all out.

We still have some good players left, but I think that we are going to struggle to even stay close with the teams that are ascending or just playing well.

 

I think you have one too many numbers on your Tomlin gets fired percentage. You can remove either the one or the zero and it'll be closer to the truth I bet. Doesn't really matter which one......lol

 

His coaching philosophies are archaic and no longer work unless you want that high floor low ceiling 9/10 win seasons.

 

I think the problem with saying Tomlin is a "good" coach is different than most coaches because of what he is actually good at. The players love him and respect him (to the point that players want to play for him from other teams), and he is universally lauded by the media. He is a motivator and a manager. However, we've seen his flaws as a coach exacerbated when he's taken on a larger role with the team... He has been exposed with not being able to hire or upskill his coordinators. Bruce Arians is the last coach whose career didn't come to Pittsburgh to die under MT's management. He's been exposed in the X's and O's (we all know this is his defense, his scheme, his style... he just has someone else calling the plays), where modern offenses are seemingly exploiting our schematics in ways that it hadn't in year's past. I think we would still consider him a good coach, if he solely focused on what he is good at. However, it is plainly apparent that he has his hands on offensive gameplanning and the defense as a whole. Neither of which have been particularly successful in recent memory. If we had a great OC and a great DC and MT... that's an elite coaching staff. But if we have MT and a decent/good OC and a garbage DC... that's the worst, because I do not think MT is a high end coach when he is not surrounded by people that make up for his deficiencies. Part of being a great manager is understanding your own shortcomings and finding a way to compensate for them. He has massively failed in this regard.

I get the Andy Reid thing, but how much of Andy Reid looking like a genius has to do with the fact that he has Patrick Mahomes? Having the best QB with an offensive minded coach usually means great things. It isn't to discredit Reid, as he certainly plays a part in getting them to the big show... but I think the correlation is there. Andy Reid is the HC, but a high end OC himself. He calls the plays and has put Spagnuolo in position to be the DC (he's a top 3 guy at that position and has been for a long time). Tomlin is not a high end DC in the league anymore. We have a decent coordinator in Smith (best we've had in a while, though, since Haley we've had nothing but trash at the position). We just aren't putting ourselves in a great position to win in today's league. It's different than it was in 2010... and there's a reason that its been that long since we've had any kind of post season success.

We certainly CAN win the division. Baltimore has its own issues, and all it will likely take is beating them twice and winning 2 of the rest of our games (with Miami and Cleveland on the schedule, that shouldn't be that difficult). If we split with Baltimore, we essentially HAVE to beat the Bills (and beat Cleveland and Miami also). Then we'd finish 10-7 and leave our post season chances up to tie breakers (which we would own vs the Bills, but lose to the Chargers... we are currently beating KC in tie breaker and losing to Houston and Baltimore, but that is subject to change. We'd have the breaker vs the Jags, but again subject to change). Otherwise, we'd need a rather large implosion by the Ravens to win the division with a split (we'd have to win 10 and have the Ravens find a way to lose 2 other games aside from us to end the year. Not impossible, but not hyper likely either).

It boils down to this weekend being massively important. If we win, we have a real shot at still making the playoffs without beating the Ravens twice... If we lose, it essentially means that the two Ravens games, the Miami game, and the Cleveland games are must wins for the post season. 4-0 in those games or bust. If we lose both the Bills and Ravens games the next two weeks its a wrap. The cynical part of me thinks that we go 0-2 and keep the streak of consecutive seasons with a 3 game losing streak alive. The fan in me hopes we win both games. The realist in me knows that with MT's Steelers anything is possible. We are just as likely to blow both the Bills and Ravens out as we are to get worked by Shedeur and the Browns or a dead in the water Miami team on Monday night.

 

Part of that is time of possession too. We're 12th as an offense on converting 3rd downs, but defensively one of the worst in the league on third/fourth down. The defense is on the field too long and the offense doesn't get as many plays. I think its been discussed that in total plays and TOP we're the bottom of the league offensively. Not all of that is on the offense when we convert at a solid rate on 3rd down and score at a relatively quality clip...

 

He's good enough to win games... he's just not good enough to win the ones that matter anymore.

His first 5 years in the league made him look like the next coming of Noll. The last 15(ish) have made him look a lot more like Marvin Lewis.

 

As you mentioned the offense based on its resources has definitely outperformed the D. The downfield and middle of the field passing game is still one of the worst in the NFL . You can’t compete for championships that way. Mike has everyone on offense petrified of turnovers they almost get paralyzed on the field. That includes the OC with his gameplan.

 

Yeah, I am not saying the offense is without flaws. This team was built to win games with a good enough offense and a high caliber defense. We got the "good enough" offense part.... we just ended up with a terrible defense (which should be impossible with the amount of individually good players we have on that side of the ball).

I'd like to see both sides of the ball updated for the modern NFL. Get some new blood in the HC position and build the team a bit differently.

 

For a guy that wanted more money this season when was the last time Heyward got a QB hit or sack.

 

The Ravens have to play the Bengals twice Steelers twice New England and Green Bay, if they lost 3 games and the Steelers went 4-2 we win the division. Not likely to happen but the Steelers don't need to sweep them.