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Ghost haunt this team

Discussion in 'Steelers Talk' started by Badboy212, Aug 20, 2013.

  1. Badboy212

    Badboy212 Well-Known Member

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    As I watched the PRESEASON game, I saw glimpses of hope out there. I also saw some reasons why I think we will finish 8-8 again. GHOSTS! No, I didn't see them on my tv, but rather I saw where they once stood, were supposed to stand, or for some , still stand today. For example, a few years ago we drafted Mendenhall to become the next Steelers back, only to watch him walk after a very mediocre and short career here. Is the plight of this team on him? No, he is just one "ghost" I see. Look at all the CBs, DE, LBs and many others that have been drafted over the last 5 years that were supposed to take over for the veteran player in front of them, only to be mere memories at this point. Don't believe in ghosts? Look at Hood and Heyward. Two players who have done ZERO to this point, but were both drafted to take over their respective positions. They play because this team has nothing better to offer at that position! playing time by default. This team is haunted by all those who have come and gone, and I expect the nightmares to come and go for a couple more years.
     
  2. shaner82

    shaner82 Well-Known Member

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    Our drafting has been atrocious over the last 5 years. Colbert is missing badly and Tomlin isn't coaching up the guys we do have.
     
  3. mac daddyo

    mac daddyo Well-Known Member

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    I can't disagree with ya BB.:cool:
     
  4. TheSteelHurtin2188

    TheSteelHurtin2188 Well-Known Member

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    Mendy had a pretty good career here until last year. He was averaging 1000 yards a season and rushed for 16 tds the season Ben was suspended play-offs included.
     
  5. strummerfan

    strummerfan Well-Known Member

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    How quickly they forget.
     
  6. Badboy212

    Badboy212 Well-Known Member

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    No, I didn't forget that, but you miss the boat. Not talking about what he did, but rather the fact he is GONE and he left a space that he was drafted to fill. That now creates a "ghost" and its not just Mendy who was supposed to be a "somebody" one day, but many more who are gone as well. Was Mendy worth his draft pick at this point?
     
  7. TheSteelHurtin2188

    TheSteelHurtin2188 Well-Known Member

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    Then why say mendy was mediocre while he was here.
     
  8. Badboy212

    Badboy212 Well-Known Member

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    3549 career yards and 31 TDs. 2010 he had 13 total TDs. Didn't exactly see the FO trying to lock him into a long tern deal. Point is ( aside from Mendy) how many others never made the impact the FO or we as fans thought they would. As for some they made an impact, and bounced to greenies pastures, but they are gone just like the others. Sweed, Daniel Spulveda (P) wasted 4 th rounder with injuries, Hood,Heyward, Lewis (with NO now) Wallace, ( still took two guys on D to cover him ) and on and on. Poor draft picks have put us in this hole.
     
  9. TheSteelHurtin2188

    TheSteelHurtin2188 Well-Known Member

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    Hayward is yet to be determined as the beard said it's the third year for DEs in this system and if you look at stats he is exactly right. I don't understand what you are saying Wallace was a bad pick? He left for a lot more money then we could have offered him. Lewis had one good season but before that he couldnt beat gay out. Sweed was a good pick that didn't turn out. Did you know that the last 7 wrs the pats have drafted are no longer in the league. I'm sorry but we have hit on a bunch of picks as well. Timmons, Wood, Pouncey, AB, Sanders, Allen, and so on. This year's draft class is very deep and is already showing its worth. You aren't going to hit a homerun with every pick and knocking the steelers because some picks get hurt is just plain wrong. Injuries happen there is no avoiding them so to say we wasted a pick on guy just because he got hurt doesn't make sense to me. The steelers have hit on just as many if not more then they have missed on. Also so far Hood looks good this year so players take longer to develop then others especially when they have switched positions. We are all going way too overboard about preseason games. We looked just as bad if not worse last year and if Ben doesn't go down we win the division and are in the playoffs. Look around the league at team's that draft horribly the are the ones who always have top ten pucks and never get any better. We aren't one of those teams.
     
  10. TarheelFlyer

    TarheelFlyer Well-Known Member

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    I can see your points, but this is such a pessimistic outlook on the team. Let's look at some realities:

    Coaching:

    For all the talk about Tomlin not doing his job on this board, we forget that in his first year he took over a team which was 8-8. Yes, they were only 1 year removed from being SB champs, but he took his first team to a 10-6 record. The following year....we won a Super Bowl. Despite how poorly we have shown so far in camp and preseason, I could still see 10-6 as being a possibility for this team this year.

    We forget that Cowher had 3 down years in a row after having started out with 6 really solid years. We forget that he had 2 SB visits in 15 years with 1 win and 1 loss. Tomlin did that in his first 4. We forget that Cowher went 6-10 TWICE!

    DRAFT:

    As much as I am waiting for some of these younger guys to take the reigns, it is so easy to forget the realities of how hard it is to make the transition to the NFL and how we keep having guys who we are expecting to take steps in the right direction impacted by injuries. DeCastro and Spence last year....Hawthorne and Bell this year....Sanders every years since he was drafted. Our Oline hasn't been together as a UNIT EVER, plus they are learning a new system.

    I see so many posts like this where the sky is falling. The reality is, we might be ready for a down year, does that mean we stay down? No. We will rise again.
     
  11. Thigpen82

    Thigpen82 Bitter optimist

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    I'm with Tarheel and Steelhurtin on this one.

    I don't see how letting Mike Wallace go because we picked Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders to replace him is an argument for bad drafting.

    Having said that, it's been so long since we've had a decent Tackle on the team, I'm looking at gravestones, not ghosts...
     
  12. BigSteel

    BigSteel Well-Known Member

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    :applaud::this!:
     
  13. SteelSpine

    SteelSpine Well-Known Member

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    I have been a lurker from some time. But, I felt maybe it is time to finally make a comment...

    I think we all need to take a breath. Yes, I think we are all disappointed from the Redskin game. Personally, I am pretty upset at the OL. After investing 2 1st Round picks and 2 2nd Round picks, I was expecting a better effort. But, this is preseason. There is time to get a lot of these issues resolved. The fact is the it's a long season. Teams, including the Steelers, are going to experience some ups and downs. I am believing that we are going to work these kinks out and have pretty good team. Based upon our schedule and a healthy #7, we should... should be looking at a 10-6 season.

    To reiterate TarheelFlyer's sentiment, I think this team will get better as the season goes on.
     
  14. Thigpen82

    Thigpen82 Bitter optimist

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    These are wise words - you should post more often!
     
  15. TheSteelHurtin2188

    TheSteelHurtin2188 Well-Known Member

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    Yeah they should
     
  16. 12to88

    12to88 Well-Known Member

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    Welcome to the boards. You'll find that this can be a friendly place one minute and quite hostile the next. Sort of like a family! And that is what we are: Steeler Nation, one enormous family.

    I agree with your post. It is just preseason. I fondly remember the 2005 preseason in which the team looked awful, went winless, I believe, and the first-team offense didn't score a single TD. Yeah, that team won it all five months later. I also remember the 1997 preseason, Kordell's first at QB, when they went undefeated and the first-team offense was unstoppable. That team did fine, but not in the early stages of the season. After the phenomenal preseason, they promptly got pasted by Dallas in week one.

    That said: I am concerned by mental errors and the O-line's genuine lack of effort last night.
     
  17. IggySteel

    IggySteel Active Member

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    Read a lot and rarely post, but this thread got me thinking so i looked at our potential starting lineups for this season and was surprised at what I saw...

    The merit of this will be a lot clearer by the end of the season depending on the success of this team, but of ALL of the starters (or potential starters in the case of the RB, ROLB, TE situations) with the exception of Ryan Clark are either Steelers draft picks or UDFAs. I would hazard a guess that there are very few teams in the league (that contend on a regular basis) that are made up almost entirely of their own draft picks.

    Its true there are some empty spots due to draft picks who are no longer here, but they are filled by other draft picks. It is debatable whether those fill-ins are up to the "standard", but again, its still preseason. I, for one, am glad to see some rookies finally getting a chance to start. I think that will ultimately result in a much improved team.
     
  18. SteelerGlenn

    SteelerGlenn

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  19. darcrav

    darcrav Well-Known Member

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    damiit was just gonna say that
     
  20. SteelerGlenn

    SteelerGlenn

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    Lol!
     
  21. mac daddyo

    mac daddyo Well-Known Member

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    I think you guys are missing the point he was making. it's not about how the draft pick WAS as he played here, as much as they are not the core of the team like hine's ward and troy and ike taylor, and ben and casey and keisel and heath became and are. they were additions that played and stayed and we built around.

    yea, the Wallace's, mendy's, lewis', holmes', colon's, kemoeatu's, stark's, gay's, spaeth's, mcfadden's did some good things here but they are not guys still here with the team built around them as it should be. the core.

    when was the last time we said cam heyward is a stud like we talk about Jarvis jones? or ziggy?

    Timmons is the only guy I would truly say we could build a team off of. AB for all the money he got, has not shown that star appeal as the face of the steelers like hines became. someone that grbbed his role as a leader and carried us when needed.

    ziggy and cam are not KVO, aaron smith, keisel, casey, though mclendon could be, but he wasn't drafted here to be. nor was JH.

    how about Woodley? half the people on here want him gone. is he worth his 14 mil a year salary and a team leader the last couple of years?

    we always had a guy ready to take over and I don't see that at many a position. when we were at our best remember the talk that most of our backups could start for other teams? now many of the starters probably couldn't start for other teams.

    that seems like the jist of what badboy is saying. something is missing under this regime.

    :cool:
     
  22. Badboy212

    Badboy212 Well-Known Member

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    Mac, pretty much summed it up. Players who left, or those that just never lived up to the player(s) they were drafted to replace. This years team is not a bottom tier team, but they suffer because others (ghosts) didn't make it for whatever reason? Not every pick is an All Pro, and this years draft I actually like, but they can only do so much.
     
  23. Wardismvp

    Wardismvp Well-Known Member

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    The Steelers have invested heavily over the years in there OL with no results. Our OL still looks terrible, Other than DD I am having serious problems with the players on this OL. Folks #7 will not be here much longer, he is breaking down, his skills are eroding you better make hay while he is here and I see no signs of this happening with this group. I am not so sure that he will be able to stay healthy behind this OL.
    It is a shame to waste the talent that #7 has with such POOR line play.
     
  24. mac daddyo

    mac daddyo Well-Known Member

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    I don't think it's a done deal yet. at least it wasn't the same guy breaking down regularly. each of them had a bad play or two. that kind of tells me they are learning it, but the knowing what the guy to the left or right of you is going to be doing is still coming. I said a long time ago, this will become better slowly and week to week.

    I still think beachum had a decent game at LT. malecki has done pretty well inside. so there is something to build on.

    adams,pouncey,gilbert,DD all had qb's that didn't stay in the pocket long, while they were in college. tebow, miller, luck, and pryor so they are not just learning a new scheme, but learning how to make a pocket.

    getting beat off the snap has to stop, but pouncey is calling out new signals and they are talking and thinking right now. no they are not ready for the season yet, but it should get better.

    I don't think ben should be playing near as much as he is until they improve some. he should have been out of that game early.

    also remember we played a 4-3 the first week and a 3-4 this week. the 3-4 blocking wasen't near as good because we have to block quicker people in different spots. ( getting to LB'ers that are on the move).

    they stunk but still did a lot of good things. it has to improve by week 1 though.

    :cool:
     
  25. SteelSpine

    SteelSpine Well-Known Member

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    Agreed. Pouncey was uncharacteristically abused. The OL appeared to be thinking way too much. With that said, I am starting to think that Gilbert is not a long term solution at RT. I think he is going to be a problem. I would like to see the Steelers give Beachum a shot at the starting RT position.
     

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