That didn't take long...I'm already over it.

So what...we lost a game. Maybe next year will be better, but with our cap situation, it will be tricky.

Perhaps the biggest letdown this year for me was that the team didn't seem to have much fire or passion. They seemed to just go out there and play. Perhaps that's why I absolutely love Velasco and hope he recovers and remains our center over Pouncey, because he was great and displayed that fire and passion on the field.

I thought Ben played hard and had that fire too, but he takes the blame for a lot of things because he is the QB. But teams like the Ravens can win games, like the one today, when their QB plays like garbage and throws multiple picks. We can't. We can only win when Ben is perfect. But if he is only near-perfect, we lose. When was the last time we won a game when Ben played really bad?

The coaches were frustrating to me all throughout the season. All of them. Well, maybe the new WR coach did some good because the receivers at least were playing at a somewhat good level, outside of Sanders drops.

I feel it is time to maybe look at installing a new defense, or at least inject lots of new speed into it. We have too many realllllly slow players playing positions where that cant happen. I would look at each starting secondary spot to find upgrades, but its tough when we are already over cap.

Too many big plays made against our defense, and not enough game changing plays made by our defense.

Worilds > Woodley at LOLB.

Heyward = excellent.

Need a real nose tackle but they are hard to find.

Timmons was our best defender this season, so he is worth the money, but Woodlek, Keisel, Clark, Polamalu, Taylor were not worth the money paid to them. We spend more money on our defense than our offense, and our defense was worse than our offense, and our offense was not good this year. We also have one of the lowest paid offensive lines in the league.

In short, I don't expect any drastic changes this offseason. They will try to "retool" by signing min-salary players to fill roster holes and draft a list of understudy and project players. It's what the Steelers do.

 

Great post.

Not much to add, as my red mist is taking a little longer than yours to settle... but you're right. It will do.

 

Disagree ..worlids was...

 

or heiward ..

 

While I think that the overall talent on the roster has been going down the past few years, in hindsight, we should have probably have kept Bruce Arians. He has done fantastic work with two teams that had really low levels of talent and turned them into playoff teams, where as we had a load of talent and have been going downhill since.

But I honestly didn't expect this drastic of an effect by getting rid of him and bringing in Haley.

Also remember that Kubiak is now on the market. I'd love to see him replace Haley this offseason. Absolutely no offense to Haley, but watching his interview, I get the impression that he is more of a rambling bum than a intelligent strategist.

 

Worilds was our best pass rusher, but Timmons did a lot more in run stopping and coverage and in the turnover department.

 

We need to get younger on D, which means we need to eat dead money and write off the next few seasons. Sign Worilds and let Woodley go, same with Ike, and maybe Troy.

This is also why I think replacing Ben is a smart organizational move. I don't want to se Ben go and understand his value, but it may be wise for the organization to move on if we can get a good QB this year.

 

Good post. I just hope we are smart enough to realize that changes are needed. I believe we have to change the way we practice and how we approach games both O and D. The last thing I want is for our team to go into the offseason thinking things don't need some serious tweaking. As much as I hate when we lose I think we would be best served drafting as high as possible. Gotta look at the big picture.

 

maclender rules

 

I floated that idea several weeks ago. IF they are looking to establish the run as a dominate part of the Steeler's identity I can't think of anyone who has more success with RB's and creating probowl lines with no name players than Kubiak.

 

He was a great placekick holder back in the day, as well.

 

timmons disappears too much

 

This is definitely one way to do it. I don't think the Rooneys will do it though. It would basically be admitting that the next 3-5 years would be rebuilding years. The amount of dead money that would have to be eaten next year would mean that the Steelers would be lucky to win 4 games.

 

The Raiders did that this year with over $40 million in dead money. Clean it up, suck for a year and re-start.

 

Haha the same Raiders that beat us this year...

 

our d has the tools in place to be solid a new scheme is in order

 

YEP THE SAME rAIDER DEFENSE RANKED HIGHER THAN OURS

 

But if we don't eat it, that means we let Worilds walk and keep Woodley. That's unacceptable

 

Good luck replacing him... Franchise qb`s don`t grow on trees...
Yes, he had a bad fumble today, and turned the ball over too much, during our 0-4 start...
After that, until today, he had done really well with that.
Oh Welll... Is what it is... It hurts... we had plenty of chances this year, and as a TEAM, we didn`t take advantage of them...
OUCH...
GO STEELERS!!!

 

It all started with the 0-4 preseason. Not the record, but the mentality. The execution on offense was sorry and by time we got a groove we were 0-4 in the regular season.

 

It's a mentality that they would just magically start performing better.

 

the mentality better change, but we are running out of the old guard to show the young guys the magic that is being a Pittsburgh steeler and what a winning franchise looks like.

guys drafted the last 2 years have not seen this and now going into our 3rd draft class and we are down to possibly 2 vets that have done anything. ben,heath. they are possibly losing players that have done it and lived the winning way of the steelers. guys like keisel,clark,foote,t-roy,ike,warren. who's going to show them the way?

it's going to be hard to fix this losing mentality of our young players in these last 3 games.

 

Oh so right...

 

Depending on the outcome of the
last 3 games, I am afraid the Steelers will
not make the necessary changes needed
going forward.

 

Makes you wonder what Belencheat would do with this team. He is arguably the best coach in the league. His teams are consistently good even after turning over his roster. He makes no qualms about getting rid of veterans
who under preform or don't have it anymore. I got to believe he would of cleaned house with our defense last year. Nobody likes Belencheat outside of NE but that guy can coach and make adjustments, not talk a good game like our buffoonish coach.