Anyone See Trend ??

I know a lot of outcomes have to do with circumstances that teams are under for certain games... and with the Steeler's, it seems to have more to do with injuries most of the time. That said, the last couple years we've had little to no success beating teams with very few wins under their belt...!
More apparent last year than the previous.... but again reared it's ugly head in yesterday's loss to the lowly Chiefs !

The Chiefs were apparent easy pick'ins with a 1-5 record and on a 5 game losing streak...this after we had come off a big comeback win the week prior with our backup QB.... !!

Last year, we finished 11-5... ( 3 of those losses to sub par teams ! )

Tampa came to Pittsburgh and beat us 27-24..... Tampa only won 2 games all season !
We lost to the Jets 20-13 in NY who only won 4 games all season....
We also lost to the Saints at home 35-32 in November..... they had one of their worst seasons in several years with only 7 wins and 9 losses.....

Year prior we weren't world beaters by no means but finished 8-8 ...

We lost to Oakland 21-18 in Oakland, one of 4 wins they had all year...
We lost to Minnesota at Wembley 34-27...the Vikings only won 5 games all season...

Is this coaching...circumstantial ...or what ??

IT WILL BE GREAT TO SEE BEN BACK WHERE HE BELONGS...BEHIND THE LINE OF SCRIMMAGE HOPEFULLY HANDLING THE BUNGLES NEXT WEEKEND !!!!!

 

There is something to this. Belicheat finds a way to motivate his players and coaches to develop and execute a winnable game plan, regardless of opponent. Backups come in and execute. But that's not our case. We play just good enough. With Ben, that often turns into a win. Without Ben, not so much.

 

I'm much more forgiving about this game than I am all the others. We had a lineman and qb making their first start. We have a secondary that's not even good when the starters are on the field but we had a guy missing there. We had a really good d lineman that also was out and the playcalling at times was highly questionable given those circumstances. Now if we had been at full strength in that game I would have probably been furious. Still though I think it will be well for our sanity's sake to remember that this d is an absolute work in progress and really more than likely going through a rebuild. So I expect games like this to happen because regardless of how many points Ben can put up it's still up to the d to hold the other team and I just don't see them being able to keep doing that consistently.

 

We struggle vs bad teams under Tomlin, and we usually lose to patriots. Expect those 2 things and you shouldn't ever be mad at a steelers outcome.

 

I can still be mad - just not surprised.

 

Defense has been inconsistent this year.

 

Take away any teams QB playing at an MVP level and see how well they fare. Look at how the Cowboys are doing right now. Remove Rodgers from GB or Brady from NE... I am not thrilled we lost yesterday but going 2-2 while Ben was getting healthy is about all you can ask. I would say I was more frustrated with the announcers yesterday than the game itself. I swore CBS was broadcasting as the KC feed. Gumbel kept going on and on about how banged up the Chiefs were. Really? Our MVP QB is out, we are down to our 4th kicker, doing awesome by the way, our 2nd LT, our 2nd C, our 5th and 6th guy in the secondary at CB and our 2nd safety along with our 2nd string DL.

 

Excellent point. Go back and look at all the losses during MT's tenure and you will find that EVERY year we lose at least one game that we had no business losing. As much as I despise BB this does not happen in NE, GB, or any of the other top tier teams.

 

I have been pondering this same question, so I did some digging and figurin’. Here is what I have found.

In Tomlin’s tenure, losing to inferior teams is a somewhat recent trend. I defined losing to a team that ended up with fewer than 8 wins in a season as a Lame loss, and losing to one that ended up with 4 or fewer wins as a Boneheaded loss. Here is the data since Tomlin took over in 2007:

Year Record Lame losses Boneheaded losses

2007 10-6 2 (Den, Balt) 1 (NYJ)

2008 12-4 0 0

2009 9-7 3 (Chi, Oak, Cle) 1 (KC)

2010 12-4 0 0

2011 12-4 0 0

2012 8-8 3 (Tenn, Cle, SD) 1 (Oak)

2013 8-8 2 (Tenn, MN) 1 (Oak)

2014 11-5 2 (Cle, NO) 2 (TB, NYJ)

2015* 4-3 0 2 (Balt, KC)

(formatting gets messed up when I post, but I think you get the idea)

In the years with 12-4 records, the only losses were to teams with winning records. Since those years, there have been 3-4 losses to teams with losing records, and 1 or 2 losses to teams with 4 or fewer wins, with 2014 being the worst, with 4 of the 5 losses to teams with losing records. It is also interesting that the same teams seem to crop up – Oakland, Tennessee, KC, Cleveland, Baltimore – they seem to be our nemesis.

Now if someone could only figure out the cause of this Boneheadedness, and come up with a solution.

There has never been a season with more than 2 boneheaded losses, and I take some comfort that we may already have those behind us this season.

 

I should have known this was coming

 

Consistency.... Is the key....the pats never get too high or too low. Consistent unselfish play. We can't keep players healthy,draft players that don't fit our scheme,players and coaches alike...get out played and out coached. And let's face it....our evaluation of players since Tomlin has taken over is sub par at best

 

I do agree to an extend about boneheaded losses, but this year is different. So many injuries at key positions. Look at Dallas without Romo 0-4.... we could have easily been in that same position.

 

Yup, getting Ben back is no guarantee of a functional offense. I think odds are in our favor though, since he's been throwing the past two weeks in practice.

 

For now, the assigning of "Boneheaded" to Balt and KC is tentative, but they are trending towards being terrible this year, and Ben or no Ben, they are losses to what looks like clearly inferior teams.

The possible bright side is that what looked like a gauntlet of games coming up after the bye includes teams that are now struggling (Colts and Seahawks), but we do have to play the Browns twice, and though bad again, they are on the list of Lame and Boneheaded losses several times.

 

This might be less of a trend and more of a chronic symptom of "the Steeler Way". I can remember not so much losing to teams that they should dominate under Cowher but there definitely was playing down to the level of the competition. I think it has to do with this insistence at almost the managerial level of not game planning for the opponent. Under Tomlin it has solidified into this "we do what we do" mantra or as Tomlin puts it "We do not concern ourselves with what others do." or "let what other teams do affect what we do". This approach has cost them as many wins as it has gained them as well. Look at the New England game. They knew who their opponent was for months, you have that amount of time to come up with a strategy to attack them offense and defense but they stayed with "what we do" The Pats had 3 rookies comprising the center of their Oline and a Brady while known for his quick release and getting the ball out quickly also doesn't like pressure in his face. So how do they attack that weakness? Rushing off the edges and not forcing those rookies to choose who to block. It is like they believe the identity of the Pittsburgh Steelers will be lost if they change what they do. I don't think it is any big secret that pressure and turnovers started happening more this season when they brought heavy blitz packages and overload blitzing, a slight change but one that lead to positives.

 

You may be on to something. While in one sense it is admirable to have a belief that whoever you are playing, you can impose our will and gameplan on them, it appears there is evidence that we are unable to this successfully. Those days are long gone, probably for any team. But, I am not sure that explains the meltdowns against inferior opponents - those are precisely the kinds of teams where you COULD impose your will. Maybe that is what the Steelers think, too, and they gameplan less for those opponents, or perhaps just gameplan badly, and that leads to losses. As I wrote that, I think it is gameplan badly, and then the inability to adjust when things go wrong. Then, when trailing an inferior opponent, desperation sinks in and things often get worse.

Of course, it could be "any given Sunday", but that doesn't seem to happen to the really good teams, us included when we were 12-4.

 

Yes. This is definitely a trend that we have been seeing for far too long. It's very predictable and even more frustrating.

 

parity.

 

Coaching may be an issue, but where is the accountability for these players? They're grown men and pros, not high schoolers. It isn't the coaches job to get them hyped up for a game, it's their job to do that. Lets just look at this Chiefs game. Was it the coaches who couldn't tackle West? Was it the coaches that made Brown drop that pass resulting in it flying into the air setting up easy points? Was it the coaches that couldn't get a single turnover on D? Special teams break downs? Is there blame to go to the coaching staff? Of course there is! Hanging with Vick for as long as he did and only changing because he had to. Stupid! But what about brining Harrison back? He gets ZERO credit for that decision.


The problem I have is that some of you act like this has been the case for Tomlin's whole career here. He's 86-49 and hasn't had a losing season yet. 1-1 in Super Bowls, and correct me if I'm wrong, but it wasn't him that fumbled the ball in that SB was it? Because i'm pretty sure he had this team prepared to win that game. Since then he's had an aging defense that was one of, if not THE slowest D in the league the last 2 years. I like the direction this team is going and can't wait for Ben to get back because I see some really special things happening. With some prolonged drives instead of 3 and out this D won't be so tired come the 4th.

Just so we're clear. I'm not an all out Tomlin supporter. I was questioning pretty hard 2 years ago after back to back 8-8 season but now I'm back to being on the fence, leaning towards liking him.

 

Which game are you referring to? The Superbowl vs GB? I would question the preparation on that game because you don't play the worse rushing defense in the league and get cute thinking we will really catch them off guard and throw the ball they won't be expecting that and then when that first series results in a pick you really don't do it again which results in another pick. You buckle down and run the ball.

If you are referring to yesterday's game I would again question the game plan since they had to know that Tuitt had a very slim shot at playing but didn't some up with a better plan than Thomas starting and Walton backing him up. This is the second straight week we saw less overload blitzing, less safety blitzing and less CB blitzing from this defense. This was Alex Smith not Tom Brady they had time to get after him. I'd question having the secondary prepared since Blake was toasted AGAIN and Boykin was limited again. I would say something was off in the coaching since guys were looking for the blow-up play instead of wrapping up and it happened all game long so somebody wasn't grabbing them and tell them to quit trying to light guys up and make the tackle.

So yes some blame falls squarely on the shoulders of Tomlin and the staff for not preparing this full grown professional football players for the game. I expect them to give them the tools(skills) needed to be successful.

 

I would love to see the numbers on how many times they used the blitz because I saw several that just came up short. Yes, it was Alex Smith, but just like with Brady, Smith has a TE and what Steelers fan doesn't know this D can't cover a TE to save their lives? The safeties had to be used in that coverage not blitzing. But I noticed you didn't mention the sickening missed tackles. Brown, once again dropping a critical ball. The Oline not being able to stop a runny nose. Special teams playing like garbage. etc, etc, etc.

As far as Tuitt not playing, who do you think they should have invented to fill in for him? The depth isn't there, and that isn't Tomlin's fault, he can only play with the horses he has. The bottom line is that this team is missing it's heart, which is Ben. A team doesn't go very far w/o it's franchise QB. Packers a few years ago went 8-8 w/o Rodgers. What the Pats did back in 08 w/o Brady was nothing short of a miracle, which seems to be common place in NE.