The Onside kick

My wife got up to go to the bathroom and asked if they would try an onside kick. I told her no and explained the reasons why. Then they tried the bone head onside kick. And it ended the game.

 

Radio broadcast said the Steelers haven't recovered an onside kick since 2007. That sounds pretty damn low-percentage to me.

 

not only the onside kick what about the end of game with less than minute left why not kick the fg and then try the onside kick to try to tie the game instead of never giving your team even a chance to tie it

 

The thing is.... we did stop them from getting a first down. It just ended up not mattering because they had the ball in FG range thanks to the onside kick. Again, there was no reason for them to let Bortles throw. They were gonna run three times and kick to us... and we were probably going to score.

If Tomlin/Haley had half a brain between the two of them, we score 50+ and win that game.

 

It will go down as one of the worst decisions of Mike Tomlin's coaching career but he'll defend it to no end.

He should have told them we're kicking it deep and then gathered Butler and the entire Defense and told them 3 and out or you will all be replaced before next season begins.

 

During his presser he dismissed analytics and said he was coaching to win. Made me think, he'd probably push all-in with pocket dueces with 5 over cards on the board. You can want to win all you want, but need to play the odds too!

 

You have to stop the run either way? It was obvious run down situations wether we kicked it deep and after the onside and they couldn’t stop them

 

Agreed.
How can we continue to have all these Defensive breakdowns year in and year out. Not to mention the coaching.
Why does this man get a pass? Every year we lose to teams we shouldn't. He gets out coached again and again. The Defense did ok this year at best! At best!!!
23, 51, 48, 79 and i hate to say 25.....HORRIBLE.
And worse part is some of these guys are young and still can maybe be ok(48, 28, 25,79)......but they will not if Mike keeps BUTLER as DC.
How guys? How can he let BUTLER stay on as DC? Why is he allowed to? And I love Joey Porter....as a PLAYER!!! He is not doing 48, 90, 56 any good!!!

Hey guys sorry for the rant. Most of this stuff has been covered by yinz already.
I been reading you guys post for long time..years.... but never signed up.
After this last debacle I had to join....

You guys are great
Go Steelers

 

Welcome. Great 1st post. Agree 100%.

 

Boswell needs to learn to kick it high and drop it inside the ten. If we cover the kick return and stop them at lets say the 18 there is no way the Jags don't run it three times. Even with the game Bortles was having they would not of risked a pick six throw from inside their 30 yd line. Force the punt, get the ball back at the 45 and let Ben tie it.

 

This brings me to the oline play. You are supposed to be a solid unit ... when it came down to mano e mano ... you couldnt get a one yard push? It shouldnt have come down to an onside kick. And furthermore, kick the freakin fg's and put points on the board. So decastro and vanilla take your own advice and shut your mouths

 

Except our defense hadn’t been able to stop the run all season.

 

I have no problem with the onside kick. I am pretty sure I would have kicked it deep like everyone does however the point of having a 2nd chance is interesting. If it were a good kick and no penalty we are talking a different story. They would have gotten the ball some where around the 45 and if we stop them it is still a 50+ yd fg. The call didn't lose the game the defensive game plan lost the game......jmo

 

The jags didn’t have to risk anything after the penalty. The jags had been aggressive all day and likely would have pushed for a first down had we kicked it deep. It was a crappy kick, but I understand why They went for it.

 

But for that wonderful performance the whole defensive staff is retained

 

It is not as horrible a call as people think but here is problem. 4rd and 1 jax has the ball on there own 35, they are def punting but 4th and 1 on pitts 35 they are gonna go for it and probably get it. It never happened and that is where tomlin really would have gotten killed. You have to kick off there. There is way to much time left especially if tomlin knew how to use his time outs.........

 

You have to kick off, even though we have not stopped them it is still blake bortles and he has never been in that position before. He might have gotten real tight. And who knows maybe heyward would have actually did something there.

 

This is a great comment in theory. What makes you think we were going to get the ball back though? We couldn't stop them all game long. I think the call was fine. Tomlin was trying to give ST a chance. I think the defense had plenty of chances. Everyone needs think about what they would be commenting if that onside kick would have worked.

 

I was listening to Cam on DVE this morning. Apparently somewhere along the line Tomlin said he didn’t have any faith in the defense stopping the Jags if we kicked off.

Ouch

 

....and he had a game's worth of stats to back up that theory. I just wish he had stressed the importance of getting the ball 10 yards (go for the high bounce, etc). Odds are, we still don't recover, but if they recover 10 yards from the kick point and they don't get a first down....they're still punting. Granted, our field position would be worse (maybe the 20 on a touchback), but the chance would have still existed. BUT, it was executed SO poorly, we'll never know....

 

.......and what would we be thinking if we kicked it deep and stopped them....see works both ways

 

Yup that's what he said.....yet no amount of coaching is to blame.

 

The Steelers hadn’t forced one three and out all game! Jags were getting 5 yards a pop with 8 men in the box. I could have gone either way but I can’t argue his logic are defense is a joke. Now the fact that he’s a supposed defensive coach is what’s really concerning. Also the fact that the onside kick looked like something out of a Charlie Brown Cartoon didn’t help matters

 

I’m sober now. I still know it was a bad decision. IMHO