Why CBS?

By what metric was Saban a failure as an nfl head coach? Chip Kelly took over a 4-12 team and went 10-6 each of his first two years, but was a failure? So basically in your eyes the only way a coach is any good is if he wins the Super Bowl?

 

Apparently you fail to remember how heavily favored the Cowboys were with their bulldozing offensive line, leading the league in rushing Emmit Smith and a very good passing attack. Nearly all the analysts didn't give the Steelers a chance at all. Cowher had his team laser focused for that game and nearly pulled the upset if it weren't for O'Donnel's "it just slipped" passes. Oh' and the Steelers defense completely shut Emmitt Smith down holding him to 49 total yards rushing. He did have 2 short yardage TD's but they were a direct result of the terrible INT's.

Cowher had his faults but that game wasn't one of them. The surprise on sides kick was brilliant.

Now if you want to talk about the 94 Chargers debacle then I'll agree on that one.

 

Kelly was a failure. His little scheme caught every one off guard but then they caught up to it and the team was trash. And someone can be a GOOD coach without winning it all. A Andy Reid type of guy. Good but not great. But the thing you are missing if any of those guys were "good" they'd still be employed. Also Kelly failed in SAN FRAN. I forgot all about that. A non failure who left is someone like harabaugh. But he is looking bad in college I think he should have stayed in the nfl.

 

Doesn’t matter what odds makers think. If Cowher had O’donnel Prepared he wouldn’t have thrown those two interceptions. It’s the same bs claim y’all make about Tomlin. If it’s tomlin’s Fault the Steelers lost to the jags it’s Cowher’s fault for losing the super bowl.you don’t get it both ways. Thanks for reminding about the chargers game. Yet another example of Cowher not having his team prepared.

 

For a football analyst you certainly don’t do much analyzing. It’s just fail, excuse, fail. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Don’t forget the old adage about teenagers. Let them leave Home while they still know everything.

 

I honestly think O'Donnel purposely threw that game and was paid off by Jerry Jones to do so but I'll hold onto that conspiracy theory for myself. During that season O'Donnel had the 2nd highest passer rating of all time behind none other than Joe Montana. Balls were "not just slipping" out of his hands that season except in the SB.

It was well known that #14 was going to the JETS before that game even ended.

 

I’m just going to ignore the whole conspiracy theory.

Only one ball slipped. The other was a hot read. If I remember correctly rookie Corey Holiday was in for an injured Hastings and missed the read.

 

Yup in my opinion a only winning a sb makes you good. There you go. And I analyzed every coaches situation individually so try again. You the same one that keeps thinking coming in 2nd place makes you good lol. But maybe because I'm a competitor I only see first as success...

 

So there have only been 31(?) good coaches in NFL history. If you say so.

Since your future HC has a losing record have you told him your thoughts on his abilities?

 

Interesting. One of the biggest free agent mistakes in the last 25 years. As much as I like to denigrate O'Donnell, had he stayed with the Steelers I honestly believe they could have won a Super Bowl or two with him. But now, Steeler Nation will never know. I had forgotten that the offers were that close. I thought the Steelers were offering 5 years and $20 million.

Edit: I re-read it and see that the Steelers offer was for less than $20 million total. I initially thought the total package was for $1.25 million less. He'd have still been much better off staying in Pittsburgh!

 

5 years 25 million
1.25 million less per year.

 

Yeah, I went back and re-read it and edited my response. I thought the Steelers were offering a $20 million package but it was less than that according to King.

 

I’ve had just enough to drink it required reading twice as well.

 

Barry Switzer was a good coach????
And Marv Levy wasn't?????

 

Just my opinion, but you can be successful without winning it all. Tom Coughlin was a real good college coach before moving to the NFL. Same with Jim Harbaugh.

 

We didn't know... Pretty sure him and his agent did know. Not saying his mind was made up prior too the XXX's outcome, but I'm sure the idea of here, there, wherever was already in motion.

Hate that those things could be influences on player/coach psyche. Teams asking for permission to interview coaches who are in the midst of game planning BIG games... Agents throwing out scenarios to athletes who should be primarily focused on the current task at hand. Sure, they ought to be big enough boys to prioritize stuff but still I don't think they need the distractions or possible distractions.

XXX still pisses me off! I really thought history would be on our side in that one. I knew the Cowboys by a wide margin were favorited and had the talent to blow Pitt out of the water fairly easily. Felt the same had they faced the 9ers the year prior. Those NFC teams just seemed superior at that time... But Pitt man had some serious heart and quite a bit of talent. I believed they were gonna win so much I opened my first charge account with good guys and got the monster 40" tube TV h ahahahahahahaha... They should've won that game! They had all the momentum... Hell of a game! Been fighting cowboy fans ever since on the would a could as hahahahahaha

That TV was F'n HEAVY!

 

I guess you forgot about the Steelers losing the AFCCG in 1994,1997,2001 as favorites .

 

That's a convenient excuse for many Steelers fans, Cowher was great he just didn't have a great QB until 2004 is their favorite excuse.

 

This kind of discussion frustrates me as a football fan. First off, it is all a matter of perspective. In 1995, the Cowboys were still the best team in the NFL. If youre angered about Pittsburgh losing because Switzer was the head coach of Dallas, we see football from two completely different realms. Jerry Jones hired Switzer because he was well liked, consistently fielded top teams, and was a great strategist. Pittsburgh lost that game because they did nothing on offense for the first quarter and a half.

You have to be a real good coach to win a Super Bowl. No patsy head coach has ever won the Super Bowl. Every coach is also different. There are as many college coaches that succeeded in the NFL as failed. If Pittsburgh hires Urban Meyer tomorrow, I wouldn’t be thinking about how Spurrier and Saban and Chip Kelly didn’t pan out.

Same thing with NFL quarterbacks. Why do people assume Sam Darnold will fail because Leinart, John David Booty, and Barkley didn’t pan out? What university actually does consistently shell out good QBs? And don’t even get me started on judging QBs solely on how many Superbowls they won...

 

Oh no. As much as I'd like to forget them they are indelibly burned into my memory bank.

As I mentioned earlier, Cowher was far from perfect. I just believe he could have done more with Ben as his QB than Tomlin has. Maybe that's a misplaced belief and we'll never get to test that hypothesis.

 

Yep. That is the way I remember it. Really, they were the better team, but Cowher ball got us in position to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. I was real excited and expecting a drive that would have tied the game or won it until the moment O`Donnell threw the pick.

 

Switzer wasn' the reason his team won. He won with Jimmy's players with the addition of deion. You really think he had to to employ and tell a Michael Irvin, enmitt smith, troy aikman, deion Sanders, Charles Haley etc.. team how to win after they had already won 2 sbs and if it wasn' for deion going to San Fran would have be on a quest to 4 peat... that was just like tomlin winning with ben, ward, polamalu, etc...

 

It's disturbing how unprepared Cowher led teams were: SB XXX, 96 playoffs in NE, 97 playoffs vs NE ( although both were flat), 97 AFCCG, 2001 AFCCG, 02 vs Browns (though they came back to win), vs Titans the next game, and 04 AFCCG.

Some of those games ( SB 30, Titans & Browns games) were games the Steelers made a game of. But I never felt for one second they were gonna beat the Pats in 01 and 04, despite what the flattering final score would say.