Total Organizational Failure

The Steelers are going to miss the playoffs when they should be one of the most dangerous teams in the AFC. Sunday's loss to the Saints made both points clear. Pittsburgh should have beaten the best team in the NFL on the road and blew the opportunity, as it has blown many opportunities all season.

Somebody posted a thread with a poll about who to blame for the loss to the Saints, but the real issue is that there is so much blame to go around for a wasted season. The Steelers have a Hall of Fame quarterback with fantastic offensive talent around him. They have enough defense to keep things within range for that offense. They have a kicker who was one of the league's best until this season. They had very clear needs, some of which could have been addressed better before and during this season. It took failures at every level for this team to miss the playoffs, but that's what is happening.

There is no question key players have come up very small all season. Boswell clearly couldn't handle the job security or pressure that came with the big contract. He has been terrible all season. If the Steelers get the 2017 version of Boswell, they beat the Browns in the opener and they at least go to overtime against the Raiders.

Roethlsiberger is the biggest single reason this team is a contender, but he certainly made some horrible mistakes this season. The turnovers against the Browns and Broncos come to mind.

Key guys who stepped up big most of the season had their killer mistakes, such as Conner's fumble in the opener and Smith-Schuster's at the end against the Saints.

The offensive line has had far too many games in which it couldn't run block at all. I still think Samuels was the larger problem in Oakland, but the line wasn't good, either.

The defense is significantly flawed. Artie Burns made killer mistake after killer mistake before finally being banished to the bench. Joe Haden had some bad moments, but he is miscast as a No. 1 corner, so it's hard to blame him. Sean Davis continues to make the same stupid mistakes. He took terrible angles a couple of times Sunday and his hit on Haden to turn an interception into a touchdown probably cost the Steelers the game against the Chargers. Imagine how devastating it would have been for Rivers to throw an interception in the end zone at that point. It most likely would have ended the rally before it began.

Keith Butler also deserves a heavy dose of the blame for the defensive issues. Sure, part of it is having inferior talent, but some of his scheming has been just awful and there are still too many ugly breakdowns leading to big plays for the opposition. That's on him and it's well past time for Butler to be fired.

Mike Tomlin should probably go, too, but he won't. His team has been sloppy and undisciplined for years. It cost them multiple games this season. They clearly weren't ready to go against the Raiders. They seemed to assume they could just show up and win after losing their previous two games and that was inexcusable. If the team that showed up against the Patriots and Saints had made that trip to Oakland, they win in a blowout.

The real killer was Tomlin's decision to save Roethlisberger for an emergency once he was ready to return in Oakland. The offense had been clicking late in the first half. The line was dominant in pass protection all game aside from one play. Tomlin cost his team a game there.

Whoever made the play call on third-and-two Sunday was just as stupid. Roethlisberger was tearing the Saints apart, but the Steelers struggled to run outside of a few draw plays and that pitch play that they suddenly found the last two weeks. There was no reason at all to think a run out of a power set would work and even less reason to think it was a good idea to give Ridley the ball there. It wasn't even a surprise that he fumbled.

That leads us to the other failure that isn't getting enough attention, the front office. Sure, Tomlin probably has some input on personnel, but it has to fall on Colbert as well. I'm not saying he has to go. They have had too much consistent success with him there, but he failed quite a bit this season.

The most recent mistake was never replacing Ridley with C.J. Anderson. While Ridley was touching the ball only twice and still managing to make a killer mistake, Anderson was ripping it up for the Rams. He was clearly the better choice, but the Steelers stubbornly stuck with with their guy and it cost them.

I still don't have a problem with the preseason handling of Le'Veon Bell, but if they really did refuse to promise not to tag him to get him to play the final six games, that was a big mistake. Samuels didn't do anything against the Patriots that Bell couldn't have done and even a diminished Bell would have run on the Raiders and his presence would have meant Ridley was long gone. The tag on Bell has no real value at this point, so it was a stupid stance.

Failing to properly address the problem inside linebacker is still a problem and the Steelers missed the chance to fix it. They passed on Darius Leonard, the top defensive rookie in the NFL, for a gamble on Edmunds. Leonard was a more highly-regarded prospect.

The point is, there isn't one place to lay the blame for this season. The Steelers failed at every level and wasted a season, a significant waste with so few remaining in Roethlisberger's career.

 

ALWAYS respected your rebuttals...You always keep a level head , and ..don't get all emotional like me lol...One of my favorite posters...*Don't get to attached to me now!

 

Good points in your post. And no doubt in my mind they would have been a huge threat in the playoffs. I cried and almost got thrown out of the house by my wife with the words that came out of my mouth when Brees hit that 3rd and 20 pass. You just knew they would score after that.

 

I lost it after the first interference call on Haden. Didn't want to lose my voice for a week, so I toned down my outbursts the rest of the way.

 

For me, the inability to draft a single quality corner over the last 10-15 years is mindboggling. That I would guess falls on Colbert, Tomlin, and the scouting dept.

 

The Ridley fumble was deja Vu for me. Stomach turning. Agree that he should have been the last person to touch the ball at that moment.

 

One of the sports guys on TV brought up a good point. The AFC isn't that great this year so the Steelers are likely going to miss a golden opportunity to go deep in the playoffs.

 

It isn't over yet.

 

Cleveland isn't beating Baltimore so I'm pretty sure it is.

 

Reaching in the draft for unproven raw talent (Dupree, Burns ) or guys that play multiple positions without being good at either of them ( Davis ) has failed and it only works if you have great positional coaches on defense which we do not.
I still feel given the right coaching Burns could develop at least into something better than Sensibaugh. Pulling Burns after a play that was Davis's mistake probably
crushed whatever confidence he had left.
Way too many failed draft picks in the secondary in recent years some don't even make it out of training camp.. It drives me nuts seeing lower picks out perform our picks.

The 3 rd and 2 with Riddley was a bad personnel choice and once NO lined up with 9 or 10 in the box we should have audibled out or called a time out it ,was doomed from the beginning.

 

Maybe, Maybe not. you can make all the predictions you want, but fact is we still have a shot.

 

Great post and spot on. Excruciating season

 

I would feel a lot better if it was not a rookie QB going against a damn good defense in their stadium. I do feel Cleveland will play their ass off but the Ravens have a playoff berth on the line.

 

Burns was a reach for position. He was a borderline late first-round talent. If only the Steelers had made the similar move for Leonard this year, they'd have the stud inside they so desperately need.

Burns is a mess. Physically, he is a mixed bag, but he keeps making the same stupid mistakes over and over again.

There is no way they yanked him due to another player's mistake. Burns did something wrong on that play. What I don't understand is why they started him in the first place.

The Ridley play call was so bad, it was as if they didn't want to win. That play had no chance of success and a significant risk of disaster. A pass with the ball in Roethlisberger's hands was a far better percentage play. I've heard the explanation and it still makes no sense.

 

It really has been. If you believe in a grand plan, the plan here was to make it as painful as possible for Steelers fans. As somebody mentioned, the team absolutely wasted a golden opportunity. If they could go back in time and fix one of 100 individual screw-ups, they'd be a win over the Bengals away from the No. 4 seed and a legitimate shot at a Super Bowl. There isn't a team in the league they can't beat. They beat the Ravens in Baltimore. They beat the Patriots and didn't even play their best game. I'd love to see them get another shot at the Chiefs or the Chargers. I'd also love to see the Saints again.

None of it is going to happen because this entire organization found ways to piss away the season.

 

I blame the front office.

We used to have some of the best coordinators in the league; now we have the cheapest money can buy.

We had all that free cap space at the trade deadline and did nothing to bring in a missing piece on defense this year!

 

Hard to argue with a lot of that....

 

Hard pill to swallow and being on the brink of elimination on Xmas time after showing so much potential is just the icing on the cake lol

 

I am not in favor of Tomlin being fired, but I do think this is his worst season as a coach.

 

It is the second time he has had a team collapse late in the season. The previous one might have been worse, but I'm not sure it included a decision as bad as Tomlin sitting Roethlisberger longer than he had to against the Raiders.

 

The only thing I’ll disagree with about is the team having enough defensive talent. Our offense is the reason that we win 90% of the time. If we don’t score a team by a good margin or make a comeback we don’t win.

Your right to about Edmonds. The draft experts said we could’ve gotten him in the second or third round, but yet we took him in the first round, if I remember correctly. So far he’s been a bust. Butler is responsible for a lot of bad cornerbacks. I know he’s not the one that makes the complete call but I know he’s got some input.

You’re also right about his schemes being absolutely terrible. I also agree with you on the Ridley third and two play. If you’re going to run it at least keep Samuels in. I don’t understand putting Ridley in. I guess they’re trying to show some kind of disguise?

 

This is all true, and the big problem is that it means we are much more than one or two pieces away from success. An organization-wide issue needs an organization-wide overhaul, and those are tough and long-term issues.

 

He’s a bust for a first rounder given his performance this season but I think he shows promise

 

This, of course, ignores the fact that, if not for horrendous officiating, we'd have two more wins. Blame the NFL, not the Steelers, for those losses.

 

The Ridley fumble wasn't even a surprise to me at all. As soon as I heard Romo's partner (Nantz? Can't recall) say that he was lined up, I knew it was going to him, and I knew he was going to fumble. Still, all around stupid call.