The one thing about Tomlin...

Dear god I am going to start a Tomlin flame thread here, but that is not my intention. I like Tomlin as our coach and think the problems of the team are 80% talent based (and mainly the defensive line), but...

...I think he is rarely able to call a player out, based on his personality. He is quick to praise a player for performing well or celebrate on the sidelines when something goes well on the field, but I rarely see him either yell at a player OR imply in conversation that a player is simply not good enough. He says Ben has to play better at times, sure, and he is right, but I never see him say similar things to the vast amount of under-performing players on the roster.

And I am not saying that he needs to go to an interview and blast his team, I am just pointing out that I think, based on how he acts on the field and in interviews, that he is unable to "punish" under-performing non-star players.

Not saying Cowher is/was/or would be a better coach than Tomlin, but I distinctly remember him one time fingering James Harrison to come over to him after Harrison got a penalty on special teams. He screamed at Harrison and then patted him on the back and told him something like "You won't mess up again", probably with expletives. I don't think Tomlin would have done that to James Harrison, and he simply wont do that to players who deserve to be yelled at for their poor play, and are much worse that what Harrison was as a player.

Just a simple observation.

 

Interesting idea. Just some random thoughts:

I saw him saying something to Mitchell after he was hopping around from the personal foul at the goal-line. I actually remember thinking: "you don't see that very often."

Could you not say the same thing about the coordinators as well, perhaps?

I wouldn't gauge anything about his management style on his interviews.

 

I think this is just his style. He doesn't get overly hyped in public. I think he probably deals with his team in the locker room.

He does make certain comments... like when he would call Mike Wallace a "one-trick pony".

I think all good coaches know what they are and are not good at in terms of trying to motivate their players. When I look at some of the good coaches around the league, I don't see all of them behaving as Cowher would. Some do. Others don't. They've figured out what their own method is for leading from their position.

When Tomlin doesn't go ballistic, I believe there is a lot of frustration with the fan base because we want to understand what's going on under the hood because of what we define as sub-par performance.

This season I am going to watch to see how often he can keep the team motivated to win. Streaks going 2-6 are not good, and I'm hoping he's figured out how to avoid that. I think that would show some improvement on his part.

 

As a manager (not a coach) I never call anyone out in front of the group. I think he is the same way and that is why players like playing for him...however I read during training camp that Tomlin was making comments to the guys that were under performing.

The last thing I believe any professional should do is air the dirty laundry via media. I believe he does this behind closed doors...as any good manager or coach should

 

His recent comments about Gilbert though, saying that he didn't necessarily have a bad game against the Ravens. He is either lying in the interview, being sarcastic, or simply inept at judging performances.

 

:music:

 

He's probably weighed up the benefits of how it would affect Gilbert.

Where I work, I once had to raise an issue about someone working in another team who was being utterly inept on a particular project we were both working on. Their manager basically told me that there was no way he would accept blame being put on the guy, and stood by him in what appeared to be a simple ignorance of his performance. Off I went. It turned out that behind closed doors, the manager absolutely tore the guy to pieces.

Obviously very different with Tomlin and the press, as we all have eyes and can all judge performances for ourselves. But as I've said before, I wouldn't take his interview comments as a reflection on what happens on the practice field. They could be the same, they could be radically different... but it's clear that Tomlin plays the game when it comes to media performance.

 

http://firststopfantasy.com/nfl-tea...rs-positional-grades-week-2-baltimore-ravens/

 

Ben did not seem overly concerned either even after he was lifted off his feet . He is still sore from this hit but he did not say anything negative about Gilbert. I think thats just what you do to keep a player encouraged, motivated.

 

Tomlin learned under some stoic coaches such as Rick Minter and Tony Dungy. I guess it is only natural for Tomlin to have retained some of that.

 

A couple of items of interest from the article:

Linebackers: D

Always the pride in Pittsburgh, how nice would it be to have some Jack Lambert’s, Jack Ham’s, Greg Lloyd’s take the field again. Joey Porter is standing over there on the sideline. An in-his-prime Porter would be an upgrade over this group. They simply are not playing the kind of aggressive, hard-tackling football that has established the reputation of linebacker in the ‘Burgh. That showed in Baltimore.

Joey Porter RIGHT NOW would be an upgrade over this group!!!



Tight Ends: B

This unit is Heath Miller. His backups just aren’t getting much playing time. Miller despite a fumble that he lost, is just as his nickname indicates…Big Money. On short yardage plays where a pass is called for, this should be the go-to-guy every time.

Could not agree with this more! Heeeeeeeeeeeath!!!




Coaching: F

If you base this grade on intensity, is there a lower grade than F? Mike Tomlin showed no intensity in this game and has rarely ever shown any. He also takes the blame for bringing a team into Baltimore that wasn’t prepared which showed in its lack of execution and sloppy play. Offensive play calling was inconsistent, and defensive adjustments absent.

I'm seriously beginning to believe that Tomlin is in over his head as a head coach. You could take this exact assessment and insert into the coaching grade in most games we've played the last two plus seasons. I really believe the Rooneys recognize the major deficiencies of Mike Tomlin so they've tried to surround him with experienced assistant coaches, several of whom have been head coaches at the NFL level. Many on this board want to blame the talent on this team but is our talent really that bad? Have we not, for the most part, come out of the draft and the free agent signing period over the last few years feeling like we've improved our football team and added some pretty good players? Tomlin is just not getting the most out of the talent on his football team. A good coach makes the average players good and the good players great! Tomlin's just not getting it done and if he's not careful he's going to totally lose this football team and the current state of mediocrity the team finds itself in will devolve into a death spiral.

 

I wondered about that too. That word 'intensity' bothers me in particular. Intensity is what the team shows. Granted, preparation and mindset is part of that, which is a coaches job... but saying "Mike Tomlin showed no intensity" seems take us back to the "why doesn't Tomlin jump up and down and shout on the sideline more" silliness.

 

As a coach myself, albeit basketball, the old adage start with a positive, give the negative and end with a positive holds true. This is when you get the most out of kids. I don't coach adults but I would think some of that would be similar. Some people take getting blasted as motivation, some people completely shut down. Tomlin has been around this team long enough to know which buttons he can push with what guys.

I have never been one that believes in giving emotional motivating speeches before games. If the players can't get themselves motivated to participate in the fun aspect of the sport which is the game then you have bigger problems. Right now it is about execution. The Steelers as a team are not executing and that is a problem.

I have said for the past couple of years I think they really miss the fire from the previous leadership in terms of players. Hines Ward, James Farrior, Joey Porter as a player, etc. in which they really held up guys vocally. Troy is a leader but not vocally. He is by example. Ben is the leader on offense but I think they are still looking for that vocal leader on defense. Being so young on defense my hope is that they improve as a unit as the year goes on.

 

Players spend more time with their position coaches and their OC or DC, they are more responsible for developing the players IMO. The HC is more of a overseer of the team. If you guys think this team is talented you're delusional compare the Steelers roster to teams like Seattle, 49ers, Denver, Carolina these teams have multiple Pro Bowlers on their teams. The Steelers have one real Pro Bowl player Antonio Brown, Polamalu doesn't count he makes it on reputation.

 

http://www.nfl.com/trainingcamp/sto...ice-changes-could-negatively-impact-nfl-games

http://cover32.com/cowboys/2014/08/14/the-cba-practice-rules-are-taking-a-toll-on-nfl-teams/

http://www.si.com/more-sports/2012/07/26/training-camps

Here's another point: the CBA.

I read teams are only allowed 14 padded practices for the entire season. And that 2-a-days are history. Is this true?

If so, then what other tools does a coach have to motivate his players. Forcing additional practices not only presents a direct consequence for negligent/lazy play, but also provides additional drilling in lacking areas.

If this option is gone for coaches, then what is a coach supposed to do with players who are consistently flat and/or have sloppy execution?

I know there's the argument that other coaches don't have that problem. Is it possible that those coaches just have players who are either: a) naturally more gifted and don't require as much drilling, and/or b) taking their own time to voluntarily hold player-practices to hone their skills?

Thoughts?

 

I still think we have talent on this team. They are still sleeping but once they appear we have a very talented bunch. The Cleveland 1st half was an example of what we have. Dont kid yourself. When they want to ball they can.

Execution and playing 60 minutes is our issue at hand. Once this gets remedied we will be a force again

 

Let's not forget that pressers are not meant for the coaches to call out their players and blab out some silly headline for the reporters. Behind the scenes in the locker room I would expect a fired up coach. Not sure if he's like that or not, but based on his sideline demeanor, I seriously doubt he's a Bill Cowher or Mike Ditka. In front of the press, I would expect he's got to represent the image of the NFL well, and not go calling out specifics and such. I do agree though, that either Tomlin is over his head or Colbert is, or all of the above.

 

tomlin has to start to punish who is underperforming , give them one hour more in practice runnning and pumping every time somebody has a bad game , then maybe they will star to care how to play