Are you kidding me right now?

We as fans aren't just frustrated by the loss against the Broncos, that was just the last straw. We have seen no improvement for 5 years albeit with more and more talent at the skill position every year. Just because we are better off than most teams doesn't mean we should be happy with mediocrity, does it? Where would firing BA put us in the future? I don't have my crystal ball handy but I do know having him hasn't improved our offense one bit. The jury is still kind of out as far as Tomlin goes because he delegates his power to his coordinators.He will truly be judged when and if he decides to truly put his stamp on this team. Yeah Lebeaus D gave up the winning touchdown ,but where would we be the past few years without him. He has a proven track record and is more than well respected around the entire league,which is more than you can say about BA. "Get rid of everyone" thats just silly you know that's impossible,but you can get rid of the man responsible and in charge of this anemic offense. "if you can do better do it" sorry but that's something a 9- year- old would say.(D.R.B.A.I.).

 

So how much responsibility gets put on Ben's shoulders? How about the o-line? How about the receivers? How about the o-line coach? How about Tomlin? How about Rooney?

 

we all know Ben has peaked at his football ability
this team sucks on on offense and it is bens fault not BA but BIG BENS
he is too stupid to evolve into anything else but a punchingbag

 

Arians is the leader of the offense, the CEO of the O if you will. If the offense doesn't perform, no matter who it is, it falls on him. If the players (employees) aren't executing up to standards you bench them or cut them, or find different methods of training or motivating. At the end of the day it's still on the OC and even the HC (which is why people are questioning Tomlin more and more).

 

So does BA get credit for any of the 12 wins this season? How about the division titles, conference championships and Super Bowl titles?

 

Rooney gets no blame. The Steelers have 6 SB wins since 1970. That's the sign of great ownership. Owners aren't at fault for single season performances, or lack thereof.

Ben takes some of the blame for sure as he's too stubborn to change his ways and many times it's his throws that are innacurate. With that said, if he's the man, which he is, then it's on the coaches to make him improve. Ben hasn't improved since Ariens came to town. Not to mention Ariens agrees with Ben's style of play, rather than working with him to improve as a pocket passer. Short term it's on the players, long term it's on the coaches.

Oline gets some blame for sure, they've been bad for a long time. Again though, short term it's on the players, long term it's on the coaches. Ariens and Tomlin need to use effective schemes to cover up our Olines weaknesses. Empty backfield and 7 step drop passes aren't the way to do that, neither is this bombs away crap Ariens and Ben love.

WR's share some of the blame as well, especially Wallace. With that said, I'm just not sure Wallace has the ability to catch the ball in traffic. If he doesn't have the ability to go up and get the ball in traffic, then we shouldn't be expecting him to. Instead, we should run plays that highlight his strengths, rather than throwing it deep into double coverage and expecting him to make catches he doesn't have the ability to catch. That's on coaching and a bit on Ben. Short term, it's on Ben, but long term, the coaches need to tell Ben to smarten up and stop throwing into double coverage, and Ariens needs to design better routes for Wallace to run. Our other WR's have been fine.

Oline coach? I actually don't blame him. He has a bunch of players who are big and slow and who would use a power blocking scheme well, but they aren't good at a zone blocking scheme, yet Ariens goes with the zone blocking scheme anyway. Also, the best lineman he has to work with has missed a lot of time with injuries.

Tomlin - He takes a lot of blame too. At the end of the day, all responsibility falls to him. Players and coaches performance is on him and he's ultimately responsible to fix it. I don't want Tomlin fired yet, but so far he hasn't shown an ability to improve the team. He took over a good team and has had them play well for the most part, but he isn't making any changes to improve our weaknesses. Our Oline, DB's and overall offence has been bad for 5 years. The DB situation seems to have gotten slightly better, but Tomlin has done nothing to improve our Oline or offence. He needs to show that side of coaching and within the next few years if that hasn't improved, I will be calling for his head as well.

 

How many of the 12 wins were the result of good offensive play? He gets credit for good offensive performances, which were few and far between this year. Our Superbowl year of 2008, our offence was bad. If not for record setting defensive play, we don't even make it to the SB. In the SB, we started out playing well like we do in most games, but when the defence made adjustments, like usual, BA didn't and our offence struggled the rest of the game up until the last drive, which was all Ben and not BA. BA wasn't calling the plays on that last drive, Ben was.

 

Interesting. Rooney is ultimately responsible for having Tomlin, BA, Ben, the current o-line and receivers on his team but he doesn't get any of the blame.

 

If his side of the ball was responsible sure, I think 21st (and similar performance in the past) in the league for points this season kind of negates any credit that should be given to him. As other people have mentioned the fact that he never even gets his name mentioned for HC spots speaks volumes. Whiz was a good coord, and now he's off doing the HC thing.... Arians will be around for 2 decades at this point because nobody is dumb enough to sign the guy.

BTW, did Arians play calling win the SB? Hell no! Harrison's INT return and Ben's ability to extend the play combined with great receivers won that game. But some people will go ahead and use his players ability to overcome his own deficiency's as the excuse for him to stay.

I know the response will be that argument is contradictory... a good leader shoulder's the blame for shortcomings and gives credit to their people in times of success.

 

But isn't it on the coaches to get the most they can out of their players? Arians and Tomlin both say crap like "we let Ben be Ben" or "that's just Ben being Ben." Ben being Ben hasn't been very good this year, probably in part due to him weighing over 300 lbs. He's way too big.

 

Not short term no. Long term, we are a successful franchise. Hell, even short term were successful, even if we were an overrated 12-4 this year. Now, if we go 20 years without success, then we can blame the Rooney's. Until that happens, ownership needs to take a backseat and let things play out. The last thing we want is our own Al Davis. The owners need to put a GM or coach in place (whichever has the power) and let him run the ship. An owner can't be interfering every time something needs to be addressed with the team, that's what the GM/coach are for.

 

It isn't like the offense underperformed for 1 game or 1 season. They have had the talent to put up big points for several years but haven't. How long does an owner sit back and hope something changes? You know the definition of insanity...

 

Agreed, but despite our offensive struggles, we've been just good enough offensively that coupled with our great defensive play, we've had success. As long as the team is having success, I don't want ownership stepping in. Al Davis had his greasy hands all over the Raiders, and although it worked in his younger years, as he got older, he really started to mess things up. I don't want the Rooney's stepping in unless they have to. If Tomlin refuses to make adjustments which causes us to have years like we did this year, then he can step in, but for the most part, we are successful despite our offensive problems.

 

I'm not blind to some of the other issues with the team. Ben should assume some of the responsibility but I feel he is doing what he is being allowed to do. The OL by no stretch is elite , but they aren't as bad as they sometimes look, they are constantly put in a position to fail by the lack of creativity in the gameplan. He has no idea how to use formations properly to keep the defense off-balance. So in my opinion the weakness in the OL can be lessened by scheme and formations. The recievers are all young for the most part except for Hines who was written out of the playbook by BA this year. Not to mention his reluctance to use his TEs and Ward in the red-zone. The O-line coach (Kugler) from what I gather has done a reputable job just being able to piece together a decent line with all of the injuries to it. The fact that he is trying to take a OL that is built for a man -on- man blocking scheme and trying to force them into a zone- blocking scheme (which again is BAs doing) I think he's been more than adequate. Tomlin is by no means absolved from some of our issues as well.He has a long way to go before he can be considered elite. He is young still and is admittedly learning a lot on the fly.His biggest mistake till this point in his career is he delegates too much of his power to his coordinators(especially BA). Last but not least the Rooneys' we have all or most of us have been fans long enough to know how they do business, they are very loyal to their HCs, they leave it up to them to sink or swim so it's really up to Tomlin if he wants to go down with the S.S. BA.

 

YEAH! keeping your inadequate ,underachieving OC.

 

And who is to blame for that?

 

I would say Tomlin because the Rooneys aren't going to step in and interfere. They put a coach in place that they trust,so it's up to him to sink or swim. Like I stated in a previous post,he is still young and admits that he is learning on the fly so he does deserve some more time for sure. His biggest short-coming may be that he is a defensive coach and he hasn't been around that long,maybe he doesn't have a connection with someone on the offensive side of the ball that he trusts to be his new OC. I'm sure when he promoted BA to begin with it was probably because of Bens'input as to who he wanted.I'm also pretts sure and I'm hoping that he will realize very soon that he made a mistake and correct it,better late than never.

 

I want to be! Unfortunately I lack what some people refer to as "coaching skills". I know with all the football knowledge I display around here that is hard to believe but it seems to be true as I have not had one call for any of the open head coach positions.

Here is the deal... Where we are as a team falls on Tomlin. Personally, I like Tomlin and think he will do a good job. In my opinion, he has two coaches that have been around football longer than he has been alive. Pretty intimidating to put those coaches in their place as some on here mention. However, I think it is time for Tomlin, as a head coach, to decide for himself (and the team) if these two coaches can continue to keep this team at a high level. I guess what I am saying is that Tomlin needs to forget his age and assert himself as the head coach. If he fails...he fails, if he wins...he wins but he needs to do it his way. Again, in my opinion I think the game is passing DL by and I think BA is waaaaaay to predictable. Only Tomlin can decide if these two can catch up or find a new home. Just my two cents!

 

Ariens has to go. 21st in scoring with one of the top WR groups and one of the best QBs? 14th in the league in rushing offense? I'm sorry, that's just a terrible job. This isn't Cleveland, he has talent to work with.

 

Bottom line...BA's lack of creativity and adaptability is the unequivocal reason our potentially explosive and dynamic offense is just wretchedly mediocre. If it were not for Big Ben constantly making something out of nothing, I would shudder at the thought of how inept and anemic our offense would be. Big Ben makes BA look successful. BA does positively zip for the success of the Steelers. Ben is BA's biggest supporter, but he is paid to play QB not to make organizational decisions. Who knows what would happen with a new OC and how BB would handle things, but I'm so ready to try something different. Teams have figured out our predictable offense. An innovative perspective is needed for us to grab #7. Go Steelers!

 

Perhaps Colbert's name needs to come up more in the blame game. The last 3 or 4 drafts haven't exactly been stellar.

 

So just because an owner steps in it means he is interfering? Sorry, I don't buy it. Rooney isn't a silent partner in a business, it's his team.

 

Say what?

Players that were drafted 2007-2010 (too early to tell on the 2011 bunch, IMO):

Brown
Gay
Hood
Mendenhall
Pouncey
Sanders
Sylvester
Timmons
Wallace
Woodley
Worilds

 

BA should come back, but it MUST be with the stipulation that he makes changes.

He needs to make Ben release the ball quicker through the plays he calls, he needs to run more, and he needs to get the redzone problems fixed.