Do you think the Steelers will ever change their playing style?

At 17:20, Ben talks about the Steelers playing style, where running the ball & consistent defensive play has always been a part of their game, even though the offense still had to do its part (which has been an issue ever since Ben retired)

Despite "the game" changing overtime, I'm wondering if the Steelers will ever change their playing style, since they haven't had success since 2009...

 

Not as long as MT is there or possibly even this ****ty Rooney.

 

Guy stole my Pirate hat

 

Yep! Until at the very least Tomlin is gone, Steelers will not change. To your point about Rooney, I can see potential hires coming in thinking they need to have the old school Steeler way mindset. However, my hope is that just maybe after this stretch of mediocrity, Rooney may actually allow a pivot.

Going to talk out of both sides of my mouth for a minute...it's not like the Steelers didn't take a more aerial approach with prime Ben. The Steelers just don't have the QB or WR core to attack in that manner. Unfortunately, the run game and OL hasn't allowed the Steelers do to what they want to do (see other post about this).

 

It's a passing league now we must adjust..Tomlin & Rooney are old school..it don't work anymore.
It's about putting points on the board and playing solid D.

 

I vacillate on this all the time. Football is football and Time of Possession matters because you keep the other offense off the field and they have less snaps to hurt you, but this is the big but, you have to have the personnel to be a T.O.P. dominant team.

Regardless of whether its a passing league or not, if you have a dominant offensive line coupled with a great back you can win but you have to have balance for when teams stack the box. We have neither, our offensive stats are terrible, bottom 3 in Red Zone TD conversion so you can be dominant but if you don't convert that T.O.P into TD's the other teams even with limited snaps if they have great passing games can beat you. 7's beat 3's.

We haven't had a dominant line in my opinion since jerome bettis was in his prime. Some may say with Bell we did but its been a long long time. If mahomes, allen, hurts are getting less possessions that' a good thing but we suck at converting those opportunities into 7's. I swear even with cowher, how many times did it feel like we would be up 3-0 vs 7-0. This year alone we never scored one TD on our opening series. That is offensive suckage right there.

 

A change in play style is never going to happen under a coach that has been there for 20 years. It is a 'You can't teach an old dog new tricks' type of thing. MT has his playing style and at this stage in his life and career, you can't realistically expect him to wake up one day and decide to completely revamp everything he's been doing for 20 years.

 

Not until a new coaching regime and philosophy
comes in.

 

We can't run the ball and our defense is not consistent, so not sure what to make of the idea that running the ball and consistent defense is our philosophy.

 

They never fixed the OLine and got the Run game going like the Boss wanted years ago.

 

Tomlin will not change his style. I don’t know if any coach really changes their style that’s why team owners bring in different coaches. Tomlin could go to San Diego where they play 100% west coast air it out type football and he would make them run run pass and make them a mediocre team with boring football!

 

Only thing that's missing is a fullback

 

Changing playing style would involve bringing in innovative assistants that might grab popularity over Tomlin with success. It doesn't seem like Tomlin has ever wanted to hang with that sort of thing.

 

I'm an old guy but I have seen great change in the way the Steelers play. If you're saying this is the same type of game Coach Noll coached in then you're just foolish. Defenses and offenses changed under Cowher as well It's an evolving league and it will continue to evolve whether old guys like me like it or not. The trick is to evolve fast enough to still have relevance. If you don't you're set aside on the ash heap of history never to be heard from again! Extinction lurks around every corner! Once more unto the breach my friends! Once more! Well those are my thoughts on evolving styles of football strategy. See you tomorrow

 

This is what I fear the most. It really seems like our team is stuck in the mud schematically vs the rest of the league... This makes it harder and harder for us to succeed despite possessing a highly talented roster.

We run cover 3 zone more than any other team except the Panthers, while many other teams are starting to go into cover 4/6 and cover primarily. Philly is the only good defense aside from ours that goes primary Cover 3, while the rest of the main Cover 3 users fall in the bottom 10 in the league (one could argue the Packers are a primary Cover 3, but they are very well spread out in scheme). We couple this with the desire to deflate the ball and pound the rock with a back who is more reminiscent of an early 2000's volume runner. Najee finished the year as the 14th highest yards gained, but the 20th yards per game, all despite having the 7th most carries in the league. His 4.0 YPC ranks 27th out of the top 32 backs in touches (primary starters), ranking ahead of D'Andre Swift, Rhamondre Stevenson, Kenneth Walker III, Kareem Hunt, and Travis Etienne. 15 of the top 32 backs in touches averaged 4.5 YPC or more, 5 of which averaged 5 YPC or more (Barkley, Henry, Gibbs, Irving, Mason).

So essentially we run a primary coverage that most bad teams run, and we love running the ball with a highly inefficient back that produces like a back that is borderline top 20 in the league. We've relied solely on Wilson moonballs for big plays, and really seem like we'd rather try to win games 17-16 rather than take the risk of actually running an offense. We're running the game plan of yester-year while other coaches/schemes leave us in the dust. This HAS to change if we want to win games in the era of AI instead of reminiscing on our wins in the dial-up AOL era.

 

Good coaches are supposed to be able to make adjustments according to personnel available and talent level, the opponent, weather conditions, etc. MT seems incapable of this.

 

If he goes there he will play with himself

 

All the good teams have changed their style to the modern day style. Steelers are stuck in their 70's football style which worked then but we need to change to modern style with more modern day football style. We may have to change HC and OC who still has 70's style mustache and runs a 70 style football. lol

 

Steelers tried the spread, West Coast-like offense in 2003 with Maddox at QB and Zeroue at RB. It was a disaster. With that said, Steelers need to adopt an offensive philosophy similar to modern 2020's offense like Lions, Rams, 49ers, Vikings, Chiefs, etc.

2003 and 2024 are apples and oranges now with all the new rules in effect that benefit QBs and WRs.

 

It really wasn't that long ago when fans were screaming to run the ball more. Rooney came out and told us that was the focus of this team moving forward. To build s team that is run first, controls the clock, and plays stout defense. What we are witnessing right now is the growing pains of building just that. And, while the building is going on, the plan is to continue to win games, make the playoffs, and keep trying to add to the trophy case.


They literally have had 3 press conferences on this very topic. Rooney has spoke on it, Khan has spoke on it, and Tomlin has spoke on it. The plan is not to blow anything up and start over from scratch. If that is what you are wanting, you may be in for a long and disappointing wait.

 

A Raven one score win or Steelers win changes nothing.

Only a blowout loss may get some talk of change.

 

no - not with Rooney / Tomlin

NO
NO
NO

there will be NO SB w this tandem, get it thru your thick skulls.

 

Whatever Style means, we just got our but whooped 4 games in a row and it seems when we play against the teams we need to win a Super Bowl against (aka playoff teams) our current Style is ****! Before I retired the words my consultants used was “re-engineered”. Relook, re-evaluate and make changes until this is done on the Steelers organization, nothing will change and we remain mediocre. Still rooting for them every day though.

 

Feels like people are looking too deep. Pickens. Watt over the hill. Queen. Russ. The O-line is BAD. Very bad. No team wins with a malfunctioning line except the Steelers seem to win more than most would.

The frustrating part is the play calls to lean on that bad line. As if they're thinking, "This time it will work!".

The team reminds me a lot of Franklins' Nittany Lions. Great players but never greatness on the field.