Had they played with that effort

in Denver, Oakland or Cleveland - they're sitting with no worse than the 2 seed at their fingertips with a win at home vs Cincy next week (and a chance at the 1 seed). That's not even considering the SD game (which I'm omitting because they stole the Jax game).

That's why coaching is the problem - they played like their life depended on it yesterday (because it did) but only because they didn't earlier this year.

Beat Denver, Oakland and Cleveland - and they very easily could have and should have, they'd be 11-4 and hold the tiebreaker over New England.

You can't only play when it's prime time or when it's the national game, something the Steelers do far too often under this coach.

 

I picked them to go 11-5.

 

Well hell i picked them to go either 6-10 or 19-0 neither happend so

 

The Steelers made their bed by losing to teams like the Raiders and Broncos and also tying the Browns. So they get what they deserve at the end of this season. With that being said, we’ll see what happens this Sunday with the Steelers Bengals and Ravens Browns.

 

Steelers have this mantra of getting up for the big games. But, thinking they are just going to roll and expect lower level competition to just lay down and it bites them most times.

 

The amazing thing about this team, they can play and compete with the best teams. They also could lose to the worst teams.

 

I saw a stat on one of the talking heads sports program that showed teams records when favored by 9 or more points during the Tomlin era. Tomlin is 6-5 while all the other teams combined for 54-10. I have no words that describes this.

 

This season has been very troubling in many ways.

Denver game - How in the hell you gonna get punked running full speed at the goal line with only "1" defender to beat?? Not only did that fool get stopped, he fumbled the ball?? Grimble needed to be cut after that 1 play ...that 7 points was the difference

Oakland game - Big Tough Ben was MIA almost the entire 2nd half. Came back from his lunch break when it was too late. Then our kicker ends the game by slipping on a banana pill ...absolutely embarrassing. Even after all that, if the defense make "1" critical stop, we still win the game ..but that's asking too much from our defense so as usual they rely on the offense to bail them out...

New Orleans game - Obviously the refs worked overtime cheating for the Saints with phantom penalties. If the refs don't cheat, Steelers easily blow them out. Again even after all that, if the defense make "1" critical stop, we still win the game ..but that's asking too much from our defense so as usual they rely on the offense to bail them out. Get to field goal position & our guy fumbles the ball ...game over

It's very embarrassing for a proud successful franchise to rely on the Cleveland Browns for help. I wouldn't be surprised if the Browns upset the Ravens, then we lose to the Bengals...

 

- Charles Dickens, A tale of two teams

 

Id love to see the flip-side stat: how we (and the league) fare when underdogs by, say, 5+.

 

Hmmm. That can't have anything to do with their HC and their preparation leading up to those games could it. The fact that they clearly get up for games and play dead in others is a reflection on the HC. He clearly isn't delivering the message that each and every game is important and they should prepare and play like it.
The message may or may not be being delivered but it's definitely not being heard.

 

They were in every game. A couple plays here or there and they’re undefeated. Certainly momentum determines what happens too. Lose a touchdown through a fumble and now the other team gets some momentum. A penalty extends a drive and you’re playing back on your heels. A deflected pass is intercepted and instead of scoring you give up points. Each of these are momentum swings.

I have to laugh at all the people blaming Ben for the loss to the Raiders. The problem was the defense giving up two late touchdowns. Alas, it’s a team effort. They win together and lose together. This year, they didn’t get many breaks. Last year they did.

Maybe, the Browns will give them a break. Who knows.

 

What's that say about us being 17 pt favs over the Bengals this weekend?

 

They can clearly compete with these good opponents.. Problem is, they just don't seem to be good enough to get over the hump and actually win these kinds of games. Our wins this year are just "meh." Yeah, the Patriots game was great, finally.. But, let's face it, New England is playing pretty lousy and don't look nearly as strong as years past. I don't know.. We just don't seem like a strong team this year. A good amount of talent, but with too many inconsistencies and flaws... Undisciplined play, defense that can't close out games, piss poor TO ratio.. We've experienced it all this year.

 

That’s 75 games over his [EDIT]12-season[/EDIT] head coaching career—fewer than 6 games all year have a team favored by 9+?

 

Actually what I was saying was - don't take this one for granted. Sure, backup QB, no Greene... we "should" stomp the Bengals this weekend. This stat leaves open that window of opportunity for this to be "one of those games".

 

I was commenting on how few games per year apparently have a strong favorite (9 or more points). There are 256 games each regular season; Tomlin has nearly finished his 12th season; that’s 3072 games. (OK, 3056 with one week still to go.) 75 mismatch games out of 3056 is 6.3 games per season. That just seems crazy-low.

 

If Tomlin retired after this season and pundits debated his tenure, what would be his legacy?

Wins yes. However a hallmark would be our playing down to the level of the competition during his time. I doubt even supporters can deny that.

 

Or a bad playcall here and a bad decision to go for it there. Like you said everything changes momentum. Like people saying that the Saints did end up scoring and Tomlin left enough time but JUJU fumbled. Maybe they don't drive 80 yards instead of only 40 and JUJU never has a chance to fumble. Every decision every play changes everything that follows. That s why you can point to TOs and try and put the blame only on the players but there are countless factors that go into everything. The things that you can't argue with are focus and effort and we lack that consistency on a week to week basis. That is one of the most important jobs as a coach especially one with his reputation of being able to do just that. Mistakes and TOs come from a lack of focus and discipline that should be instilled in practice every week. You can basically tell how we practiced that week by the effort and performances on Sunday.
People can say all they want about parity in the NFL but the statistics show we play down to our competition.
Also,I don't think anyone is blaming Ben for that loss on the contrary they are blaming Tomlin for Ben not playing when he should have been.

 

Agree with most of what you said. My overarching point was, this team is a few plays away from being the 1 seed. As professionals, the players need to show up too. Then again maybe if not for a few other plays, they would only have 4-5 wins. Parity.


I’m pretty sure I read posts where people blamed Ben for the loss in Oakland.

Browns need to believe in themselves. Not sure there were ever so many people rooting for them.

 

Yes you can surely go back and pinpoint a play here or there that ended up costing them at the end but some of these matchups were lost during the week by the lack of detail and focus required to win every week in the NFL. Some of the players were claiming "sleepwalking " and losing being beneficial,not me.
That falls on the HC and his staff. I will link another article discussing the buffoonery of one KB while the HC either apparently sits idly by or has a hand in the debauchery himself. You shouldn't need to execute for 60 minutes against some of these teams if you come out prepared and ready to play. When you are forced to play every minute of a 60 minute game the odds increase of making a mistake that will cost you.

https://steelersdepot.com/2018/12/film-room-keith-butlers-decisions-continue-to-confuse/

 

Definitely KB has to go. I didn’t want him to get on the plane in Oakland

 

You can point to any of the 32 NFL teams and say that "players cost them a win here or there" by not producing, or making mistakes, et al. But the problem arises when you have a coaching staff (mainly HC) that actively costs them several wins per season by their ineptitude. That's just not acceptable.

 

not a colin cowherd fan necessarily but he did say and I agree the Steelers play do the minimum amount of work to get the job done and not an inch more. I am paraphrasing .