Let's Talk Bill Cowher

One topic I wanted to discuss: Bill Cowher's tenure in Pittsburgh. The man made the playoffs in 10 of 15 seasons. Won a SB & went to another. Motivator was his middle name. Players loved him. He's currently an awesome broadcaster.

The fact he lost 4 championship games at home is a blemish on his resume. Some, not all, complain about Tomlin. Yet he's never had a losing season. Cowher ( Yes I know he didn't always have a great QB) had more than a few.

That's my opinion. He was a good, not great coach. Your thoughts?

 

His success was his downfall because he didn't really have the opportunity to draft a franchise QB since they always finished with around 10 wins.

Also our free agents almost never got resigned during his tenure so he constantly had to have guys waiting in the wings.

His lack of in game adjustments were a head scratcher, but he is still a great coach.

 

Agree. He and Tomlin are very comparable. I think their styles were similar even though they went about things in a different manner. Two good/very good coaches but neither was in Chuck Noll's category. I do wonder what Cowher could have done with a quarterback like Ben in the prime of his career though.

 

I wonder how much would depend on the OC, but my suspicion is that Cowher would have had Ben develop in a fairly different way. I doubt Ben would have been given the keys to the offense in quite the same way.

 

Honestly, I can't comment on Noll as a game planner/scheme guy in the same vein as Bellicheat. I wasn't around back then.

Those 70's teams had superior athletes, I always assumed Noll was more about "superior execution" of basic game plans.

 

Their is only one great coach in Steeler's history...

 

He did drafted Tee Martin over Tom Brady

 

Cowher won with much less. Made the Bowl with O'Donnell, Bam and a D without Woodson. Knocked on the door twice with Kordell at the helm, then won with a 2nd year QB, an undrafted RB and a WR no other team believed in and missing his ACL.

Current Steelers have a more mature HOF QB, HOF WR and the best RB in the league...and got beat by a 39 year old QB, a lacrosse player playing WR and missing the best TE in the history of the league.

Still pissed...

 

This is very true. He just trained players to execute. That is what Belichik does.

In the first super bowl, Fran Tarkienton commented they were still in the huddle calling a play and Steelers defense was already lined up. Tarkenton said it was like this is what we are going to do, what are you going to do about it.

 

I can't remember which qb it was that talked about seeing Jack Lambert over there with his teeth out looking like a slobbering maniac and how intimidating it was but the great thing is that Jack Lambert was also an incredibly smart football player.

 

Much Less ? Either your too young to remember or you just do not remember. Cowers teams were ridiculously talented especially on D but they were also loaded on offense. The only thing they lacked was a qback and Odonnel was pretty good despite 2 balls he should have never thrown even though it was the recievers fault. I think you forgot how good bam was but shorlived ( 80 lbs of weed in trunk) Kordell use to light it up against inferior teams but as soon as he played against a decent D he would fold. I hate tomlin but he lost against Tom brady and we were 6 pt underdogs on road.

This is what I remember about cower----

94 charger Afc champioship at home 10 pt favorites Loss
95 colts championshgip at home 11 point favorites barely squeak by........ Played the cowboys like he had nothing to lose and we should have won and thats the way he should have coached all big games
99 denver championship at home 3 pt favorite Loss
2001 pats championship at home 14 pt favorite loss
2004 pat championship at home loss

Cower was the worse possible coach ever in big game

 

It was actually the 1997 Broncos in the AFC title game and I don't blame Cowher for that because Denver was a better team. I can see the other ones. I will always love Cowher though

 

this topic

 

That was John Elway. Lambert almost persuaded him he needed to pursue accounting as a career, lol.

"He had no teeth, and he was slobbering all over himself," Elway said. "I'm thinking, `You can have your money back. Just get me out of here. Let me go be an accountant.'

"I can't tell you how badly I wanted out of there."

--John Elway on Jack Lambert

 

Yeah that was it! Also I think it was Howie Long that said he had always thought Jack Lambert was so cool and he got to play with him in the Pro Bowl and during practice Lambert walked in to the huddle with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and was cussing talking about how he was gonna go get the qb and then did and Howie was like "He was EXACTLY what I imagined him!" LOL!

 

They were also 14-2 and clear favourites to win...

Let's not confuse the fact we could have won on a different day with the idea that the game was ours to lose.

 

The 94 and 01 Championship games stick out most. They were huge favs in both and choked. The 7 point Patriot win wasn't as indicative of how much the Pats dominated that game.

In 97, I think Denver was better. They had a better QB, RB, receivers. Steelers had a better record but the eye test showed Denver was on a different level. Same with 04. Steelers were lucky to beat the Jets.

 

I disagree, The 97 denver team and steelers were pretty much even. Denver was better the next year. That Denver team was just coming into its own. There defense stunk and we went up and down the field on them only to have kordell throw i think 3 ints in the endzone and still could have won that game.

 

I wish it was youth, but sadly, it's not. I was at each of those games (except 94, as I decided to book my non refundable flight for the SB instead), so I know them well. Yes, the makeup of those teams were very different, as the talent was on the D. I still think the caliber of talent in today's team is better, but impossible to compare since it's from the other side of the ball.

 

I just watched the nfl films game of 95 sbl and it was funny hearing michael irvin very nervous on sideline saying how good and fast the steelers were and till this day he says they outplayed them and that dallas team was an alltime great. And personally I think the 94 steelers were better than 95. This team now is nowhere in the same planet as those teams defensively and offense this team was not at full strength. Missing bryant is so friggin huge and we were missing wheaton. Next year there will be no excuse if we have brown bell bryant wheaton rogers ayers...... No excuses get home field and hopefully broncos knock off patriots.

 

FTFY

 

If you really want to break it down:

94 charger Afc champioship at home 10 pt favorites Loss- Tim Mckyer guessed wrong, still came down to '3 More Yards'
98 denver championship at home 3 pt favorite Loss- Kordell threw 2 picks in the endzone and it still came down to Sharpe getting a first down to run out the clock.
2001 pats championship at home 14 pt favorite loss- TD on a re-punt because Troy Edwards went out of bounds, blocked FG lateral for a TD.
2004 pat championship at home loss- Rookie QB finally had the wheels come off after out-performing any rookie QB in history at the time.

I can't blame it all on Cowher.

 

What I used to love under Cowher teams is we would put the hammer on a lot of teams that we SHOULD beat.

Not to say upsets didn't happen, but I remember a lot of games in the 90's that we all knew we SHOULD win were already in hand by halftime.