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Looking back at Neil O'Donnell

Discussion in 'Steelers Talk' started by Steelers89, Aug 2, 2018.

  1. Steelers89

    Steelers89 Well-Known Member

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    Third round QB. He did quite well for himself. As fans, are you able to look back fondly at his tenure here? SB XXX aside.
     
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  2. 86WardsWay

    86WardsWay Well-Known Member

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    :popcorn:
     
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  3. dobbler-33

    dobbler-33 Well-Known Member

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    He is the name that shall not be mentioned!
     
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  4. thorn058

    thorn058 Well-Known Member

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    He is slightly above the Jim Miller's, Grahams and other assorted no names that have been under center for the Steelers to me. SB30 just is too much for me to look past. That was a bad week for me,my grandpa died the week before the SB, I had a routine knee scope the Wednesday of SB week which given the way the week started I was sure I was going to die because then I wouldn't see the one for the thumb. It was a particularly cold winter in North Dakota that year and I couldn't go back east to PA for the funeral and NOD gives the game away after the team willed themselves back into it. Just too many bad memories to remember anything good about him.
     
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  5. LambertsDentist

    LambertsDentist Well-Known Member

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    He's always going to be remembered for his SB XXX performance, but he wasn't any worse in that game than Ben was in SB 40. OD was actually a decent QB during his time here. We'd have never made the SB that year without him. I have a bad feeling that we'll be wishing for a N OD quality QB in a few years.
     
  6. Watt Wack

    Watt Wack Well-Known Member

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    No. He aint no Big Ben.
     
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  7. BigBensBigBong

    BigBensBigBong Well-Known Member

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    Having seen him play I would say he was a capable system QB, no more no less. We had a Super Bowl team in 1995, but not a Super Bowl QB in O`Donnell. Some irony here in that he was known as being careful with the ball.
     
  8. jeh1856

    jeh1856 Beer is good

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    I was not a big fan. Some people look at his statistics and think they were ok. What I saw was a QB who on third and 7 would throw a 4 yard out pattern, have a completion, and we would have to punt. He did not have a play to win instinct.

    One of the interceptions in the SB was not his fault. Receiver ran the wrong way on a timing pattern.
     
  9. Thigpen82

    Thigpen82 Bitter optimist

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    I tend to agree with this. He was the safe pair of hands that Cowher always wanted in a QB, at least at that time.

    I remember a British newspaper preluding SBXXX by saying: "This will be a clash between two QBs: Troy Aikman, a former first round pick who has two Superbowl wins and a Superbowl MVP, and Neil O'Donnell, who has a beard."
     
  10. FootballAnalyst98

    FootballAnalyst98 Well-Known Member

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    He got larry brown paid
     
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  11. NY STEELERFAN

    NY STEELERFAN Well-Known Member

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    Mods please delete this post there should be no talk about this players who should be nameless.........:eek:
     
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  12. mac daddyo

    mac daddyo Well-Known Member

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    NOD was a pretty good QB for us in between all the bad ones we had a stretch of. Does anyone remember the name of the rookie receiver that ran the wrong routes in the SB? One bad game albeit a big one shouldn't define all the good he did while here. :cool:
     
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  13. jeh1856

    jeh1856 Beer is good

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    He did
     
  14. AFan

    AFan Well-Known Member

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    Andre Hastings?

    Neil wasn't a bad QB. People couldn't wait for him to replace Brister. He might have been the best of the bunch between Bradshaw and Ben. Though that's not saying much.
     
  15. tyler christopher

    tyler christopher Well-Known Member

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    Those steelers teams had everything and were loaded on both sides of ball so I could have probably been qback..... Neil was good aside from sbl but alot of qbacks could have been good on those teams...... Case in point.... look what happened when he went to jets.......
     
  16. Steelcitian

    Steelcitian Well-Known Member

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    Then I remember he bounced around from The Jets, Bengals and then the Titans.
     
  17. Boomer

    Boomer Well-Known Member

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    Not just no, but HELL NO!
     
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  18. groutbrook

    groutbrook

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    I can't remember his name without looking it up, but I remember he hadn't really played all season and probably shouldn't have been in there in that situation. It was bad all over.
     
  19. groutbrook

    groutbrook

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    Or on 3rd and 7 he would run out of bounds with the ball instead of throwing it away, making it a fourth and 17. He lacked composure.
     
  20. TuRnDoWnForWaTT

    TuRnDoWnForWaTT Well-Known Member

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    The guys name was Corey Holliday. He did not play much that year. I never bought the excuse that the receiver ran the wrong route personally. Larry Brown sat on the route and that ball was getting picked whether Holliday ran the curl or not. Poor decision by Neil IMO.
     
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  21. NY STEELERFAN

    NY STEELERFAN Well-Known Member

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    I respect your opinion but I don't see it that way! Slash pretty much took the same team to the AFCCG, so while (unnamed player) may have been good for us he wasn't nothing special and the fact that he had one of the worst games of all time and it coming vs the Cryboys still makes me mad!!!!
     
  22. TuRnDoWnForWaTT

    TuRnDoWnForWaTT Well-Known Member

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    I gotta disagree. I have always believed that had we re-signed NOD we would have won 1, maybe even 2 Super Bowls. Our 1996 team was stacked. Bettis was young and hungry. If we had NOD at quarterback we would have easily had home field advantage in the playoffs. Had we played the Patriots with NOD at QB and at home we would have went to the Super Bowl. We would have beaten the Packers IMO.

    In 1997, We beat the Broncos in the regular season. The only reason we lost the AFCC was because of Kordell, and some stupid play calling by Chan. Imagine how good we would have been if we had Slash being Slash for those 2 years and a steady veteran QB. We might very well have 8 Super Bowl wins.
     
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2018
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  23. JackAttack 5958

    JackAttack 5958 Well-Known Member

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    Neil O'Dummy. :facepalm:

    He was a good distributor of the football and a good game manager and was an improvement over the quarterbacks the Steelers had had the previous 5-10 years. But, unfortunately, he will always be remembered as the guy who choked in the Super Bowl and handed the Cowboys the win with his easy interceptions to Larry Brown making him the highest paid, below average cornerback in the history of the NFL.
     
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2018
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  24. Da Stellars

    Da Stellars Well-Known Member

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    Dude, you guys are salty over the SB, and maybe understandably so.

    But, I think you forget those 4-wide/5-wide offense they ran with Eric Green, Ernie Mills, Charles Johnson, and Yancy Thigpen. That was a vertical offense, which was rare for those days. Neil was awesome!
     
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  25. JackAttack 5958

    JackAttack 5958 Well-Known Member

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    Awesome may be an overstatement, but they did run an exciting offense during that stretch, you're right about that. I thought O'Donnell was someone that could have led the Steelers to another Super Bowl or two, but it was not to be.
     

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