Matt Canada FIRED

Yet you were ready to believe that Tomlin named Trubisky the starter .

 

Here is the problem for me, even if the play design is solid but simple, the personnel groupings were down right baffling. If they go single back 4wrs in an attempt to force guys out of the box they would pick 2 wrs that don't play to a particular style. Pickens can take a slant route to the house and make a contested catch on the sideline, DJ is the best route runner and can play outside or slot, then there is Robinson who can move around and play any of positions and lastly Austin with speed. If teams put 7 in the box, walk a safety up close that leaves a single high safety to shade towards Pickens. Have Austin run a go route up the seam and it draws a LB into coverage or gives you single coverage on Robinson and DJ. This forces out of stacking the box. Yet they would put Boykin or Gunner out there. You have a 6'8" mismatch at TE but don't use it. They do a bunch on one side but bring it close to the OT which allows a defense to over power your OL and muddy the middle.

Sunday saw them do screens where there were better options downfield but Kenny stuck to the play which tells me that after his protection and route change that won a game, he got a butt chewing that said stick to the play as called.

Like I said baffling.

 

I said that Tomlin said it was his decision. Others are saying it was Rooney. I think Tomlin has all the power.

 

It'll be short, easy to read and mega failure.

 

What would be Tomlin's motivation to lie and take sole responsibility for a decision he did not agree with? He is very good at dodging questions he doesn't want to answer, but he seemed to have no problem making a definitive statement about who fired Canada.

 

Same reason why your parents don't tell you everything as a kid. Sometimes the media, the fans, players etc., don't really need to know what exactly happens behind closed doors.

Sometimes in management the "boss" has to come out and take responsibility for these decisions whether they are the driving force behind the decision or THEIR boss is. It isn't good optics to have Tomlin come out and say "this decision was made above my pay grade" or something to that effect. It would portray a lack of leadership and internal disconnect that you don't want to leak "out of house" and generate even more bad press. It's being handled exactly how any competent organization would handle it.

 

To me, the only decision Tomlin made was to split the OC role into two people because that’s just dumb as ****.

 

I don't think it matters that much if it was Rooney or Tomlin. It happened. If it was Rooney and Tomlin took the blame / credit for it, that is what a good leader should do. You step up and take the heat for the decision. If you try and distance yourself from the decision, you are just being a pansy. If it was Tomlin, you can bet that Rooney and Khan were in on the decision. Firing your OC in mid season does not seem to be a decision that any Coach, GM or Owner (except for Jerry Jones) would take without involving the triad. Tomlin historically accepts the blame when things go awry. I have never seen him trying to pass the buck there. Sometimes, he alludes to some shared blame like when he says we did not play well today......but he has never (that I saw) dragged individual players, the GM or the Rooneys into the blame line.

 

I had to read the article I saw that on a couple of times because it confused me......I was thinking.....wait, there is an interim OC and the QB coach is going to call the plays? What exactly is the interim OC going to do? Stand around and look pretty? lol

I am hoping that the QB coach knows Pickett and will start playing to his strengths and stop trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

 

All the time in the military. Not agreeing with a stupid decision made above your level does not mean you don't do it. You bite your tongue and implement the policy. On the public / down rank facing side, you don't voice your concerns or disagreement. You save that for private conversations with those above you. If that is what happened with Tomlin, he was absolutely correct to say what he said IMO.

 

I'm with you, I have not been on board with Pickett since they drafted him. I just don't want to see everybody say firing Canada was useless after 1 game.

 

Look at this post on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/v1DY1RwmwzfSjeyo/?mibextid=xfxF2i

 

One way they can make a big change in a very short time period is start to use the middle of the freakin field.

People have been posting the attempted pass locations since halfway through last season. It is left sideline to Diontae and Pickens goes down the right sideline, and all check downs should be to a stationary receiver behind the LOS ,no slants ,no crossing routes, no post go routes.

The Steelers offense under Canada has surrendered the middle of the field for the last 3 yrs .

Protecting a QB with supposedly safe plays is fine but constantly asking him to throw to the sideline is so predictable.

Other teams when using a rookie or a second string guy allow him to make short passes to a guy running in front of him.

The QB throws the ball 14 yds to gain 6 or 8 Canada was asking the QB to throw it 25 yrds to gain 4.

I thought the play that was the icing on the cake was Warren goes wide left and Pickett stares him down and throws the ball and when it arrives so do 4 DB's .

The announcers were kind in saying look at how the Browns DB's flow to the ball. DUH!

EVERYONE WATCHING THE GAME saw where the ball was going.

I want the opening play of the next game to be a quick slant for a TD.

 

I don’t buy that. Luring in this situation would undermine his respect amongst his players. In addition if they are trying to create a perception different than reality and he goes along with it ….. it really makes Tomlin look weak in the long run. Almost as if he is going along with a narrative that paints him in a more respected light while covering up the truth. Don’t you think that would create a very uncomfortable situation for everyone involved? I think the Steelers while guarded have always pretty truthful and above board.

 

If you don't want to tell everybody who made the call, say it was an organizational decision. That is exactly the sort of thing Tomlin would say. Sorry, I'm not buying that explanation for lying. It just wasn't worth it.

 

You know full well that is exactly what will happen

 

You’re wasting your energy. You’ve forgotten for some of these people the thought process is tomlin bad. There’s nothing more to it

 

Within a few games, I think we find out of things can work to continue to keep us in the wild card spot.

As well we will find out if Kenny has "it" or not by the end of the season. And if he doesn't, than we look at drafting another QB, FA, trade.

 

I do think it matters who made this decision. I am sure he had to get the ok from Rooney. I doubt Omar has anything to do with the coaches honestly. But if Tomlin initiated the firing it says a lot about the power they have given him. If it was a suggestion by Rooney and then Tomlin ultimately decided yes it’s time to Fire Canada it tells you a whole different story.

some people on here portray it like Tomlin yields very little power and the decision and recommendations are made by ownership on who Tomlins staff is. I understand when Tomlin originally was hired that was a case with Lebeau and other coaches. But those were successful tenured assistants.

I believe it is significantly different now. I believe Tomlin calls all the shots and Tooney just gives his final stamp of approval. In fact a perfect example that really covers a couple narratives is the Flores hiring last year.

That hiring was initiated by Tomlin. The process was well documented by Tomlin. Tomlin said it was his idea but he wanted to run it by Rooney to get his stamp of approval. It did not say it was Rooneys idea or Omar was involved or Rooney was too cheap to add a second coach to the linebacker room. In a lot of ways it was a charitable gesture to a fellow coach who was hurting that may be able to offer insight to an organization at a struggling position.

I just don’t see Rooney meddling much or being power hungry, with all of that being said either situation is concerning in that if Rooney were power hungry and hog tied Tomlin of any power associated with building his coaching room, I would find it incredibly dysfunctional for any coach to coach under those circumstances.

At this point in Tomlins career I just do not see him or any coach if that tenure agreeing to that set up. You have to allow a Head Coach to bring in his own guys and fire his own guys. If it’s your guys underneath him and they know that how would they ever respect him and how could you ever hold him accountable.

The second part which I find to be much more logical is allowing Tomlin the power to hire his own coaches and Rooney rubber stamps it. The concerning issue with this is the continued failure on Tomlins part to find competent Assistants and the unwillingness to change. They are repeated mistakes. That’s what needs to be evaluated and a long discussion between Rooney and Tomlin needs to happen. And at this point Tomlin may have actually lost the right moving forward to fully select his Assistants. If he can’t handle being stripped of that power then he may have to leave.

 

People said it was dumb Shanahan had no OC with the niners.

Anyhow, it is honestly not much different than having an assistant OC. There's teams who will have a HC, assistant HC, OC, assistant OC.

Lastly, we are not the first team to do this. Nor will we be the last. And what do you expect us to do? Go yank a potential one? Because then then we would be more inclined to riding them for 3 years or more.

 

We aren’t the Cowboys with a dysfunctional owner who micromanages. For the Steelers to handle it this way would be terrible. You are defacing and undermining the head coach if his authority in front of all of the other assistant coaches and the players. No way Tomlin accepts that. Not at this juncture in his careeer.

that is why the Cowboys can’t get good coaches because rb very one knows a good HC would never agree to relinquishing that power to ownership.

Think about it. You want me as the HC but I don’t have the final say in my OC or DC? So I don’t even have ultimate control if my own destiny as a coach?

Again there may have been a little of that when Tomlin was first hired. But Tomlin slowly gained more power through attrition. Good example if this is the way he handled Kieth Butler. By the end of Butlers career he was relegated to the MLB coach with the DC title in name only. He was a left over from the Cowher era. Tomlin didn’t fire him he just stepped over him. I think there was a sentimental aspect to it and Butler was well liked by the players. So they let him go out on his own terms.

if Rooney wields power to the extent it stifles Tomlin then I lost respect for both Rooney and Tomlin. It’s a dysfunctional way to fun an organization. You can never ever hold your HC accountable that way.

 

Not using the middle of the field is in Pickett.

 

And the more power they give him, the farther away they get from ever being a SB contender again

 

The Rooney's have rarely muddled directly with what are traditionally head coaching decisions.. The most recent example might have been bringing in Todd Haley as OC to implement a passing and protection scheme where Ben took less punishment.

I believe Tomlin came to the conclusion that Canada had to go. As it was, I think he was on a short leash when he moved to the sideline. Players aren't fools. Well, most of them aren't. Likely the reason some of them were emboldened to speak and/or act out. I'm sure they could decipher the tea leaves. The loss Sunday was the coffin nail. I think Tomlin had a meeting with ARII, Khan and Weidl out of respect and deference and they backed his move.

 

I agree and have been saying this for weeks. Teams seem to be stacking the box against us and sitting in Cover 1 a lot of the time. We should be sending 2 guys up the seam but we don't. There's mismatches there, but we don't take advantage of it at all.

On top of the personnel, I don't like the play calls. Like I said, send guys up the seam to beat Cover 1. We don't do that though. Pickens can go deep on the outside, but we don't really have that second guy to go deep on the other side. That isn't DJ's strength. But still, use Pickens and DJ to swallow up the corners on shorter or intermediate routes, and get two guys going deep up the seam. Even the best safeties in the league will struggle badly to cover that much open space. One or even both of those guys going up the seam are going to have a favorable matchup. This is where the coaching failed so badly.

I don't care how comfortable Pickett is throwing to the middle of the field. Canada and Tomlin needed to sit him down and tell him when they're in cover 1 and there's 2 guys going up the seam, those 2 are your first 2 reads. Pickett isn't good enough to get to his 3rd or 4th read anyway. But clearly the coaches didn't do that. An NFL QB can make those throws. Pickett can make those throws to the middle of the field. There was something happening in that locker room causing him not to even attempt those throws. If it wasn't Canada, it's Tomlin. We're about to find out.