My crude rating system for Tomlin/Cowher in the playoffs....

Oh the little details that we forget. People generally only remember the team loss. We often forget why the team loss.

It's generally a gross exaggeration to simply suggest that those players beat the Steelers. People forget that the Steelers turned the ball over, that the other team ran the ball well, or something else.

In any event, I don't like to harbor on the losses. It's not good for one's mind. After all there is a balance of positive and negative with any coach or players.

No players turn the ball over. Players know what turnovers mean to the team. Coaches and playera talk about the impact of turnovers all the time.

The organization held Brown accountable. Tomlin and the organization did whay they could to have a good working relationship with Brown for many years. How about you blame Brown for his actions at the end? Especially after everything that happened even after he left the Steelers. A few bad apples shouldn't be the measure of the standard of accoutability for the organization

It's not about fear. Again, it's about having a good working relationship and respect. What Tomlin did is have a sit down with players and fine them.

The Steelers could only play who was in front of them. It's really ashame that people have these kinds of thoughts regarding the organization and Tomlin.

Yeah when Ben played well and didn't turn the ball over the team had better odds to win. When Ben didnt play well and turned the ball over the odds of the team winning decreased significantly.

It's ok. You can forget all the good Tomlin helped the organization achieve and dwell in the negatives. That seems to be your focus. It still won't change the fact that Tomlin is a good coach.

 

Using basically the same players. Noll won his SBs the same way.

 

This goes back to the conversation we were having about punters. The QB isn’t going to not throw an interception because the HC has told them it’s bad. Interceptions happen for a number of reasons, and almost none of them are coaches assertiveness.

Jax managed to confuse and pressure Ben a lot. If we’re putting it on the coaches, it’s about line coaches, OCs and ultimately HC not creating the right match ups against the Jax defensive scheme.

All that said - I like your OP and the use of chess-style scoring, really interesting take compared to stats-based ones.

 

How about making the playoffs & winning %? Aren't they about equal? Yes Ben is carrying Tomlin but the Bus carried Cowher. I do think that Cowher knew more about football talent & X's & O's than Popcorn does.

 

Cowher infuriated me as much as Tomlin in the playoffs. The games at home against the Chargers and Broncos still irk me.

 

That Chargers loss will give me heartburn til the day I die. Stan Freaking Humphries.

 

And the Steelers worst playoff loss ever was losing to San Diego in the AFCCG at home, I guess Cowher wasn't prepared for Stan Humphries .

 

OP has too much time on his hands, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

I gave Cowher a -10 for that game and the Patriots game at home, so I'm not being biased. But the run in 2005 completely makes up for that, wouldn't you agree? That's historical stuff. And I didn't even give Cowher all 10s for that. Show me a Tomlin run that is historical?

 

Actually, I'm not immortal so I don't have enough time on my hands. Lol. Well, I wanted to try to show why I'm not in the boat that Tomlin is a good coach. I just wanted to put some actual backing to it. Thanks for reading/skimming the post though.

 

Thanks Thigpen. Chess is very fair with how they do scoring. You don't get killed for losing to superior competition. Lol So everyone is superior to me, so I'm still ok with my rating. Anyway, I didn't kill Tomlin for losing to the Jags the 1st time if you'll notice.

 

Thanks Lew....I just wanted to analyze the playoffs which is all that matters at the end of the day. Not 8-8 seasons. Lol

 

In the end they both are 1-1 in Super Bowls. I think you comparison is fair though. Keep in mind that Cowher only had to deal with TB12 video boys for 5 years. It would be interesting to use your comparison tool between Tomlin and him contemporaries. How successful has he been in the league in comparison to other coaches during this timeframe. He is not Cowher, but Cowher was no Noll. So is it the man or are the times constantly changing. Additionally, the GM has a major impact on team and playoff results. Good post though.

 

I don't hate Tomlin, so I do appreciate that their was some Super Bowl appearances under Tomlin. But don't you feel like that seems like an outlier now? It's been 9 years and we haven't sniffed a super bowl. I started out loving Tomlin and the energy and the cheerleading. Until, the energy and cheerleading and coachspeak ended up making no difference in the player's efforts. I mean, I remember Tomlin saying something like the team was going to 'unleash hell' and they promptly lost to the Raiders. Can't remember when, but pick any Raiders game almost. Lol How many post game conferences start out...."we weren't ready for xyz...." or "we came out flat....", "we understand our circumstances and embrace the challenge..." and then still lose the next important game.

Again, I don't hate Tomlin, but the last 9 years tells me he's more in the class of Jason Garrett-type. Too friendly and not getting the most out of his talent. This year, I did say Tomlin did a great job to get to 8-5, but losing 3 winnable games in a row? Come on man. Ran out of gas? What else are you playing for this time of year? You go to work after the holiday and say you're out of gas and can't perform for a couple weeks? What do you think your boss says? That's a crock. If your players aren't excited about being 8-5 and now is the time to push for something special, then you're an average/ok coach. I'm not focusing on the negatives, these are just facts. I didn't even care to watch the Ravens game (although I did) because if you can't beat the bills at home and jets on the road, you're not going to beat the Ravens. I'm just saying it's becoming very predictable that the Steelers are not going to win clutch/crucial/important games at this point. Can it change? Sure. But the last 9 years have solidified my opinion about Tomlin. That's not my fault. Tomlin can't win an important/clutch/crucial game. You tell me one.

 

Your last paragraph is very revealing. Not much has changed over the past 28 years.

 

Thanks bud. I'll try to do some other coaches. I guess I've seen most playoff games over the past 40+ years, but that started when I was 5. I'll try John Harbaugh and Marvin Lewis next. Although, spoiler, Marvin Lewis is a high negative. Lol But again, everyone can do this obviously and fill in their positives and negatives. It's all subjective and I think I actually was harder on Cowher to be honest.

 

Something to consider is the era in which all of them coached. You can’t really compare coaches from the 70’s to the 90’s or the 10’s. Things change in ways that we don’t see. Rules, replay, technology all add layers to the coaching cake. The GM is as important to a team as the coach. Noll never worried about losing 5 starters the following year to free agency. Cowher never had to deal with social media stupidity. So many things can change a coaches success such as what the other teams in the division are doing. You think Noll ever had to watch Cleveland have 28 first round picks and an unlimited cap? Someone having video of your defensive calls that could be related directly to players on the field in real time? Coaches like Landry, Shula and Grant would struggle to say the least. The game has changed so much that generational comparisons are very difficult.

 

No you just wanted to cherry pick to fit your narrative, so Cowher going 1-4 in the AFCCG at home and you give him a +21 rating .

 

Harrison was a UDFA stop acting like Cowher found him on his own, why didn't he win more than 1 Super Bowl with his hand picked players?

 

The 2008 Steelers>The 2005 Steelers

 

What you don't seem to appreciate is how difficult is to win consistently and make the playoffs. The Steelers made the playoffs consistently with Tomlin as HC. Making the playoffs is sniffing a chance at the Superbowl. Not to worry, you might have the opportunity to have a great appreciation for what it's like to be a fan of consistent loser. The Steelers appear to have an uncertain future ahead of them for 2 or 3 seasons at the very least. Simply because there is uncertainty around the most important position in football. The GMs future is also up in the air.

Cheerleading and coach speak never make a difference in the effort of the players. Shame on you for being fooled by coached speak and cheer leading. You still talking about "unleash hell" after 10 years? Let it go. Talk is cheap in any sport. You should had realized that talk is cheap long before Tomlin stated unleash hell.

I don't watch press conferences. They are just for the media. Coaches rarely give their true opinions or say anything meaningful. Why do you watch and hang on Tomlin's every word when you apparently don't like him?

Tomlin's been a better coach than Garrett. Only one coach was clearly better than Tomlin. The cheating coach up in NE is the only coach that's been clearly better than every one. Now if you want to say Tomlin is in a similar class as Harbaugh, Carroll or Payton then I would agree with you. Garrett? Come on man.

Every game is losable when a team doesn't have adequate QB play. Just like every game is winable with adequate QB play. That's just what QB play means to NFL teams. It's why they are the highest paid position on the field.
You didn't watch the Ravens game? What kind of fan are you? Every game in the NFL is critical, clutch, and crucial.

 

I agree. The league was a different league when Cowher coached. The Steelers were one of the few teams that ran the 3-4 defense. So they were able to stock pile hybrid LB's/DE and also draft those types of players in later rounds. Teams wouldn't consider drafting those players in the past. They will draft those players now.

 

It's been almost 25 years since that debacle.

 

Well you have 8 months to read it as the long wait begins.

 

Probably my most painful loss as a Steeler fan. Only saving factor was I told myself the Niners would have smoked us anyway.

I'm a big PGA fan and I always remember Phil Michelson giving a shout out to his Chargers.