My thoughts on reg season wk 8

Bags Popcorn Tomlin is already keying up some more excuses not to blame his Prehistoric defense. Throw some more dumb clichés in the mix and bang the outside media and Gummy Worm Art II will be gushing. Bags is a Guru not of defense but word salad and clichés.

 

Agree on all points.
1. The Refs.... wow. The non-call and the silly huddle they did... crazy. The Non-call PI on that stupid lame duck pass with the PI by the TE, putrid.
2. Teryl Austin. He is a problem. People point to Mike Tomlin as owning it and yet again that is part of the natural process, but Mike Tomlin has oversight of the team, it is Teryl Austin who is responsible for finding the weaknesses and creating packages to to take advantage of those. I don't think Austin has any idea of the flats or what they are as Love could throw freely to the flats all day.
3. Big time players make big time plays. There were none.
4. Our secondary is at the concession stand buying hot dogs.
5. There's a lot of money invested on that defense, Omar should be slapped with a protective order keep him away from the team.
6. WR - We still need at least 4 that fight for catches with Metcalf. We have Special teamers playing WR.
7. We are going to get a beating this coming weekend.
8. Lastly, what is it with TE's here?
9. Game plans - on both sides of the ball were bad. Offense wanted those quick flats to neutralize Parsons. On Defense, well, um, they did focus on getting #8 on the ground but forgot about everything else.

 

It's a poorly coached team. Has been for a long time. Starts at the top and he doesn't care. Won't change until the people running the show are replaced.

 

They definitely got a little pass happy, especially once the Packers took the lead. Losing Seumalo also hurt, not just by weakening the line, but also by making it more difficult to run that jumbo package with Anderson having to take over at left guard.

People need to stop with the nonsense about the Steelers' preparation last night. They were prepared. They had a 16-9 lead over a superior opponent, a game that turned on a couple of terrible no-calls. They simply don't have the personnel on defense. Heyward did very little. Hell, I don't remember any defensive linemen making a big play all night. Highsmith was completely invisible. Watt did very little. It's not about not moving around. He was the best defensive player in the league for a few years without moving around. He just isn't the same player. It is time to accept that the Steelers made a massive mistake in giving him that new contract. I tried to be hopeful about it at the time, but they clearly should have moved on.

The underrated problem in the secondary is the safeties. Elliott was the only decent one they had back there and he is likely done for the season. The defense fell apart without him against the Jets and Seahawks and it fell apart again when he left last night. Clark is awful. Thornhill isn't much better. He is the one who screwed up on the jump ball to Watson. He didn't get deep enough. Echols was supposed to have help and it wasn't there.

I hope the Steelers stand pat at the trade deadline. Hell, I'd rather see them move Watt or Highsmith if they can, but they won't. We can talk all we want about needs at receiver and quarterback long term, but the defense might need a rebuild. They need two safeties and at least one more impact defensive lineman before they can do what they want to do. It is time to stop expecting Watt to save them. He simply can't do it any more.

 

The officiating drives me nuts. I don't know if the Steelers still would have crumbled anyway, but not calling that push off by Kraft or the off-sides swing the game heavily in the Packers' favor.

 

Yeah, I should have been clearer. I agree, I don't know how much it would have changed the game.

 

Nice post.
People moan and groan with provocative justifications in hopes someone over in the Steelers Organization hears them.
They were prepared.
Might not have been the right preparations but they were prepared.

You hit on a good portion of the problem.
This roster just isn't built deep. We keep drafting blue collars and cannot uncover the elites. So, we are thin.
Weapons are supposed to scare the opposing team and if you have too many, they can't cover the possibilities.
And some of the missed finer points:
- What was the deal with covering the flats? Those routes were open all night.
- It was real obvious that Calvin Austin is not an elite player maybe nothing better than average.
- Our pass blocking isn't very good. *cough* Oline coach?

Watt was mostly invisible.
Is it coaching? Austin doesn't find ways to deploy his weapons..
Hightower is a complete waste.
Herbig has a ton of heart but can be shut down fairly easy.
If there is pressure, the QB makes mistakes and DB's become better.
The list goes on.

 

I know. but that duck should have been picked off anyway.

 

Not according to some Steelers fans Wilson is a bust .

 

The coaches need to tell Watt he's going to move around whether he likes it or not, he's the highest paid player on the team and in most games he's a nonfactor.

 

You cannot be a running offense, ball control, clock control offense with a leaky defense. Then you need aerial quick strike offense.
That's the main issue with the team and the Standard, and Tomlin, the winning philosophy does not match the reality.

 

As long as we put up 51 it's okay

 

Because when you have a series where you pass three straight plays and then punt, and you mix in some Gainwell and then they fell behind.

 

This coming from a guy who thought he should be paid more this season, when was the last time he made a big play.

 

Halftime adjustments: Theirs were great, our were terrible or non-existent.

Knocked back to reality. We are at most 1st round playoff fodder or worse. Looking more like a 9-8 team right now.