Throwing over the middle of the field

There may be some truth to this.

But it's also true that there was no way to coach the offense we had post Ben to be able to win in shoot outs with teams like KC or the Bills. We had little to no business being in the playoffs with any of the post-Ben teams. But the ultra-boring system we ran let other teams beat themselves and we squeaked our way in.

This was Tomlin doing the thing he was hired to do. Focus exclusively on the now. Don't worry about the medium term. Get to the playoffs. Or at least don't play meaningless regular season games.

We've been pretty "meh" for a pretty long time now. But at least seasons were still enjoyable. Imagine being a team in Ohio, where it's the norm to be out of the playoff hunt by the bye.

I'd rather we try to rebuild. But the guy that owns the team seems to hate the idea.

 

Also some truth in what you wrote. But while we may not be able to win in a shoot out with KC or Buffalo without a star QB, I think you owe it to the players to go into those games with something a little different than the regular season playing not-to-lose strategy. Without Ben, we haven't been able to put up more than 17 points in a wildcard playoff game. Wilson and Rodgers should be able to put up 21+ in the right offense.

And when you have the highest paid defense in the league and a head coach who is supposed to specialize in defense, you should be able to hold a wildcard playoff team to under 30 points in more than 1 of your past 6 appearances.

And finally, while Rooney might hate the idea of rebuilding, it's now happening regardless. This will be Rodgers last hurrah and we have a head coach who's capable of developing a young QB. We will soon be very much rebuilt since Ben left us.

 

I think you're right about Rodgers re: should have been able to score more points. And think we probably would have scored more if we didn't draw a team with an elite D. In 2025, Houston had the lowest yards allowed, 6th lowest passing yards allowed, 4th lowest rushing yards allowed, 2nd lowest ppg. If he was in his prime, this is a different game IMO. But that's years in the rear view for Rodgers.

I think you're wrong about expecting more from Wilson. Wilson played his best post-Seahawks football when he was with the Steelers. Which was OK, but not great. Really only good at one thing (moon ball). But could also complete the dink and dunk stuff. I think he went down hill pretty hard with us after the fumble in Baltimore. Would have liked to have seen Fields at the end of the regular season into the playoffs because he at least had a thing that would make defenses worry. Had 3 starts after he left the Steelers...all losses. Then got benched. Then retired. Basically: Payton thought he was trash and got rid of him. Thought he was so bad that he was hoping to play against him. Tomlin was thankful to get him after Mitch/Kenny/Mason and got him to play OK, then Daboll benched him after less than a month.

I agree that the D hasn't played up to expectations in the playoffs recently, but I think using points isn't a great way to show it (but it's the thing the talking heads talk about because they only look at the top line). It's important to remember that our offense has scored a lot of points for the other team in recent playoff games: e.g. the D only gave up 16 points against HOU. The offense also couldn't stay on the field in several of these games (either can't get first downs or have large number of turnovers...probably both in some cases).

Aside from the HOU game (where the D played well enough to win...giving up 16 points and generating 2 turnovers), these were total team losses IMO. With the O scoring for the wrong team several times.