Tomlin/Colbert

I'd bet the Bills would ditch the Rex Ryan clown car for Tomlin

 

Never said they were yours, just my opinion. But I stand by it. He's had his chance to make his mark on this team, and his mark lately has been mediocrity.

 

uh...yea you mean like the Patriots, Packers, Cardinals etc... I'm sure no one would ever want to be an OC for those teams. (eyes rolling) Cowher was heavily involved in every playcall offense and defense... he might not have called the game but he veto'ed plays when he thought they were wrong... Bellicheat does the same thing. If they don't like the way the game is being conducted they force change.

 

The talent on defense is adequate at times when they can create turnovers or get a pass rush, when they don't they can't stop anybody.

 

Belichek isn't involved in the playcalling, like I said HC get involved in certain situations. The Packers and Cardinals the HC calls the plays for their teams the OC doesn't.

 

Steelers would have let Revis go after his rookie contract. Wouldn't have been a good pick. Timmons has been a Steelers while Revis played for 4 teams.

 

Arians calls the Cardinals plays, but Tom Clements calls plays for the Packers and Josh McDaniels calls plays for the Patriots. McCarthy handed off play calling duties last year.

 

Some people really need to stop drinking so much. It's really impairing people's judgement. Look at all the retread HC's that get jobs. Tomlin would be rehired because of the success he's helped the Steelers achieve.

Fans have been tricked with the media Jedi mind trick that it's only about the playoffs and winning SB's. That's simply not true. Even when the Steelers had down years they remained fairly competitive with opportunities to make the playoffs. From a business stand point organizations would rather have competitive teams while chasing the playoffs and SB. Very few teams make the playoffs every year. Especially in a league full of parity where division winners seem to change every year.

One reason why other coaches get the ax is that their teams fall off so quickly. Tomlin has helped the Steelers maintain a competitive edge. Football is one sport where stability and continuity really matters. The people that run the Steelers understand even when the fans don't.

 

Between all the in-game boneheaded decisions, lack of adequate pregame game-planning, lack of halftime adjustments, our terrible play on the road for the last 4-5 seasons... It all leads me to believe Tomlin is just not a very good coach. He's head coach of a solid franchise that has generally remained competitive for the past 40+ years. Without Ben, this team wouldn't have remained all that competitive over the past five seasons, and Tomlin probably would have been fired by now. Once the Super Bowl winning defensive core started aging/retiring, we've been largely mediocre ever since. Do you honestly think he'd be capable of leading a franchise out of a rut, and into a winner, like a few coaches have done in recent years? Because I don't. Too many dumb decisions.. Too many horrible losses to huge underdogs.. Lack of consistency.. How many times now have we seen games like the Ravens game over the years? Where the players come out, playing as if they're hungover, and a gameplan that looks like it was drawn up on Saturday night? It's all too predictable and reeks of weak coaching. The personnel has changed throughout the years, yet these dumbfounding losses continue to happen.

 

They traded up to get Troy. They should have traded up to get Marcus Peters. 8 picks and will win the Defensive Rookie of the year. He was my hope for the 1st. But, yet another OLB. But my fear if they did draft him he would have sat the bench while a top notch corner like Blake would start so he could learn the defense

 

So what we'd fire Tomlin for is basically failing to maintain an all-world, once-in-a-generation defense. But who could replace a core group of players arguably in the consideration for best at their position all-time? Aaron Smith, Casey Hampton, James Harrison, Troy Polamalu, James Farrior, all guys considered to be among the best all time for a 3-4 defense. Supplemented with solid role players like Ike Taylor, Ryan Clark, Brett Keisel, Lawrence Timmons, and Lamaar Woodely, among others. A haul like that happens like once every 30 years.

The other gripes I've heard are legit, but not enough to fire a guy. All coaches make in-game blunders. Even the greatest ever* Beliechick. We harp on Tomlin for it because we see every game and we've been losing a lot more than we're used to recently (reference the defense falling off). The "Tomlin cost us games" argument is based on a woulda/shoulda/coulda foundation. Not good enough to fire a guy. We'll never know if attempting a field goal early against the Ravens would win us that game. Same with all the other situations. No way of telling. It's all just an emotional argument.

However, there is one fireable offense that sticks out like a sore thumb: our record against crappy teams. If it was Tomlin's fault he'd have been fired two seasons ago. But it's not his fault. It's Ben's. The constant from those disappointing losses is that Ben plays like crap. Tomlin's the head coach and needs to prevent that. Ok. What's the proposed fix? Benching a healthy Ben? No way. We live and die by Ben's performance. It's his team now, and he has to carry it now that the defense can't. It's no coincidence that Belichick has been the most consistently successful coach the past decade: he's had the most consistently successful QB guiding his team. 65+% completion rate, 300 yards, and 0-1 INT's week after week, every game, is what wins games. 500 yards and 6 TD's for two weeks, followed by two weeks of 200 yds, 3 INT's, and 50% completion doesn't. Ben has to find whatever problem he has in those games and fix it. That isn't Tomlin's area.

I'm not meaning to bash Ben, he's one of the best QB's out there and I love our chances with him. But he's already cost us BA, and while it's debatable if he was a good OC, there's no debate that he's a good coach. Let's not have Ben cost us Tomlin, too.

 

Yeah, he probably would have rode the pines! Not sure that Peters was a guy you'd want to trade up for with his red flags he had. He's definitely worked out thus far, and should be a lock for DROY.

 

You are spot on!

 

Tell that to Denvers former head coach John Fox, who made the playoffs and 1 superbowl 4 years in a row and was fired, somehow I dont think he would agree with you....

 

I don't think most fans know remotely enough to pass judgement on things like game plans, half time adjustments, etc

our record without Ben says otherwise... we beat Arizona with Landry Jones, We beat San Diego with Vick. In fact, we've gone 9-6 in the Tomlin era without Ben.

We average 9.6 wins per year over the last 5 years...

Capable? It's literally what he did since the playoff loss in Denver. Rebuilt the team around Ben, built a top tier offense. He and Colbert deserve criticism for the current state of the defense. But their focus on the offense first, given the state of the NFL, was more than justified.

This narrative makes me believe no one watches the NFL. They just watch the Steelers. Or they think the Pats/Bellicheat are the only baseline for compare. Seattle lost to St Louis... TWICE. Does that make Pete Carroll a bad coach? Green Bay lost to Detroit and Chicago (and probably should've lost to Detroit TWICE - Hail Mary), is Mike McCarthy a bad coach?

I hate lazy all encompassing narratives (losing to bad teams). I believe each game is a story, and understanding what went wrong, didn't work... and more importantly what on field weaknesses need to be addressed is far more useful that trying to understand the complexity of the game of football through fan summaries

I'm more than happy to criticize Tomlin. The failure to develop edge rushers is at the top of the list. Previously, I was more critical of coverage schemes, but we've seen the beginning of change this year. The failure to invest in talent in the secondary is disconcerting, and the weakness there is exasperated by the lack of pass rush.

 

I see Tomlin as an emotional guy who's almost what I would describe as a fan/coach. He loves to cheerlead, thump his chest, make memorable comments like "don't blink or I'll cut your eyelids off!" and those sorts of things. I don't know for sure, but my impression is that he's as uninvolved in the actual gameplanning and technical coaching (scheming) as any coach in the league. Maybe I'm wrong but he seems to just allow the coordinators to do their thing without offering a lot of input. I'm sure the coordinators appreciate that, but there are times the Head Coach needs to step in.

 

I hope our coach Miek Milton gets this team ready for the playoffs

 

And he took them back this year. Point is all of those coaches take part in the plays that are called. They might not call every play but they definitely give input into what's being called.

 

yes, you're right, he did 14 weeks into the season.

In comparison, Tomlin seems to me, to let his coordinators do their thing. I'm sure he gives the decisions on 4th down attempts, 2 pointers, but seems to take a back seat on the every down playcalling. I'm sure all 3 (HC, OC, DC) are helping with the game plan beforehand. Really though, he probably only had 1 year of playcalling as the Vikes DC. Every HC does it their own way I guess.

 

I think it's funny when fans assume stuff like this, or speculate about it.

Here's a fact. You have no idea, zero, zilch. You have no insight into how much or how little Tomlin is involved in playcalling. Which makes it curious as to why anyone would even both speculating about it.

 

Well unless Tomlin is telepathically calling the plays on the sideline...he's not involved in the playcalls. He doesn't speak. The sideline camera captures him speechless most of the game. While the coordinators are clearly talking into their headsets. I guess that might be a clue?

 

come on, seriously? Maybe he's giving direction when the camera is... you know... on the field/game/players/commercials/etc

the point is... we shouldn't waste time speculating about things we cant possibly know. all it does is present our own bias

 

Its a message board, people discuss things. Get off your high horse, its a long fall.