Post SEASON complaint thread

Usually at the end of the season, the S&C coach will give individual instructions to each player. These instructions and training should be for each type of body and for the position the play.

Then it's up to the player if he follows the instructions thru out the off season or he could his own thing (like Troy and Ike does). The main thing is if you are making that kind of money, you are foolish not to do what works to get you in the best condition and strength as possible.

You need both good training instructions from the S & C, that follows up, and players that are willing to work hard and not be lazy. Sometimes I think to make sure the players work hard, is have some of their pay incentives based on this, but not sure what the union would say. You would think if your making millions, S & C should not be an issue!

 

one letter sums up our s&^t season.. the O... the end... when you cant score more then 10 points you arnt gonan win many games in this league

HINES

 

Honestly I'm disappointed but not surprised at where they are at. I really wanted at the beginning of the year to believe they could be 12-4 but with a new offensive coordinator and all the BS that came with it in the offseason, I kinda of thought there would be some serious growing pains this year. Some part of the team in almost every game this year just wasn't on the same page. Whether it was penalties, fumbles, costly INT, lack of turnovers on D, etc.. I mean was their any game this year where you were confident that they would win while watching it? Even today's game I wasn't sure they were going to win until the middle of the 4th quarter and that was against a QB I think that has never started before. The only game I can think of is the Jet's game all the way back in week 2 and they are the 2nd or 3rd worst team in the league.

Wished they would be 12-4, thought they would be at least 10-6 and they ended up 8-8 and out of the playoffs. I have had Directv Sunday ticket since 1999 and have only missed a handful of games in that whole time. My family and I make a huge effort to watch every game and even try to go to a game once a year. So when they miss the playoffs it is very frustrating and it feels like I wasted a lot of my time watching them and cheering them on.

You've got to be in it to win it. Anyway I'm sure I'll get over it the next few days and I'll be right there rooting for them next year!

 

Discipline was our biggest downfall, but turnovers were a close second.... Descision making by the coaches, and while i'm on the coaches, i have to say i'm dissapointed in todd haley...... yes, the offense was clicking before ben went down, but when haley was hired, he came with a reputation of designing his offenses based on the talent on hand and i just didn't see it.... maybe i'm just spoiled and my expectations are too high, but i was looking for alot more excitement and unpredictability from the offense, not the ultra conservative high school offense that was displayed every week.

 

The main thing I hope to ultimately see from Haley is that he will simply gameplan around the opponents weakness and play better situational football. BA didn't do that. It was bombs away all the time. I do not miss BA one single solitary iota.

 

Aye, didn't think you were Jimmy. You make an excellent point here that we should all remember.

I think the Bengals are actually the best team in the AFC North at the moment. Next season, the Browns could well surprise us. In general, though, both us and the Ravens are facing transition points. This is why we need a definite sense of energy in the off-season to keep us focused on what's going on in the division.

 

You can say that, but those are the things bad teams do. Stupid penalties, fumbles, interceptions, missed tackles are all hallmarks of a bad team and that is what the 2012 Steelers were.

 

Long post, here, so bear with me. I need to vent.

Most everyone else has hit it on the head. I agree with a lot of what's in this thread. I'll just go over my 10 talking points:

1. Injuries. Some of this was bad luck, but it also seems (especially on the o-line) that training, fitness, and technique have contributed to the problem. We've seen this over and over the past few years. No team has this many injuries, particularly on the line, to just chalk up to bad luck. (see #7)

2. Turnovers. The team gave it away in key situations and rarely took it away in key situations.

3. Bonehead mistakes. Along with the turnovers, there were mental errors and bad penalties all season long. False start penalties were one thing, the defense consistently jumping offsides was another (Keisel vs Oakland? Two offsides penalties in a row vs San Diego??????).

4. No discipline. Not sure this is a separate category from #2 and #3, but I'll add it because on top of the on-the-field issues were the off-the-field ones, where Mendenhall, Ben, and Troy (and others I'm probably forgetting) couldn't keep their damn mouths shut.

5. The running back carousel. I don't think there's anything wrong with a RB by committee approach--it worked well for the Giants at one time. But it wasn't working with this group.

6. Mike Wallace's holdout. This guy is one of the biggest idiots to ever grace a Steeler uniform. The sooner he's gone, the better.

7. I've reserved this number for Ben. Only one explanation for him looking lights-out before the injury and looking dismal afterward: he wasn't right after the busted shoulder. It would not surprise me one bit if he needs offseason surgery to clean something out.

8. Lack of preparation. No excuse for coming out flat against KC and losing games to Oakland and Tennessee and San Diego. The San Diego loss was probably the worst of all.

9. The defense lost its mojo. Number one defense, blah blah blah blah. It was a good bend not break D, but the inability to make splash plays didn't help matters. Perfect example: going against a Charger team with a patch-work oline and a quitter's mentality, the D couldn't get pressure on Rivers. It would seem that every OC in the NFL knows how to adjust to LeBeau's schemes and blitzes. He isn't fooling anyone anymore.

10. Lack of leadership. Someone posted a link to an article about Troy and his sense that the team didn't have any leaders. It's hard to believe that between Ben, Heath, Troy, or Woodley, there was no leadership.

These ten things doomed the season, but the way we are talking, you'd think the team went 4-12. Instead, they didn't even have a losing season, despite these issues. The team had huge wins against Cincy, the skins, the G-men, and Baltimore. This was a talented team, so...

IMHO, the responsibility for most of these ten things falls on the head coach. I would be interested to know if Tomlin plans to change something in his approach, starting with mini-camp and then in Latrobe. He has lost this team. And I am not sure he ever had it. He started out with Cowher's players and Cowher's coaches, and he basically took a "hand-off" approach. But something's not right. The offense looks like dog doo, whether Arians or Haley is the OC. Haley worked wonders in KC and so did Arians this year in Indy. Both had less talent there and managed to make the playoffs. But in Pittsburgh, with a top-notch QB, the offense stinks. What gives?

It's now time for Tomlin to start asserting himself, and I don't know if he can. I AM WORRIED about the future of this organization/team with Tomlin as the HC. Don't misinterpret that as meaning I want him to be canned. Because if Tomlin is what the Rooneys thought he was, he'll adjust. He obviously has to change something. He'd better prove he can do it.

 

We definitely need to learn to score more points. We are well behind the playoff teams in this category. We should average in the high 20's points per game rather than 20 points per game.

You can't rely on defenses to hold teams to less than 20 every game under the current rules.

 

Agree, agree, agree.

You know what's bad? I'm almost at a loss here because I can't be disappointed as much when my expectations were held so low all season long after the first few games. Sad but true.

 

The offense cannot execute and the O-Line situation is crazy.

Special Teams blocking is sub-par.

No player leadership is apparent. Whoever's trying to do it, for the offense, is not effective.

LeBeau's house is in order, though.

 

Special Teams HOLDING however is WELL above par!

 

8-8

 

Defense lost us the games at Tenn and Oak. Offense lost us the games against Clev, Cincy and Balt (special teams also against Balt). It was a total team loss against San Diego.
I'll take the losses at Dallas and Denver. This team could have easily been 14-2, but I would have settled for 12-4. 8-8 doesn't cut it with this kind of talent. I don't use injuries as an excuse.

 

T.E. you just know I have to bust on you for this one.
[video=youtube;q1HJS0w2rPI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1HJS0w2rPI[/video]

Simply ravishing! LOL

I know you meant ravaged but it looks hilarious.

 

It seem like every team in our division was make progress every year as we were standing put. Either through free agency or the draft, it just seem they were making better decisions in improving their roster.

 

Rick Rude is dead now. He was a GREAT villain. The Rude Awakening was the best neck breaker of all time. My favorite Rick Rude moment was in Savannah Georgia at a Clash of the Champions in 1991 when Sting got attacked by Lex Luger who messed up his knee and Sting had to be taken to the hospital. Then Paul E. Dangerously who was Rudes manager at the time in the Dangerous Alliance came out and showed a stipulation in the contract that said Sting had to be at the ring by a certain time or he would forfeit the belt. So then Sting leaves the hospital AGAINST doctor's orders of course and has an ambulance rush him to the arena and he shows up JUST in time and rushes to the ring while Rude was making fun of him and Sting put up a valiant effort but lost in the end. Then Rude acted like he was the greatest of all time and all the while I am screaming at the tv calling him a cheater and telling him he could NEVER REALLY beat Sting! He was an AWESOME villain! Wrestling used to rule so much!

 

Well, the #1 obvious one would be the injuries. If we didn't have that many injuries, we would have easily won a few other games and been playoff bound. Heck, I STILL think we are better than the Ravens.
That's not the real problem though...

The REAL UNDERLYING problem was that we had no balls and no brains.

Balls: Where was the Steeler attitude? Where were our "leaders" on the team? Who was there to knock the crap out of the other team? Too frequently we had poor tackling, poor effort, no sense of urgency, etc. Face it... most (not all) of our team was pretty soft from start to finish. I would include the coaching staff here too. Perhaps those new CBA rules about less hitting in practice took the edge off of our team?

Brains: How many stupid mistakes, penalties, "lost focus," not properly protecting the ball, etc. did we have this year? Coaching staff had far more than their fair share of brain-farts this year as well.

Put it together and this team didn't really look like the Steelers I have been watching for the past 20+ years (I'm skipping most of the 80s). Even when our offense sucked in the 90s, they were going to knock the shot out of you and run it down your throat and the defense would usually hold them to 10 or less points.

 

Jim Duggan was named "Hacksaw Jim Duggan" and he was AWESOME! HOOOOOOOOOOOOO!