The lethal combination of Tomlin and Rooney

Yes he did. Where did you get that crap

 

I would have like to have taken part of the swim team. I also wanted to do gymnastics, but there was only so much time in a day, and the year.
Hell I played what I could just to get off the farm at that time of my life

 

I lived in the north side of Pittsburgh and it was sort of like cross country

If you were in the wrong area and there were six of them and one of you then you ran

 

You were a busy dude! I can't believe the football coach let you change uniforms and go out with the band at halftime!

OOPS ETA: busy dude not bust dude.

 

In 2004 and 2005, when Ben was the starter, the Steelers were rarely behind in the second half.

It was all about taking the lead early and protecting the lead late by playing Cowherball. You can't ignore the fact that the Steelers were the best first-quarter scoring team in the league both years and one of the best for first-half scoring. I don't care if you don't think Cowher was aggressive in the first half, because who cares, the results speak for themselves regardless. They also weren't built to come from behind, which is why having an early lead was very important in that style.The low pass attempts mean that the Steelers were often ahead in the second half, rarely playing catch-up. They were only behind for about 8-9 minutes at home combined in 2004!

 

Do you have passing breakdowns by quarter?

I was looking for them, but seems like they are behind paywalls like stat head.

You don't think that part of the reason we had the lowest attempts in the league was that Ben had a very high INT%? And that Cowher tried his best to manage Ben's attempts?

That seems pretty self-evident to me.

 

I don't have the passing breakdowns unfortunately... But I remember they were run heavy in the second half when they had the lead.

Of course, in some games, like our loss against the Colts and Bengals in the regular season in 2005, they were playing catch-up in the second half, so the context matters too....They were running 61% of the time in 2004,a big part was because they had the lead much of the time.Biggest deficit in the second half in 2004 was only 4 points vs Giants if I exclude the game vs Baltimore.They were also behind 16-14 late in Jacksonville and 3 points vs bengals early in the year,so it was only like 3 games with Ben as starter they were behind at some point in the second half

 

Here are the 2004 rushing stats:

• Attempts: 618 (1st...84 more attempts than Denver in 2nd)
• Yards: 2464 (2nd...actually a little dissapointing here since we ran so much more than everyone else...almost 100 more attempts than ATL who's in 1st here)
• YPC: 4.0 (19th)...probably because everyone knew we were running...which is again why the Denver playoff game caught them by surprise
• TDs: 16 (26th)...again, surprising and disappointing because of how much we ran. Probably because we had a QB who could throw TDs...remember that this discussion started when I said that Tomlin was using Kenny similar to how Cowher used Ben early. This is probably the big difference. Ben threw TDs. Kenny is probably the worst QB since at least UFA/cap re: TD passing.

I think what the data is telling is is that we were conservative AND very good at running the ball. I didn't look up the defensive stats, but my guess is that they are going to tell us that the D was also good at getting opponents off the field quickly...and maybe also turning it over?

 

Thanks 43

It would be good to see those splits. I'll see if I can find them.

 

@NorthernBlitz

I have the split in 2004

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/pit/2004_splits.htm

It was 139 run,96 pass attempts in first quarter(10.2 yards per pass attempts too!)...in the fourth quarter,it was 199 run vs 73 pass attempts and I am sure many of those pass attempts was in the game in Baltimore!

If you want to look at 2005

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/pit/2005_splits.htm

 

That's great 43!

So conservative early. And even more conservative late (probably score effects like you say).

I guess that's how you end up with almost 100 more rushing attempts than everyone else in the league...

And I be their points / drive was quite high because we were good at running and had a budding star at QB.

Again...I think we were trying the same thing when Kenny was a rookie. But (1) the OL was much worse, (2) the RB wasn't as good, and (3) the QB wasn't anywhere near as good (since Ben has to be in the conversation for best rookie QB ever...and Kenny is in the conversation for worst QB since UFA/cap - at least re: scoring points).

 

To be fair, he didn't say "played football". He said "played sports".

I took that to mean that people who play sports understand that the outcomes are based on some combination of skill and chance. And that the results of the game are more a result of the players on the field and not the coach on the sidelines....which is why I liked the comment.

But (like everyone), I'm probably reading my own biases into the statement.