Tomlin Blows It Again

The black and gold fell to 6-5 on Sunday evening and the blame has to fall squarely on the shoulders of their inept head coach, Mike Tomlin.  Sure, the defense was a major problem in the loss, getting torched once again through the air and proving anyone who believes they have the ability to stop opposing offenses completely wrong. But I’ve preached about their inabilities for weeks now.

This time, the bulls eye is squarely on Tomlin. After being the league for nine seasons now, one would think the head coach would have improved his decision making, yet he continues to blow decision after decision and now he’s truly costing the team games. 

First off, with the team up 3-0 and actually in control of the game early in the 2^nd quarter, they were on the cusp of kicking a very makeable field goal and taking a 6-0 lead. Instead, Tomlin allows for a fake field goal in which the whole stadium saw it coming. With Landry Jones moving into the game as the holder, a position he never plays, the Steelers elected to throw a pass to offensive lineman Alejandro Villanueva, which was promptly picked off and brought back down the field deep into Steeler territory. A half dozen plays later, Seattle was up 7-3. This allowed the crowd to go from lazy to raucous. Kicking was the right decision, it wasn’t made.  At the very least, if the team was going to go for it on 4^th and 2, just line up and go for it instead of calling one of the dumbest plays in the history of the sport. Yeah, it was that stupid. Who calls a fake field goal which involves a pass to a lineman? Tomlin does.

Secondly, Tomlin actually succeeded when making a boneheaded decision. When the black and gold scored a touchdown to go up 16-14 in the 2^nd, he decided to go for 2, rather than kick and take the field goal lead. The decision paid off in the short term as they converted but it was the wrong call, again.

Most egregiously, with the team down 32-27 with slightly under 3 minutes to go in the game, having the ball on the Seattle four, with 4^th and goal to go, Tomlin decided to kick the field goal to go down by 2 instead of going for the touchdown.  He trusted his defense to get the ball back and then hoped to kick another field goal afterwards to win the game. Yeah, the same defense who couldn’t stop your grandmother from throwing the ball on them.  Well, the defense didn’t get the ball back; Seattle scored a quick touchdown and put the game out of reach.  Why, oh why, would he not go for the TD there? If he trusted the defense that much to get the ball back after the field goal, essentially knowing Seattle was going to start on their own 20 after the kickoff, if not a better spot on the field, then why wouldn’t the same logic prevail when going for the 4^th and goal?  If the team went for it and didn’t get it, wouldn’t Tomlin trust that same defense to get the ball back with Seattle pinned inside their own five yard line?!  His decisions and rationale are poor and certainly lack consistency. If he trusts the team to go for two so often, why not trust them in that spot. The offense is elite, the defense is inept, yet Tomlin didn’t trust the offense and trusted the defense!  It’s pure lunacy and lacks any kind of intelligence at all. It’s in fact quite infuriating.

Tomlin is not a good coach, in fact, he never has been. His teams have won in spite of him. He can’t manage the clock and he certainly can’t make a decision that will impact the team positively. He needs a time/decision making assistant because he flat out lacks the football intelligence to do it on his own.

At 6-5, the Steelers now find themselves in 8^th place in the AFC and needing to have other teams in front of them lose while simultaneously winning, in order to slip in as a wild card. With coach Tomlin leading the way, it’s hard to think he won’t blow another one of these final five games and keep his team out of the playoffs. He preaches over and over that ‘we won’t live in our fears’. Well Coach, you might not, but the rest of us will, we’ll live in constant fear of you botching several more games down the stretch.

Why Do You Think This Defense Is Good?

The Steelers have an amazing offense, this is a fact that is inarguable.  Their quarterback is elite, he can even come off the bench, hurt, and torch the opposition for 350 yards. They have two, yes two, elite wide receivers with Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant.  LeVeon Bell may be out by DeAngelo Williams can carry the running attack admirably. The offense, well, I see no issues here.

However, their defense, that’s another story. I’ve read and heard many pundits and wannabee pundits speak of the defense playing well too.  And when I see that, I have to ask, what are you smoking? Seriously, is it some powerful stuff because it’s clearly made you delusional. On what planet is this defense good and on what measure are you defining ‘good’? 

Sure, they’ve come up with a few turnovers the last couple of weeks and yes, I understand that in the points per game category they actually rank 5^th in the NFL right now, allowing 19.1 PPG but I’ll still say this, they are not good and in fact, they are far from it. 

This defense is going to kill this team this season.  They are actually the 29^th ranked defense in terms of yards allowed and 30^th in passing yards allowed. By the way, those numbers are out of 32, so, you do the math there. Spare yourself the math, I’ll just tell you, it sucks. 

Now, be honest with yourself. In a big game, in the playoffs against a good or even great quarterback, do you trust this secondary?  Do you honestly think these cornerbacks are going to be able to step up and prevent the big plays?  If you say yes, you’re a liar, or, you are truly smoking some very potent stuff. 

“Oh, but they bend, they don’t break” you’ll say as your argument.  Really? Against Cleveland? The Browns have won 2 games and they have Johnny Manziel starting as QB now, oh, by the way, he had his career best passing game, torching that secondary you trust for over 370 yards. Good luck against Brady, Luck, Dalton or even this 2015 version of Peyton Manning. I could throw for 200 against these guys. Hell, my 5 year old could throw for 150 against them and he’ll let you know it too. 

So, yes, let’s celebrate the offense but get it right, this defense is the back breaker. It is absurd to ask Big Ben and company to have to drop 30 points a game but that’s what is going to be required.  One off day from the offense and the black and gold are staring down the barrel of a 30 point loss.

Kevin Colbert has had many opportunities to fix this situation over the past several seasons yet he has refused to address the need in the first few rounds of the draft.  There have been plenty of top tier corners available, but he’s stuck with linebackers instead. I like Bud Dupree in particular but somewhere along the line a corner needs to be drafted, this cannot continue to be duct taped together with a hope and a prayer and assumed that it will all turn out well. It’s ignorant and talking about how they’re good is even more ignorant.

I’m warning you, get your expectations in check or you’ll be sorely disappointed in January. Otherwise, keep smoking whatever that stuff is and maybe you’ll wake up next year to a team that actually drafted a corner that can play at a high level.  

What Can These Steelers Be?

At 5-4, the Steelers are currently in control of their playoff fate as they sit in wild card position? But are they a Super Bowl contender? Are they even really a playoff contender?

With All pro center Maurkice Pouncey likely out of the year, offensive lineman Kelvin Beachum gone for the season and all world running back LeVeon Bell officially out of the year, in conjunction with the franchise QB, Big Ben getting hurt again, how far can they go?  The offense was explosive with Ben running the show against the Raiders this past Sunday. Landry Jones came in and got the job finished and he’s capable of filling in for a game or two. 

DeAngelo Williams destroyed the Raiders and he’s a more than capable back. He’s a starter, period. No, he’s not LeVeon Bell but he can certainly fill in nicely and carry the running game on his back. 

The offensive line hasn’t suffered too much without Pouncey or Beachum and when Big Ben does return, most likely against Seattle in a couple of weeks, the offense should be as good as ever. The wide receivers are still some of the best in the game with Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant at the top. 

The issue I see however is the defense.  They were torched by Oakland in all facets of the game. The secondary is not good, at all.  If the linebackers don’t get into the backfield, as they didn’t vs. Oakland, the defense can and will give up 30 points or more, putting an unnecessary pressure on the offense.

Playoff teams can get away with that but usually don’t go very far.  Imagine facing the top tier quarterbacks the playoffs usually see. Do the Steelers have a chance at beating them in the post season with a defense as porous as this? No, they don’t. 

So that rules out a Super Bowl contender.  With an upcoming schedule to close out the year seeing the Steelers play the Browns twice, the Ravens, the Bengals, the Seahawks, the Colts and the Broncos; they are looking at going 4-3 with 5-2 being the best case scenario in my opinion. 4-3 puts the team at 9-7 and just on the border of the post season. 5-2 brings them up to 10-6 and should get them in. 

So the answer is this, at least at the moment, the black and gold are a borderline playoff team with the potential to possibly get hot enough to lock in a spot in the tournament.

Beyond that, with the injuries sustained, the defensive inabilities and truly a lackluster job at the coaching level, this team will need to wait til next year to be anything more.

Steelers Set Back Vs. Bengals

A day after the time was set back, the Steelers took a big setback with a devastating loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.  They were setback in their chance of winning the AFC North, which is now basically impossible as the black and gold sit at 4-4 and the Bengals 7-0 with a win over the Steelers, on the road, in their pocket.

The offense was setback in the much anticipated return of Big Ben Roethlisberger. Big Ben looked great on the first drive of the game, marching the troops down the field and throwing a touchdown pass to Antonio Brown to put the Steelers up 7-0. Beyond that, he wasn’t very good, throwing three interceptions, two at the end of the game that led to 10 points and a six point loss. Ben took blame for the loss and while it was largely his fault, it wasn’t entirely.

Mike Tomlin once again needs to be looked at for his time management issues. With 2:38 left in the game and the Steelers having stopped the Bengals on first down, Tomlin elected not to take a time out, despite the team having all three left. The Bengals were able to take all 38 seconds off the clock, run two plays after the two minute warning, kick a field goal and effectively end the game.  It is completely unacceptable that Tomlin did not take the time out when appropriate; in fact, it’s mind boggling that nine years into the league as a head coach, Tomlin still doesn’t get it. He claims the timeout was more valuable than the actual time itself in that scenario. On what planet? The coach needs a coach or at least a mathematician.   

The biggest setback, however, was the loss of LeVeon Bell for the season due to a right knee MCL tear. The loss of Bell is a massive blow to an offense whose potential to be great is as high as the sky but whose results have been lacking over the last month.  DeAngelo Williams is a very solid back and will fill in nicely but he’s not LeVeon Bell. He doesn’t have the same ability to get additional yards, to catch out of the backfield or to scare defenses the way Bell does. 

So, at 4-4 the Steelers possess a mediocre record with what may just be a truly mediocre roster. They have amazing talent across the board on the starter level but most of the backups are just not ‘next man up’ caliber.  The Steelers will more than likely need to go 6-2 or at least 5-3 in order to have a realistic shot at the wild card. Having four AFC losses already is a big blow and the second half of the season now starts by playing a surprising 4-3 Oakland Raiders team. If the Steelers don’t take care of their business at home over the next couple of weeks, the season will be over. A season with so much promise, lost due to injuries, poor play and poor coaching.

The Steelers have suffered a few setbacks throughout the first half of the year, the second half will need them to spring forward if they want to live up to the potential we all thought they had to start the year.