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Steelman
11-04-2013, 05:29 PM
In honor of the most-ever points allowed by the Pittsburgh Steelers in team history…55 points.

Please excuse me while I rant, rabbit-trail, and ramble to the tune of 55 points. The questions are rhetorical. The statements require salt.

Pre Game

Well, do you want the good news first or the bad news? Heck, let’s get the good news out of the way since there’s not much of it.

First Quarter (7 points)

1. Jerricho Cotchery. His best game in a Steelers uniform. His performance was helped by the Patriots game plan of doubling Brown and Sanders, but good on him for cashing in and helping his team. I also hear he’s a great teammate.

2. Jonathan Dwyer’s run for 30 yards. Great run. More on that later.

3. Cameron Heyward seems to be the one guy on the defensive line that is playing above the mediocrity. He looks grown up now. He’s only 24, so he’s a solid young piece to build around.

4. Some guy named Velasco. Maybe he’s not the second coming of Iron Mike, but for a guy signed off the couch on a Monday to come in and start on Sunday and be pretty consistent among a mountain of inconsistency and bad luck in the last 6 weeks is very impressive.

5. Antonio Brown is a football player in the whole sense of the word. I truly hope we can keep this guy for a long time.

6. Forced fumble! Maybe the only defensive highlight? Good job by Troy Polamalu (but see Point 9 for the follow up) to strip the ball from Ridley and Lamarr Woodley to recover it. Turnovers have been on black market prices lately.

7. Big Ben’s good moments. Throwing 4 touchdowns is good no matter which way you slice it.

Second Quarter (17 points)

8. Big Ben’s bad moments. 2 INT’s, a lost fumble, 5 sacks. Perhaps not all his fault, but it still hurts the team.

9. What was Troy thinking? I know he’s a freelancer, but he single-handedly sustained that early Patriots drive with some bone-headed plays. Instinctual play will sometimes give up a play here and then, but Troy was all over the field and never where he needed to be for the majority of the game. That being said, he’s healthier than he’s been in years, but he’s trying to do way too much.

10. What was Ryan Clark thinking? If he ever looked old and slow, this game was the great magnifier. Nice hit on Gronk, but he still caught the ball for (I believe) a first down. And like Troy, he was out of position most of the game.

11. Speaking of the infamous “Gronk”, whose idea was it to not make him a focal point of the defensive game plan? Or did the players just fail epically in that regard?

12. One play that is seared in my mind is Timmons’ whiff on Ridley’s touchdown run.

13. Another play I wish I could un-see was the putrid lack of effort on Blount’s touchdown run.

14. Yet another one: Dobson’s 81-yard touchdown. For a defense predicated on not giving up the big play that was just abysmal. Dobson had Ike burned by several yards. Haven’t seen that in a long time.

15. So Bell shows flashes, but still can’t find consistency behind the run blocking. Is that his fault or their fault?

16. Dwyer gets one run. Goes 30 yards. Never sees another carry the rest of the game. How does that work? Dwyer has shown he can be a good relief/situational back.

17. Did we stunt Jarvis Jones’ growth by starting him too early? He looked completely lost on the few plays where he was subbed in.

18. With the slightly above average season that Woodley is having, is he worth the money? And how soon can we get rid of him while his stock is high?

19. Two fundamentals are paramount to winning football games: a competent offensive line and a pass rush. We have neither.

20. But I do think we got a fair amount of pressure on Brady early in the game, but obviously their receivers ran buck wild over our secondary which negated any success we may have had up front.

21. Who’s our best linebacker? Woodley? Timmons? Worilds? Which ones are expendable? All of them? I think Timmons is the guy with the most value here.

22. Does Larry Foote come back next year?

23. What’s the deal with Sean Spence? Is he really that awesome?

24. Mike Adams is a right tackle.


Third Quarter (3 points)

25. Ike Taylor had an off game that also included a concussion that hampered his play. He got burned badly once. Which is still a better day than the rest of the secondary. Ike’s had a solid year overall thus far.

26. Punter of the month. Did Drew Butler sleep with Tomlin’s wife or what?

27. Are the defensive struggles Dick LeBeau’s fault? I think not entirely. But for a legend nearing the end of a magnificent career, this is an ugly way to have to go out.

Fourth Quarter (28 points)

28. Leadership. Forget the coaching staff for a moment. Who’s the leader of the defense? The best defenses have a player that is the internal force behind the unit, someone to lead by example. Not exclusively by a loud mouth, but by loud play and natural magnetism and accountability. Who’s that guy now? Gone are guys like Farrior, Joey Porter, and James Harrison. I don’t see any definitive players right now.

29. Back to the coaching staff. While watching the game yesterday, my brother commented, “Tomlin has so much swag. Check out that jacket and his shoes.” To which I replied, “Too bad he can’t coach right now.” This is a subjective opinion, but Tomlin looks as lost as the players. Swag sideline outfits and press conference quips mean absolutely nothing if the team looks like zombies out on the field.

30. Forbidding billiards and foosball in team headquarters is kindergarten mind games parading as team discipline. I highly doubt that too much table tennis was the cause of our pathetic play.

31. Haley has to go. I think he’s actually probably a good OC, but it will never blossom in Pittsburgh. It was doomed from the start and it’s useless to continue trying to make it work.

32. Is Bicknell the problem with the O-line? Or does it even matter with the players he has available to him?

33. Pouncey vs Velasco. Do we keep Pouncey next year? Is he even worth it? Or will it even matter with the cap situation?

34. Beachum, Adams, Gilbert, Whimper…who stays/leaves? Do we go LT with our top draft pick next spring? Is there even a choice?

35. Ziggy Hood doesn’t fit. Ship him out, get a draft pick, and wish him well somewhere else. I don’t know why we think we owe this guy.

36. For all the “Trade Ben” mantra going around, which teams would realistically trade for him, and what would we get out of it? Arizona? Houston? St. Louis? (For the record, I don’t believe he should be traded)

37. Rooney looked pissed. Like, real pissed. Does Kevin Colbert get the ax? Who else in the front office gets chopped?

38. I hear they brought in a new guy to help Omar Khan with the cap situation. God help them.

39. DeCastro has been developing, hard to really tell with the sheer amount of suckage going on team-wide, but he could be a solid piece for years to come.

40. Adjustments. Tomlin needs to take a crash course on what that word means.

41. Preparation. See previous statement.

42. Effort. Where did it go? How do you get it back? Hell if I know.

43. Is it just me or does the team looked totally zonked out at the start of every game this year? It’s like they come in drugged.

44. The Standard. Sheesh. The Way. Whatever. N/A for 2013.

45. Having Ben on the field late in the 4th quarter in what had turned into a blowout was just inexplicable and unacceptable. Nothing to be gained by pretending to be tough.

46. Back to Colbert. Fire him. Bring in new blood.

47. Rooney’s need to light a big fricken’ bonfire under Tomin’s ass.

48. Mike Tomlin says he’s “angry.” …U Mad Bro?

49. Mike Tomlin says people will be benched. Do the players even take what he says seriously anymore?

50. Somebody needs to be put on notice for the complete lack of development of players. It doesn’t really matter who we draft if we’re utterly incapable of developing, training, and putting players into positions to succeed.

51. I hear a lot of people knock the conditioning team. Is that a valid argument, or is that on the players?

52. AFC North. Can you believe we’re behind the Bungles, Ratbirds, AND the freakin’ Brownstains? Mind boggling how far we’ve fallen.

53. Or maybe it was just a matter of time. Maybe the organization stayed afloat longer than it should have.

54. Jake Matthews or Taylor Lewan?

55. Six-hundred ten yards. 610. 6-1-0. Fifty-five points. 55. 5-5. There aren’t enough adjectives to adequately describe “Fugly.”

Post Game

/endrant
/ramble

Thanks for listening. Good day.

Dwinsgames
11-04-2013, 05:48 PM
this very well may be the post of the year and I do not mean it in a condescending / sarcastic way .....

Iron Steeler
11-04-2013, 06:01 PM
Yes I have to agree ... This probably hits all the points I would rant about .

- - - Updated - - -

I would add . Let dick lebaugh leave this year . And have Keith butler be the new D coordinator

st33lersguy
11-04-2013, 06:15 PM
Couldn't have said it better myself

SteelerFanInStl
11-04-2013, 06:22 PM
This post deserves to be a sticky! Everything that you said is a valid point.

Psycho Ward 86
11-04-2013, 06:54 PM
1. Jerricho Cotchery. His best game in a Steelers uniform. His performance was helped by the Patriots game plan of doubling Brown and Sanders, but good on him for cashing in and helping his team. I also hear he’s a great teammate.



LOL did that really happen? Silly pats. Couldve used both the guys covering Sanders on Cotchery and Brown

crcsnail
11-05-2013, 12:32 AM
good post . nice one .

Moose
11-05-2013, 05:39 AM
Excellent post Steelman ! I agree 100% on everything ! I hope this makes it to the F.O..

86WARD
11-05-2013, 06:05 AM
Good stuff. Funny if you turn the AFC North standings upside down, you've got the typical year. Can you say Bizzaro World?

venom
11-05-2013, 06:09 AM
Wait , the Pats just scored again