Rossi: Steelers starting on defense was a big mistake

[stillers4me]

Defer, and get what you deserve. The Steelers did both Sunday.

OK, so there was more to the lousy (and familiar) script penned by coach Mike Tomlin and his staff, but not all that much more. Tomlin, not worried about a potential letdown against the woeful New York Jets, basically asked for one before a football was snapped.
The Steelers won the coin toss.

Ben Roethlisberger, he of the that-really-happened 12 touchdowns and 862 passing yards the past two weeks, started by watching this game.
“I'll leave that decision-making to us,” Tomlin said.

Clearly, because anybody else might have placed the ball in Roethlisberger's hands and authorized the franchise quarterback to announce the Steelers' presence at MetLife Stadium with authority..........


Read more: http://triblive.com/sports/robrossi/7084635-74/steelers-tomlin-roethlisberger#ixzz3IhxDyO5Q

[polamalubeast]

Tomlin deserves the blame but not on this decision

I always prefer to have the ball at the start of the 3rd quarter

[steelreserve]

I'm sorry, but blaming any of the problems yesterday on messing up the coin toss is just silly. We managed 6 points all day until super-garbage time. If we had the ball first so we could come out throwing cute passes for negative yards, all that would do is that we'd be the first team to punt. Big fucking whoop.

[tube517]

Meh, not really that much of an issue. Protecting the football was more important ( you would THINK?) than the coin toss.

[stillers4me]

Putting the ball in the hands of you best player is not a bad idea. The Jets set the tone for that game in a 9 minute opening scoring drive. And we just went along for the ride.

If it had been us in that opening drive, the Jets would have been playing catch up.... not us.

[ALLD]

I knew when they deferred it was a mistake. It was not the defining problem, but allowed the Jets to get started while our defense took 8 minutes of game time to warm up.

[Count Steeler]

Huge mistake because of the message it sent to the Jets and to the Steelers.

Instead of coming out on fire and ready to take this game TO the Jets, they took a back seat and tried to play coy. "Come and get us, little Jets".

I want the keys and the driver seat, or I'm not getting into the car.

[fansince'76]

If it had been us in that opening drive, the Jets would have been playing catch up.... not us.

Considering the way Haley called that game? Doubtful. Chances are we would have gone 3-and-out, the Jets would have mounted a 9-minute scoring drive immediately after that anyway and we would have started the 2nd half down 2 TDs and kicking off to the Jets instead of receiving it with a chance to make a dent in the lead.

[steelerdude15]

Letting Rob Rossi continue to write is a big mistake...