Mark Madden: Steelers need attitude adjustment

Mark Madden: Little tweaks could give Steelers much-needed attitude adjustment

MARK MADDEN | Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018

This is one of the most talented groups the Steelers have assembled: Four first-team All-Pros. Eight Pro Bowlers. The NFL's best wide receiver. A Hall-of-Fame quarterback. One of the league's top running backs.

But this group won't ever win.

New England, under Coach Bill Belichick, shows up for work. Jacksonville, under VP/football ops Tom Coughlin, shows up for work.

The Steelers, under Coach Mike Tomlin, show up for (to quote Red Forman) super wonderful crazy fun time. They yap constantly and indulge counterproductive stupidity. This season was nonstop chaos dipped in arrogance, and it added up to looking ahead to an AFC championship game rematch with the Patriots that won't happen.

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http://triblive.com/sports/columnist...ude-adjustment

And this is exactly why Tomlin should be fired and replaced with someone like the article mentions in Tom Coughlin or Belichick.

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Originally Posted by Ezra Tank

And this is exactly why Tomlin should be fired and replaced with someone like the article mentions in Tom Coughlin or Belichick.

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OK neither one of those are available ...what now?

This is almost total nonsense. The Jags are one of the most talkative teams out there.

All you need to know is in the last line of the article: "Mark Madden hosts a radio show 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WXDX-FM (105.9)". Everything Madden does is to make sure he generates phone calls and controversy for his radio show. He hasn't had an original or perceptive thought on football in over a decade.

I agree with Madden.

This immature, cocky, undisciplined environment was created by Tomlin.

Why is that whenever the Steelers lose it is because they are undisciplined, poorly coached, badly planned, etc and NEVER that the other NFL team is just really good and beat them? But when the Steelers win, they outplayed the other team and were the superior talent collection?

Basically, players get all the credit and none of the blame. Other NFL teams are never badly coached, cocky, unprepared, etc and the Steelers apparently constantly are.

The separation between the Cleveland Browns and the New England Patriots is about a half dozen players and a stable owner. That's it. The gap between the Jags and the Steelers is essentially ONE player - Bortles vs Ben. Other than that, overall the teams are a push. Steelers offense is better than Jags offense. Jags defense is better than Steelers defense.

The Steelers defense has been a one legged man in an ass kicking contest since Shazier went down. They finally ran into a team that had enough overall quality to expose that completely. The Bengals and Ravens tried to, but their rosters were not complete enough to overcome the Steelers staggering advantage on offense. The Pats and the Jags were.

On Sunday, January 14th the Pittsburgh Steelers got absolutely dominated at the line of scrimmage by the Jacksonville Jaguars. No push against the run and no pass rush. We can talk zone, man, cushions, penalty calls, gameplan, etc but the absolute bottom line is that, at least for on afternoon, the defensive front 7 of the Pittsburgh Steelers was simply not talented enough to defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Actually, players and coaches get the blame. Mitchell, Burns, Williams and Dupree need to be addressed. Mitchell and Dupree the most. Mitchell does nothing for this team. Dupree is not a football player. He is a NFL combine sensation.

Coaches pick the players and release the players. Coaches make sure the players are focused and know their assignments. If a player can't do this then he should be benched or cut. Belichick doesn't have much talent on his team, but they are focused and know their assignments. Have you seen the Steelers' hurry up offense?

Browns are poorly coached.

Fans are always going to be more critical of their team. They expect and want to win.

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Originally Posted by Steeldude

Actually, players and coaches get the blame. Mitchell, Burns, Williams and Dupree need to be addressed. Mitchell and Dupree the most. Mitchell does nothing for this team. Dupree is not a football player. He is a NFL combine sensation.

Coaches pick the players and release the players. Coaches make sure the players are focused and know their assignments. If a player can't do this then he should be benched or cut. Belichick doesn't have much talent on his team, but they are focused and know their assignments. Have you seen the Steelers' hurry up offense?

Browns are poorly coached.

Fans are always going to be more critical of their team. They expect and want to win.

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So they knew their assignments when Ben and the offense knifed through them to basically win the game? They knew their assignments when JJ was left essentially uncovered over the middle?

But I thought if players just focused and were coached well they should win every game? Now multiple defensive starters need replaced because they aren't good enough. Which is it? Focus, attitude, and coaching or player talent?

I'm not saying this is what you are specifically arguing for, but read articles like Madden's and much of the other dreck out there on Steelers focused sites. It is all almost exclusively about attitude, focus, determination, coaching, etc and almost not a single word about the complete and total failure of the front 7 to have any positive impact on the outcome of the football game. It seems that no one wants to talk about that. They just want to talk about how the amazing and super-duper awesome Steelers got let down by their inept and unqualified coaches.

Changing coaches may have an amazingly positive impact on the team OR it may just be shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic. There is no way to tell until an honest assessment of the underlying cause of the total failure of the front 7 is undertaken. I know I am certainly not going to do it and clearly no one on this board is and not a single one of the writers I have read "analyzing" the game has completed that task either.

Long story short, I have never been one for knee-jerk emotional reactions and conclusions. All that has been said about the game, so far, basically falls into that category. Someone put together a dispassionate, evidence based critical evaluation of the game and/or the season and I'm all ears. Outside of that, it is just vaguely coherent yelling so people click on websites and listen to radio shows.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are not preordained to win NFL games and can only lose when they lose focus and discipline.

I think if we are all honest we saw this coming. The defense was just ok with shazier playing. Yes they were the reason we one several games this year , but when you look at the list of QBs that we had trouble beating , it has to make you worry about playing some better talent next season

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I wonder why no one ever gives Doug Marrone any credit in Jacksonville? The guy is a winner.

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Originally Posted by NCSteeler

I think if we are all honest we saw this coming. The defense was just ok with shazier playing. Yes they were the reason we one several games this year , but when you look at the list of QBs that we had trouble beating , it has to make you worry about playing some better talent next season

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I honestly had faith in our Dline to be able to stop the Jags run game. Instead they got handled pretty easily. I saw no reason, after that Bills game, why the Jags would have nearly the success they had against us. Then we go out there and put up 42 points? And it wasn't even a close game really? I am more than a little surprised at that.

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Originally Posted by Born2Steel

I honestly had faith in our Dline to be able to stop the Jags run game. Instead they got handled pretty easily. I saw no reason, after that Bills game, why the Jags would have nearly the success they had against us. Then we go out there and put up 42 points? And it wasn't even a close game really? I am more than a little surprised at that.

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Not certain why Heyward was ineffective but Hargrove definitely was hurt and IMO Tuitt (who appeared less effective down the stretch even before the elbow injury in practice last week) was as well

But defense simply had its collective ass kicked twice by Jax at Heinz this season - back to the drawing board before what I am confident will be the nationally televised rematch in Jax next year

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Originally Posted by AtlantaDan

Not certain why Heyward was ineffective but Hargrove definitely was hurt and IMO Tuitt (who appeared less effective down the stretch even before the elbow injury in practice last week) was as well

But defense simply had its collective ass kicked twice by Jax at Heinz this season - back to the drawing board before what I am confident will be the nationally televised rematch in Jax next year

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Be interested to see DL snap counts. I certainly saw far more of Alualu and LT Walton's jersey # on my tv broadcast then I expected.

Big difference between News and Opinion...

Unfortunately in this day and age, the intranets have blurred those lines where people start taking opinions/blogs as news.

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Originally Posted by Mojouw

This is almost total nonsense. The Jags are one of the most talkative teams out there.

All you need to know is in the last line of the article: "Mark Madden hosts a radio show 3-6 p.m. weekdays on WXDX-FM (105.9)". Everything Madden does is to make sure he generates phone calls and controversy for his radio show. He hasn't had an original or perceptive thought on football in over a decade.

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Madden is so on the money I think he could replace Johnny Carson as Carnac the Magnificent.

You can spout all the facts and figures you wish, but the truth remains, this team underperforms on a consistent basis. They are undisciplined on and off the field. They talk more off the field than on it.

Tomlin's desire to be "boys" with these guys rather than the no bullshit leader he needs to be, has deteriorated the discipline in the locker room.

Tomlin coaches on pure emotion. He goes with his gut and makes decisions on how he feels in the moment, rather than on logic and information.

We can agree to disagree. I don't even necessarily advocate for his firing. But, he'd better change his stripes starting in camp next year or his ass might truly be on the hotseat.

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Originally Posted by SteeleReign

Madden is so on the money I think he could replace Johnny Carson as Carnac the Magnificent.

You can spout all the facts and figures you wish, but the truth remains, this team underperforms on a consistent basis. They are undisciplined on and off the field. They talk more off the field than on it.

Tomlin's desire to be "boys" with these guys rather than the no bullshit leader he needs to be, has deteriorated the discipline in the locker room.

Tomlin coaches on pure emotion. He goes with his gut and makes decisions on how he feels in the moment, rather than on logic and information.

We can agree to disagree. I don't even necessarily advocate for his firing. But, he'd better change his stripes starting in camp next year or his ass might truly be on the hotseat.

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Got anything to stand behind that argument? What determines underachievement? Who decides?

It's all just opinion and that's great. Everyone and anyone is entitled to take any position they want. No one has to agree. That's fine and kinda the whole point.

But Madden and others try and pass off their opinion as fact and something that must be acted on. That's no way to accomplish anything besides making a bunch of noise.

Now if players are blowing off practice, not attending, meetings, ignorant of their assignments, not working out in the off season, maybe Madden and others have the foundations of a workable argument. Anyone heard of that happening?

Put it this way. We are arguing about basically 3 or 4 statements. The Tomlin interview, Mitchell's stuff, Bell's tweet, and Bens comments.

Now if those never came out and the game went exactly the same what would the narrative be?


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Tomlin demoted Bryant. Bryant steadily got better (albeit not as good as he once was)... and, Bryant was no longer a problem.

But, yeah... Tomlin is “everyone’s buddy.”