Array title="vader29 has a reputation beyond repute">
Array title="zulater has a reputation beyond repute">
Is polishing Brady's knob considered community service?
"A man's got to know his limitations."
Only in Boston.Originally Posted by zulater
AML
Would've been nice to have a player like Blount in the playoffs...oh wait...
Enthroned Into The Good Old Boys Club - 2024
Blount has done nothing against the Ravens last week .....
The biggest loss of Bell was as receiver
Mainly because he wasn't part of the game plan...lol. Typical Belichick
Yes, but a no name like Gray had 204 yards and 4 TD earlier this year against the same Colts
The Colts really are a one-dimensional team....Worst team to have made the afc/nfc title game since a very long time
The only reason they are in the AFC championship game because the Ravens and Pats played each other in the divisional round
30 carries 148 yards and 3 TD's for Blount....and the game isnt even over. this game really is salt on the wound of our playoff loss
Array title="katmandu has much to be proud of">
Steelers shoulda just kept the dumb ass and just suspended him a game or two. Then have the team throw him a nice blanket party in the locker room.
"Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference." -- Mark Twain
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Colts don't run the ball or stop the run, obvious that this was coming. Let's see the pats run that well against the hawk and defend with just four in the box
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Merry Christmas
I still think there could have been some backdrop conversations to get him to the pats
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Merry Christmas
Yep. Pride got the best of him... er, the Steelers. Two wrongs don't make a right. Etc., etc.
REALLY!??!
thats what i originally wanted and im sure a lot of steeler fans wanted the same. this game was such a huge middle finger to our team
I still think releasing him was a good idea. You don't walk out on your team during a game.
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I don't know if I agree. I doubt he would have done anything against the Ravens in the first round; he didn't do anything against the Ravens last week. He rushed the ball three times for one yard. Even when he was with the Steelers, he didn't do much rushing wise against the Ravens. The Ravens are extremely hard to run against. They had the 4th best rush defense this year and haven't allowed a 100 yard rusher in 27 games I believe.
The idea that you might believe that, cracks me up. He doesn't give a shit about our team, never did......and the only game he would have gotten major carries was the Ravens playoff game....probably would have been half assed at that. Liked the original signing, but glad he's gone.
Wait. This is a thing? You simply can not keep a player who quits on the team. Ever.
Miami kept Wallace and look at the shit-show that franchise is.
The Raiders let it slide with Randy Moss. Another model organization.
I'm not saying that one player incident = terrible team; but good teams and coaches (GASP!) don't stand for Blount's kind of non-sense.
For whatever the reason New England is the only place that he has ever NOT pulled his typical crap. Good for him, I guess. Blount clearly has the talent to be successful in the NFL.
To average about 2.2 YPC against the Ravens in a losing effort anyway? It would have been nicer if our All-Pro center wouldn't have gotten owned all night (along with Gilbert) and Ben had an actual pocket to step up into.
which is exactly why he's probably laughing all the way to arizona about his change of fortuntes vs. ours
meh, but shoulda coulda woulda right? onto the off season
Array title="stillers4me has a reputation beyond repute">
If he had put half the effort into helping this team win one or two more games in the first half of the season instead of bitching and whining and being a locker room disruption, we might have had a first round bye and Bell may never have been injured. He's a dirt bag and the main reason I want NE* to lose. Watching him get a ring will be as painful as watching Ray Ray get his.
REALLY.
I'll say this again: you don't sign a player like Blount without understanding the potential for problems. I don't condone what Blount did, but I fully expect people in LEADERSHIP positions who are supposed to be MANAGING to do so and have little to no doubt Tomlin FAILED in recognizing or admitting what role he may have played in the situation.
Manage the expectations.
Communicate the expectations.
Have the foresight to recognize when problems may arise.
Take prudent measures to circumvent possible ramifications.
These are things leaders do, whether they're in positions of leadership or not. Tomlin happens to be in the position, but I don't see him being much of a leader. Why? Because the situation should never have happened to begin with. And yet, everyone at the time was quick to point fingers at Blount and say "good riddance, that's not the Steeler way. That's not how we do things around here."
That's ignorant pride talking.
And like I also said, Tomlin's lack of preparing for plan B and its subsequent playing out into the playoffs showed he's incapable of admitting his own shortcomings. We're not going to go out and replace him with another veteran, we'll just sign a player from the practice squad so we have Bell and two rookies, one undrafted. We have utmost confidence in their ability.
That's ignorant pride talking again.
Oh shit, Bell's hurt going into your playoff game. We'll get a player as insurance.
And then we'll start him because we have so much faith in our unproven rookies who we couldn't find any playing time for over the last month and a half of the season.
That's actions speaking louder than words.
I'll admit, I'm not privy to all the things that went on in the locker room and the decision to can Blount. Again, I don't condone his actions and what he did, but like I said, I expect more from people in leadership. Much more. Pride's also what got Tomlin et al playing the "Dick LeBeau resigned" drama.
So yeah, pride got the best of the Steelers. Meanwhile, the player who was booed for his actions, who apparently had too much pride to ride the bench, just had the last laugh as far as I'm concerned.
Mike Tomlin's the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, but he's far from being a leader.
It's ironic that the bitching and whining was because he did want to help the team...
He was a head case before, he was a head case during and he was a head case after. The Steelers knew that when they signed him.
Array title="stillers4me has a reputation beyond repute">
And he was well aware that he wasn't being signed to be The Guy when he signed his contract.
Array title="Devilsdancefloor has a reputation beyond repute">
I stilo think there was some kind of tampering he really didn't start his shit show until the pats needed a RB
For those i love i will sacrifice.
Si ventus non est, remiga
None of that entire post is true. I'm sorry, and I truly am not attempting to single you out - but I am completely frustrated with the willingness to ignore facts and data in order to drive a handful of popular narratives around these parts.
Fact - The Pittsburgh Steelers usage of Bell and his rookie back-ups is on par with other NFL teams that have "3 down RBs". It is also on par with other NFL team's usage rates of rookie RBs that back-up "3 down Rbs" (see the usage rates for Kadeem Carey behind Matt Forte).
Fact - Ben Tate was only the "starter" against the Ravens because he got the first handful of offensive snaps. He even had some good runs during the first drive or so. Tate was used early not as a vote of "no confidence" in Josh Harris (let's just leave Archer out of this because he is a whole other issue) but rather a concerted attempt by Haley to demonstrate to the Ravens that Tate would function as more than a decoy or designated pass-protector. Once Tate tired and fumbled, Harris was quickly brought onto the field and given playing time.
Fact - Blount quit on the team. The team released him. He cleared waivers and 31 other NFL teams neglected to sign him. The Patriots jumped on him. He has had some success - although the most visible is against a team that some dude named Jonas Gray also dominated. To think that Blount's role was not clearly communicated to him prior to signing a contract, during the pre-season as the roster took shape, and during weekly position group meetings is patently ridiculous. Say what you want about the entire coaching staff, but these men did not get one of a set of extremely limited and highly sought after NFL coaching jobs because they are mouth breathing morons. Legarette Blount apparently only plays well under the tutelage of the hoodie wearing evil genius. I have no idea why, but to cite that as a failure of leadership on the Steelers part is silly.
Fact - almost all of the actual reporting on Lebeau's retirement/resignation/firing have indicated that prior to a final meeting with Tomlin, all sides wanted Lebeau back in 2015. Something, which we will almost surely never know, happened at that meeting. Lebeau and the Steelers salvaged a bad situation and billed it as a "resignation". It was reported by some podunk paper in Ohio, likely because Lebeau chose it that way. Anything else is the result of various speculative internet outlets attempting to have the hottest of takes on the situation.
Fact - little if any of the "steeler way" kinda stuff comes from the actual Steelers. Most of that is taken from the media and canned press release crap. Very little of which should be taken seriously. To think that they way coaches and players talk to the media and they way they talk and plan internally is the same is kinda goofy.
Does any of the above mean that I think Tomlin and co. are the greatest of coaching groups? No. Far from it. I can think of 5 guys that I would trade in a heartbeat for Tomlin. Could have said the same for Cowher. Can say the same for most of the NFL at any given point. Do I think that Butler over Lebeau in 2015 will be an improvement? Nope. Do I think it will be an improvement long-term? Too early to tell, but not likely. I suspect the Steelers will be searching for a new D co-ordinator by 2017. But to see conspiracies and "failures of leadership" and "problematic pride" or "selfishness" at every turn is getting old - fast.
There is so much information, data, and facts about the Steelers, the NFL, football in general, that we can make some observations and draw some conclusions based on reality rather than turning every situation into an armchair psycho-drama. Look at the coaching search processes for both head coaches and coordinators that are currently being bungled by a variety of franchises around the league. Then let me know if the Steelers still look as poorly run.
I get that this team does really frustrating and seemingly ridiculous things on a regular basis. But if you subject any organization to the intense, minute scrutiny that we, as fans, do to each NFL franchise, cracks are going to show. I would argue that the cracks are a lot less in these parts than many other NFL towns.
Sorry for this long, rambling, diatribe, but...whatever...the off-season sucks.
The unpopular narrative, and fact, is Tomlin's watching the Super Bowl on TV and Blount looks like he came away with making the best decision.
As I have said in the past, I could care less about Bell's workload. I'm not a Blount fan, either, but when teammates describe a player as being "cancer," I kind of wonder why coaching and management would invite such a predicament into their locker room in the first place? Whether Blount knew his role is irrelevant as far as I'm concerned, too, though I'm pretty sure he did. That's overlooking the white elephant in the room which is did the COACHES know Blount's history and that has to be an unequivocal "yes". Does this guy do dumb things detrimental to his team and teammates? Yes, and it didn't take long to get an answer for that, did it? Obviously the Steelers had no second thoughts about terminating him, but the act itself literally screams they had second thoughts of SIGNING him.
It sucks Bell got hurt, but to be honest it's not like he was guaranteed to have a big game against the Ravens anyway. One doesn't need to look at this signing alone to see the Steelers have made A LOT of questionable personnel decisions for the last number of years. I hear Tomlin say "we accept it, we own it" to a lot of things regarding the team's play, but I don't see it with regards to some of the decisions being made - and that's why I say the leadership, starting with Art II, leaves something to be desired. The Blount episode, from cradle to grave, is just an microcosm of this.
Yes, it's going to be a long offseason, but here's a cheers to better-decision making, a better year and going further next year.
LeGarrette the Blount is a piece of shit. Let's not forget this piece of shit corrupted Le'Veon Bell and could have gotten him suspended with his influence. If only T Fizzle would have cheap-shotted the Blount like he cheap-shotted him in Pittsburgh
Array title="Craic has a reputation beyond repute">
Well, do you remember someone else who had a "Bad attitude. [Was a] poor influence. [And was] too concerned with personal gains and personal wealth." The Steelers still traded for Jerome Bettis.
As for the rest of your post. Seriously? I know it's popular to jump on the "Coaches suck" bandwagon, but take a step back and assess for a second. How many coaches have taken a team through a rebuilding cycle without having a losing season? How many have been within one game of the playoffs every year of that cycle? And this year, when you look at the overall team, they outplayed themselves. People laugh at Tomlin removing the gaming tables from the lockerroom last year. They weren't laughing so much when the Steelers came from 0-4 to barely missing the playoffs at 8-8, a 8-4 run over the last three-quarters of the season, and they got better ever quarter of the season, as well. This year, they started out better than last, and despite disappointing losses, still kept their head, and won the AFCN title.
The most telling things about Tomline are: 1. he's a known hard-ass. 2. His players still love him. 3. He's led this team through massive controversy more than once, without it touching the game itself (2008 - forced sale of Steelers to Art Rooney, SB champs. 2010 - second Ben accusation and 4 game suspension, lost in Superbowl). 4. He's now led this team through a massive rebuild and salary cap hell, not once having a losing season and being playoff competitive the last week of every season (with the possible exception of 2012). Sorry, that's not "a bad leader" no matter your definition, except if a bad leader is defined as, "Not living up to unreal expectations in today's NFL."
Look, I'm as pissed off as the next guy about the way it turned out, but you cannot realistically expect to know whether the "cancer" thing is real or just a lot of overblown hype based on the limited contact you'd have with the guy before a signing. An interview and a couple of workouts. You can fake it through that. I, like a lot of people, thought it was a great signing at a great price when they announced it. Any of the blame on this one is squarely on Blount for being a total dickbag.
See you Space Cowboy ...
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