First 8-0 start in steelers history!

[86WARD]

Just a couple quick hits:


Big Ben and Peyton Manning are the only two players to win 8 straight games in three separate decades.

Ben registered his 68th 300-yard passing game which is a franchise record and eclipsed Pro Football Hall of Famer Dan Marino for sixth in NFL history.

[lipps83]

The only way this would be accurate is if they are including Brady's rookie year that he never played a down in and the Patriots were 5-11.

[86WARD]

The only way this would be accurate is if they are including Brady's rookie year that he never played a down in and the Patriots were 5-11.

2000. They went 5-11. Brady played in one game.

[HollywoodSteel]

The only way this would be accurate is if they are including Brady's rookie year that he never played a down in and the Patriots were 5-11.

I must be wrong, but for some reason I thought the Steelers had a losing season in 2006. I guess I’m just remembering it as a let down year after the Super Bowl.

[st33lersguy]

I must be wrong, but for some reason I thought the Steelers had a losing season in 2006. I guess I’m just remembering it as a let down year after the Super Bowl.

Oddly enough though, Ben finished with a losing record as a starter (7-8). Charlie Batch won the opener that year. Cowher made a big mistake that year rushing Ben back with the reliable Batch at QB

[Six Rings]

OFFENSE:

QB Grade A-. Without Ben this is a 500 football team. Ben has been playing very well, limiting turnovers and getting hot when we need him. He has 18 touchchdowns and just 4 interceptions. To nitpick, he starts slowly at times and has had too many low throws or off-target throws early in games. If Rudy enters the game, we are in big trouble. Getting a better back up should be a medium level need in 2021.


RB Grade B. Conner is what he is at this point, a solid back who follows his blockers well and runs hard. He has been reliable, productive near the goal line, and has not had fumble issues. h drawbacks are he too predictable and not fast enough to feature outside the tackles.

McFarland brings rare acceleration to the hole and very good speed, but he's not good at following his blockers, and IMO goes down too easily. Moves are okay. I don't think the Steelers are using him correctly.

Snell is your typical short-yardage guy, but he's nothing special in any area of the game.

The FB position has made litle impact this year, but I did like our sub in Mondeaux


TE Grade B. Ebron has proven to be a very reliable receiving Tight End, a match up weapon, and a reliable target on third down. His blocking, however, is weak. McDonald who backs him up, is a very good blocker, but with the talent, the Steelers have at wide receiver, he's a bit of a forgotten man. The Steelers don't have a 3rd TE worth dressing.


WR Grade A. Ju-Ju has bounced back. With each passing game, his reliability and tough running with the football in his hands has made a difference. Claypool has monstrous talent. We see it every week, but he needs to work on constancy. The Steelers need to target him often. Johnson is a player that just ins't reliable and always seems dinged up. He can spark plays, I just don't think he's clutch enough to count on, especially on 3rd downs. Washington has proven himself to be a very good 4th WR. McCloud is too electric no to use more often in the offense. What a group!


OL: Grade B- This a unit on decline. Big AL, our only proven left tackle has become too easy to beat. Chucks has done a solid job at Right Tackle, but his push leaves a lot to be desired. Pouncey's play has been a disapotiment, his snaps are often too high / wide, and he doesn't pull the way he used to. He can be bull-rushed and doesn't exactly root out defensive tackles. A former star, now in decline. Decastro remains the shining star of the unit. He is the engine that makes the running game go. Feiler can be our most powerful blocker, at times he's very impressive. His pass blocking remains so -so. Rookie Dotson has at the very least, has proven to be capable when forced to play due to injures. Hassenauer is unproven at Center, the Steelers let Wisnewski go, so they appear to be comfortable with him. Age is catching up to this unit, a high draft pick should be spent here in 2021.

Kicker: A- Outside of a missed extra point, and an extra blocked point Boswell has been money in the bank. Last week he showed a leg I did not think he had on the franchise record 59-yard field goal. His kickoffs have been solid. He can be my wingman anytime. He's clutch.

Kick Returner. Grade A. McCloud has been sensational. What a find. 26 yards on average per kickoff, 15 yards per average on punts! It's only a matter of time until he takes one to the house.



DEFENSE:


DL: Grade A. Tuitt is a real load. A force vs. the run or pass. Tuitt is having his best season with 6 sacks and 17 QB hits after 8 game played. Heyward who plays next to him as been rather quiet by his standards. I don't know why. Alalau replaced Hargrave, but with him out Buggs is making his share of play and newcomer Mondeaux has impressed with effort. Carlos Davis did well in his rookie debut. Wormely is a non factor, With two top front line players and surprise depth, the DL has exceeded expectations though we could really use a powerful DT/NT In the middle at times to stuff the run.


LB: Grade A The Steelers play Watt and Dupree as ends for the most part, but they are listed at Linebacker. Watt is phenomenal. He's very quick off the ball and has elite hand use. He's all pro in his prime and splash play machine. Dupree is haivng a very good overall season, but he disappears in some games. Still worth his cap number for now. Bush had a hot rookie start and hasn't been as good since. He out for the year. His replacement in Spillaine already has more tackles and game-changing plays than Bush had this year despite staring two less games as of 11-12-2020. Splliane appears to be staring material. Vince Williams prodives the old school thump and lead the team in tackles. He's also quality on the middle blitz.Highsmith looks looks like a very promsing player but beyond him there was a void of depth which is why the Steelers traded for NFL veteran Avery Williamson.


DB Grade B. With the best pass rush in the NFL, it should be on the easier side to cover. Haden remins a solid #1 corner, but he's aging. Nelson isn't quite as good this year. He was been burned a bit and give up some scores. Our depth at corner is excellent. Hinton tackles and hits way above his weight class. A factor on the blitz, and a player who makes his share of plays on the ball. Sutton offers good coverage for a #4 CB. I still don't trust Layne. A safety the Steeles had a stud in Fitzpatrick. Gifted at making plays that require split-second timing, Fitz can change the momentium of games. His tackling has not been quite as good this year. Edmunds has matured into an assignment sound type of player, who's actually made a few plays a DB for a change. The depth behind the starters is very suspect. Allen and Dangerfield as speical teams guys, Our next man up here if we ever need one won't be a good story.


P: Grade B So far Berry has looked better than he ever has. Can he keep this up?


LS: Grade D. Canaday has been suspect. His snaps have been off more than once and he has allowed players to block kicks. He adds very little in coverage on special teams. Frankly, I wouldn't mind seeing him replaced ASAP. This man is on thin ice.


COACHING

Head Coach B- Lets keep it real, Ben is the reason we come back and win. 2-3 players on defense make the key stops. This is the reason we are undefeated. We win with talent, not outcoaching the other side. Tomlin's job in terms of managing time outs and red flagging official decisions are below average. His game time decisions such as when to kick need improvment and almost cost us vs. ,Dallas when he should have opted to kick the FG and go up 8 points. I hear he's in charge of the defense on 3rd down. I see too many linebakcers matched up on wide receivers. Stop it. Furhermore he has bought shame in terms of fines to the organization again. What can you say, Barry Swizer won a super bowl and was 5-2 in the playoffs. On the positive side, the players seem to like Tomlin and he has not blown any games on the road to a lesser team so far, though it has been close. His true grade will have to wait until the playoffs where he is 3-6 in his last nine tires.


OC: Grade B. To be clear, Fichtner is an upgrade over Haley, but he's far from perfect. Fichtner has a lot of talent to work with. He needs to figure out how to start faster. Take out those wide runs by Conner he's not suited for them. Try play action and screens a bit more. Figure out how to use McFarland a bit better. AKA weakside runs, counters, pithes, etc... Use your receivers to their potential. We have at least two mis-matches on the field at any given time. Exploit them. And please don't assume a 14-20 score lead is enough. Call play to win until it makes sense to milk the clock.

DC. Grade B Butler is a hard man to grade as he has a lot of talent around him and Tomlin takes over on 3rd downs. My beef with him is there are some players that rip us, and he's too slow to limit or stop it.

[polamalubeast]

OFFENSE:

QB Grade A-. Without Ben this is a 500 football team. Ben has been playing very well, limiting turnovers and getting hot when we need him. He has 18 touchchdowns and just 4 interceptions. To nitpick, he starts slowly at times and has had too many low throws or off-target throws early in games. If Rudy enters the game, we are in big trouble. Getting a better back up should be a medium level need in 2021.


RB Grade B. Conner is what he is at this point, a solid back who follows his blockers well and runs hard. He has been reliable, productive near the goal line, and has not had fumble issues. h drawbacks are he too predictable and not fast enough to feature outside the tackles.

McFarland brings rare acceleration to the hole and very good speed, but he's not good at following his blockers, and IMO goes down too easily. Moves are okay. I don't think the Steelers are using him correctly.

Snell is your typical short-yardage guy, but he's nothing special in any area of the game.

The FB position has made litle impact this year, but I did like our sub in Mondeaux


TE Grade B. Ebron has proven to be a very reliable receiving Tight End, a match up weapon, and a reliable target on third down. His blocking, however, is weak. McDonald who backs him up, is a very good blocker, but with the talent, the Steelers have at wide receiver, he's a bit of a forgotten man. The Steelers don't have a 3rd TE worth dressing.


WR Grade A. Ju-Ju has bounced back. With each passing game, his reliability and tough running with the football in his hands has made a difference. Claypool has monstrous talent. We see it every week, but he needs to work on constancy. The Steelers need to target him often. Johnson is a player that just ins't reliable and always seems dinged up. He can spark plays, I just don't think he's clutch enough to count on, especially on 3rd downs. Washington has proven himself to be a very good 4th WR. McCloud is too electric no to use more often in the offense. What a group!


OL: Grade B- This a unit on decline. Big AL, our only proven left tackle has become too easy to beat. Chucks has done a solid job at Right Tackle, but his push leaves a lot to be desired. Pouncey's play has been a disapotiment, his snaps are often too high / wide, and he doesn't pull the way he used to. He can be bull-rushed and doesn't exactly root out defensive tackles. A former star, now in decline. Decastro remains the shining star of the unit. He is the engine that makes the running game go. Feiler can be our most powerful blocker, at times he's very impressive. His pass blocking remains so -so. Rookie Dotson has at the very least, has proven to be capable when forced to play due to injures. Hassenauer is unproven at Center, the Steelers let Wisnewski go, so they appear to be comfortable with him. Age is catching up to this unit, a high draft pick should be spent here in 2021.

Kicker: A- Outside of a missed extra point, and an extra blocked point Boswell has been money in the bank. Last week he showed a leg I did not think he had on the franchise record 59-yard field goal. His kickoffs have been solid. He can be my wingman anytime. He's clutch.

Kick Returner. Grade A. McCloud has been sensational. What a find. 26 yards on average per kickoff, 15 yards per average on punts! It's only a matter of time until he takes one to the house.



DEFENSE:


DL: Grade A. Tuitt is a real load. A force vs. the run or pass. Tuitt is having his best season with 6 sacks and 17 QB hits after 8 game played. Heyward who plays next to him as been rather quiet by his standards. I don't know why. Alalau replaced Hargrave, but with him out Buggs is making his share of play and newcomer Mondeaux has impressed with effort. Carlos Davis did well in his rookie debut. Wormely is a non factor, With two top front line players and surprise depth, the DL has exceeded expectations though we could really use a powerful DT/NT In the middle at times to stuff the run.


LB: Grade A The Steelers play Watt and Dupree as ends for the most part, but they are listed at Linebacker. Watt is phenomenal. He's very quick off the ball and has elite hand use. He's all pro in his prime and splash play machine. Dupree is haivng a very good overall season, but he disappears in some games. Still worth his cap number for now. Bush had a hot rookie start and hasn't been as good since. He out for the year. His replacement in Spillaine already has more tackles and game-changing plays than Bush had this year despite staring two less games as of 11-12-2020. Splliane appears to be staring material. Vince Williams prodives the old school thump and lead the team in tackles. He's also quality on the middle blitz.Highsmith looks looks like a very promsing player but beyond him there was a void of depth which is why the Steelers traded for NFL veteran Avery Williamson.


DB Grade B. With the best pass rush in the NFL, it should be on the easier side to cover. Haden remins a solid #1 corner, but he's aging. Nelson isn't quite as good this year. He was been burned a bit and give up some scores. Our depth at corner is excellent. Hinton tackles and hits way above his weight class. A factor on the blitz, and a player who makes his share of plays on the ball. Sutton offers good coverage for a #4 CB. I still don't trust Layne. A safety the Steeles had a stud in Fitzpatrick. Gifted at making plays that require split-second timing, Fitz can change the momentium of games. His tackling has not been quite as good this year. Edmunds has matured into an assignment sound type of player, who's actually made a few plays a DB for a change. The depth behind the starters is very suspect. Allen and Dangerfield as speical teams guys, Our next man up here if we ever need one won't be a good story.


P: Grade B So far Berry has looked better than he ever has. Can he keep this up?


LS: Grade D. Canaday has been suspect. His snaps have been off more than once and he has allowed players to block kicks. He adds very little in coverage on special teams. Frankly, I wouldn't mind seeing him replaced ASAP. This man is on thin ice.


COACHING

Head Coach B- Lets keep it real, Ben is the reason we come back and win. 2-3 players on defense make the key stops. This is the reason we are undefeated. We win with talent, not outcoaching the other side. Tomlin's job in terms of managing time outs and red flagging official decisions are below average. His game time decisions such as when to kick need improvment and almost cost us vs. ,Dallas when he should have opted to kick the FG and go up 8 points. I hear he's in charge of the defense on 3rd down. I see too many linebakcers matched up on wide receivers. Stop it. Furhermore he has bought shame in terms of fines to the organization again. What can you say, Barry Swizer won a super bowl and was 5-2 in the playoffs. On the positive side, the players seem to like Tomlin and he has not blown any games on the road to a lesser team so far, though it has been close. His true grade will have to wait until the playoffs where he is 3-6 in his last nine tires.


OC: Grade B. To be clear, Fichtner is an upgrade over Haley, but he's far from perfect. Fichtner has a lot of talent to work with. He needs to figure out how to start faster. Take out those wide runs by Conner he's not suited for them. Try play action and screens a bit more. Figure out how to use McFarland a bit better. AKA weakside runs, counters, pithes, etc... Use your receivers to their potential. We have at least two mis-matches on the field at any given time. Exploit them. And please don't assume a 14-20 score lead is enough. Call play to win until it makes sense to milk the clock.

DC. Grade B Butler is a hard man to grade as he has a lot of talent around him and Tomlin takes over on 3rd downs. My beef with him is there are some players that rip us, and he's too slow to limit or stop it.

Only a B- for the front runner for the coach of the year in the NFL?...Tomlin was also 5-1 in the first 4 years in the playoffs and every HC need a very good QB to be great...Last year the steelers were in the playoffs hunt until the end with garbage play at the QB position and a very depleted offense for the second half of the season....

[Dissolv]

That is a decent breakdown but seem overly critical at points. B- for a coach that is turning in back to back Coach of the year performances (imo) is way too low. True, he is not necessarily great with in game adjustments....except you know, for the times when he chalks things up at halftime like we had reported and ignored by fans this year......but he is clearly A+++ at getting maximum performance out of his guys. We have a lot of very young WR's out there and they look like Vets. We have an aging Oline, but the scheme is working around them in the passing game, contrary to all previously inclinations that Ben has ever shown. Tomin has demonstrated a great touch as dealing with Veterans and Rookies alike, and has managed literally the most challenging personalities in the league, while still getting on field performance out of them. I'm not so sure that coaching is as much of a problem as people seem to think it is. I just think Tomlin's style is directed as getting each player to be better than the other guy, more than a total out scheme attempt. He is player focused, not anonymous X's and O's focused. And that does seem to be a viable and successful strategy, based on long term performance, and crazily enough, the 9-0 evidence we have in front of us this year.

[fansince'76]

Only a B- for the front runner for the coach of the year in the NFL?...Tomlin was also 5-1 in the first 4 years in the playoffs and every HC need a very good QB to be great...Last year the steelers were in the playoffs hunt until the end with garbage play at the QB position and a very depleted offense for the second half of the season....

Dude's a Tomlin hater. When the team wins, it's solely because of superior talent. When it loses, it's solely because of shitty coaching.

Besides, he probably cribbed that screed from another board anyway.

[polamalubeast]

Dude's a Tomlin hater.

I know!

[Hawkman]

I know!

......and it’s been so nice the last few weeks with him not around.

[polamalubeast]

Compared Tomlin with Barry Switzer is so stupid no matter what...In the fourth year,the cowboys have been 6-10 and it was over for Switzer...In the fourth year of Tomlin,the steelers have been in the super bowl despite the suspension of Roethlisberger in the first 4 games....Yes, the B's era killer was very disappointing, but the players deserve more the blame for the drama the steelers had in his years .... I mean, since his players left(Bell,Brown,Bryant,etc), the steelers have had no drama since 2019,so Tomlin can control a locker room and have a very good culture.

[FrancoLambert]

9-0 and the head coach only gets a B-

I guess 7-2 would merit a C-

Tough grader

[Mojouw]

Good Lord.

Even before we start in on quibbling about the grades...should we deal with the errors in the basics?

The first one is free... Allen is not a safety.

If you can't get the depth chart correct, why should anyone trust your analysis?

[teegre]

At least he didn’t cut-&-pasta parts of that from different outlets.

(He just cut-&-pasted the entire thing.)

[Hawkman]

At least he didn’t cut-&-pasta parts of that from different outlets.

(He just cut-&-pasted the entire thing.)

Go on........

[Mojouw]

At least he didn’t cut-&-pasta parts of that from different outlets.

(He just cut-&-pasted the entire thing.)

Found it. The interesting question then becomes...is it the same guy...then fine. Or is Six Rings just passing off this other person's post as his own...

[teegre]

Found it. The interesting question then becomes...is it the same guy...then fine. Or is Six Rings just passing off this other person's post as his own...

The different fonts and varied sizes of text (in some of his other posts) indicate that he’s cutting-&-pasting from multiple sources... which is not really Crash’s M.O. Crash was redundant and repetitive and redundant, but he wasn’t a plagerizer.

[fansince'76]

The different fonts and varied sizes of text (in some of his other posts) indicate that he’s cutting-&-pasting from multiple sources...

I guess he's never learned the trick of copying and pasting into Notepad and then recopying from Notepad to nuke any text formatting and make the font styles and sizes uniform.

...which is not really Crash’s M.O. Crash was redundant and repetitive and redundant, but he wasn’t a plagerizer.

Didn't Crash "retire" when Haley got canned? All he ever posted about was how badly Haley sucked.

[Mojouw]

The different fonts and varied sizes of text (in some of his other posts) indicate that he’s cutting-&-pasting from multiple sources... which is not really Crash’s M.O. Crash was redundant and repetitive and redundant, but he wasn’t a plagerizer.

Yeah. I just saw the recent one and if he is really "Poster A" here and "Poster B " on another spot...no problem. But, like how badly is your life going if you are plagiarizing football posts across forums? I guess we should be nicer to him...that's some dangerously low self-esteem type moves.

Six Rings, sorry if I ever made you feel bad. Please take me off your "People to Kill List".

[Shoes]

I guess he's never learned the trick of copying and pasting into Notepad and then recopying from Notepad to nuke any text formatting and make the font styles and sizes uniform.



Didn't Crash "retire" when Haley got canned? All he ever posted about was how badly Haley sucked.

No, he's down in the soapbox posting animal pics

[tube517]

No, he's down in the soapbox posting animal pics

I thought he got booted out from this forum completely

[Craic]

COACHING

Head Coach B- Lets keep it real, Ben is the reason we come back and win. 2-3 players on defense make the key stops. This is the reason we are undefeated. We win with talent, not outcoaching the other side. Tomlin's job in terms of managing time outs and red flagging official decisions are below average. His game time decisions such as when to kick need improvment and almost cost us vs. ,Dallas when he should have opted to kick the FG and go up 8 points. I hear he's in charge of the defense on 3rd down. I see too many linebakcers matched up on wide receivers. Stop it. Furhermore he has bought shame in terms of fines to the organization again. What can you say, Barry Swizer won a super bowl and was 5-2 in the playoffs. On the positive side, the players seem to like Tomlin and he has not blown any games on the road to a lesser team so far, though it has been close. His true grade will have to wait until the playoffs where he is 3-6 in his last nine tires.

???????

Our running game, which is weak at best, gets a better grade than a coach whom the players have said comes in at half time and makes the game adjustments, once even breaking out a blackboard and chalk and going old school to make the adjustments on the fly at halftime?

You put 25-29 other coaches in this position, and we've lost at least two games, if not more. Tomlin is in charge of 3rd downs? Great! In the last three games, they've allowed a 35.56 percent conversing rate, which is good for 10th best. In the last game, they allowed a 0 percent conversion rate. Sorry, 3rd down is NOT the place to convince me Tomlin is a bad coach.

Tomlin's decision making. Kick the FG you say? Sure. Except that the field goal unit sucked that day. Try for the field goal, and there's as good or better of a chance the ball is blocked and ran back for a winning TD. Nope. That's a great call by Tomlin.

We win with talent, you say. Okay, are you going to make that same statement for Cowher? The last play where he outcoached the other side was in SuperBowl XXX with the onside kick coming out of half time. Beyond that, everyone knew the Steelers game plan every game. Predominantly run the ball. Get up by 10 points, and the run the ball even more. On defense, fire blitz. Send the blitz from some place. Almost every down. He outcoached very few coaches. Instead, he had great talented RBs and defenses and later, a QB that won the SB. So, does Cowher suck like Tomlin?

This narrative that Tomlin is a bad coach or mediocre coach is a joke. He's in his thirteenth year and has never had a losing season. He's had three 8-8 seasons if memory serves, and two of those seasons are the direct result of the Rooneys choosing to put this team into salary-cap hell in order to extend the late 00s superbowl window (a choice I agree with). The other 8-8 year came when the starting QB went out in the second game. Look across the league. How many teams go .500 or more for a season with backup QBs that are not future starting QBs or journeyman QBs who have already proven themselves as strong game managers?

[Mojouw]

Baltimore is going through a series of tough injuries and difficult losses. It is starting to fray a bit down there. QB is questioning the coaches. Players are grousing on social media. It is certainly, once again, looking like a Harbaugh coached time might be buckling a bit when faced with adversity. I realize they are 6-3 and still a potent team...but still don't think they deal with setbacks as well as the Steelers. But Harbaugh is viewed by many as a better coach.

Also, don't try and argue with him. He didn't write it. So he can't rebut anything you counter with or answer any questions until the person who did actually author the piece posts more. So maybe lurk here and see what will show up here a few days later: http://mail.steelernationforums.com/...f-grades/page2 (see post #27).

[polamalubeast]

Baltimore is going through a series of tough injuries and difficult losses. It is starting to fray a bit down there. QB is questioning the coaches. Players are grousing on social media. It is certainly, once again, looking like a Harbaugh coached time might be buckling a bit when faced with adversity. I realize they are 6-3 and still a potent team...but still don't think they deal with setbacks as well as the Steelers. But Harbaugh is viewed by many as a better coach.

Also, don't try and argue with him. He didn't write it. So he can't rebut anything you counter with or answer any questions until the person who did actually author the piece posts more. So maybe lurk here and see what will show up here a few days later: http://mail.steelernationforums.com/...f-grades/page2 (see post #27).

This is pathetic to copy the posts from other forums of others members.

[Craic]

This is pathetic to copy the posts from other forums of others members.

Yep. I mean, if someone posted something worth discussing on another forum. Great. That's not a problem. Post it with attribution. But plagiarism? C'mon man!