Playoffs!?! You wanna talk about playoffs!?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7fjDS0jKiE

Yes, Coach Mora, I’m talking about playoffs and you should be, too.  Personally, after a tough loss I like to stew in for about a day then turn my sights towards next week’s game.  And despite our 4 game losing streak, we stand a decent chance of still making the playoffs…IF we win out.
He’s the break-down of what must go-down for us to sneak into the playoffs.

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I’m sure you feel the same way.  I walked out of a Steelers bar in Philly in disbelief that we lost to the 3-8 Oakland Raiders lead by Bruce Gradkowski and I’m still stunned. I can’t believe that we lost 4 straight games…that the chiefs get their THIRD win of the year over us 2 weeks ago…that our once dependable Steel Curtain defense failed us once again by letting the worst offense in the league (last in points/gm) put together two 80+ yard touchdown drives with little more than seven minutes left in the game.  Oh and by the way, before this week the Raiders had the worst passing offense in the league, last in both yards/gm and passing td/gm.  It’s frustrating that I took time out of my day that could’ve been spent studying (I’m in Med school) to go to a steelers bar because the game wasn’t on TV in Philly (and that I took time to write this crappy fanpost to vent).  Frustrating that the odds of a West coast team winning a 1 PM game on the east coast were probably ridiculously low start.  Frustrating that the steelers are now a mediocre 6-6 in the middle of the pack for the wildcard race.  That we have a crappy conference record so we’re hurting in the tiebreaker department.  It only rubs salt in the wound knowing that the steelers were expected to win the division this year.  I personally would like to find someone to shoulder this blame for this recent slide, because the last time I felt this way was when then steelers went 6-10 in 2003.

Now, one could put the blame on Gay’s frequent missteps, Mundy’s helmet to helmet contacts on both Gay and then against the Raider WR for a penalty.  Possibly Ike Taylor with his half hearted attempt to push out Louis Murphy on his long TD reception or his decision not to go for the INT instead of knocking down the ball on the Raiders last drive allowing Murphy a 17 yard reception.  And of course there was Ben’s interception on a horrible decision in the redzone or Burnett’s dropped interception.  If ANY of those happen a little differently, the Steelers are probably 7-5 and in decent position in the playoff race.  But I personally put the blame a little higher up the ladder.  This one falls squarely on Tomlin & LeBeau. 

 I realize this is probably a very unpopular stance to have on BTSC.  I would probably get more agreement if I creatively come up with a way to point the finger at Arians.  LeBeau reminds me of a grandfather, but is a devious defensive genius.  Meanwhile, Tomlin has endured us with his insight observations/comments called “Tomlinisms” and giving us our record setting 6th super bowl.  But this loss represents a bigger problem & not just due to a couple bad plays.  Let’s start with LeBeau.  His defensive strategy was atrocious on the last drive.  He constantly rushed only 4 players.  If a 5th was brought (maybe once or twice) it was in a delayed blitz fashion.  Our secondary was being embarrassed the entire 4th quarter and hoping that we get a coverage sack was a foolish strategy.  From the days when we used to have horrible secondaries, any Steelers fan knows that the solution to a poorly playing secondary is to bring more pressure & faster.  Sack the QB before he has any opportunity to look downfield and find that open WR.  The one time LeBeau did bring some pressure was when they had gotten inside our redzone, but he brings IKE TAYLOR on a corner blitz.  It was a double corner blitz but again only 4 people were trying to pressuring the quarterback permitting the Oakland wideouts enough time to get open once again for the game winning TD.  Mr. LeBeau, I have the utmost respect for you and think you’re a defensive mastermind.  I’m sure you have forgotten far more about defensive strategy than I’ll ever know.  But why did you bring your best defensive back in a 4 man blitz when we have a depleted secondary due to injuries and a 4 man blitz hadn’t worked once this quarter? Not smart, not smart at all.

As for Tomlin, I think he’s a great head coach.  He seems very intelligent and seems to say and do a lot of the right things.  But it drove me insane watching him stand stoically on the sidelines for 99% of the game while his team failed to put away the underdog.  This entire game, our team didn’t seem fired up.  They didn’t seem to want it.  Remember Gradkowski’s 10 yard run for a first down that was called back because of holding?  At the end of the play, Taylor just pushes Gradkowski out of bounds and he would’ve had the first down.  Gradkowski never tried to slide and wasn’t just already out of bounds when Taylor got to him.  Do you think if the Steelers were fired up for the game, that Taylor just pushes Gradkowski out of bounds or do you think he lights him up there?  You motivate your players and get them fired up in football and Tomlin didn’t seem to do it for this game or against the Chiefs.  If you can’t get your team fired up to play against a 3-8 team at home and end a 3 game losing streak to save your season then when will you get your team fired up? Tomlin seemed to get more excited during games last year and the results of those games speak for themselves.  Haley and Pendergast had their team firing on all cylinders against us because they were still pissed about the super bowl loss and that’s one of the best games the Chiefs have played all year.  I wonder what would’ve happen if Tomlin would’ve laid into the defense on the sidelines after they let up the big play for the Raiders second TD and told them he expects more even without Troy.  Maybe they would’ve stopping the Raiders on the next drive.  The players have said they enjoy that Tomlin doesn’t yell and scream all the time because it treats them like adults.  I agree that’s good to have on the professional level for the most part, but on occasion it’s good if you reprimand players.  This isn’t the work place where you need people to only think with their minds.  This is a sport where intense physical action is needed along with that thinking.  Maybe Tomlin’s take that we won the super bowl last year and it doesn’t mean anything this year was the wrong mind set to have.  Teams are elevating their play against us.  We’re the game EVERY team circles on their schedule as a huge game.  Maybe saying it’s going to be even harder to win because we won last year would’ve been the right mind set instead of just wiping the slate clean.

Let’s get this straight, I’m not calling for a new head coach or LeBeau to be replaced.  I think they’re great and we won’t find a better replacement.  But Tomlin calls for accountability and I’m simply holding him and LeBeau accountable for not getting their jobs done.  The two most important jobs coaches have are putting their best players in the best possible positions to make plays and the second is motivating those players to get the best out of them.  I think LeBeau isn’t putting his players in the best positions and Tomlin isn’t motivating the players.  They need to adjust what they’re doing and come back working harder.  We can still save this season.  We have a very winnable schedule left and should be getting Polamalu back soon.  And since this 8 division setup was implemented in 2002, only 4 teams have been 10-6 or better and not made the playoffs.  But I really think that change has to come from Tomlin if we are to see a change in the players because we certainly won’t have to worry about having a target on our backs next year if there isn’t any improvement.  What do you think?

A few observations about the Chargers games, some notes about the upcoming game, and a couple unique takes from going-ons from around the league.

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I try hard to follow teams in the offseason to see if they make improvements or if they lose key players. But the offseason is long, there are great backups waiting in the wings that only local fans sometimes know about, and often players like offensive linemen will slip threw the crack in terms of media attention. i've found websites that grade free agents and say where they end up, but does anyone know of any free websites out there that grade teams on whether things like the running attack, passing attack, offensive line, and defensive will improve or probably get worse from last year? it would be a major help in ranking players/teams in terms of projected fantasy output. i'm not interested in solely rankings in fantasy terms because those are very easy to find and often some of the "experts" are a little too opinionated and subjective about where players will end up. or are just following the hot trends. i think this would prove a more objective ranking and let me make some of my own calls. Thanks.

With training camp set to begin in a couple of days, I figured I’d give predicting the 53 man roster a try even though any required cuts are a month away. And I’m curious what you think about my predictions.

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