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Blame Tomlin for this mess
By Dutch | November 24, 2009
After winning his first Super Bowl as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Jimmy Johnson said he needed to be harder on his players the following season if they were going to repeat as champions. Johnson wasn’t the most beloved person during that time, especially among his players, but his reasoning made sense.
A defending champion has to fight a Super Bowl hangover, and the players can’t win this fight on their own. This is when a coach earns his money.
Everywhere the players go, they are told they are the best. It is very easy for a team to lose its focus and its hunger when reminded of how good they are by thousands of people for six straight months. Johnson was concerned that his team would become satisfied and expect things to come to easily after winning the Super Bowl the previous season.
The above would best describe the 2009 Pittsburgh Steelers through ten games.
Mike Tomlin’s squad only plays for three quarters. Once they get the lead, their play resembles a team that expects the opposition to fold. If the opponent does not surrender by the end of the third quarter, Tomlin’s defense shuts down and allows the opponent to do whatever it is they want.
Instead of turning up the heat on their opponents late in the game, Tomlin’s players are more apt to take personal fouls to vent their frustrations. It’s kind of like a baby that screams when it doesn’t get its way.
Tomlin’s team won’t make sacrifices. They routinely give up special teams returns for touchdowns due mainly to a lack of effort.
They have the 26th worst ranking in turnover differential.
Santonio Holmes routinely misses his hot routes and is now tied for third in the league with the most dropped balls of any receiver. But instead of taking responsibility for his own play, he blamed his quarterback for the loss against the Cincinnati Bengals. No one would be surprised if they were told that Holmes doesn’t go five minutes without thinking about his Super Bowl XLIII catch.
The Steelers have become a pass-happy team. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger completed 76 percent of 44 pass attempts Sunday against Kansas City. But throwing the ball over 40 times a game is a losing formula. Consider the following data.
Quarterback career records when they pass the ball more than 40 times in a game (playoffs included):
Peyton Manning = 19 wins, 30 losses
Brett Favre = 24 wins, 45 losses
Drew Brees = 10 wins, 26 losses
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Topics: NFL, Sports, Steelers | 13 Comments »
November 25th, 2009 at 1:29 am
I disagree. He was to hard on the team His first year and that didnt work. Stop throwing the ball 50 times a game then the defense wont be on the field after 20 three and outs. Remember Ben went 15-1 His first year running the ball 60% of the time and throwing 14-24 times a game. If Tomlin were smart He would fire bruce arians. NOW!!
November 25th, 2009 at 1:39 am
If Tomlin were smart, he would win a Super Bowl with a sub-par O Line..oh wait, he did…let's let the man do his job…..
November 25th, 2009 at 1:59 am
Those stats are misleading. When you're losing a football game, you throw more. And when you're losing a football you're more likely to, well, continue to be losing the football game up until it ends (what they call a loss). Therefore, there is going to be a tendency for a team to have high completion attempts correlated with losing. But that doesn't mean that passing a lot causes the loss.
November 25th, 2009 at 3:45 am
Seattleite
Thanks for the Reply. I know all about throwing more when your losing etc.
No need to educate me there. But in this case, they are not misleading stats.
The Steelers were up 17-7 in the 3rd QTR and still firing away. Go back to the
first Cincy game. The Steelers were up 13-3 in the 2nd half.
1-10-PIT 29 Pass to Miller
2-5-PIT 34 pass to Holmes ,
3rd down Ben intercepted
Despite a 3rd QTR 2nd half lead, the Steelers run 3 straight pass plays. The Steelers have led most of their games this year. This isn't a case of a team falling behind
by 10 points and having to play catchup. This is a team that can't play with a lead.
I understand what your trying to say. But in this case, it doesn't apply.
November 25th, 2009 at 3:53 am
By the way, I have been a Tomlin Supporter from day 1. But I have to
call a spade a spade. He is not having a good season as coach. But there
is time for him to still do something about it. But not much time.
November 25th, 2009 at 12:18 am
One more great article. Totally agreed!
Tomlin screwed it up, bu they did it even before the training camp. They screwed in the draft and by not adressing the OL like they should. It was all looking odd from the start..
The only thing that makes me feel good about our team right now is how clear and astute everybody truelly commited to report and discuss are. I want to congrat every Steelers journalist I have followed since sunday. Daggerm Dutch, Lance, Wexell, Prisuta, everybody is on the same page, we all know what's wrong and that is a good thing. Lets hope the people that matters read and listen to u guys a bit 'cause those "Pros" arent looking like pros no more!
November 25th, 2009 at 7:07 am
Teams pass more when they're behind, and when the running game isn't doing well. I've seen people praise Arians for his playcalling and condemn him for it. No, I don't think he is the best playcaller in the NFL, by far. But on the average day, he is better than adequate. The facts are these:
1. Polamalu has been out a ton. Might this be overrated? Even if it is, it is a big factor. Overrating it makes it into a huge factor rather than (merely) a big factor.
2. Our O-Line is inconsistent. One week they look like world beaters, the next they look like they play for the Browns. Consistency on the O-Line would help Ben's play and the rest of the offense, too. (and not just because of Ben staying upright. The running game would improve, to the point people could be evaluated well).
3. We do have a Super Bowl Hangover, which no one wants to acknowledge, and the team is good enough to be in the position it is in despite that fact. That is a very good sign, but special teams aren't that different than they were last year punting with MITCH BERGER. Jeff Reed is still Jeff Reed. Ligashesky is still Ligashesky. Something else has changed, and Dutch is pointing that out.
4. We could have beat the Bengals twice, but the Bengals wanted it more. I believe that.
The fallout is that I expect we lose one game to a hungry Baltimore team. We might pull it together for the postseason, but I honestly don't see a repeat. I'm 28, and I remember the Qb's since Brister. I used to pretend to be Brister in the back yard. We make the playoffs, pass the first round, and that's it. Tomlin begins his first lull as a head coach as far as the greatest successes go (AFC championship games, Superbowls). Then give it some time and we'll be back with Ben and an oddly different roster with some of the veteran elements in place. Sorry for the rambling, but I love this team.
November 25th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I agree, when you lose like we have this year, to the teams we have lost to, your coaches deserve some blame along with the players. I still like Tomlin and I am happy that he is the Steelers HC but he needs to start making some changes. The offense and ST's have been bad for years and its time he does something about it.
November 25th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Exactly right.
November 25th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
I do not contend that you are wrong to say that the Steelers should be passing somewhat less than they are. I think you're right. I only mean that I don't think the cited Win/Loss numbers of other quarterbacks with >40 passing attempts per game is supporting evidence.
In the last two games I noticed something that worries me. What is the right play on 3rd and 2? 2 yards should be a very high percentage play for a run up the middle, but Pittsburgh keeps going into the shotgun for a short pass (and often blows it). Maybe I'm too old fashioned in my thinking, but if you can't have faith in your running game to pick up 3rd and 2 at least 75% of the time, I think that's a sign of real trouble.
November 25th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Also remember this:
In the first CInci game, the running game flat-out disappeared in the second half. After a strong first half, it was stuff after stuff after stuff in the second. What should they do? Just get content?
This game, I didn't see, because I'm out of the market. They showed the Colts game here instead. I'm not sure what the reason was to keep passing in the second half this time.
November 25th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Seattleite
no doubt that we would have to go thru every one of the losses
to find out what went wrong. But I was just making a general point that
bad things happen when the ball is put up in the air that much. It is
a losing formula whether it as by design or just happened to end up that
way.
Also, you make a great point about 3rd down <3. All steeler fans should be
nervous on that down and distance. The following stats can be misleading
a bit, but I think they back up your argument. I have pointed it out
before on this site.
Bens passer rating on 3rd down <3
Before Arians
2006 = 122
2005 = 114
2004 = 154
After Arians
2009 = 51.9
2008 = 42.5
2007 = 45.5
November 26th, 2009 at 8:15 am
A team can do fine passing often if they are sucessful. A better measure is YPA (yards per attempt) if it is high you win, not so high and you are passing alot you lose. In other words it is not the attempts that matters it is moving the football in the passing game.
One main problem with Arias that I don't like is we often line up on 3rd and short in a 4 or 5 wide set, this means pass. Why not stay singleback. It is as bad as getting to the 5 and going goalline and running 3 times. Ben was sucessful early in his career on 3rd down not because of the run/pass ratio but because defenses expected a run when he passed. We need to keep defenses off balance. This is what Troy does to QBs and why we miss him so much.
As far a kick offs, next season we need to look into getting a specialist like Dallas' Buehler or see if Sepulveda can drive the ball deep. Teams do not need to hold their blocks as long on short kicks and it is killing us.