Dutch takes the time to answer questions and comments that he has received in the past couple of weeks though email, in person, and on-air during his radio broadcast on wmbs590 radio.
Question. What team do you think will land Bill Cowher if he does return to coaching next season?
Dutch Wydo: I think if the NFL owners and players are serious about eliminating the salary cap, Cowher would have to give strong consideration to the Washington Redskins. Snyder is kind of a controversial owner and I’m not sure Cowher would initially want to coach under him. But, if there is no salary cap, the Redskins head coaching job becomes the best in football. Snyder has deep pockets and is willing to spend the money. Otherwise, I think the Carolina Panthers are the natural fit, and I can’t see John Fox getting another year.
Q. When are the Steelers going to learn that being a pass first team like they were in 2003 doesn’t work in Pittsburgh?
D.W.:
2003 Tommy Maddox 1st quarter Passing yards > 720 in 16 games played
2004 Ben Roethlisberger 1st quarter Passing Yards > 870 in 14 games played
Q. Are you saying that the Steelers have not become pass happy?
D.W.: “Pass-first” and “pass-happy” are two different things. The Steelers were pass first in 2004 and 2003. The difference was that Maddox was inefficient and the Steelers would often fall behind, forcing the Steelers to throw even more in an effort to play catch up. In 2004, the Roethlisberger-led Steelers came out throwing in the first quarter, and took leads into halftime in all but two games he started. They ran the ball like crazy in the second half while playing with double digit leads. Championship teams throw early to get a lead and run the ball a lot late in the game, all while their pass rush tees off on the opposing quarterback who is down a couple scores and forced into a one dimensional passing situation. You do not win championships by simply lining up in the first quarter and trying to run the ball down a defenses throat. That all being said, I do think the Steelers have been “pass happy” in certain situations that is very hard to quantify. The third down and 1 pass play call in Cleveland was one of those inexcusable situations where they got pass happy. But over all the Steelers are 15th in the league if you were to rank offenses by their percentage of plays that are rushes. The Steelers are middle of the pack.
Q. Did you hear former Pittsburgh Pirate Adam Laroche wants $31 million over three years?
D.W.: That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. I have no further comment.
Q. How do you explain all of these close losses the Steelers have suffered this year?
D.W.: In games against the Bears, Bengals (twice), Raiders, Chiefs, and Browns (2nd game), the Steeler defense only forced one turnover. The offense only has seven points off turnovers in those six losses. That is nearly impossible to do. Consider that the Saints this year have nearly 200 points off turnovers. Bad teams turn the football over and give opposing offenses short fields and cheap scores. If the Steelers could have just managed one turnover in some of those games, they would be in the driver’s seat in the AFC North. Of course, you have to credit these teams for taking care of the ball when they played Pittsburgh. It was their game of the year and they were playing with full concentration. But at the same time, luck plays an important role. Takeaways and giveaways often have wild and vicious swings from year to year. The Steelers have bottomed out in the luck department this season. Coincidentally, they have made things very hard on themselves.
Q. Would you fix the special teams coverage by placing more starters on them?
D.W.: Actually, there is something else that can be done that could improve the coverage unit. How about getting a kicker that can boot the ball into the end zone once in a while?! Jeff Reed has only one touchback on the season. His kicks are not only short, but they are flat as well. This gives the return unit a huge advantage. These pathetic kickoffs force an already-suspect coverage team to make a tackle on every kick. Imagine if teams had to go 80 yards against the defense most of the time? Reed has been a good place kicker for them, but this kind of hidden yardage they give up on kickoffs has been a killer.
Q. Is the Penguins power play going to kill them in the playoffs?
D.W.: No. Playoff hockey is all about shots-on-goal differential. The Penguins are a great 5-on-5 team that owns puck possession time. That is the key to championship hockey teams. That being said, I am not sure how the power play coach, Mike Yeo keeps a job. The power play unit has been consistently bad under his leadership. It’s not like he doesn’t have the talent to work with.
Q. Do you think Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin has lost his team and if so, when?
D.W.: The easy answer is to say we will find out over the next few games. But I will take a stab at this now and say I believe he has lost the team. I point to wide receiver Hines Ward telling the media after the loss against the Kansas City Chiefs that the coaches need to put them in better positions. That, to me, was a cry for help. The coaches seemingly had no answer in the games that followed Ward’s comment. There were few apparent adjustments made in scheme, tactics, or even personnel. That point at which I think the players lost confidence in their coach was on display last Thursday in Cleveland when it appeared that the players had lost focus and were not prepared for what Eric Mangini’s team had to offer.
Ooops I guess I made a mistake on the Revis comment. The Jets traded up and got him.
Oh well, the draft was never my strong suit. Sorry.
Some really good points but I dunno about your comments on Colbert. Sure he has misses but he never misses in round 1.
And FYI we didn't pass on Darelle Revis. Word is Tomlin really wanted him and made that known, so the Jets traded ahead of us to get him.
sorry just saw your comment… but man can you imagine if we had Revis? Ike has struggled, but Ike and Revis is a scary duo… and with Gay in the nickle.
I'd happily give up Timmons and play Fox at ILB to have Revis.
At what point do we start holding players accountable for their own effort on the field instead of just pointing the finger at Tomlin? At what point do we hold these players accountable for living up to the simple concept of earning their paychecks? I have a very hard time believing that Tomlin isn't giving these guys a severe talking to every week, and sorry, but 10 months off of a Super Bowl I find it hard to believe Tomlin (or Lebeau for that matter) has lost the team. This looks like a confidence issue…..and only the players can regain that for themselves. You can only deliver a message if the recipient is in the proper mind to hear it and take it to heart.
I love Hines and all but his comments about the KC game make no sense. Ben threw for 398 yards and 3 TD's in that game. Hines had 10 catches for 128 yards and a TD. That's not a good enough position for them to be in? And as for the that game and subsequent games….yes and no. Alot of player mistakes in those games. Dropped gimme INT's by the defense. Red Zone picks by Ben. Big drops by the recievers…..including Hines.
The coaching staff deserves some blame……but the players deserve a healthy dose themselves on numerous levels.
Great post Dutch, Im glad to see someone else besides me dont like Colbert much. I also think he is absurdly overated. In another blog they say he is a genious because of his first round picks, that is such a retarded statement. 8 out of 10 first round picks usually will turn out to be good to great players, so what? How many Al Davis this other writers think exist in the league?
First an foremost I dont think he is a good draft guy, not bad, but far from great in draft day. We have a serious collection of early rounds busts under Colbert to account for. I also think he made some awfull decisions conserning resigning some people, specially OL wise this offseason.
I think people tend to give too much credit for individuals in this business, like when someone say 'Colbert is awesome because we have 2 SBs under him" or "lets give Bruce Arians some credit because he won us a SB!" , fuck that, this is all bullocks, first of all, how can u say we would not have the same SB results with a totally different GM and OC? Maybe we would have even more rings if so, I say we should evaluate coaches and general managers or even players less by wins and SBs BUT by their mistakes in critical times, like now. How will they turn shit into gold again is what counts right now. And honestly? By Tomlins latest press conferences, Im starting to get very worried coming in 2010. Can you feel BA still in the team? Can u handle the OL virtually intact one more year?? Can we accept rookies being overcoached by not giving enough chances because in this arrogant team they need 2, 3 years to prove they are worth of it? When teams like NY, NE, Arizona, Minnesota and NO are exploring their rookies potential right away?
Im scared to death about the years to come to be honest, all I see now is a lot of confidence and determinism but a considerable lack of brains in the sidelines ..
The word idiocracy comes to mind..
Seth, thanks for your thoughts. I felt his 4 years or so were very good and I was a colbert fan. But the last 4 years have not been very good in my judgement leading me to think that it was Cowher's eye for talent and Colbert was hired to do what he wanted. I could be wrong of course. But now that Cowher is gone, I don't like what I am seeing, Hey, drafting players is tough and I understand your are going to have misses. But Colbert began to lose me when he came out 2 years ago and said that the offensive line isn't as bad as you people think it is. And since then he has done nothing but sign and give pay raises to the same lineman that have shortened Roethlisberger's career and got our running game stuffed on countless 3rd and shorts. People question all these sacks. But I've been SCREAMING for 3 years now that if you want to slow the rate of sacks, then get a better offensive line. Continuing to bring back the same line is not going to change things much.
So are u saying they will never "gel" ?? ;))
Seth, for some people like myself, we think it is common sense. For others it is not. I just see too many flaws in each of the guys to ever have that level of consistency that we long for. This line dominates no one. Each lineman have their own share of mental and physical breakdowns that happen all too frequently. It's a play here and a play there. When is the last time that our offense drove 80 yards without the line doing something stupid or making some mistake? Even when they do get close to the Redzone after a string of nice plays, they typically commit holding or false start and we move backwards. Or they miss a block and allow a sack. Or we get stuffed on a 3rd down and 1. etc etc. They can't put together 1 nice drive without screwing something up. how can we ever expect them to perform at a high level for 8 games? We win despite the line. You will never read a preview of a steeler game that says "so and so's defense could struggle with Pittsburgh's offensive line." etc etc.