Where did you read about the 5th round pick being part of the trade? Everything I’ve seen says that there are no picks involved in the trade (though that may be a result of him going on IR without having played).
What can you say about that? The only time the offense moved the ball was at the end in the no-huddle, at least two of those turnovers were fluke nonsense, and Suisham forgot that he wasn’t playing for the Redskins anymore and turned into Shankapotamus Rex. Of course, giving up a 93-yard run on the first fucking play never, ever helps.
So, what did we learn today? Wait, we didn’t learn anything. The Steelers still aren’t as bad as their record indicates, HaleyBall is devastating the offense and crippling the team, and now they have to go essentially 8-1 the rest of the way out to have a legitimate shot at the playoffs while wearing that fucking albatross around their necks. All because they couldn’t beat the fucking Raiders.
They say that Steeler fans are spoiled by victory. Yeah, I probably am. Even so, this year they have lost games they could have won, and every week I watch it happen, helpless to do anything.
Note to Todd Haley: runs work better when the other team believes you will throw the ball downfield prior to 5 minutes left in the game. A quick out behind the line of scrimmage does not meet the definition of “downfield”. Nor does a screen pass. Or a shovel pass. But hey, keep breaking the running backs on that 8-in-the-box overload, I’m sure they like being sacrificed for nothing because you’re too much up your own ass to let Ben throw the fucking ball like he did for the 8 years before you got to Pittsburgh. Thanks ever so very much.
Well, i was wrong. I thought the Steelers were going to lose today, but i gave them a win in my prediction post to make them 3-4, getting them as close to .500 as they would be all year.
I should have gone with my head and not my heart. The Steelers always play poorly on the West coast, especially without a bye week in between. Too little too late against a very bad Raider team leaves the Steelers 2-5 and staring at the bottom of a very average division. Below average, in fact. I think the Bengals are the best of a very bad lot, and if they slide to 8-8, it wouldn’t shock me completely. I just don’t know if anyone is good enough in the division to catch them.
So, 2-5. I’ll leave my end of year prediction alone, as perhaps the Steelers will win a game I see them losing right now. If the Patriots, for example, were playing them in. Pittsburgh, I’d give the Steelers a shot, because the Pats are the worst 6-2 team in history, but on the road, that is still a loss, barring any major injuries.
I think it is time to get excited about next years draft. They will most likely have a top 10 pick, and dare I say top 5?
I didn’t get to see this game (yay me!) but why the hell does this team struggle so mightily against Oakland? Based on what little I know of the game I question the team’s strength and conditioning group. Not many teams can win with their second team o-line and it looks like that’s what the Steelers played with today. Injuries like Pouncey’s can’t be accounted for but this team still hae way too many injuries to the linemen for some reason.
Watching the “highlights” right now and cringining a lot.
If I remember correctly, i read that on Bleacher Report, which isn’t exactly what I would call a stone cold reliable source. If they didn’t give up a draft pick, or if the 5th rounder was conditional on him playing, I will be thrilled. Always good to have a draft pick, especially when you need as many bodies as you can get to rebuild. I will try to track the particulars of that trade down, and if anyone knows about that trade and can correct me before I find it, please post it. I’d be happy to be corrected (and wrong) about that pick.
Airman, you ARE spoiled. We Steeler fans ALL are spoiled, and how can’t we be? But to expect certain fundamental things from your football team is not being spoiled… I could accept the losing if they played well. But they haven’t played 4 straight good quarters all season.
I’m not going to blame the loss on Suisham because the Steelers should have won this game by well more than 3 points. It doesn’t take a genius to know what the Steelers are going to do on offense. And I can say that with some authority, as I am no genius and I can predict 75% of the plays sitting on the couch in my living room. If it was my job to study and track plays and trends, the Steelers would be the easiest team in the league to prepare for.
Ben is being wasted this year. I know he has his detractors, but to me, he is a top 5 QB who needs to be permitted to play the way he plays best. If you can remember the pass in the second quarter where he overthrew the receiver on the right side of the field as he ran over the line of scrimmage, you can tell he has a mandate not to run… Ever. It looked like he could have easily ran for the first down on that play, but instead he got lost on the field, started running and checked himself (too late as it turned out), and overthrew the ball by a mile. I don’t want Ben running on every play either, but if he can make a first down without any trouble, let him do it. Don’t muck with his head.
If he had a great offensive line, can you imagine the numbers he’d put up? He’s never had a great o-line, and his receivers have been average overall. But he’s almost impossible to being down and he can make plays out of nothing,better than any QB in the league. He’s so good at it probably because he gets more practice at it than anyone else does.
With that said, he’s been hit so often in his career, that I’m afraid he doesn’t have many hears in the tank left. And he is a legitimate franchise QB, the first the Steelers have had since Bradshaw, and had taken the Steelers to 3 SB. Not too shabby considering what he’s played behind.
Haley is awful. If he can’t understand the talent he has and devise a game plan for that talent, he should be canned, and isn’t that the job description for the OC?
One thing i will take away as a positive from this season is that we may have found that three-down back we’ve been missing forever. Bell seems to have the tools, and with the limited time he’s played, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. He also seems to have soft hands and can catch the ball with no problem out of the backfield. Could he be the answer finally at running back?
I think my Sunday afternoons will now be free. I can’t see wasting them by watching the Steelers. They have almost no shot at the playoffs now, and barring a miracle string of wins combined with an epic collapse by the Bengals, i don’t see them rising to first in the division. Forget the wild card.
I know the Steeler haters are loving this season, and I can understand why. But once Haley is gone, they have a chance to find an OC that understands what Ben brings to the table. The offense was potent with Ariens, so what if they didn’t run all the time? Now the Steelers struggle to do either.
Assuming they keep Tomlin, which I think they will, but believe it will be a mistake, he will have a chance to fix bad Haley hire. With a season under his belt, and with Pouncey back, Bell could blossom next year. This assumes a LOT, including DeCastro and Adams playing well, while also filling holes on the o-line, but it could happen.
I look forward to next years installment of the Steeler march thread!
Losing to a team QB’d by Pryor is about as bad as it gets. The only thing worse is losing to a Tebow-led team. And the Steelers did that too! And in the playoffs, to boot!
Sure, that 93 yard TD run was sweet, but it should have never happened. That was embarrassing. Every time they travel more than 2 time zones, they look listless. Is it perhaps because of how Tomlin schedules their traveling? Do the Steelers get out there in time to get over their jet lag? I know when he went to London, there were complaints because he left too late in the week, according to some people to overcome the 6-hour jet lag.
I like the Bengals chances of winning the division now.
I turned off the game when we were down by 14 with the ball on 3rd and 7 and the playcall was two wide receivers lined up against two defenders, and the call was a screen pass. We don’t have the personnel to run screens anyway, but at least try to block all the defenders!
They brought that up during the bit I watched, and apparently most teams fly in on Fridays, but Steelers fly in Saturday. No idea why, seems dumb.
Well, they are the only team currently over .500, aren’t they? I liked their chances last week, too. And you are the Bengal fan, right? Show some confidence!
I hate to keep bashing the man, but this is supposedly Tomlin’s call. If it is, that’ just poor personnel management.
Congrats to the Steelers defense setting a new record - 55 points!
Well that sucked.
Perfect outcome in the division for the Bengals coming off a bad loss to the Fins for NE to beat the Stealers and the Browns to beat the Rats.
I’m sorry: did this Ravens team really win the Superbowl last season? That’s one hell of a hangover. They look awful, especially on offense. Flacco has completely come down to Earth.
That game was disgraceful. Totally, completely humbling. They came all the way back and then collapsed as completely as any team I’ve ever seen. And even now, having seen it, I don’t understand.
They still have top-notch stars. They have Ben, Heath Miller, and Antonio Brown on offense, starters for every team in the league. On defense they have Troy, Timmons, Woodley, again starters on every team in the league. So what’s happening?
Emmanuel Sanders just cannot catch the ball. He dropped at least two passes for 20+ that hit him right in the hands. He has no business being on the field. When your sole job is to catch the ball and you can’t do it, it’s time for another career. There were so many drops today, drive-killing drops.
Of course, when you don’t throw the ball downfield they pack the box, which kills the running game. So what did Ben do? He threw downfield, and it worked! Until Sanders dropped the ball (and Bell, he should have caught one of those big passes), which gave the Steelers 3rd and long repeatedly. The usual HaleyBall had its usual success, which is to say that it didn’t at all. A few runs against the hapless Patriots run defense and the rest were stuffs.
The defense: Brady is going to Gronkowski and Amendola. It didn’t surprise anybody but the Steelers defense. Today put paid to the idea that Goddamn Ike Taylor is a good cover corner. He’s terrible. He’s been terrible for a long time. Tackling? Nonexistent. The running back was stuffed twice and nobody helped to tackle him. He got two second-effort touchdowns. What else? Three Goddamn pass interference calls. Just give them free points, whydontcha?
The team just quit today. They tied it up at 24 and quit. This score constitutes the highest point total the Steelers have ever surrendered. Ever. Even in 1969, when they won one game. Even in 1943 when they were merged with the Eagles and 1944 when they were merged with the Chicago Cardinals. Never before did they give up 55.
It’s time to start over. But where do you start? First, fire Todd Fucking Haley. The offense does not work. At all. Second, draft corners. With the now-expected high pick, try to get a good one out of college. Third, take the handcuffs off of Ben. Fourth, put Sanders on the bench and start Cotchery, because he can catch the ball.
There’s more, of course. Ben cannot fumble the ball the way he has been. Ben somehow has to come to grips with the idea that he can’t fight off every sack. When it’s done he needs to wrap the ball. He also needs to throw the ball out of bounds instead of up for grabs. The turnovers are devastating, and playing from behind is the road to disaster.
I know I’m spoiled by success. The Steelers have been so good for so long that this season is virtually unprecedented. But everybody can see what the problems are, and the perceived indifference is killing the fans. I suppose it was due, other good teams are suffering this year (the Giants, Texans and Falcons are notable examples). It’s just painful to see the Steelers in the mix in every game and losing like this. Even today they weren’t blown out, it was tied, for God’s sake!
I’m going to go and puke right now. Maybe later I’ll figure it all out. But probably not. This year is essentially over, and yet I still can’t give up on my Steelers. I won’t give up on my Steelers.
Heath Miller and Rapistberger start for “every team in the league”?
I don’t know who that second guy is, but if you have a guy like Heath Miller on your team he’s your starter because you’re not paying that much to a backup tight end. Big contracts go to big players. So yes, he would start.
The last time Pittsburgh was in the cellar Bradshaw wasn’t in the HoF yet! And he went in on the 1st ballot.
:rolleyes:
Roll your eyes all you want, douchebag.
Call me names if you like, but you might want to consider the argument you just tried to make first. “They’d start for any team because they are being paid a lot.”
No, that’s not the argument I’m making. I’m saying that Heath Miller is a Pro Bowl tight end who commands big dollars precisely because he is a Pro Bowl tight end. He would never be a backup behind a guy like Gronkowski or Tony Gonzalez because a) he wouldn’t sign with any team to be a backup, b) no team would spend that much money on a backup, and c) if he were a free agent he’d be signed to start for that team. Furthermore, a team in the market for a guy like Heath Miller doesn’t have a marquee tight end. What would the Patriots be looking at Heath Miller for? They might as well try to sign Peyton manning to back up Tom Brady.
You know precisely the argument I was making, you just wanted to be argumentative while also taking a swipe that I will never acknowledge again.