Thought the Steelers did good on offense as well. It would have been nice for them to have put up some points on their 1st drive instead of going backwards for the last part of it, but shit happens, eh? Gronk’s 2nd TD, wow, to not have him covered is, okay, a breakdown, sure, but so-o-o-o crazy a breakdown. The commentators kept pointing out how confused the D looked - for sure.
Well, it’s week one, and I think it’s time to start calling once again for the firing of Todd Haley.
Well, the draw on 3rd and goal from the 6 was an atrocious call, and that AB trick play was too cutesy when they we’re basically having their way with the Pats defense, but other than that, I don’t think Haley did too bad of a job.
Those missed FGs really stung at the end with the last minute TD. Would have been a very different ending.
Best I could say is getting all those yards ws encouraging but really that was not a good game. Also the opening was extremely obnoxious and annoying. In other words, Pure Patriots.
Since when has simple assault been a bar to working for the Steelers?
I think Davis is just a figure head. Heath Miller is really the TE coach now.
Why is Tomlin considered such a great coach, anyway? His team always seems to be underprepared, making mental errors or misexecuting plays, or simply not communicating, as the D not covering Gronk shows. Instead of addressing that forthrightly, he’d rather whine about headset radios, and his assistants would rather act out. They have the talent to be so much better than they are, so why aren’t they?
Is Airman Doors on deployment or just really, really bitter after losing to the Divine Cheater, especially after that embarrassing prediction?
I like Tomlin as a coach but those are valid criticisms. Clock management has also been distressingly bad. When you look at the pedigrees of the position coaches of this team, mostly former head coaches or long-term Steeler coaches, lack of preparation just should not be an issue.
Why is Tomlin a great coach? He’s never produced a losing season, he’s won one Super Bowl and made it to another, he’s usually near the top of the list of coaches that players would like to play for, he doesn’t let his ego get in the way of hiring coaches with differing philosophies or styles (Lebeau and Haley are prime examples). There are only 3-4 coaches that I’d rather see coaching the Steelers than Tomlin.
My computer’s hard drive is on its way to failure, and so I took the opportunity to largely disconnect for a while rather than bother my wife for her laptop. Life goes on.
That game was weird. Everything was going fine until the Steelers tried the trick play. When Brown took that big loss followed by a penalty which put them at 3rd and a ton it seemed to take all the inertia out of Pittsburgh. After that we got a steady dose of HaleyBall. Three different times that I can remember they had 3rd and short and Ben uncorked a bomb. Other times they had 2nd and forever and what did we get? A bubble screen or a damn draw play. They had 1st and goal on the 1 and tried 2 runs, then never considered passing the ball into the endzone. Once they get into the red zone the playcalling goes completely to Hell, almost as if it’s better to hold the ball and take a field goal than it is to try for the touchdown. Haley still has no idea how to call a game, and yet the Steelers will succeed in spite of him because they simply have too many weapons on offense, one of which will be coming back after the Niners game (Bell). I had hoped he would exploit those weapons, but he’s the same old Haley as he always was. He completely wasted a career game from DeAngelo Williams.
Also, Scobee needs to make those kicks. 6 points for sure were left on the field, and the aforementioned goal line drive where they could have at least tried for a touchdown but settled for the field goal.
The defense is a mess. They did some good things, but the secondary is a sieve. How do you leave Gronkowski uncovered, ever? They did it. Gronk is going to get his touches and he’s going to score against any team because he’s just that good. The challenge is to minimize the damage. The Steelers didn’t do that.’
And yet, it never felt like the Patriots were killing them. They really didn’t. Pittsburgh even forced a fumble which they should have recovered but didn’t, which gave the Patriots 1st and goal from the 1. These things happen. Nevertheless, that touchdown and the 2 Scobee misses more than account for the difference.
It’s the first week. I expected more, but there’s more to come. Going into the Razor, especially on that night, is tough. They’ll get better. They’ll have to get better.
One more thing: Darrius Heyward-Bey found his way off the end of the bench and did some good things, but man, you HAVE to know where the sideline is. That was another 4 points off the board.
Yesterday was more like what I was looking for, a spectacular showing from the offense and an adequate performance from the defense. It was good to see Tuitt, Shazier, and Dupree show up, though Jarvis Jones really does look to be a bust. On a day when Kaepernick was being swarmed he was nowhere to be found.
With Bell coming back the offense is outright fearsome. The Niners had virtually nothing for it. It’s too much to expect 40 points a game, but it really could happen. Next week is @STL, where Pittsburgh shows them the new Greatest Show on Turf.
There were a lot of 49ers fans at Heinz Field. More than we typically see of Bengals, Ravens etc, which would have much easier travel. Any idea why? Can’t all be Tomsula relatives - there were a lot of red jerseys.
Ben is out with a knee injury. Maybe season ending.
This changes everything.
Damn shame. Hope it isn’t what it looks like.
It might be wishful thinking, but it didn’t look like it flexed enough to tear anything. It could be anything from 3-5 weeks to a season-ender. In the meantime, Michael Vick is the guy.
With the offensive weapons Pittsburgh has there’s no reason Vick can’t move the ball. Of course, now we have to look to the bench for the next guy up, which is Landry Fucking Jones. If it comes down to that Pittsburgh is dead. And it might, they get the angry 0-3 Ratbirds on 4 days preparation.