Time of Possession Revisited

[NorthCoast]

I find it hard to believe that anyone who watched the games can think that we didn't make the playoffs because of the offence.

Other ToP numbers we looked at said that the defence absolutely blew in the 4th, giving up 2 or 3 times more points per minute of defensive play than they did in qtrs 1 - 3. That has nothing to do with the offence. That's just the defence putting on the suck and giving up quick scores at the end of games. Whenever we had a lead less than 8, and the D had the ball, I was just hoping that they would give up the TD with > 2:00 left so that the O had a chance to win. This team needed the O to have the ball last because the D was that bad at the end of games.

Look at the pre-Ben Steelers. There were plenty of games when we had to 'rely on' the DEFENSE to win games. The shoe is now on the other foot, and we are asking our $100M QB and his offense to win games while we attempt to retool our defense. If the average drive was about 1 1/2 minutes we are talking about a two possession difference in the 4th quarter. This could have been the difference between a win and loss in at least 4 games.

[Northern_Blitz]

I find it hard to believe that anyone who watched the games can think that we didn't make the playoffs because of the offence.

Other ToP numbers we looked at said that the defence absolutely blew in the 4th, giving up 2 or 3 times more points per minute of defensive play than they did in qtrs 1 - 3. That has nothing to do with the offence. That's just the defence putting on the suck and giving up quick scores at the end of games. Whenever we had a lead less than 8, and the D had the ball, I was just hoping that they would give up the TD with > 2:00 left so that the O had a chance to win. This team needed the O to have the ball last because the D was that bad at the end of games.

Look at the pre-Ben Steelers. There were plenty of games when we had to 'rely on' the DEFENSE to win games. The shoe is now on the other foot, and we are asking our $100M QB and his offense to win games while we attempt to retool our defense. If the average drive was about 1 1/2 minutes we are talking about a two possession difference in the 4th quarter. This could have been the difference between a win and loss in at least 4 games.

If you want to compare to pre-Ben Steelers, this year was like the D giving up 40 yards but the O pissing the game away with turnovers. In those pre-Ben years, did you blame the D-Coord, or blame the D for not shutting every opponent out? OR did you blame Kordel because he was maddingly inconsistant (pro-bowl one year, terrible the next)?