Tweet
September 28, 2014
By Dejan Kovacevic
Brad Wing’s head was buried deep in his stall, both hands draping that surfer-dude hair, maybe even clenching. It was hard to tell. No body part was so much as budging.
Yeah, blame the punter.
Blame the rookie punter whose 29-yard shank set the ball on a tee for Tampa Bay to drive toward the winning touchdown with seven seconds left and stun the Steelers, 27-24 Sunday at Heinz Field.
Or blame Kelvin Beachum for being so porous at left tackle he couldn’t have blocked a nuisance tweeter. Two sacks allowed, two holding penalties and countless questions about his ability to protect Ben Roethlisberger.
Or blame Cortez Allen, who couldn’t cover a baby with a blanket but absolutely could cover everyone’s tab after that silly extension signed just before the season.
Or go right ahead and blame, as Mike Tomlin strongly suggested, the 13 penalties the Steelers took for 125 yards, including six 15-yarders. He called that “unacceptable,” “inexcusable” and “ridiculous” before the first question could reach his postgame podium.
But when you do blame the penalties, be sure you do so in a complete vacuum.
Because that’s what this coach did.
“The bottom line is we’re an undisciplined group,” Tomlin said. “Obviously, we are not coaching it. We are allowing it to happen, so I take responsibility for that.”
Wait, what?
If the Steelers’ coaches aren’t coaching the most dominant trait their players have displayed to this point in the season, then pardon my failure to buy the “obvious,” but who the hell is?
There is no sport played on this planet, not at any level, where discipline is not a direct reflection of the head coach or manager. Not one.
Tomlin continued: “We need to fix it. And if we don’t, we’ll continue to lose close football games. It’s just that simple. Some of the penalties are technical or orientation-like, facemasks and things of that nature. Our tackling technique needs to improve. But some of the pre-snap, post-snap, post-play penalties are just lacking discipline. We have to fix it. I have to fix it. And I will.”
Really?
I reminded Tomlin that he spoke almost exactly the same words after the Week 2 loss in Baltimore and, further, asked what might make this occasion different.
“Every time you step into a stadium, you get an opportunity to rectify all your ills. And I expect us to continue to do that. We aren’t going to change how we work. I think how we work is appropriate. We’re not getting the desired results. We have to focus on that.”
OK, now file that away and watch the reactions of Roethlisberger, Miller and Allen in the adjacent locker room when I asked about the Steelers lacking discipline: [video]
Hey, that message really hit home, huh?
There was more of that shrugging sentiment, too, none stronger than Pouncey’s: “Lack of discipline? What do you mean?” Told that’s what his coach just said, Pouncey came back, “Did he? You’ll have to go ask him about it.”
Pouncey isn’t just anybody in that room, mind you. Neither are Roethlisberger or Miller. Their words carry weight, their actions more. And all anyone could get from anyone — and I didn’t talk to all 53, but it was quite a few — was a great big huh to the whole concept.
To wit, Antonio Brown, when asked directly about Tomlin’s statement: “We just have to get back to winning.”
There’s your problem.
Don’t kid yourself by indulging in minutiae. Wing should never have punted a single time against an opponent that allowed a white-flag 56 points last week to the Falcons. Beachum never would have been a factor if he’d been assigned early help, as happened in Carolina. Allen … well, Allen’s a real sore spot regardless of circumstance.
But this team’s primary problem right now — and bite my head off for saying it — is that it’s performing below its talent level. Any offense with Roethlisberger, Brown, Miller, Le’Veon Bell and a line loaded with early-round draft picks can’t be scoring just 24 on the Bucs. Or six against the Ravens. And any defense with Lawrence Timmons, Cam Heyward, Troy Polamalu and plenty enough pieces to at least get by can’t be getting picked apart on a critical drive by … hang on, I have to look up his name again … oh, yeah, Mike Glennon. The backup QB for a team that doesn’t really have a starter.
This is the dirty little secret that’s in play here, if you will. The Steelers are hardly loaded, but they do have players, and they’re a damn sight better than 2-2. The blowout of the Panthers illustrated that powerfully. That wasn’t an accident. That was an annihilation of a previously undefeated opponent in their home on prime time.
Once you factor in the additional elements of dubious offensive play-calling such as that comical third-and-5 handoff with the game on the line, dubious defensive alignments such as the entire middle of the field left untended for Louis Murphy’s 41-yard catch-and-run that took Tampa Bay to the Steelers’ 5, you’re getting warm.
From there, toss in all those penalties, and you’re really getting warm.
This isn’t a well coached football team.
Sure, it’s got experienced coaches. It’s got coaches who have won. But it’s also possible, in that very context, that their preachings and practices are not only stale but also stubborn.
Let’s revisit the Steelers’ opening series, the one where, at least figuratively, they could have reminded the Bucs of all the pain of a week earlier: Fullback screen for no gain, sack, sack for a lost fumble, touchdown Tampa Bay.
That really happened. It really happened that, in having a full week to script offensive plays, Tomlin, Todd Haley et al presumably gave a resounding thumbs-up to trying to trick a defense that pretty much rolled out the red carpet for the Falcons. They wanted to show how clever they were.
You want to talk “unacceptable” and “inexcusable,” start right at the start.
How about leaving Allen and Willie Gay in man coverage all afternoon?
This one goes on Dick LeBeau and, ultimately, Tomlin. Because it’s the same stuck-in-2007 approach they were using with Ike Taylor when healthy, which is that they want Taylor or Allen or Gay to be a shutdown corner because that would be ideal for the defense, because that’s how it was when things were great.
Well, things aren’t great. Especially not in the secondary. And pretending otherwise is no less an egregious act of machismo as the fullback screen.
Here’s a news flash, gentlemen: It isn’t about you. It’s about the W.
When your athletes send you the kind of signal they did in Carolina, that they’re good enough to play with the NFL’s best, you don’t send a signal back that they need to get all cute to beat Tampa Bay.
Tomlin is untouchable, of course, or so we’re reminded repeatedly from the inside. That’s just how it is. LeBeau, too. Probably even Haley.
I want to preface this by stressing as emphatically as possible that it isn’t a reaction to one lousy loss, but I still feel compelled to ask: Why?
What if they keep losing?
What if they lose — gasp — at Jacksonville next Sunday?
What if the players continue to tune out the coach, and let’s call the above exactly what it is?
Are they untouchable because Chuck Noll stayed until it was his choice to step down and Bill Cowher stayed until it was his choice to step down, and anything else would be un-Steelers-like?
Fullback screens are un-Steelers-like.
Not having any semblance of accountability for 13 penalties, from Tomlin or the team’s leaders, that’s un-Steelers-like.
Three straight seasons of nearly identical problems, that’s un-Steelers-like.
It’s also a pattern, one that’s in place well above the player level.
Not that the coach would admit that. Remember, they’re not going to change how they work. They’re just going to change the desired results. Like the punts or something.
[url]http://dkonpittsburghsports.com/2014/09/28/column-why-exactly-is-tomlin-untouchable/[/url]
By Dejan Kovacevic
Brad Wing’s head was buried deep in his stall, both hands draping that surfer-dude hair, maybe even clenching. It was hard to tell. No body part was so much as budging.
Yeah, blame the punter.
Blame the rookie punter whose 29-yard shank set the ball on a tee for Tampa Bay to drive toward the winning touchdown with seven seconds left and stun the Steelers, 27-24 Sunday at Heinz Field.
Or blame Kelvin Beachum for being so porous at left tackle he couldn’t have blocked a nuisance tweeter. Two sacks allowed, two holding penalties and countless questions about his ability to protect Ben Roethlisberger.
Or blame Cortez Allen, who couldn’t cover a baby with a blanket but absolutely could cover everyone’s tab after that silly extension signed just before the season.
Or go right ahead and blame, as Mike Tomlin strongly suggested, the 13 penalties the Steelers took for 125 yards, including six 15-yarders. He called that “unacceptable,” “inexcusable” and “ridiculous” before the first question could reach his postgame podium.
But when you do blame the penalties, be sure you do so in a complete vacuum.
Because that’s what this coach did.
“The bottom line is we’re an undisciplined group,” Tomlin said. “Obviously, we are not coaching it. We are allowing it to happen, so I take responsibility for that.”
Wait, what?
If the Steelers’ coaches aren’t coaching the most dominant trait their players have displayed to this point in the season, then pardon my failure to buy the “obvious,” but who the hell is?
There is no sport played on this planet, not at any level, where discipline is not a direct reflection of the head coach or manager. Not one.
Tomlin continued: “We need to fix it. And if we don’t, we’ll continue to lose close football games. It’s just that simple. Some of the penalties are technical or orientation-like, facemasks and things of that nature. Our tackling technique needs to improve. But some of the pre-snap, post-snap, post-play penalties are just lacking discipline. We have to fix it. I have to fix it. And I will.”
Really?
I reminded Tomlin that he spoke almost exactly the same words after the Week 2 loss in Baltimore and, further, asked what might make this occasion different.
“Every time you step into a stadium, you get an opportunity to rectify all your ills. And I expect us to continue to do that. We aren’t going to change how we work. I think how we work is appropriate. We’re not getting the desired results. We have to focus on that.”
OK, now file that away and watch the reactions of Roethlisberger, Miller and Allen in the adjacent locker room when I asked about the Steelers lacking discipline: [video]
Hey, that message really hit home, huh?
There was more of that shrugging sentiment, too, none stronger than Pouncey’s: “Lack of discipline? What do you mean?” Told that’s what his coach just said, Pouncey came back, “Did he? You’ll have to go ask him about it.”
Pouncey isn’t just anybody in that room, mind you. Neither are Roethlisberger or Miller. Their words carry weight, their actions more. And all anyone could get from anyone — and I didn’t talk to all 53, but it was quite a few — was a great big huh to the whole concept.
To wit, Antonio Brown, when asked directly about Tomlin’s statement: “We just have to get back to winning.”
There’s your problem.
Don’t kid yourself by indulging in minutiae. Wing should never have punted a single time against an opponent that allowed a white-flag 56 points last week to the Falcons. Beachum never would have been a factor if he’d been assigned early help, as happened in Carolina. Allen … well, Allen’s a real sore spot regardless of circumstance.
But this team’s primary problem right now — and bite my head off for saying it — is that it’s performing below its talent level. Any offense with Roethlisberger, Brown, Miller, Le’Veon Bell and a line loaded with early-round draft picks can’t be scoring just 24 on the Bucs. Or six against the Ravens. And any defense with Lawrence Timmons, Cam Heyward, Troy Polamalu and plenty enough pieces to at least get by can’t be getting picked apart on a critical drive by … hang on, I have to look up his name again … oh, yeah, Mike Glennon. The backup QB for a team that doesn’t really have a starter.
This is the dirty little secret that’s in play here, if you will. The Steelers are hardly loaded, but they do have players, and they’re a damn sight better than 2-2. The blowout of the Panthers illustrated that powerfully. That wasn’t an accident. That was an annihilation of a previously undefeated opponent in their home on prime time.
Once you factor in the additional elements of dubious offensive play-calling such as that comical third-and-5 handoff with the game on the line, dubious defensive alignments such as the entire middle of the field left untended for Louis Murphy’s 41-yard catch-and-run that took Tampa Bay to the Steelers’ 5, you’re getting warm.
From there, toss in all those penalties, and you’re really getting warm.
This isn’t a well coached football team.
Sure, it’s got experienced coaches. It’s got coaches who have won. But it’s also possible, in that very context, that their preachings and practices are not only stale but also stubborn.
Let’s revisit the Steelers’ opening series, the one where, at least figuratively, they could have reminded the Bucs of all the pain of a week earlier: Fullback screen for no gain, sack, sack for a lost fumble, touchdown Tampa Bay.
That really happened. It really happened that, in having a full week to script offensive plays, Tomlin, Todd Haley et al presumably gave a resounding thumbs-up to trying to trick a defense that pretty much rolled out the red carpet for the Falcons. They wanted to show how clever they were.
You want to talk “unacceptable” and “inexcusable,” start right at the start.
How about leaving Allen and Willie Gay in man coverage all afternoon?
This one goes on Dick LeBeau and, ultimately, Tomlin. Because it’s the same stuck-in-2007 approach they were using with Ike Taylor when healthy, which is that they want Taylor or Allen or Gay to be a shutdown corner because that would be ideal for the defense, because that’s how it was when things were great.
Well, things aren’t great. Especially not in the secondary. And pretending otherwise is no less an egregious act of machismo as the fullback screen.
Here’s a news flash, gentlemen: It isn’t about you. It’s about the W.
When your athletes send you the kind of signal they did in Carolina, that they’re good enough to play with the NFL’s best, you don’t send a signal back that they need to get all cute to beat Tampa Bay.
Tomlin is untouchable, of course, or so we’re reminded repeatedly from the inside. That’s just how it is. LeBeau, too. Probably even Haley.
I want to preface this by stressing as emphatically as possible that it isn’t a reaction to one lousy loss, but I still feel compelled to ask: Why?
What if they keep losing?
What if they lose — gasp — at Jacksonville next Sunday?
What if the players continue to tune out the coach, and let’s call the above exactly what it is?
Are they untouchable because Chuck Noll stayed until it was his choice to step down and Bill Cowher stayed until it was his choice to step down, and anything else would be un-Steelers-like?
Fullback screens are un-Steelers-like.
Not having any semblance of accountability for 13 penalties, from Tomlin or the team’s leaders, that’s un-Steelers-like.
Three straight seasons of nearly identical problems, that’s un-Steelers-like.
It’s also a pattern, one that’s in place well above the player level.
Not that the coach would admit that. Remember, they’re not going to change how they work. They’re just going to change the desired results. Like the punts or something.
[url]http://dkonpittsburghsports.com/2014/09/28/column-why-exactly-is-tomlin-untouchable/[/url]
Comment