Opinions please! Why are we 8-5 and not 12-1, 11-2 or 10-3?

[SteelCrazy]

Why can't this team win consistently? Let's hear those opinions.........

[Slapstick]

Because, as I believe Shawn pointed out, they are a bad mix of too old and too young...

Too old + too young = inconsistent...

[feltdizz]

Because the other team gets paid too

[SteelCrazy]

As I suspected....

[fordfixer]

We're just not that good and the teams we've beat have played down to our level

[RobinCole]

I suspect part of it is that the players are humans, not robots. Even the Steelers of the '70s laid occasional clunkers and this team has nowhere near the elite talent and cohesiveness that the '70s team did. It's a different game now not just because of rules changes but because with free agency and salary caps, it's difficult to have strength at all positions. It's almost impossible to have depth. Back in "those days", we could lose a Jack Ham to injury and plug in Dirt Winston. As happened in 1979.

[SteelCrazy]

I suspect part of it is that the players are humans, not robots. Even the Steelers of the '70s laid occasional clunkers and this team has nowhere near the elite talent and cohesiveness that the '70s team did. It's a different game now not just because of rules changes but because with free agency and salary caps, it's difficult to have strength at all positions. It's almost impossible to have depth. Back in "those days", we could lose a Jack Ham to injury and plug in Dirt Winston. As happened in 1979.

I like your answer, but not the one I'm looking for in this thread. I'm just curious if anyone else believes what I do and if it were fixed we'd be 12-1 or 11-2.

[flippy]

Good Ben vs Bad Ben

Our QB is talented enough to overcome all this team's shortcomings. Unfortunately he gets hot or cold with no in between.

[SidSmythe]

Cuz in a few of those games the other team scored my points?

[Iron City Inc.]

Right now our secondary is well below par. No question there. We have not put steady pressure on qb's. That is a bad combo in what is now the passing league the rules have caused the NFL to be. On O we have some special players and that has overcome some defensive faults.
No coaching can overcome such a huge hole in talent on D. D D and more D will be the theme in draft 15. Nail a few picks and we could see 12+ wins next year.

[Eich]

Good Ben vs Bad Ben

Our QB is talented enough to overcome all this team's shortcomings. Unfortunately he gets hot or cold with no in between.

This is my thoughts exactly and I mentioned as much the other day to friends. The team definitely has several shortcomings, so you can point in many directions for reasons that we're sitting at 8-5, pretty much needing to win-out to get in. But the primary common denominator IMO is Ben. When he plays great, we win. When he has an off day, there's a good chance we will struggle.

It almost seems to me that Ben is struggling with something personally, which affects his game from time to time. You don't typically hear of a QB of his pedigree, success and time in the league, struggling with mechanics at this point in his career. Something mental is causing him to lose focus at times, leading to mechanics issues that he now has to remind himself of.

Whatever it is, I hope he's able to keep working through it and play consistently like the QB we know he is. He's breaking all sorts of records this year. Imagine if he was playing with the hot hand all season long?

[feltdizz]

Mike Mitchell.. that guy made Troy and Ike play like they are old vets. It's all his fault.

Seriously though, I think it's Bad Ben in most of our losses. I think his mechanics slide because he is a big guy with a big arm. He doesn't do the little things that well and it's because he plays a different style of football. He has won a ton of games with sloppy mechanics. He isn't going to turn into Tom Brady, when it comes to mechanics, in his 11th or 12 year.

I remember a stat where his completion percentage after contact was some insanely high number like 75% while every other QB in the league after contact saw their completion percentage drop in half. When you have numbers like that you aren't going to change you mechanics that much.

We have also never seen Ben have a hot hand all season and in the playoffs. We were 7-5 and left for dead when he won his first SB. We were a nightmare in the RZ and went 10 quarters without a TD in 2008. We usually see some ugly Ben before he turns in on in the playoffs. I think this may be another year where we see him go off. Only problem is our D is nowhere as good as 05, 08, 11

[Jigawatts]

Because the other team gets paid too

That makes way too much sense

[PerogiesPlus]

We were 7-5 and left for dead when he won his first SB.

Ben missed four games. 2-2 without him.

Here are Ben Roethlisberger's 2005 numbers in 16 games:

226 of 361 (62% ) for 3188 yards (8.3 YPA) for 24 TDS 12 INTS, 99.3 QB rating 5 rush tds = 29 total TDs

To compare:

Here are Tom Brady's 2001 numbers in 18 games:

324 of 510 (63%) for 3415 yards (6.9 YPA) for 19 TDS 13 INTS, 84.7 QB rating 1 rush td = 20 total TDs

Ben is almost a yard and a half better in YPA, 15 points better in QB rating, and has 9 more total TDs despite playing in two less games. I did Brady a favor by comparing their whole seasons, if I did it just by post season it wouldn't even be close.

But because Tom Brady won the SB MVP because of the fan vote (Ty Law won the media's vote) his pedestrian numbers are ignored.

[feltdizz]

Ben missed four games. 2-2 without him.

Here are Ben Roethlisberger's 2005 numbers in 16 games:

226 of 361 (62% ) for 3188 yards (8.3 YPA) for 24 TDS 12 INTS, 99.3 QB rating 5 rush tds = 29 total TDs

To compare:

Here are Tom Brady's 2001 numbers in 18 games:

324 of 510 (63%) for 3415 yards (6.9 YPA) for 19 TDS 13 INTS, 84.7 QB rating 1 rush td = 20 total TDs

Ben is almost a yard and a half better in YPA, 15 points better in QB rating, and has 9 more total TDs despite playing in two less games. I did Brady a favor by comparing their whole seasons, if I did it just by post season it wouldn't even be close.

But because Tom Brady won the SB MVP because of the fan vote (Ty Law won the media's vote) his pedestrian numbers are ignored.

sorry but I have no idea what your point is..

I never said Ben didn't have good stats every year. I said our O looked pedestrian for a few games every year before we went on SB runs.

At 7-5... and 5-3 with Ben.. clearly we left plays on the field on offense.