DOG: An Attempt at Rational Analysis

Just today I read that Mike Tomlin will be making some personnel changes for the Thursday night game in Cleveland. That’s good because his rhetoric only sounds cool when he’s winning. It sounds like arrogance when they’re losing and I do not believe Tomlin to be an arrogant man. Action should have been taken long ago instead of “Unleashing Hell.” What bullshit. Tomlin should have been unleashing the Hell himself on the players and coaches. Maybe he’s learned a lesson.

OK let’s start out by stating the obvious. There are three main fault areas in this year’s Stillers. First is Special Teams primarily with kick return coverage units and more specifically the kickoff coverage unit. But I hold my breath during punt returns too. Second we have an offense with plays called for no rhyme or reason who can move the ball between the 20s with the greatest of ease but once inside the redzone stutters and sputters like a Model T out of gas. I have seen this offense referred to as “500 Yards and a Cloud of Horseshit.” Wish I knew who the guy was who coined that phrase. It wasn’t me but I’m using it anyway ‘cause I like it and it’s accurate. And last, we have a defense that cannot protect any lead in the 4th quarter of any game against any opponent. All three phases are screwed up.

On Special Teams I blame Tomlin for two things. Not firing special teams coach Ligashesky at the end of last season and putting bad personnel on the field on coverage teams. When Tomlin arrived who had been our special teams leaders and demons? That’s right, Sean Morey and Chidi Iwuoma. And Tomlin got rid of them very quickly. Now I will be the first to admit that neither Morey nor Iwuoma brought much to the table outside of special teams play but looking at the train wreck we have on coverage units right now I’d say we sure could use a couple guys like those two. Then beyond that, our top gunner from last season (which was nothing to write home about special teams-wise either), Sam Madison, was cut at the end of training camp. I submit to you that none of these players were truly replaced. One example is Ryan Mundy who is worthless on kickoff coverage (and he has the brain of an ear of corn as a Safety). Madison was resigned last week and I look for more personnel changes in all the special teams packages. And while I’m on special teams can anybody explain to me what the fuck Troy Polamalu was doing on a FG defense unit? Wouldn’t you think that outside of Roethlisberger the one guy too valuable to risk on something as simple as a FG attempt would be Polamalu? But there he was for some fat guy to roll up on his leg and, well you know the rest of the story. My prediction here is Ligashesky is fired at the end of this season and we start from scratch with a new coach and some new players.

On offense the popular thing to do is criticize Bruce Arians. And I must say Bruce brings this criticism upon himself. Not saying all of it is justified. But we have gone as far as Bruce Arians can take this offense. If we ever want to be an elite offensive unit he needs to step down or be fired. We have the talent to be elite but we will never live up to that talent with Arians as OC. Actually he has installed a very good offensive scheme around the talent that we have. But in game planning and on game day he is as lost as a 5 year old boy who can’t find his parents in downtown Manhattan. He never adjusts. Never calls plays to accentuate our strong points, conceal our weak points, or take full advantage of the weakness of a defense. Never calls one play to set up another later on. That is unacceptable. His partner in crime? QB coach Kenny Anderson. We’ve got a QB who week after week throws an interception in the endzone. There’s a definite pattern here. This is where coaching at the professional level should assert itself. Someone, presumably the QB coach, needs to get in Ben’s cage and help him fix that shit. That obviously isn’t happening. And besides, Ken Anderson was QB for the Bengals and I’ll always hate and mistrust him for that. I don’t have a prediction here but both these coaches need to be shown the door. If that don’t happen don’t expect much next year either.

On defense, we miss Polamalu undoubtedly. Not having Troy changes a lot of the things LeBeau has designed this defense to do. Also, not having Aaron Smith has rocked this defense to it’s very core despite the fact that you could argue Eason, Hood, and Kirshke have filled in about as well as could reasonably be expected. James Farrior has gotten too old to cover a RB on a pass pattern practically overnight. He is a very smart player but the brain isn’t the part of the body that allows you to cover Ray Rice out of the backfield. But the Achilles heel of this unit is the secondary. I had hopes that Wil.I.Am Gay could be a full time starter. Apparently Tomlin did too but he obviously is not. Tyrone Carter had known weaknesses. He tries hard but cannot make up for his lack of speed. Carter is fine to fill in when a safety goes down for a game. Maybe two games. But going with him for this long is bound to have consequences. And Ryan Mundy, I feel like he is stealing his paycheck. It’s not only that he can’t cover a kick, he can’t cover a receiver and when he tries to deliver a big hit he either knocks one of our guys out cold or draws an unnecessary roughness penalty. Negative, Negative, Negative. It must be driving LeBeau and Tomlin who have great experience as secondary coaches –and in LeBeau’s case as a player- to see this secondary playing so poorly. Ike Taylor can swag all he wants but swaggin’ ain’t helping him catch interceptions or stay close enough to his man to stop passes from being completed either. DeShea is too old. This is it for him.

So Tomlin’s going to make some personnel changes. I can’t wait. Gives me a reason to bother to even watch that game on Thursday. This is where I disagree with Fan and a couple other people who commented earlier. How can you say we need to draft for this position or that position? Case in point. This past draft we picked up two defensive secondary players in Joe Burnett and Keenan Lewis. So how can you say we need to draft secondary help? The help we need might already be on the roster. But none of us knows that because we’ve never really seen these two fellows play a game. Tomlin don’t really know either but we’re all going to find out. And the sooner the better. We also got defensive linemen Ziggy Hood and Sunny Harris this past draft. Those guys could be 2/3 of our future defensive line. But we need to find out what they can do.

In summary, put yourself in Tomlin’s place. The dude just won his first Super Bowl. It’s got to be hard to sit or cut the very players that put that ring on your finger. And it’s got to be harder still to fire some of the coaches who helped you reach that goal. But that’s exactly what should have been done. And I hope Tomlin realizes that now. I trust that the appropriate changes will be made. Remember it is not the Steeler way to respond with knee jerk reactions. That is left up to us fans. But I am confident a serious analysis of the situation is already in the works. It seems to me that from the comments in the media by team leaders like Hines Ward and Big Ben that there is also a disconnect and a distrust between the players and the coaching staff. The players are looking to Tomlin to resolve that and it hasn’t happened. So Tomlin needs to take over the reins a bit more. Keep your eye on what he does himself for the next 4 weeks. That will tell you all you need to know about what will happen in the offseason.

Now that I’ve rationalized all that for everyone and myself, it still pisses me off to be in this situation. But hey, it’s better than being a Cleveland Browns fan. And Fan, I did find pictures of some nasty nasty poop to use as a graphic but honestly it was just too gross to post. So I’m not using any graphics. Like they say, “If it’s Brown flush it down.”