BigBen7.com @_BigBen7
Informed the team I am looking forward to my 14th season. Steeler Nation will get my absolute best! — Ben.
Informed the team I am looking forward to my 14th season. Steeler Nation will get my absolute best! — Ben.
Which means he will be hurt by game 4BigBen7.com [emoji818] @_BigBen7
Informed the team I am looking forward to my 14th season. Steeler Nation will get my absolute best! — Ben.
Or that the guy who wears the black shirt asked for a signed Tom Brady Patriots jersey, so your daughter is just ahead of where Ben R would like to be...Well she could point out that the guy on his shirt said the guy on her shirt is the GOAT. But I would have gone with rapist.
The hiring of Noll is the most important moment in team history. Like Belichick would later do with the Patriots, he took over a team with no winning history and forever transformed them in his image.https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/pittsburgh-steelers-chairman-dan-rooney-dies-84-202513206.html
From convincing his dad to hire Chuck Noll to caring enough to implement the rule that bears his name, well done.
One has to be old or familiar with League history to appreciate the magnitude of this hiring. They were founded in 1933. They made the post-season twice before they arrived for good in 1972 -- once in 1947, again in 1962. For much of that stretch, they were pitiful.The hiring of Noll is the most important moment in team history. Like Belichick would later do with the Patriots, he took over a team with no winning history and forever transformed them in his image.
He had three people on his phone on speed dial, one of themNFL lost a great man
I don't know. Three year plan. That's kind of the standard you have to give a guy then and today, as long as there is improvement the second year. Noll actually had 3 losing seasons to start. Patience of the Rooneys.One has to be old or familiar with League history to appreciate the magnitude of this hiring. They were founded in 1933. They made the post-season twice before they arrived for good in 1972 -- once in 1947, again in 1962. For much of that stretch, they were pitiful.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pittsburgh_Steelers_seasons
One can understand the value they place on patience. Record-wise, Noll got off to a rough start his first few years. (As did Bill Walsh and Jimmy Johnson). Today, one or more of them likely would be fired after year 2.
Ike was a great cornerback for a long time, and he always came off as entertaining and pretty damn smart. I feel for the guy, his closeness with Rooney was real. If Ike hadn't been cursed with hands of stone he'd have gotten a lot more credit.You might wonder, for example, what commonalities were in play between Rooney, elderly decorated Eastern establishment corporate titan of immense influence, and Ike Taylor, young black son of a single mom from Gretna, La., but Ike was so comfortable with Rooney’s version of NFL royalty that he once told the big boss he was wearing his pants too high.
Once, Taylor came into Rooney’s office to announce that he was tired.
“Why, what are ya tired from?” Rooney said.
Ike gave his explanation. Rooney considered it. Then he said, “Well, why don’t you lie down on the couch there?”
Ike laid down. Zonked out immediately. After a while, Rooney had an appointment. He walked out, closed the door to his office, and told the secretaries not to bother Ike.
I'm guessing that they think he's a top-10 coach, and he probably is at least a top-20 coach. Finding an available replacement that is more likely than not to be better than he is possible but unlikely?Steelers announce contract extension for HC Mike Tomlin (2-year extension thru 2020):
I just don't get the Tomlin love, though he certainly is far from being the worst coach out there. But his mere presence on the sideline puffs me full of confidence when the Steelers play the Pats. What am I missing?
Yeah, he's won a SB and all that, I get it. It just seems like time has passed him, and his rah-rah approach to coaching, by.I'm guessing that they think he's a top-10 coach, and he probably is at least a top-20 coach. Finding an available replacement that is more likely than not to be better than he is possible but unlikely?
I don't think it's quite that simple. The Patriots change game plans week to week, but many teams don't. If you pick players who play zone, have coaches that coach zone, practice zone, and scheme zone, it's not that easy to change horses midstream. The Patriots are committed to a gameplan-heavy approach and commit to this approach throughout the organization. Many teams prefer a "we do what we do philosophy," including Pittsburgh.Tomlin is the perfect example of how bad (edit - maybe a better word is difficult) NFL coaching is. He's a top-10 coach in the league, possibly top-5, yet on his watch Pittsburgh entered the AFCCG playing zone defense against Brady. Despite his issues, if Pitt moved on from him the chance they find a better coach is slim.
The more I watch the NFL the more I think that the current responsibilities of a head coach should be handled by multiple people, and that the best head coaches are those that listen to others and don't let their ego get in the way. You can't tell me that no one on the Pitt coaching staff, during the week leading up to the AFCCG, was thinking to themselves that the defensive gameplan was a joke and they were going to lose if they played primarily zone for the umpteenth time against Brady. Yet clearly either no one spoke up or Tomlin didn't listen.
We've been saying for years that Andy Reid needs to have a clock management guy, yet he still doesn't. Ego holds otherwise great coaches back so much.
He's a great cheerleaderYeah, he's won a SB and all that, I get it. It just seems like time has passed him, and his rah-rah approach to coaching, by.
Here's a question for those more knowledgeable than I. What do Steelers fans see as his strength(s)?
Depending how old the poster is, this may be heated agreement--as in, he may simply define the Belichick coaching as the good way and not understand why others don't do it.I don't think it's quite that simple. The Patriots change game plans week to week, but many teams don't. If you pick players who play zone, have coaches that coach zone, practice zone, and scheme zone, it's not that easy to change horses midstream. The Patriots are committed to a gameplan-heavy approach and commit to this approach throughout the organization. Many teams prefer a "we do what we do philosophy," including Pittsburgh.
Teams also tend to fall back on their base D against certain looks. This was how McDaniels beat the Pats in Denver, with a Wildcat motion he knew would prompt an audible to a vanilla D. It would be interesting to go back and see if the Patriots did anything unusual on offense that might trigger the Steelers to play zone, even if they went into the game expecting to play more man-to-man.
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Thanks for a great breakdown with a lot of insight. I think on this thread, the way we've kinda enforced it with other teams' threads, you should absolutely assume Pats fans aren't going to come marching around demanding that you bow down. So I for one would be very interested to hear you detail some of Tomlin's strengths, if you'll reconsider - they don't come across well in press conferences, which is the majority of what most of us know about his style.As far as Tomlin, he's an effective leader. He's never had a losing season, even some years decimated by injuries. The Rooneys are legendary for patience and consistency. Not worth it to try and go into strengths on this board, not an unbiased forum.
I second this.Thanks for a great breakdown with a lot of insight. I think on this thread, the way we've kinda enforced it with other teams' threads, you should absolutely assume Pats fans aren't going to come marching around demanding that you bow down. So I for one would be very interested to hear you detail some of Tomlin's strengths, if you'll reconsider - they don't come across well in press conferences, which is the majority of what most of us know about his style.
In regards to questions above about Tomlin's leadership style. He spouts cliches about as well as any head coach, but some of them it really seems that the players fully buy into. "Iron sharpens iron" "two dogs one bone" (originally Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders were in competition as rookies to earn a hat on gameday), "the standard is the standard" (Doesn't matter who's hurt, next man up). He has clunkers occasionally, I think he's still wincing about "unleash hell". He's also had some great lines, like his response to Bradshaw, both measured and a nice zing.Butler had a plan, though. Be simple, get the young guys comfortable and playing fast, and eventually introduce more of those time-tested Steeler pressure packages. As for the even more advanced stuff that the assistants had pined for? It’d have to wait.
The plan worked. Butler’s callow defense survived early on, allowing 22.9 points and 380 yards a game in its first nine outings. In the last seven games, it gave up just 17.3 point and 294 yards, which both ranked fourth in the NFL over that span. The supposedly offensive-driven Steelers rode an old-school heavy ground game and smashmouth defense to the AFC Championship Game.
That was where Butler realized they had to change. That night, they showed Tom Brady a few different looks before the snap but wound up dropping into basic zone coverages after it. Many of the coverages had eight defenders instead of the usual seven. The Texans had had success against New England with eight-man coverages the week before, but the Texans also had safeties and corners who could match up. Sitting back in the elementary zones they’d begun the season with, the Steelers were picked apart and Brady finished with 374 yards passing.
"That locker room is a circus, and he actually does a solid job containing it," one coaching friend of Tomlin's said to Bleacher Report.
"He keeps a lid on things more than anyone knows," said an NFC coach, who is also friends with Tomlin.
"Maybe the best teacher I've ever seen," said another assistant. "Not just about football but about life."
Ryan Clark, who played for Tomlin from 2007 to 2013, knows what it's like to be in a Tomlin locker room, what players think about working for the now-10-year veteran head coach. So I asked if the notion that Tomlin had lost his locker room was wrong—if, as those above indicated, he was possibly doing a far better coaching job than most people know. Clark's answer was smart and compelling.
"He's done an excellent job in a tough spot as a black coach," Clark wrote in a message to B/R. "He wants [to be], and is more than, a coach to these young guys, and they definitely try to take advantage of that level of care and concern. Other than his Super Bowl season, I feel like this year has been his finest."
Sounds like a guy who mentally retired in the offseason. It sounded even worse than it reads.
This is representative of stuff from the offseason:Did something happen to Ben in the offseason I forgot about? People are talking about him being checked out, but due to what?
His performance and post game comments from yesterday I assume.Did something happen to Ben in the offseason I forgot about? People are talking about him being checked out, but due to what?
Cousins would be my choice depending on how much the retirement dead cap hit (which I think is $12.4 next year and $6.2 in 2019) and the possible Bell extension eats into their cap space. I have my doubts.JG, Cousins, maybe Smith -- come on down if he hangs them up. It's not likely to be a draftee, and it's not going to be Landry Jones. This is not a rebuild.
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Informed the team I am looking forward to my 14th season. Steeler Nation will get my absolute best! — Ben.
I take the opposite point of view. Hearing the complete context of the interview, I thought Ben was throwing the "Maybe I don't have it anymore" as an almost sarcastic straw man, trying to figure out why they played so badly. I didn't get the feel he believed it for a second.Sounds like a guy who mentally retired in the offseason. It sounded even worse than it reads.
Did he get suspended again?The dirtiest player in the league will be at Heinz Field next week and it sure as hell isn't Vontaze Burfict.
Haha you are quite funny.The dirtiest player in the league will be at Heinz Field next week and it sure as hell isn't Vontaze Burfict.
Seems like he definitely wants out and is close to being a real distraction. I think a trade to a team like the Bears would make sense.The Bryant situation is kind of weird huh? Tomlin and Ben insist there is nothing to see, yet the rumor of the trade demand keeps popping up, and he didn't show up today and called in sick, who knows if he was actually sick.