Frank Summers is inactive this week, with David Johnson taking over the fullback duties.
Also inactive for the Steelers are Keenan Lewis, Troy Polamalu, Kriag Urbik, Tony Hills, Shaun McDonald and Nick Eason. Dennis Dixon is the third quarterback.
Tyrone Carter will start at strong safety.
Tomlin, Sweed, Reed
ReplyDeleteTomlin though, really laid an egg. That right before the half nonsense ended up being huge.
Worst back to back Steelers game I can remember in a long time
I think the Steelers are a bad football team. Why do we run the ball and punt in the 4th quarter for the second straight week? Piss Poor Steelers football. Looks like we are on our way to a top 10 draft pick.
ReplyDeleteWe're gonna be lucky to make the playoffs.
ReplyDeleteOn defense, the proliferation of the quick-pass offense means that opposing teams are much more capable of executing short, dink and dunk passes than in years past. And it's killing our D.
It doesn't help that we get no pressure -- sure, 3 step drops, whatever, NO ONE is getting close AT ALL -- or that william gay and tyrone carter are not starter material.
On offense, I'll give some credit to the line. They did a darn good job, but they still can't run the ball short yardage. Combined with Arians thinking he's smarter than he is (what the hell was that 3rd and goal formation? Did ANYONE think that was going to succeed?), no wonder we have trouble in the red zone.
And of course Santonio Holmes has been mailing it in, assuming that being Super Bowl MVP means he doesn't have to pay attention, while Limas Sweed is officially a bust. And Rashard Mendenhall apparently pissed of Tomlin and didn't see action outside of special teams.
Oh, special teams? Is Piotr Czech still available?
But at the end of the day, it's ALL tomlin. I've defended the guy from day one, but camp cupcake has left this team soft, slow, out of shape, unfocused, and incapable of playing with real NFL teams. The horrid call to go for it on 4th down is another sign of his problematic in-game decision-making. His calling card has always been his ability to inspire and motivate, but this team looks uninspired and disinterested.
I'm holding out hope of a wild card spot, but it's pretty clear Baltimore will win the division and we'll be competing with the Browns for 3rd place.
What an utter waste of all this talent in the last year before we have to start rebuilding the whole team.
Shorter Tomlin press conf: "we stink".
ReplyDeleteI really hope these last two games are enough to wake Tomlin up. He can't continue to have a game plan that completely depends on the qb running around and winging the ball around. I guess the Steelers will have to learn the lesson of the "Tommy Gun" all over again.
BR just gets too greedy. Yeah, Sweed should have completed the TD, but why not take a shorter pass, keep the ball and run clock.
You can score a TD that way, too, and if you don't, it's a shorter FG try.
I hope LeBeau puts some packages in that allow Hampton to stay on the field in the nickle and dime defenses. Keisel is good at what he does, but he simply gets run over playing the NT/DT in this defense. Teams have figured out how small that defense is and that they can easily break runs on it.
Well, this team just about needs to run the table to even make the playoffs.
I've never been more dissappointed in Tomlin.
ReplyDeleteHe simply didn't have it today. It was a piss poor showing by him and his horrible decisions.
Changes are due, and for once its not the o-line.
Sweed shouldn't even dress next week. And Holmes should be on the bench to start. Its time for some tough love and until he gets his head out of la la land, he doesn't deserve to be on the field.
I have no idea why Mendenhall never saw the field when Willie, who ran admirably, was CLEARLY out of gas.
Pathetic loss.
Pathetic
oh and someone needs to lose their cool and go crazy on this team.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Tomlin is capable of it. So maybe Harrison needs to shatter a helmet in the locker room.
Too many fat contracts have these guys lazy. Time to wake up.
Super Bowl hangover. It is what it is. We'll get a better draft position and get back to competing next year.
ReplyDeleteguess what...someone dinked and dunked down the field again, scored, and won the game! but noooooooo, we don't think teams can drive on us like that without making a mistake.
ReplyDeletegood effort by parker, but poor personnel handling by coaches. fresh legs would've been nice in the 4 quarter.
oh, and by the way, this team is officially soft until they "win" a 4th quarter.
sweed is gone. mendenhall must be in the dog house for some reason. holmes has no right to signal first down after he makes a routine catch, let alone do something useful. the d-line looks slow...old?
we come out, dominate early, lose late, again. good game planning but poor in game adjustments? i'm starting to lean that way here.
finally, no reason to rule out playoffs. but, if we don't beat the chargers next week things will get real tough for us.
Tomlin said Mendenhall didn't "pay enough attention to detail" during practice this week. Don't know why Summers wasn't dressed instead if so.
ReplyDeleteThere were 23 points, but the offense gave up 6 of those. Giving up 17 pts should win more than a fair share of games.
I have a hard time blaming the D for this week.
ReplyDeleteThe score very easily could have been 20-0 at the half, or 16-0, AT LEAST 13-0 with some better calls from Tomlin (if we punt instead of going for it, lets assume Cinci gets it on the 20, I still don't think they get into FG range, they might have even run it out and been content with 13-0).
AND if you are going to go for it on 4th and 4 from the 35!, do you not go for it on 4th and 7 inches to the goalline?
Does that make any sense to anybody?
AND how did no one see that fake coming? You have to prepare for things like that.
Coaching was just terrible today. Sorry I'm ranting, but when poor decisions are the reason for a loss like this, it drives me nuts.
A lot of good posts here, Way to say it Sam and Marc..I hope that Art the 2nd doesn't offer STUPID A CONTRACT EXTENSION... Four and the door are O.K. with me. And take the STUPID and PREDICTABLE BRUCE ARIANS with him.This is the Pittsburgh Steelers and this is all the best talent they can come up with? Zero short yardage unless you're talking the quarterback sneak. I'am ready for Ken Anderson to take over the offensive coordinator position and John Mitchell the head coaching. Dave w. in Las Vegas.
ReplyDeleteI could understand why they went for it on 4th and 4 from the 35. It was too close to punt and, really, too far for a FG. They should have had a TD, but if they'd gone for a shorter
ReplyDeletepass and didn't make it, those few yards closer might have been the difference between a make and miss.
I'm not the least bit pissed at the Steelers coaches. I thought their play calling got conservative (on offense and defense) at the end of the game but what really lost it was the dropped passes by Holmes (his brain fart interception didn't help either) and Limas Sweed!
ReplyDeleteWe had this game if the receivers just did their job.
I don't know, I mostly blame the coaches for this one. They went turtle-ball on offense and defense in the 4th quarter, and it bit them in the ass.
ReplyDeleteI don't blame Arians for calling run plays to help kill the clock, but then this is where the de-emphasis on the running game hits home. Many of us have said when the Steelers needed to run the ball to win the game, they'd be unable to do it. This is what happens. When the chips were down they couldn't grind it out.
ReplyDeleteThe real problem is the offense is designed to make BR happy. IMHO that conflicts with team goals - like winning.
It will be interesting to see what Tomlin does.
Dale, Please tell us how the Steelers are going to rebound from this.... and beat the San Diego Chargers? Dave W.in Las Vegas
ReplyDeleteYou can pass the ball to kill the clock too. Why take the ball out of Big Ben's hands? Ben can always elect to take a knee, which has the same result as running Willie into a stacked box.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, you can run clock with the pass, but that's a dink and dunk
ReplyDeletegame and as was reported somewhere BR "disdains" the short pass and won't take it unless it's an absolutely last resort. Notice once the scripted part of the offense is over, which often includes short passes that move the sticks, it breaks down.
So everybodys hero, Summers, is benched and our running game gets going. Now the defense is stinkin and Sweed still cant catch. They better activate McDonald next week and and bench Sweed. I hope D Johnson gets better too.
ReplyDeleteDale, is it true that Mendenhall wasnt played because of a bad practice? If thats true then its BS.