heels, sox & steelers
2 point dogs lost by 2. Jax final drive was lengthend by a blatant holding non-call. Our 2 point conversion was nullified by a phantom hold on Mahan... a Steeler's victory wasn't in the script.
The 3rd and 6 call was as bad as it gets. Its sickening. Tomlin needs to take a hit on this. Also, how do you go for a 2pt conversion after the bogus hold call ??
Pete,
Yep, you're right. Arians may have called the draw play, but Tomlin didn't overrule him. And that's where the buck stops.
This just in: Anthony Smith guarantees the Steelers won't lose to the Pats next week.
The 3rd and 6 call is a moment in the game where you need a play. Not a gutless conservative call. We have a QB who was hot after a miserable first half. Do you think Tom Brady would have ran it ???
It was emblematic of the whole year..lots of gaffes, stooopid calls, then they do JUST enough to get your hopes up..only to squash your heart with some mind numbing play they have made over and over again. Saw that run by Garrard coming..in fact my wife and her brother were screaming..he's going to run! ..and he did..crap.
Someone wrote at FO`s that Lebeau was so predictable in his blitzes at NE that Brady just checked down to Welker over and over and over...It looked to me like they did the same thing tonight on a few drives. Lebeau is a saint but he's human too. He needs to take a refresher in the offseason and the team needs to build that D up again. Its what they do best. I am hopeful Mr. Houck will fix the O-line..errrr....anyone phone him yet?
FWIW, Woodley looks like he's going to be a stud.
The draw play will be discussed all offseason.Can one ludicrous call tell you all you need to know about a OC? Sometimes I think it can but I saw enough from Arians to believe he will be a good one for the Steelers. I liked him on the sideline and one year is not enough to tell anything concrete about anyone..except ST`s coaches..O-line coaches ...lol! And safeties who run their mouth but can't cover.
Yes.. Woodley, he has "the look" ..doesn't he Cols714? That was a terrific pick that will pay dividends down the road.
I agree with Rob D on Arians, I still like the guy. Especially since he and Ben seem to get along. Sometimes I feel that Arians does what he thinks other people think he should do instead of following what is working.
Eph it. I don't know what to do right now.
As far as the other coaches, get rid of the porn master ST coach, get rid of the OL coach, keep LeBeau and Arians.
A good season that was maddening because the Steelers were capable of more. At the very least, they should be playing NE next week. I predice NE blows them out next week.
To be fair to Richard LeBeau, he called a great game. The defense isn't one of the top 57 reasons the Steelers lost.
Pete, are you from the ATL?
Nope. NJ
Yikes. See the opponents in '08?
I felt like he did OK tonight, Ryan. Not a great game to my mind. I don't think he has come close to the brilliance of the 2005 playoff run in recent years. A high standard to reach but everyone eventually gets figured out and adjusted to. He is always thinking and I am not putting down a guy who SHOULD already be in the HOF as a player, let alone as a brilliant Defensive mind.I just thought the NE game was instructive and agreed with the FO guy who complained that the 5 man blitz left the same hole in the D everytime. Whatever..I am an amateur..
My general view is that the younger corodinators are taking over. Witness who is calling the offensive plays for NE and Dallas..Younger head coaches..younger coordinators. Can you imagine if Lebeau hung it up in the offseason? I can and I want the Steeler to be prepared. LIke they were at the center position this year/ Scratch that! Helll. might as well laugh, it hurts too much to cry and my mascara runs anyway.. Too much info!!
Pete.. the upcoming season looks like the death on wheels! All the caveats apply..teams can go from bad to great and vice versa..but Holy Cow..where IS the letup in that thing? Nowhere.
Farewell Alan Faneca..
Wow. I am drained. What an exhausing final month of the season. I'm now into "as long as New England loses" mode. Hopefully Jacksonville will at least bang them up next weekend (assuming Vince Young doesn't "just win" tommorrow). Right now, it feels like it will be impossible rooting for the Jags next week, but I don't think I will have any trouble once I see Brady's first smirk.
Anyway, I thought the game plan was pretty good, so it is hard to hang too much on the coaching staff. Just too many damn execution errors. I thought both 2-pt conversion calls were good calls, even after the non-hold penalty. Might as well try to punch it in from the 15. At least we knew afterwards that we would need a touchdown. However, the already infamous 3rd and 5 QB draw deserves to go down in history as one of the dumbest calls ever. In fact, this one play call overrides all of the positives. I mean, you can't even defend this one from the "if he made it it would have been a good call" perspective. Notwithstanding the Steelers conservative history, I was telling myself before that play that they could not be so stupid as to try to run. I was wrong.
Also, I'm glad to see Ben continue to be a man and take ownership of his mistakes. This is something you don't often see with other quarterbacks. He makes no excuses when he plays poorly. He is a class act, a great role model and an excellent anchor to this team. He's now got 4 years under his belt, and I think the best is yet to come.
Are they trying to get us to think they will sign him ..somehow? (Faneca) I don't see it. Its a tad scary to think of life without him. But maybe they can snag some up and comer..Been awhile since a Bettis type deal that gives a team a huge boost. I almost feel that we have some good core talent but need that 2 or 3 impact guys..somehow..I thought the Falcons were going to have a fire sale for awhile there..it would take some luck but I don't think the draft wil help us right away,, especially along the O-line...
I'm out, more to come in the following months, but I don't know what else to say. It could've been a great come from behind victory. What coach doesn't have Ben throwing on 2nd and 5 and 3rd and 6. Manning, Brady, Favre, hell even Cutler would've been throwing there.
Arians, learn from this and come back better next year.
Goodbye Ligashesky and porn boy.
I hope LeBeau wants to come back. Peace.
New ERic,,Ben answered all questions I had about him this year..He needs better players around him and we will be in Super Bowls a lot in coming years. hard to believe its only his fourth year..What a ride already..best is yet to come..indeed.
did you see him wait until after Garrard had his interview and then sincerely shake his hand and wish him the best? Total class for a young guy especially. You can see the respect he commands from opposing players as well Little wonder with his "stand up guy" routine.
Lets be honest. We all should have known this team was average at best after getting handled by the Jets. Tonight was about guts and as far as I'm concerned the team goes where the QB takes you. Throw the ball on 3rd and 6.
Yes.. I think I can deal with all the other things..but this call is just defies common sense. No justification for it whatsoever. Go out on your sword. Put it in the guy who MADE you a playoff team and let him fail or succeed on his own abilities.
Oh yeah, one more thing and then I am goind to dream about 3rd and 5 play-calls.
I think the season was mostly a success. Definitely exceeded my expectations, in contrast to last year, where they fell short of nearly everyone's expectations. I'd rather have it this way.
However, the last month was horrendous. And, given next year's schedule and the personnel issues, I think it is very likely that we will need to take a few steps back before moving forward. Realistically, I'm hoping that we can iron some things out over the next few drafts and then make a serious run at some championships in Ben's prime years.
Lets beat a dead horse...I'll take Ben, Hines, Holmes, Heath on 3rd and 6 and take my chances... This was not Kordell Stewart. This QB after 4 years is a veteran of playoff football. His coach was the rookie tonight.
Ryan..thanks for a wonderful year .This forum is wonderful.
Are you planning to continue posting for the rest of the playoffs? I think it will be a marvelous year for the AFC in particular. The Steelers are gone but the song lingers on....
OK, I'm not gone quite yet. I really wish the Steelers had thrown the ball 2 out of the 3 plays on that last series. I could live with losing with your best player throwing the ball, but losing by running on a night when you couldn't run the ball all night? Stupid.
However, given that Ben and Arians seem to like each other, I don't know that he should be fired. If anything, I give Arians the freedom to stop worrying about Steelers football and all that shizzle and just tell him to devise and call the game he would no matter what the situation.
Rob D.,
Yep, Lord willing, I'll be around for a while. Last year I posted playoff game threads and they actually proved to be a good time (BAL and NE lost! Woo-hoo!). And if you're team ain't in it, there's nothing wrong with hatin'. Or something. Anyway, I'll have a thread up later today.
Middle screen?
WR screen?
Go for 2 from the 12?
Fade on 2nd 2 pt. try?
QB draw on 3rd & 6?
Gentlemen & lady, say what you will about:
-the refs (some questionable calls and one big overturn on Santonio's catch)
-LeBeau and our D (but look at the stats: JAC 4-11 on 3rd down, 14 1st downs, 249 total yards)
-Big Ben (3 picks but he did bring us back)
BUT Arians screwed the pooch on this one.
And I've slowly come to the realization that my worst nightmare is about to happen:
SB XLII: DAL vs. NE
David..indeed!!
How much concentrated hate would I have built up in me..and who would be the team I choose to win. Do I want to be eaten by sharks or boiled to death in burning oil?
Night Steeler fans...grab your comforters and slip away to dreamland.
I can't sleep. Big surprise. It's been awhile since I've dealt with a playoff loss.
David--N.E./Dallas SB thoughts makes my skin crawl. All I can think to comfort myself is that one of them would have to lose--hopefully in heartbreaking fashion--like Romo fumbling another game-winning kick snap. Why couldn't that have happened to the Jags tonight?
My brain keeps having a debate with itself. I'm trying to tell myself that I didn't want to be subjected to a week of Steelers/Patriots hype. It's not so much that I feared to play them, but that I did not want to have to listen to all the crap leading up to the game. And, I'm not strong enough to pull myself away from reading everything. The whole "guarantee" think would have been recycled (as I'm sure it will be when we play the Pats next year). Anyway....while it would have been awesome to get Tomlin's first playoff win--and complete a thrilling comeback victory--all in all I'd rather the season end against the Jags than against the Pats. I just seriously had little hope that we could have even played competitively against them. Nowhere close to the guarded optimism I had when the Steelers played at Indy in '06.
The number one thing that bothers me is the history of that bogus draw call? How many times have they ran the ball instead of going for the win during crunch time under tomlin? 3 or 4 times? Anyhow, bogus calls and non-calls by the refs but the worse call of all belongs to the steelers...
Wow. What a game.
I just got back after wandering around midtown Manhattan aimlessly for about a half hour before catching the subway home. That one hurt a lot.
I thought I make some epic-long post on my way home, but it seems that just about everything I would have said was covered in previous posts. I missed the first hold on Mahan because as soon as they scored, we put on 'Renegade' at the Steelers party I was at. I immediately got a text from my dad saying Mahan got jobbed, and that's what it sounded like.
I guess the only thing I could add is that it seems like Steelers fans showed up for this game. It seemed packed and loud and rambunctious throughout, despite the fact that we were down 18 points at the start of the 4th quarter. This made me proud.
This is one of those games I'm going to remember forever, I think. I was a party with three TVs in three rooms, and we all had the superstition to the extreme. The worst of the three TVs was non-HD and was about 6-7 seconds faster than the other TV. This was where I watched the fourth quarter. Good things were happening when I was standing in a crotched position (a la a baseball catcher), and this is where I stood for pretty much the whole fourth quarter.
Not a ton else to say, I don't think. Essex played valiantly but was bad enough to get beat in a couple of key spots. The D actually played pretty well, I thought, and Ike holding onto the interception made me proud.
The 3rd-and-6 call, well, we all berated it like crazy in person. I think the "would Brady or Manning do this" analogies are exactly correct. The one thing I'd say about that is that it's the kind of call that, if it works, Arians is a genius. Maybe he saw something. In fact, I have to think he saw something in the defense to make him think that was smart.
Seemed like Ben wasn't escaping as well as usual tonight. Wonder if he was a little hurt. Also seemed like we ran left and/or rolled left a lot, which seemed surprising to me given the personnel on the left side of the line.
I am excited to watch Ben, Heath, Santonio, Woodley, Ike, Troy, and Larry Foote (who played pretty well tonight) for the forseeable future. We're going to be good for a long time.
Maybe not next year though (someone noted the schedule earlier -- AFC South, NFC East, AFC North, and the Pats and the Chargers. Yippee-kay-yay).
Last (sorry this has rambled on) -- my friend Nitesh, a Jags fan, a text message that said "my condolences" at 10:23 pm tonight. I was so ready to shove it in his face after what would have been the biggest 4th quarter comeback in playoff history.
One last thing -- the D played well, but not phenomenally. There were a lot of drops on Jacksonville's side, and Garrard's INTs were both pretty bad. Maybe it's cause we were getting to him, but this wasn't really a case of the defense dominating. Reminded me more of Dennis Northcutt in the '02 Browns playoff game (incidentally, he plays for JAX).
Good lcuk sleeping it off guys. This one was memorable but it will take a while to accept, I think.
The Pats will beat Jacksonville by double digits.
Last thing -- Ryan, I echo everyone's sentiments thanking you for keeping this site going. It's a great mix of fun and intelligence. I first found it when I was in Thailand during the SB XL run, and it was really helpful for me then for obvious reasons. It's cool to see it grow up in the way it has over the past few years.
You guys are all great people to be fans with.
I'd just like to add this small tidbit... I had a Rams fan and a Cowboys fan with me at the bar tonight, and all those two could talk about was the insane amount of holding going on by the Jax line. I mean, you might not even want to watch the tape. It looked like they were doing a dance class with all the man-hugging going on. Hell, if two guys who have nothing invested in the game are yelling about the shifty calls, what more I need to know?
Friends, it has been a fine season with all of you. I don't know if I will listen to more playoff games this season, much less watch them. If I do, I'll drop in here. Otherwise I'll be here just on non-game days. We'll see. I have nothing much intelligent to say about the draft anyway, except regarding need.
This will be an interesting off-season as I turn sixty end of next week, am probably taking early retirement the week after that and we are thinking about selling the house and looking for something smaller. And my older daughter is expecting her fourth in three weeks, so I will have some things to keep the Steelers' woes off my mind.
If you want something else to spoil your day, consider the Browns as the favorites to win the division next year.
And congratulations, Ryan, on a wonderful party.
Don't turn off the lights yet Steeler fans - don't you know that football fandom is a year round thing?! Or is that just me?
In general I like Arians but I have one major complaint (and Tomlin should be included in this). They refuesd to adapt throughout the season. This was not a good running team, especially up the middle, but they forced it time and again. Arians loves to call those little screens to WRs but I don't remember one of them working. You learn what your team is doing well throughout each year - stick with it. Overall I think Arians is a good OC and will help with the development of the passing game. However, I'm now convinced he's got a little K. Gilbride in him - he's goinng to run HIS OFFENSE and be damned with whether it's working.
Tomlin is young and I think he'll be a good one. However, he is much too conservative. Too much playing not to lose. And he think he has the stubborness that young coaches sometimes have. You need to be flexible to be truely successful in the NFL, it's Bellichick's best quality (right behind his natural charm and charisma, of course).
P.S. I don't think Arians is going to stop calling those WR screens, so Roethlisberger better work on delivering a better ball in the offseason. In fact, half the reason those WR screens haven't been working is that Ben is throwing a very bad ball on them. The recievers are really having to adjust to pull it in and by then the defense has reacted to them.
P.P.S. That game last night was botched the same way the Jets game was in OT. Overly conservative offensive calls, followed by a weak punt and a chip shot field goal.
Good morning everyone....
Steeler depression aside - Israel, my friend, Happy Birthday!
The big positive I took from last night (aside from Big Ben) was the passion demonstrated by the Steelers last night in the 2nd half. It showed me that this team can play with anyone, especially considering that we were short handed as a result of injury.
.....now let's talk about the Draft!
Oh and is anyone watching the games today? It's still football season after all...
Yup right on Eric.
I did not stay up to listen to any call-ins or game analysis...
But I see in the AM papers' post-mortem, which includes lots of stuff on what-went-wrong and what-should-be-fixed...not ONE mention of play-calling. In fact Arians' name is not in print today as far as I've seen. Wow. Maybe he buys the press hounds a lot of free lunches or something.
I sent Savran an email about to see if he has any comments, but I was amazed. You'd think it might at least bear mention.
Oh yes - happy birthday Israel, mazel tov.
And Ryan, thanks for another great year.
Things I know.....i think
1. The O-line just sucks. If Ben wasn't such a good scrambler, we'd have had been watching the Browns last nihgt. If we don't go after a stud lineman, then there is something wrong with the front office and god help us if Faneca does walk, which he probably will.
2. Our special teams sucks
3. Supulveda's new nickname is jellylegs.
4. The minute the game ended i became a Jags fan, unless the Titans win, in which case, I am a Titans fan.
One of the greatest Steelers games ever and one I'll never forget...and I'm feeling this way off a loss! Steelers showed an unbelievable amount of guts in the second half, and they should be proud of their effort.
BUT...can anyone say they're surprised at how it ended? This game, exciting as it was, was the same nightmare we've been forced to re-live numerous times this year. Last summer even casual fans could identify the stink coming from our o-line & special teams.
Finally, the QB draw on 3rd down was a miserable, cowardly call. I hope it comes to Tomlin & Arians in the middle of night for the rest of their lives. Hopefully, they've learned. As Rich Cimini of the NY Daily News said this morning if the call, "(it was)...a Herm Edwards-play-not-to-lose-moment."
My favorite shot of the entire game was that trash-talkin' Hines Ward SILENCED on the sidelines just minutes before a Jags victory. How do you not let a single play go by without talkin' trash ? How ? Oh he's a true competitor Steelers fans say - No - He's a true moron. Go Jags (the one team that may be able to beat the Pats).
But Packer Fan, Hines Ward is just having so much FUN out there!
For those of you that have been discussing it, they are all over the play calling this morning on ESPN Radio 1250...
Ryan...coupla things for you.
Draft - how do you want to address that here?
Off Season - should we begin by making our off-season predictions? Could be interesting...
At least Packer trolls are nice. That's what happens when your team isn't very good for long stretches, I suppose.
SteelerBill,
Feel free to comment away on the draft; I still need to put the finishing touches on the draft site. I'll go back and try to pull everything together later.
I'll have a post up in a bit for today's games, and I'll include predictions there.
Guys, i'm drained. I mean, physically, emotionally, and mentally drained. What a ride, to go from the excitement of the opening drive, to accepting the fact we were going to get blown out at home in a playoff game, to the ecstasy of an incredible second half comeback, to having your heart ripped out and stomped on right in front of you.
Same time next year, fellas? Looking forward to it!
Some comments on the game itself:
- Ben's first pick, the one that was run back for a Touchdown, looked to be a great read and jump by Mathis. The last two, were just terribly thrown forced passes that never should have been. And it's a shame, because outside of those two passes, he played fantastic. But, there are no mulligans, especially in the playoffs. Gotta live with them.
- There is a laundry list of about 10-15 plays where you can say, "Well, if that play wouldn't have happened, we would have won!" and when you can say that, so many times, well, then you probably didn't deserve to win.
- The Steelers kept looking for Holmes deep, and they might have had him at least once if Ben would have had another split second to get a throw off.
- During Ike Taylors interception return I was laughing, almost in tears, laughing so hard because Ike Taylor was going to run it back for a touchdown to give us the lead. And Ryan was going to be touching himself. And then the guy next to me shoved me in a moment of pure excitement and almost sent me over four rows of bleachers.
Him: "CAN YOU BELIEVE THERE WERE NO FLAGS ON THAT RETURN?!?
Me: "CAN YOU BELIEVE HE CAUGHT THE DAMN BALL?!?!?!?"
Him: "NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
True story.
- James Harrison was getting nice bear hugs from the Jaguars o-line all night.
- I don't know what happened on the two-point conversion, the one that was good, then not good, the stadium was so loud that all we heard was, "We will re-try." And everyone looked at each other, confused, scratching their butts, trying to figure out what happened.
- Is it safe to say, Willie > Najeh?
All in all, I can't be upset with the season. We were pegged as a third place team prior to the season, by pretty much everyone, knew we had a terrible offensive line (that ended up being much worse than we could have possibly imagined), had the uncertainty of a new head coach, and lost several key starters to injury throughout the season...and still managed to win the division and play a home playoff game.
That's more than I expected, all things considered.
Thanks for the perspective Adam. I'm feeling better this morning, knowing how close the Steelers came to winning that game despite being down many key players and throwing 3 picks. I'm still pissed about the play calling on the last series though.
Hopefully they fix the OL in the offseason, Mahan is not a starting center, so start there.
Yeah Adam, that was painful. After the game my two brothers, my son, my nephew and I tried to get over it the best way we know how-- by playing some parking lot football and beating the hell out of each other. But that's not helping this morning.
I figured that Tomlin/Arians had learned their lesson around sitting on a slim lead in the Jets game, when they did essentially the same thing with 3 minutes to play. Apparently not.
I'm going to have many more thoughts on this when my head stops pounding, but for the time being I'll say:
That was heartbreaking. But wonderful. But heartbreaking.
Hope you all are having good days,
-m
Well, I am finally over it.
Here is a little story for you set in 1995-96. I lived in Lakeview, Oregon then. There were icicles from the eave of our roof to the concrete porch, and it was very cold. After the Steelers lost to the Cowboys in the super bowl, after such a valiant effort. I went outside kicked over all the icicles, and wandered around the town very cold.
I felt like that Saturday night, but had no icicles to kick and it wasn't really all that cold. So, it has taken to now to get over it.
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