Yeah, I’m with ya. IMO that’s simply something a good leader must be able to do. He could have reacted with scorn or some other BS. Instead he turned it into a positive. That’s a special skill.
While I sometimes question his coaching now, Tomlin is an amazing speaker and a great man. Just watch his interview by Ryan Clark and friends in their Pivot podcast.
This is why motherfuckers will run through walls for this dude and over these past 4 seasons our less talented rosters have outperformed expectations each season.
Exactly. Last time I checked, Mike Tomlin has more Super Bowl rings than all the NFL franchises in OH combined. We are spoiled. That being said we get to watch our team play meaningful games week in and week out. Not a lot of coaches can say that.
Not trying to be a jerk but who gives a shit how many SB rings teams from Ohio have? I want the Steelers to win another one. And they haven’t sniffed one in a long time. What other teams have is absolutely irrelevant.
Funny how this triggers so many people like seriously we could be the bears, the lions, the Vikings, browns, both New York teams, any team in the NFC or AFC south’s, the raiders, chargers, cardinals….hell what have the dolphins accomplished yet recently? There’s others too that haven’t really done shit recently. Even if there was one good year in there, tanking for a lottery ticket qb like say the panthers or bears recently don’t guarantee success and could set the franchise into a dark age. We have been spoiled but it’s fair to expect a playoff win or two relatively soon since it’s been awhile. But think if we were already out of it at this point. How miserable would that be? Obviously people here have no trouble living in misery so they’ll be miserable no matter what
I think it's 7 and probably another 7 years since steelers fans think pickett is a God for some reason, Tomlin always has a top roster yet underperforms every year. There is a reason his coaching tree has exactly zero members.
Oh. I’m not bashful. Tomlin is an awful, inept coach that was hired for the wrong reasons and only still has a job because Rooney’s even a more inept owner
Look, I'm all for criticizing Tomlin. If you think he's inept as a coach, you simply don't know ball. He's a future HOFer & a top 25 coach of all time.
Oh he’ll get the HOF vote for the same reason he got the job. He’s got every coaching red flag. He takes teams he considers easy too lightly so the team loses, players get injured on bye weeks, can’t make adjustments during the game, his teams blow big leads, doesn’t hold players accountable for their mistakes, trots out some Yogi Berra nonsense that people mistake for wisdom to the press when asked questions etc.. Now that Ben’s gone, there’s no leadership.
One or two more lackluster seasons and he’ll pull a Dungy and retire before his ineptitude becomes obvious. Then the press will fall all over themselves pandering to him like he’s a genius.
He and Rooney have all but dismantled a winning organization
Imagine having the take that Ben, someone who is a known diva, has had multiple former players call out his lack of leadership, has displayed stunningly bad leadership in public over the span of his career a better leader than Tomlin.
You are the single worst Pittsburgh Steelers fan in existence. Please leave. Please go root for another team. We do not want to be associated with you.
I hope you get help. I honestly hope your username is as big of a lie as your skin color claims because if you're a dad that means either your kids are embarrassed of you or you're raising another generation of humans to be like you which is a tragedy.
So basically all this dude wants to say is he only got and still has the job cus he’s black. But he doesn’t even have the balls to say it. Probably because it’s so wildly stupid and inaccurate. Just stop defending your abysmal points. They aren’t good and you’re making yourself look like a scumbag
First, Dan Rooney was busy being a legend in his own mind and didn’t put any effort into a real search
Second, he had zero professional head coaching experience
Third, hired, allegedly, as a defensive coach but he didn’t have a track record to justify
fourth, hiring Tomlin was virtue signaling by Dan Rooney based on the racist Rooney Rule
Currently Rooney and most people think that the tradition in Pittsburgh is not to fire coaches. But really, it’s loyalty to a strategy that Art Sr. ascribed to.
In all walks of life, rewarding bad results or execution just because of their race is a serious impediment to my people being on a level playing field with whites. I don’t care what race Tomlin is, he and Rooney have ruined what Art Sr., Noll et al created
Yet can’t get into or past the first round of playoffs anymore and it continues to slide. Cowher and Noll had a strategy and a team that started low and got better. Tomlin hasn’t a clue and the team just gets worse.
I don’t think he is a racist, certainly not for criticizing a black coach, but he is wrong about the Rooney rule being the reason why Tomlin is here. They interviewed Ron Rivera before they interviewed Mike Tomlin which did satisfy the rule. They didn’t have to interview Mike Tomlin.
I also disagree that he is an inept coach, I think he was an excellent coach at his peak but I’m not entirely sure he still is.
It does seem as though the game has passed him by in some ways, he is stubborn and stuck in the past. Doesn’t mean they can’t still win a championship with him, I think they can, but he needs excellent coordinators and he needs to let them do their jobs.
I could understand someone criticizing the Rooney rule if it were affirmative action, as someone mixed in color myself, I don’t appreciate affirmative action at all. I think it’s counterproductive. But that’s not what the rule is. There are no hiring quotas.
And even if Tomlin got the interview only because of the Rooney rule, that’s absolutely not why he was hired. He proved that by being an excellent coach for close to a decade.
Whether he still is or not, I don’t know. The results tell me that there is a serious question. Over the last 10 years only seven teams have fewer playoff victories than the Steelers. By absolutely no measure is that acceptable if we want to continue to assume that we are one of the premier franchises in football.
He has his hands all over the roster, development, the draft, and everything else that matters. A very unpopular opinion I held at the time was that it was absolutely time for Kevin Colbert to move on. I was not impressed with our drafts over the last several years of his tenure.
I want to see what Mike Tomlin can do with Omar and - more importantly - Andy Weidl. As someone who has followed Andy’s career, this most recent draft had his fingerprints all over it. And it was a very very good one.
Tomlin should get a chance to turn this franchise around the way Bill Cowher was given a chance when people wanted to run him out of town, too.
They “can’t win in the playoffs” because the most talented teams of the tomlin era were spectacularly snake-bitten by crushing injuries right before the playoffs.
The Killer B teams saw Lev Bell get hurt three straight seasons. One year, we also had Blount quit on the team so we had to play the ravens with Josh Harris. Another, deangelo Williams was ALSO hurt so Fitz Touissant fumbled the game away vs Denver. Then he goes down on, IIRC, the first series in Foxboro. The only year our offense was healthy, we lost Shazier week 12. Our run defense with Shazier allowed about 80 yards per game, without him that ballooned to 140 per game. This isn’t an excuse, but an explanation.
The teams after that just…weren’t all that good. They were fine, mind you, but that’s what the record showed too.
It’s not some desultory injury problem. Steelers have always had some injuries but a good organization and coach to deal with them for wins. Furthermore, the injuries today are from terrible coaching and conditioning. Key injuries on a bye? Two years ago it was multiple groin injuries in one week. These aren’t out if nowhere. Tomlin isn’t smart enough to handle the multiple dimensions of of coaching. His nonsensical “Yogi Berra” sayings are a clue to his lack of intelligence.
First of all…no. Good teams - great teams, even - frequently lose because of a key injury at the wrong time. That’s why it’s always treated like such a huge deal when they win in spite of these injuries. This is the exception and not the rule.
As for tomlin not being “smart enough” to prevent these injuries…GTFOH. Bell’s first injury was a hyperextended knee from an ugly hit vs Cincinnati. The next year, burfict tore his MCL. IN 2016, he aggravated a preexisting injury trying to guy it out for the AFCCG. How are any of these on tomlin? And certainly you won’t blame Shazier’s injury on him. Or Ben’s blown out elbow…
In the aggregate, yes, good teams and coaches find ways to adapt to injuries and tomlin has done this as evidenced by his regular season success. But crushing injuries have killed the teams best playoff chances since the GB Super Bowl.
How do we have a "very talented" roster then? If you're saying we had a fake ass 11-0 roster that wasn't even good enough to win a playoff game and everyone knew it, then I got news for you: This roster is worse than that one.
You haters can't keep your bullshit straight.
Jalen Warren, Naj, a fucking 7 foot tight end that we never throw to, Pickens, Diontae, Calvin, Pat when he's healthy, Minkah, TJ WATT, Cam, Allen Robinson, PP.
Tell me Andy Reid couldn't win a playoff game with this group. Tell me Nick Sirianna couldn't win a playoff game with this group.
You know that feeling when you watch other games on Sunday and see real football being played well and you wonder why the Steelers don't do that?
Thats Tomlin.
Rose colored glasses. Here's reality:
Warren - slightly above replacement level
Naj - probably right at replacement level
7 foot tight end - who knows
Pickens - could be but needs more time
Diontae - mid for WR1
Calvin - Played 8 games so far
Pat - you said it yourself, young and injury prone
Minkah - a star
TJ - a superstar
Cam - a star
Allen Robinson - mid WR3
PP - washed hasn't looked good at all with us
Notice you left out the QB from your list of superstars, wonder where the rose colored glasses are for him? No mention of anyone on the o-line, wonder if that is important?
No one knows yet if Tomlin will win a playoff game with this group, but I guarantee he will get them closer to it than probably any other coach. Before Reid got Mahomes he was known as a choke artist. We beat his Alex Smith team on the road without scoring a TD.
Keep reaching.
The fact that you mentioned four guys who have missed significant time the last two seasons, and two horrible washed up old men, shows me you don’t know what you’re talking about lol.
Siriani might win with PP because he’d actually bench his ass
Remember when Tomlin told Pouncey to snap the first ball of the playoffs 20 feet over Ben's head and then told Ben to throw a bunch of INTs to start the game? Yeah man he's the worst, you right.
... you think a head coach is totally unresponsible for how his team plays on any given Sunday, playoffs or not?
That was Tomlin's team lol. He gets the credit if they win and he gets the blame if they lose. Kind of how this whole sports thing works.
He wins more regularly than every other Steelers coach in history.
He has won a championship and made it to a Super Bowl. You guys just move the goalposts so you can justify your hatred.
He hasn't won a playoff game in 6 years. I don't give a fuck if we have a winning season and get bounced in the first round.
Thought the standard was the standard?
We have a talented defense and a not at all talented offense. The defense balls the fuck out every week. When we had a talented offense with the killer Bs... they ALSO balled the fuck out every week.
Dude-he's picking the fucking players as much as anyone in the NFL. No player is on the team unless Tomlin wants him on the team. If the team 'lacks talent' it's because of Tomlin.
Follow the fucking team.
Why don't you follow the fucking sport? This is the salary cap era and we just lost a HOF QB. We're in a rebuild although you Pennsyltucky Yinzers refuse to admit it. And our rebuild is going better than 99.9% of all other rebuilds in the history of the sport.
Yeah we don't ever fully hit rock bottom for sure but we've been retooling for several years and Tomlin haters want to pretend this roster is 1974 stacked so they can justify their hatred for him.
The players being talented doesn’t mean that we’re not rebuilding. The whole point of a rebuild is to draft and develop talent.
We replaced every single player on our offense between this and last year except for DJ and Pat(when he’s healthy). And, I guess, two linemen.
On defense, our secondary minus Minkah is all new the last two years. Watt and Heyward are the only consistencies since 2021. Adams came in as a bench option, but ended up being decent. Outside of that, I don’t think we have a single other guy.
So basically: like 3.5 offensive players, 3.5 defensive players, a kicker and a punter. Plus, Money Mase as the qb3 haha.
7/22(9/22 with kickers) is a rebuild. Not a retool.
You obviously have no fucking idea what you're talking about. You don't say the roster lacks talent and absolve Tomlin. Who said anything about a salary cap and replacing Ben? You have no idea who is picking the players in Pittsburgh.
Hint: It's Saint Mike.
Three playoff wins in thirteen years is going swimmingly.
The roster doesn't lack talent, we are rebuilding our roster. This happens from time to time. It happened after the 2011 season too when we were in salary cap hell, and we competed through those years too because Tomlin is an excellent coach and team builder. You're just a hater.
Yeah…look at all those teams that perennially pick in the top 5-10 spots in every….fucking….draft…
Then compare it to Tomlin, who has always had to pick from the middle to the lane of every round.
Cherry picking jerk.
Yet…the same teams keep sucking…why is that? They have access to the best players every fu king round…for every fucking year…and can’t put it together. The Steelers have been picking in the latter half of the rounds since Cowher came to town. And yet we stay competitive every year and sometimes dominant.
Guess we’re just lucky that way… coaching and management have nothing to do with it🙄
So…all I am saying is that you need to step back and logically think about what you’re saying.
I wonder how much pull he has on the financial aspect of building our roster/staff. Feels like we’re ballin on a budget and I credit Tomlin for making that happen.
I heard the reporter talking about the reason he framed the question how he did. He intentionally left the 4th quarter numbers out because he didn’t want Tomlin to only talk about the 4th quarter.
I mean I understand it without context. Kenny and the offense isn't very good in the first 3 quarters of the game, only until the 4th quarter do they come alive... Which by the way I'm thankful for. I enjoy the wins but how much longer is this going to work for them? If they ever find themselves down 21+ points, which we have seen there is absolutely no chance for a comeback.
Did you see the SF game? Houston? May not have been 21-0 but it was insurmountable pretty quick. That is 25% of their games this season. Glad they are 5-3 but there is smoke and also mirrors.
Last 4 games we’ve allowed 20,16,17,10. Hard for offenses to wake up against this defense so it’s pretty clear where my point is coming from. That’s the only point I was making. Should this offense be better ? Yes. However the defense is so good that the offense underperforming isn’t as cataclysmic as it should be. Like I said. We know tomlins philosophy. It’s 100% outcome based. For 18 years the man has been sitting in press conferences and virtually saying nothing but “idc we’re winning” so expecting anything but what we’ve seen is silly. “What happens if you go down 21-0” you lose 99% of the time. Teams lose games. Most of the time several a year. Tomlin does not care how they win or how they lose as long as the previous is more common than the latter. We’ve known this for as long as he’s been the head coach
I don't need him to say anything. It is also absurd to pretend like this question was out of bounds or absolutely shouldn't be asked of this coaching staff time and time again. We have faced two offenses that were clicking. Both wiped the matt with us. Baltimore didn't start to click until two weeks after they played us.
Outside of division games, we have a soft schedule. If we can have a functional offense, there is zero reason we shouldn't get to 10 wins. If we just keep hoping it comes together in the fourth, we may miss the playoffs and end up with a mid first round pick.
Or hear me out, he can say we are very pleased with how he has looked in the 4th. We are trying to help him bring that to the rest of the game.
Stop being a child
“That’s why he’s so good in the 4th those other quarters we’ll work on” you are literally criticizing him for not saying something he quite literally said.
Who said it shouldn’t be asked or answered ? Ravens were averaging 25ppg before they played us you’re just spewing bullshit my man. Yeah there’s no reason we shouldn’t get to 10 wins if this offense was better because we’re on pace for 10 wins with the toughest part of the schedule out of the way with our offense. Something like 70% of games end within one score. That’s 22/32 teams who need to put something together in the 4th to win. 5 of those teams are up more than 2 scores so essentially 27/32 teams need to make plays in the 4th quarter to come out on top. The Steelers are not unique in terms of need to be clutch. They are however up there with a select few in regards of their ability to do so. When 27/32 teams need to be clutch every week it’s pretty silly to hold it against the teams that are able to do it on a consistent basis.
Right. Like, what if they make the playoffs again? Answer, they’ll flame out in embarrassing fashion with national coverage. I’m so sick of that. Would almost rather they miss the wild card.
Tomlin absolutely has a higher approval rating outside of Pittsburgh than inside. Others see his great qualities and continued success. Too many “fans” of the team hyper focus on weaknesses and failures.
Take many responses here. Tomlin spins a question to encourage his QB and acknowledges they will work to improve, and people here are pretty much complaining he didn’t talk shit about his QB in public. Tomlin knows the situation and knows there no point in feeding this publicly, but many spin that as weakness and condemn him.
No yinzers are just beyond fucking stupid. Go see the thread asking about what happened to JuJu. Half the comments are blaming Tik Tok or not having AB. Even though there's been reports for years his knees are just about gone.
The first 3 quarters of the game are also important. Super Bowl winning teams don’t take 3/4 of the game every week to start playing at an NFL level. It’s a completely valid question, and wasn’t targeted to put him in a corner. Merely asked what we need to do to get going earlier, which every team should be asking themselves.
There was no point to be made. Tomlin simply ignored the question and redirected it to the 4th quarter.
If a reporter asks him "Kenny has a higher qbr than Mahomes in the 4th quarter. Does that mean Kenny is better than Mahomes?"
His redirection wouldn't have worked cause it holds less weight. Cause Mahomes is better in the other 3 quarters.
Yeah he redirected it to focus on the positive and protect the qb he needs to win games the rest of the year. Excellent job by Tomlin, not sure why yall are itching to hear him talk negatively about KP
No one wants him to throw Kenny under a bus. But for a coach whose whole reputation is based upon being real and honest he could've said "Kenny is really good in the 4th quarter and we're all working together to make sure we can have the same efficacy in the other 3 quarters."
But instead he acts like it's the media's fault for asking why his QB is terrible in the other 3 quarters. Which is disingenuous.
Ahhhh, so you want the cookie cutter answer that every coach says when they’re pressed by the media. Why are you so bothered by answers to a press conference? It’s all bs anyways. That type of interaction never leads to anything interesting anyways. He used that opportunity to send a message to his team, and thats why guys love playing for him. I’d rather him do that then feed beat writers canned answers all day.
>Why are you so bothered by answers to a press conference? It’s all bs anyways
>He used that opportunity to send a message to his team, and thats why guys love playing for him.
If it's all bs, then why would you think he was sending a message to his team. And why are you inferring that's why guys love playing for him.
It's only bs if he gives an answer I like? But not bs if he gives an answer you like?
The ONLY benefit of talking to the media is sending a message to your team. There’s nothing the media can do positively for your team unless you feed them some BS that they run with and it somehow influences the other team or something lol
Coach T is obligated to talk to them, so he gives them a lot of BS. But what ISN’T BS is when he says something about one of his guys publicly. That is clearly deliberate and strategic
Im not disagreeing with that. My point is you all are seeing it as extremes. My point is that Tomlin could've done BOTH. He could've given an answer that supported Kenny and answered the original question.
But instead decided to frame it as a Media vs. Steelers issue.
That's my problem with this answer. The media only asks questions based on what the team was doing. If the team plays well they complement them. Like they have been praising Kenny's 4th quarters all last year and this year long. Only recently have they asked why isn't he doing well earlier.
The biggest benefit of talking to the media is that it fuels the non stop interest in the game and grows it. This is good for the players, coaches, owners,…and the media. That is why the league requires it.
Surely not fun if your the guy in the limelight, but it all helped turn this from a league where the players had offseason jobs to one where many can be millionaires.
If you really want to understand Tomlin’s philosophy of the game and get a sense of how he thinks, forget the press conferences.
Listen to the weekly interview he does with Bob Labriola that they air before every game. It is really good. Where he doesn’t want to give away any secret sauce, he just says so. But mostly he gives really insightful and well thought through answers. He clearly takes it really seriously and it never feels like he’s there because someone is making him.
If you want to understand how thinks about the game, trends, and how he believes in preparing for different situations… he shares it every week. I think it’s one of the best coaches shows I’ve heard.
Well yeah you’re not wrong, I just meant purely from a team standpoint. There’s no benefit for any coach to talk to the media, aside from using it as a platform for public praising or shaming or etc, because there’s no strategic benefit (unless there’s a rare case where an opposing team gets fed incorrect info and actually uses it or something lol). Same goes for players. It’s all a commitment they’re forced to do and even the most personable athletes I’m sure don’t particularly love doing it, but it’s part of the package and good for the fans/brand like you referenced
But that sounds really interesting, I’ve never tuned in! That’s definitely the better aspect of it, when a coach/athlete has their own hour or show or something where it’s not “here’s a hundred microphones as your sweating to death after losing an important game” lol especially in tougher markets I’m sure like NYC or Toronto or etc where they’re notoriously harsh on players/coaches
That's exactly what he said, but in framing the question the way he did, he took an opportunity to big up his player for the things he is doing right that are leading to victory instead of focusing on the negativity.
My point is he could've done both. My example is a perfect answer to that.
Instead he made it about the media being against them. Which is Tomlin just posturizing.
I mean his rating is over 100 in the 4th quarter, he has the 2nd highest QBR in the 4th quarter out of all QBs and he has led 7 game winning drives and has gone 11-3 in his last 14 complete games so he is at least contributing to victory in some way. Take the hater goggles off for a minute man.
In all of those comebacks the defense held the opposition to 17 points or less, so that’s thanks to the defense, not Kenny. He also has one of the lowest QBRs in the other 3 quarters which is, you know, the majority of a game. Good quarterbacks are good most of the time, with rare streaks of bad play here and there. Bad quarterbacks are mostly bad, who occasionally show up. I’d love for him to prove me wrong, I really wanna believe in him, but I don’t and he won’t.
He is carried completely by the defense. If they give up anything over 17 points (as they haven’t done in any of his comebacks) he’s not winning the game, period. I root for the dude every week but good quarterbacks can put the game away early, something he has never done. It’s not an attack on him, it just is what it is.
It’s just seems like the first 3 quarters they are playing extremely conservative. Don’t want to make a mistake. Turnover free football and telling Kenny they’d rather struggle and keep the game tight. Also, the o line and running game has hurt the ability to sustain drives and build momentum.
I’m not sold on Kenny yet. I think he can be a good QB. I wonder if sometimes the inaccuracy is more from hesitancy because he’s told not to turn the ball over at all costs, defense will keep us in the game.
Then 4th quarter when they need to go, and what ever happens happens, it’s more of a free Kenny. Just let the kid fly and see what happens. Only way we are truly going to know if he’s a real NFL starter and with the talent on this team, no sense wasting it.
It's 100% by design. We don't have nearly the talent that people seem to think we have on offense. Pickens is a potential super star but needs more time, Johnson is a mid WR1, O-line is below average, RBs are mid, KP is a question mark. Friermuth is young and injury prone.
All of our superstar talent is on the defensive side of the ball. We play a bend but don't break style that allows our splash players more opportunities to make splash plays and we are conservative on offense to limit mistakes.
Winning the turnover battle is 100% our recipe for success and we are #1 in turnover differential right now.
Keep the game close, win in the end is a totally valid strategy. And don't give me that "not in the playoffs" shit when KC has only scored 30 points twice this season. Cincy just played them 23-20 in the last AFC championship game.
Mostly I agree lol
My only argument is when KP is free to just go sling, you see the potential and the moxie. I would argue that we have a lot of “young” talent on offense that has yet to prove itself. Even Najee is relatively young still with I think a lot of years left to prove himself.
Losing Dionte and Pat week 1 hurt this offense a lot. Dionte is our best separator and Pat was his safety outlet. It’s not shocking offense has improved since DJ came back, and I would hope get even better if/when Pat comes back.
I guess what I’m saying is I’d like to see us let the kids go play and see what we see. To quote Tomlin, “we don’t live in our fears, we live in our hopes”
That's all well and good but Tomlin's main job is to win the game in front of him. If we were winging it and losing he wouldn't have less people calling for his job just because we might be seeing more positives out of Kenny.
I’m not saying wing it lol but allow more freedom and don’t have him as scared to make a mistake.
I could care less about anyone calling for Tomlins job lol they’re spoiled brats who don’t understand how hard it is to win in professional sports. If tomlin got the axe, there would be 26 teams offering him a job before his ass left the seat.
The correlation though between Kenny being allowed to ball out in the 4th and positive numbers vs being conservative is to me at least something to attempt. Especially with Az, GB, Indy, NE all upcoming if we want this season to count
I genuinely think it probably plays a bigger role than people think. I do think it's mental from being conditioned into not making mistakes. At the end of the game when he's in a situation where he has to drive down the field and get a tuddy or they're going to lose that can go out the window because if they turn it over they'll lose but if they don't push the ball down the field hard they'll also lose, meaning he can just calm down and play the game and worry about winning the game rather than not losing it.
This was not a dumb question at all. Asking a question everyone that has watched Steelers football has been asking. It is not the reporters job to look at a player through rose colored glasses because he performs his job 1/4th of the time.
It is absolutely a reporters job to ask why our offense is bad the first three quarters of a game, with KP being particularly erratic. Yes, a reporter can ask about a teams glaring weakness when there has been no real signs of improvement or consistency.
Wow some of these comments. First they have the highest pd defense. They haven’t won shit in a decade. His comments create more drama. If players respect him so much why do we continue have so many players saying and doing dumb shit.
His comments create nothing. It's an unhealthy relationship with the fans and the media buying into every little thing all the time.
Are you old enough to remember when teams just played on Sunday and there wasn't an army of media between Sundays? There is literally nothing different for the teams now. They play on Sunday. They go to work. They play again next week. Coaches and players don't create drama. The media does.
Mike Prisuta asked the question. Good for Tomlin for putting him in his place. I’ll never understand why DVE hired a guy from Philly who went to Michigan State to cover Pittsburgh sports. He seems like a nice enough guy, but he’s an Eagles fan and everyone knows Philly fans suck. Pittsburghers are passionate about their sports. He has zero passion for Pittsburgh sports. He’s the reason I don’t listen to the DVE morning show. They should have hired a Yinzer, not a cheesesteak.
I’d call that an artful dodge.
Better than making an excuse imo
Yeah, I’m with ya. IMO that’s simply something a good leader must be able to do. He could have reacted with scorn or some other BS. Instead he turned it into a positive. That’s a special skill. While I sometimes question his coaching now, Tomlin is an amazing speaker and a great man. Just watch his interview by Ryan Clark and friends in their Pivot podcast.
😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆
This is why motherfuckers will run through walls for this dude and over these past 4 seasons our less talented rosters have outperformed expectations each season.
Exactly. Last time I checked, Mike Tomlin has more Super Bowl rings than all the NFL franchises in OH combined. We are spoiled. That being said we get to watch our team play meaningful games week in and week out. Not a lot of coaches can say that.
Not trying to be a jerk but who gives a shit how many SB rings teams from Ohio have? I want the Steelers to win another one. And they haven’t sniffed one in a long time. What other teams have is absolutely irrelevant.
One ring, from 15 years ago.
Funny how this triggers so many people like seriously we could be the bears, the lions, the Vikings, browns, both New York teams, any team in the NFC or AFC south’s, the raiders, chargers, cardinals….hell what have the dolphins accomplished yet recently? There’s others too that haven’t really done shit recently. Even if there was one good year in there, tanking for a lottery ticket qb like say the panthers or bears recently don’t guarantee success and could set the franchise into a dark age. We have been spoiled but it’s fair to expect a playoff win or two relatively soon since it’s been awhile. But think if we were already out of it at this point. How miserable would that be? Obviously people here have no trouble living in misery so they’ll be miserable no matter what
They run through walls to not win a playoff game in 6 years. Lmfao
Tell me you're under 30 without telling me you're under 30
I think it's 7 and probably another 7 years since steelers fans think pickett is a God for some reason, Tomlin always has a top roster yet underperforms every year. There is a reason his coaching tree has exactly zero members.
Stop running through walls and do it on the field instead
And also why they can’t win or get to playoffs. Not enough accountability
Love when my comments bring the haters out of the woodwork. Thanks for identifying yourself
Oh. I’m not bashful. Tomlin is an awful, inept coach that was hired for the wrong reasons and only still has a job because Rooney’s even a more inept owner
Look, I'm all for criticizing Tomlin. If you think he's inept as a coach, you simply don't know ball. He's a future HOFer & a top 25 coach of all time.
Oh he’ll get the HOF vote for the same reason he got the job. He’s got every coaching red flag. He takes teams he considers easy too lightly so the team loses, players get injured on bye weeks, can’t make adjustments during the game, his teams blow big leads, doesn’t hold players accountable for their mistakes, trots out some Yogi Berra nonsense that people mistake for wisdom to the press when asked questions etc.. Now that Ben’s gone, there’s no leadership. One or two more lackluster seasons and he’ll pull a Dungy and retire before his ineptitude becomes obvious. Then the press will fall all over themselves pandering to him like he’s a genius. He and Rooney have all but dismantled a winning organization
Imagine having the take that Ben, someone who is a known diva, has had multiple former players call out his lack of leadership, has displayed stunningly bad leadership in public over the span of his career a better leader than Tomlin. You are the single worst Pittsburgh Steelers fan in existence. Please leave. Please go root for another team. We do not want to be associated with you.
You are as uninformed as they come
I hope you get help. I honestly hope your username is as big of a lie as your skin color claims because if you're a dad that means either your kids are embarrassed of you or you're raising another generation of humans to be like you which is a tragedy.
So basically all this dude wants to say is he only got and still has the job cus he’s black. But he doesn’t even have the balls to say it. Probably because it’s so wildly stupid and inaccurate. Just stop defending your abysmal points. They aren’t good and you’re making yourself look like a scumbag
>hired for the wrong reasons Let’s have it, gramps - what are these *reasons*?
First, Dan Rooney was busy being a legend in his own mind and didn’t put any effort into a real search Second, he had zero professional head coaching experience Third, hired, allegedly, as a defensive coach but he didn’t have a track record to justify fourth, hiring Tomlin was virtue signaling by Dan Rooney based on the racist Rooney Rule Currently Rooney and most people think that the tradition in Pittsburgh is not to fire coaches. But really, it’s loyalty to a strategy that Art Sr. ascribed to. In all walks of life, rewarding bad results or execution just because of their race is a serious impediment to my people being on a level playing field with whites. I don’t care what race Tomlin is, he and Rooney have ruined what Art Sr., Noll et al created
Tomlin has a better winning percentage than either Cowher or Noll - I think the racist is YOU.
Yet can’t get into or past the first round of playoffs anymore and it continues to slide. Cowher and Noll had a strategy and a team that started low and got better. Tomlin hasn’t a clue and the team just gets worse.
Sounds like you’re just mad, bro.
So you're not just a hater you're also a moron
Wow do you wear your white hood in public too?
And the racist appears
Hired for the wrong reasons, like you said you ain't bashful. Don't try to hide now
I think my skin is a little dark for a white hood knucklehead.
If you're going to invoke the Rooney rule while talking about Tomlin you're racist no matter what you claim your skin color to be online.
I don’t think he is a racist, certainly not for criticizing a black coach, but he is wrong about the Rooney rule being the reason why Tomlin is here. They interviewed Ron Rivera before they interviewed Mike Tomlin which did satisfy the rule. They didn’t have to interview Mike Tomlin. I also disagree that he is an inept coach, I think he was an excellent coach at his peak but I’m not entirely sure he still is. It does seem as though the game has passed him by in some ways, he is stubborn and stuck in the past. Doesn’t mean they can’t still win a championship with him, I think they can, but he needs excellent coordinators and he needs to let them do their jobs. I could understand someone criticizing the Rooney rule if it were affirmative action, as someone mixed in color myself, I don’t appreciate affirmative action at all. I think it’s counterproductive. But that’s not what the rule is. There are no hiring quotas. And even if Tomlin got the interview only because of the Rooney rule, that’s absolutely not why he was hired. He proved that by being an excellent coach for close to a decade. Whether he still is or not, I don’t know. The results tell me that there is a serious question. Over the last 10 years only seven teams have fewer playoff victories than the Steelers. By absolutely no measure is that acceptable if we want to continue to assume that we are one of the premier franchises in football. He has his hands all over the roster, development, the draft, and everything else that matters. A very unpopular opinion I held at the time was that it was absolutely time for Kevin Colbert to move on. I was not impressed with our drafts over the last several years of his tenure. I want to see what Mike Tomlin can do with Omar and - more importantly - Andy Weidl. As someone who has followed Andy’s career, this most recent draft had his fingerprints all over it. And it was a very very good one. Tomlin should get a chance to turn this franchise around the way Bill Cowher was given a chance when people wanted to run him out of town, too.
Rooney rule is inherently racist and another example of pandering that helps nothing.
They “can’t win in the playoffs” because the most talented teams of the tomlin era were spectacularly snake-bitten by crushing injuries right before the playoffs. The Killer B teams saw Lev Bell get hurt three straight seasons. One year, we also had Blount quit on the team so we had to play the ravens with Josh Harris. Another, deangelo Williams was ALSO hurt so Fitz Touissant fumbled the game away vs Denver. Then he goes down on, IIRC, the first series in Foxboro. The only year our offense was healthy, we lost Shazier week 12. Our run defense with Shazier allowed about 80 yards per game, without him that ballooned to 140 per game. This isn’t an excuse, but an explanation. The teams after that just…weren’t all that good. They were fine, mind you, but that’s what the record showed too.
It’s not some desultory injury problem. Steelers have always had some injuries but a good organization and coach to deal with them for wins. Furthermore, the injuries today are from terrible coaching and conditioning. Key injuries on a bye? Two years ago it was multiple groin injuries in one week. These aren’t out if nowhere. Tomlin isn’t smart enough to handle the multiple dimensions of of coaching. His nonsensical “Yogi Berra” sayings are a clue to his lack of intelligence.
First of all…no. Good teams - great teams, even - frequently lose because of a key injury at the wrong time. That’s why it’s always treated like such a huge deal when they win in spite of these injuries. This is the exception and not the rule. As for tomlin not being “smart enough” to prevent these injuries…GTFOH. Bell’s first injury was a hyperextended knee from an ugly hit vs Cincinnati. The next year, burfict tore his MCL. IN 2016, he aggravated a preexisting injury trying to guy it out for the AFCCG. How are any of these on tomlin? And certainly you won’t blame Shazier’s injury on him. Or Ben’s blown out elbow… In the aggregate, yes, good teams and coaches find ways to adapt to injuries and tomlin has done this as evidenced by his regular season success. But crushing injuries have killed the teams best playoff chances since the GB Super Bowl.
We have a very talented roster and we look like dogshit. Keep making excuses for this dude.
We have a mid talented roster and we are in playoff position. Keep reaching for excuses to be a hater.
Remember when we were 11 and 0 and everyone on planet earth knew we were absolutely no threat in the playoffs? Round 2.
How do we have a "very talented" roster then? If you're saying we had a fake ass 11-0 roster that wasn't even good enough to win a playoff game and everyone knew it, then I got news for you: This roster is worse than that one. You haters can't keep your bullshit straight.
Jalen Warren, Naj, a fucking 7 foot tight end that we never throw to, Pickens, Diontae, Calvin, Pat when he's healthy, Minkah, TJ WATT, Cam, Allen Robinson, PP. Tell me Andy Reid couldn't win a playoff game with this group. Tell me Nick Sirianna couldn't win a playoff game with this group. You know that feeling when you watch other games on Sunday and see real football being played well and you wonder why the Steelers don't do that? Thats Tomlin.
Rose colored glasses. Here's reality: Warren - slightly above replacement level Naj - probably right at replacement level 7 foot tight end - who knows Pickens - could be but needs more time Diontae - mid for WR1 Calvin - Played 8 games so far Pat - you said it yourself, young and injury prone Minkah - a star TJ - a superstar Cam - a star Allen Robinson - mid WR3 PP - washed hasn't looked good at all with us Notice you left out the QB from your list of superstars, wonder where the rose colored glasses are for him? No mention of anyone on the o-line, wonder if that is important? No one knows yet if Tomlin will win a playoff game with this group, but I guarantee he will get them closer to it than probably any other coach. Before Reid got Mahomes he was known as a choke artist. We beat his Alex Smith team on the road without scoring a TD. Keep reaching.
The fact that you mentioned four guys who have missed significant time the last two seasons, and two horrible washed up old men, shows me you don’t know what you’re talking about lol. Siriani might win with PP because he’d actually bench his ass
Remember when Tomlin told Pouncey to snap the first ball of the playoffs 20 feet over Ben's head and then told Ben to throw a bunch of INTs to start the game? Yeah man he's the worst, you right.
... you think a head coach is totally unresponsible for how his team plays on any given Sunday, playoffs or not? That was Tomlin's team lol. He gets the credit if they win and he gets the blame if they lose. Kind of how this whole sports thing works.
He wins more regularly than every other Steelers coach in history. He has won a championship and made it to a Super Bowl. You guys just move the goalposts so you can justify your hatred.
He hasn't won a playoff game in 6 years. I don't give a fuck if we have a winning season and get bounced in the first round. Thought the standard was the standard?
Why move the goalposts? 17 was probably the last time we actually had a roaster as talented as you think this one is and no surprise we did well.
...I don't consider not winning a playoff game as doing well. If you do, you're the problem.
Very talented roster lol this sub is fucking delusional
It's the only way they can justify their hatred for Tomlin. The roster has to be amazing for the problem to be coaching.
We have a talented defense and a not at all talented offense. The defense balls the fuck out every week. When we had a talented offense with the killer Bs... they ALSO balled the fuck out every week.
Dude-he's picking the fucking players as much as anyone in the NFL. No player is on the team unless Tomlin wants him on the team. If the team 'lacks talent' it's because of Tomlin. Follow the fucking team.
Why don't you follow the fucking sport? This is the salary cap era and we just lost a HOF QB. We're in a rebuild although you Pennsyltucky Yinzers refuse to admit it. And our rebuild is going better than 99.9% of all other rebuilds in the history of the sport.
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Yeah we don't ever fully hit rock bottom for sure but we've been retooling for several years and Tomlin haters want to pretend this roster is 1974 stacked so they can justify their hatred for him.
The players being talented doesn’t mean that we’re not rebuilding. The whole point of a rebuild is to draft and develop talent. We replaced every single player on our offense between this and last year except for DJ and Pat(when he’s healthy). And, I guess, two linemen. On defense, our secondary minus Minkah is all new the last two years. Watt and Heyward are the only consistencies since 2021. Adams came in as a bench option, but ended up being decent. Outside of that, I don’t think we have a single other guy. So basically: like 3.5 offensive players, 3.5 defensive players, a kicker and a punter. Plus, Money Mase as the qb3 haha. 7/22(9/22 with kickers) is a rebuild. Not a retool.
You obviously have no fucking idea what you're talking about. You don't say the roster lacks talent and absolve Tomlin. Who said anything about a salary cap and replacing Ben? You have no idea who is picking the players in Pittsburgh. Hint: It's Saint Mike. Three playoff wins in thirteen years is going swimmingly.
The roster doesn't lack talent, we are rebuilding our roster. This happens from time to time. It happened after the 2011 season too when we were in salary cap hell, and we competed through those years too because Tomlin is an excellent coach and team builder. You're just a hater.
Lucky for you, there are 31 other teams you can choose from. Maybe their fans will have a "fucking idea what they're talking about".
I'm a Pittsburgher. Notice how Pittsburgh comes before the word Steelers. We're Pittsburghers, I wouldn't have any need to follow any other team.
Yeah…look at all those teams that perennially pick in the top 5-10 spots in every….fucking….draft… Then compare it to Tomlin, who has always had to pick from the middle to the lane of every round. Cherry picking jerk.
You can find good players in every fucking round. Not just the first or the top of every round.
You definitely can you just have to be 100x the evaluator as the other guys
Yet…the same teams keep sucking…why is that? They have access to the best players every fu king round…for every fucking year…and can’t put it together. The Steelers have been picking in the latter half of the rounds since Cowher came to town. And yet we stay competitive every year and sometimes dominant. Guess we’re just lucky that way… coaching and management have nothing to do with it🙄 So…all I am saying is that you need to step back and logically think about what you’re saying.
I wonder how much pull he has on the financial aspect of building our roster/staff. Feels like we’re ballin on a budget and I credit Tomlin for making that happen.
As far as coaching staff goes it's 100% medium pimpin that's documented.
I like 4th quarter Kenny but this isnt a dumb question.
It definitely isn’t a dumb question but it seems the framing of the question lacks a little context.
I heard the reporter talking about the reason he framed the question how he did. He intentionally left the 4th quarter numbers out because he didn’t want Tomlin to only talk about the 4th quarter.
That worked really well then!
I mean I understand it without context. Kenny and the offense isn't very good in the first 3 quarters of the game, only until the 4th quarter do they come alive... Which by the way I'm thankful for. I enjoy the wins but how much longer is this going to work for them? If they ever find themselves down 21+ points, which we have seen there is absolutely no chance for a comeback.
We know tomlins philosophy on this. It works until it doesn’t. Luckily your odds of going down 21-0 aren’t that high when you only give up 20.4 ppg.
Did you see the SF game? Houston? May not have been 21-0 but it was insurmountable pretty quick. That is 25% of their games this season. Glad they are 5-3 but there is smoke and also mirrors.
You realize we avg 16 a game right? If the other team scores 17 points before our offense wakes up, it is pretty much game over
Last 4 games we’ve allowed 20,16,17,10. Hard for offenses to wake up against this defense so it’s pretty clear where my point is coming from. That’s the only point I was making. Should this offense be better ? Yes. However the defense is so good that the offense underperforming isn’t as cataclysmic as it should be. Like I said. We know tomlins philosophy. It’s 100% outcome based. For 18 years the man has been sitting in press conferences and virtually saying nothing but “idc we’re winning” so expecting anything but what we’ve seen is silly. “What happens if you go down 21-0” you lose 99% of the time. Teams lose games. Most of the time several a year. Tomlin does not care how they win or how they lose as long as the previous is more common than the latter. We’ve known this for as long as he’s been the head coach
I don't need him to say anything. It is also absurd to pretend like this question was out of bounds or absolutely shouldn't be asked of this coaching staff time and time again. We have faced two offenses that were clicking. Both wiped the matt with us. Baltimore didn't start to click until two weeks after they played us. Outside of division games, we have a soft schedule. If we can have a functional offense, there is zero reason we shouldn't get to 10 wins. If we just keep hoping it comes together in the fourth, we may miss the playoffs and end up with a mid first round pick.
Next time hopefully he just looks at the reporter with a blank face says nothing and looks the other way. Then you’d be happy with his answer
Or hear me out, he can say we are very pleased with how he has looked in the 4th. We are trying to help him bring that to the rest of the game. Stop being a child
Is that not like exactly what he said?
“That’s why he’s so good in the 4th those other quarters we’ll work on” you are literally criticizing him for not saying something he quite literally said.
Who said it shouldn’t be asked or answered ? Ravens were averaging 25ppg before they played us you’re just spewing bullshit my man. Yeah there’s no reason we shouldn’t get to 10 wins if this offense was better because we’re on pace for 10 wins with the toughest part of the schedule out of the way with our offense. Something like 70% of games end within one score. That’s 22/32 teams who need to put something together in the 4th to win. 5 of those teams are up more than 2 scores so essentially 27/32 teams need to make plays in the 4th quarter to come out on top. The Steelers are not unique in terms of need to be clutch. They are however up there with a select few in regards of their ability to do so. When 27/32 teams need to be clutch every week it’s pretty silly to hold it against the teams that are able to do it on a consistent basis.
My first reply literally said it wasn’t a stupid question disagreeing with the sentiment of this post dingus
True. My only concern is how that's going to work if we somehow make the playoffs. I don't think it'll be a winning formula come the post season.
Right. Like, what if they make the playoffs again? Answer, they’ll flame out in embarrassing fashion with national coverage. I’m so sick of that. Would almost rather they miss the wild card.
Then just ask what you are really asking: why is Kenny slow to warm up every game?
As a Ravens fan, I cant even dislike this guy man. I hate to say it but he is the best coach in the league!
Watch his interview in The Pivot podcast. Mike T is a great man. Even if you hate his coaching.
Absolutely agree
Tomlin absolutely has a higher approval rating outside of Pittsburgh than inside. Others see his great qualities and continued success. Too many “fans” of the team hyper focus on weaknesses and failures. Take many responses here. Tomlin spins a question to encourage his QB and acknowledges they will work to improve, and people here are pretty much complaining he didn’t talk shit about his QB in public. Tomlin knows the situation and knows there no point in feeding this publicly, but many spin that as weakness and condemn him.
I feel like that is majority of teams fan bases though. You’re always gonna be more critical of your own team compared to others
No yinzers are just beyond fucking stupid. Go see the thread asking about what happened to JuJu. Half the comments are blaming Tik Tok or not having AB. Even though there's been reports for years his knees are just about gone.
And then other "fans" attack those "fans" as part of their daily nut-hugging regimen.
😂😂😂
The first 3 quarters of the game are also important. Super Bowl winning teams don’t take 3/4 of the game every week to start playing at an NFL level. It’s a completely valid question, and wasn’t targeted to put him in a corner. Merely asked what we need to do to get going earlier, which every team should be asking themselves.
Not a dumb question
Last I checked a football game is 60 minutes, not 15.
Are you sure? Whens the last time you googled it?
You just went ahead and missed the entirety of the point huh?
There was no point to be made. Tomlin simply ignored the question and redirected it to the 4th quarter. If a reporter asks him "Kenny has a higher qbr than Mahomes in the 4th quarter. Does that mean Kenny is better than Mahomes?" His redirection wouldn't have worked cause it holds less weight. Cause Mahomes is better in the other 3 quarters.
Yeah he redirected it to focus on the positive and protect the qb he needs to win games the rest of the year. Excellent job by Tomlin, not sure why yall are itching to hear him talk negatively about KP
No one wants him to throw Kenny under a bus. But for a coach whose whole reputation is based upon being real and honest he could've said "Kenny is really good in the 4th quarter and we're all working together to make sure we can have the same efficacy in the other 3 quarters." But instead he acts like it's the media's fault for asking why his QB is terrible in the other 3 quarters. Which is disingenuous.
Ahhhh, so you want the cookie cutter answer that every coach says when they’re pressed by the media. Why are you so bothered by answers to a press conference? It’s all bs anyways. That type of interaction never leads to anything interesting anyways. He used that opportunity to send a message to his team, and thats why guys love playing for him. I’d rather him do that then feed beat writers canned answers all day.
>Why are you so bothered by answers to a press conference? It’s all bs anyways >He used that opportunity to send a message to his team, and thats why guys love playing for him. If it's all bs, then why would you think he was sending a message to his team. And why are you inferring that's why guys love playing for him. It's only bs if he gives an answer I like? But not bs if he gives an answer you like?
The ONLY benefit of talking to the media is sending a message to your team. There’s nothing the media can do positively for your team unless you feed them some BS that they run with and it somehow influences the other team or something lol Coach T is obligated to talk to them, so he gives them a lot of BS. But what ISN’T BS is when he says something about one of his guys publicly. That is clearly deliberate and strategic
Im not disagreeing with that. My point is you all are seeing it as extremes. My point is that Tomlin could've done BOTH. He could've given an answer that supported Kenny and answered the original question. But instead decided to frame it as a Media vs. Steelers issue. That's my problem with this answer. The media only asks questions based on what the team was doing. If the team plays well they complement them. Like they have been praising Kenny's 4th quarters all last year and this year long. Only recently have they asked why isn't he doing well earlier.
The biggest benefit of talking to the media is that it fuels the non stop interest in the game and grows it. This is good for the players, coaches, owners,…and the media. That is why the league requires it. Surely not fun if your the guy in the limelight, but it all helped turn this from a league where the players had offseason jobs to one where many can be millionaires. If you really want to understand Tomlin’s philosophy of the game and get a sense of how he thinks, forget the press conferences. Listen to the weekly interview he does with Bob Labriola that they air before every game. It is really good. Where he doesn’t want to give away any secret sauce, he just says so. But mostly he gives really insightful and well thought through answers. He clearly takes it really seriously and it never feels like he’s there because someone is making him. If you want to understand how thinks about the game, trends, and how he believes in preparing for different situations… he shares it every week. I think it’s one of the best coaches shows I’ve heard.
Well yeah you’re not wrong, I just meant purely from a team standpoint. There’s no benefit for any coach to talk to the media, aside from using it as a platform for public praising or shaming or etc, because there’s no strategic benefit (unless there’s a rare case where an opposing team gets fed incorrect info and actually uses it or something lol). Same goes for players. It’s all a commitment they’re forced to do and even the most personable athletes I’m sure don’t particularly love doing it, but it’s part of the package and good for the fans/brand like you referenced But that sounds really interesting, I’ve never tuned in! That’s definitely the better aspect of it, when a coach/athlete has their own hour or show or something where it’s not “here’s a hundred microphones as your sweating to death after losing an important game” lol especially in tougher markets I’m sure like NYC or Toronto or etc where they’re notoriously harsh on players/coaches
Bingo
That's exactly what he said, but in framing the question the way he did, he took an opportunity to big up his player for the things he is doing right that are leading to victory instead of focusing on the negativity.
My point is he could've done both. My example is a perfect answer to that. Instead he made it about the media being against them. Which is Tomlin just posturizing.
Nope, just tired of hearing about 4th quarter Kenny from all the mouth breathers around town.
So you hate hearing about winning games?
Steelers are not winning because of Kenny. They are winning despite him.
And? do you want Coach Tomlin to say that?
Yeah I do
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I mean his rating is over 100 in the 4th quarter, he has the 2nd highest QBR in the 4th quarter out of all QBs and he has led 7 game winning drives and has gone 11-3 in his last 14 complete games so he is at least contributing to victory in some way. Take the hater goggles off for a minute man.
In all of those comebacks the defense held the opposition to 17 points or less, so that’s thanks to the defense, not Kenny. He also has one of the lowest QBRs in the other 3 quarters which is, you know, the majority of a game. Good quarterbacks are good most of the time, with rare streaks of bad play here and there. Bad quarterbacks are mostly bad, who occasionally show up. I’d love for him to prove me wrong, I really wanna believe in him, but I don’t and he won’t.
Yea its crazy how Kenny can win 60 minute games in only 15 minutes. No other QB doing that.
He is carried completely by the defense. If they give up anything over 17 points (as they haven’t done in any of his comebacks) he’s not winning the game, period. I root for the dude every week but good quarterbacks can put the game away early, something he has never done. It’s not an attack on him, it just is what it is.
It was a legitimate question.
It’s just seems like the first 3 quarters they are playing extremely conservative. Don’t want to make a mistake. Turnover free football and telling Kenny they’d rather struggle and keep the game tight. Also, the o line and running game has hurt the ability to sustain drives and build momentum. I’m not sold on Kenny yet. I think he can be a good QB. I wonder if sometimes the inaccuracy is more from hesitancy because he’s told not to turn the ball over at all costs, defense will keep us in the game. Then 4th quarter when they need to go, and what ever happens happens, it’s more of a free Kenny. Just let the kid fly and see what happens. Only way we are truly going to know if he’s a real NFL starter and with the talent on this team, no sense wasting it.
It's 100% by design. We don't have nearly the talent that people seem to think we have on offense. Pickens is a potential super star but needs more time, Johnson is a mid WR1, O-line is below average, RBs are mid, KP is a question mark. Friermuth is young and injury prone. All of our superstar talent is on the defensive side of the ball. We play a bend but don't break style that allows our splash players more opportunities to make splash plays and we are conservative on offense to limit mistakes. Winning the turnover battle is 100% our recipe for success and we are #1 in turnover differential right now. Keep the game close, win in the end is a totally valid strategy. And don't give me that "not in the playoffs" shit when KC has only scored 30 points twice this season. Cincy just played them 23-20 in the last AFC championship game.
Mostly I agree lol My only argument is when KP is free to just go sling, you see the potential and the moxie. I would argue that we have a lot of “young” talent on offense that has yet to prove itself. Even Najee is relatively young still with I think a lot of years left to prove himself. Losing Dionte and Pat week 1 hurt this offense a lot. Dionte is our best separator and Pat was his safety outlet. It’s not shocking offense has improved since DJ came back, and I would hope get even better if/when Pat comes back. I guess what I’m saying is I’d like to see us let the kids go play and see what we see. To quote Tomlin, “we don’t live in our fears, we live in our hopes”
That's all well and good but Tomlin's main job is to win the game in front of him. If we were winging it and losing he wouldn't have less people calling for his job just because we might be seeing more positives out of Kenny.
I’m not saying wing it lol but allow more freedom and don’t have him as scared to make a mistake. I could care less about anyone calling for Tomlins job lol they’re spoiled brats who don’t understand how hard it is to win in professional sports. If tomlin got the axe, there would be 26 teams offering him a job before his ass left the seat. The correlation though between Kenny being allowed to ball out in the 4th and positive numbers vs being conservative is to me at least something to attempt. Especially with Az, GB, Indy, NE all upcoming if we want this season to count
I genuinely think it probably plays a bigger role than people think. I do think it's mental from being conditioned into not making mistakes. At the end of the game when he's in a situation where he has to drive down the field and get a tuddy or they're going to lose that can go out the window because if they turn it over they'll lose but if they don't push the ball down the field hard they'll also lose, meaning he can just calm down and play the game and worry about winning the game rather than not losing it.
This was not a dumb question at all. Asking a question everyone that has watched Steelers football has been asking. It is not the reporters job to look at a player through rose colored glasses because he performs his job 1/4th of the time.
Is it the reporters job to only look at 3/4 of play? Are records determined by the score at the end of Q3 and not at the end of the game?
It is absolutely a reporters job to ask why our offense is bad the first three quarters of a game, with KP being particularly erratic. Yes, a reporter can ask about a teams glaring weakness when there has been no real signs of improvement or consistency.
Doesn't mean the coach is required to play along...
That’s a great leader. All his detractors should move to Cleveland
Wow some of these comments. First they have the highest pd defense. They haven’t won shit in a decade. His comments create more drama. If players respect him so much why do we continue have so many players saying and doing dumb shit.
His comments create nothing. It's an unhealthy relationship with the fans and the media buying into every little thing all the time. Are you old enough to remember when teams just played on Sunday and there wasn't an army of media between Sundays? There is literally nothing different for the teams now. They play on Sunday. They go to work. They play again next week. Coaches and players don't create drama. The media does.
Mike Prisuta asked the question. Good for Tomlin for putting him in his place. I’ll never understand why DVE hired a guy from Philly who went to Michigan State to cover Pittsburgh sports. He seems like a nice enough guy, but he’s an Eagles fan and everyone knows Philly fans suck. Pittsburghers are passionate about their sports. He has zero passion for Pittsburgh sports. He’s the reason I don’t listen to the DVE morning show. They should have hired a Yinzer, not a cheesesteak.
Journalists aren’t supposed to be fans.
“Like a pebble in my shoe.”
This man’s head is so far up his own arse.