Huzzah! I’ve finally figured it out! I’ve been mulling it over and over, repeatedly, in my head. I’ve come to a conclusion as to why the Pittsburgh Steelers have, not fallen, but plummeted into disgrace, less than a year after being Super Bowl Champions.
Can we blame Bob Ligashesky and his special teams corps? Yes we can, to a degree. Jeff Reed no longer has the leg to kick into the end zone, with very little hang time, which puts us behind the 8-ball to begin with. His off-the-field antics seem to have soured him to what he needs to do to be a winner. We must have been invaded by the body snatchers, because the Stefan Logan we saw in preseason is not the Stefan Logan we are fielding today. Intangibles, like cutting Anthony Madison before the regular season and not fielding starters, play a part in the special teams demise. The question remains, however: After being #1 in the NFL on kickoff return coverage in 2008, how and why did the Steelers performance drop so dreadfully?
I will concede the loss of Aaron Smith in the latter half of the season as a big factor in our downfall. As I mentioned in a previous blog, the three-man rotation in Smith’s absence, consisting of an aged, always-hurt journeyman; a so-so third-year player, and a rookie, was not, and is not, the answer. Here’s the thing to keep in mind, though: we have first-round draft pick, highly heralded and highly paid Ziggy Hood, to follow in Smith’s footsteps. We have no other young gun back-up for our D-Line. Coach Mike Tomlin’s reluctance to use Ziggy Hood more often is and will be a major mistake; in the present, because he would gain valuable experience, mistakes and all; and, he would be better prepared for next year. At the present time, he has and is neither.
I will not concede the loss of Troy Polamalu as a reason for our failures. Does his absence make a difference? Absolutely. But, this is the NFL! These guys get paid millions of dollars to play a game! They are professionals! You make the proper adjustments and continue to play at a high level! When Polamalu was out eight games in 2006/2007 due to injury, we won five of them. Everyone forgets that Polamalu tends to be a hot dog (ala Rod Woodson) at times and is often caught out of position.
More than the loss of Polamalu and Smith, as reasons for our defensive skid downward, are Tomlin’s executive decisions to replace Bryant McFadden and Larry Foote with William Gay and Lawrence Timmons.
William Gay is showing he is what he is, a fifth-round draft pick from the Big East. Opposing offenses we’ve faced so far this season had that figured out from the get-go. A shame Tomlin did not and still doesn’t. Tomlin proclaimed in a recent press conference that there would be changes for the Cleveland game. But who started? William Gay.
Lawrence Timmons is an enigma to some, but not to me. I knew that he wouldn’t work out; everyone that I spoke to about this said I belonged in the loony-bin. Timmons started only one year at Florida State, and came out one year early. He was no academic phenom. Yet he was Tomlin’s first-ever draft pick, and Tomlin’s desire to have Timmons be successful is detrimental to the rest of the team. Timmons is explosive, has great lateral speed and is an excellent open-field tackler. However, he is not an inside run-stuffer, and because of the probably-close to 2-digit IQ, couldn’t drop back to cover his grandmother.
James Farrior is sadly and evidently aging. But so is the rest of the defense, and the bench depth barely exists.
We lost Nate Washington on offense, and some would site that as a big loss. I say it’s a big advantage. He is athletic, yes, but has butterfingers, and also is what he is, an undrafted free agent from a Division II school.
Larry Zeirlein is a putz and puts too much emphasis on technique and not enough on strength. We have an O-Line that cannot pressure the league-worst-defense Browns?
Pass-happy Bruce Arians has no idea how to put together a well-rounded, balanced offensive attack. Yes we have weapons like Ben Roethlisberger, Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes. But we also have a position called tight-end, and there’s also such a thing called I-formation. And whatever happened to misdirection and off-tackle?
The mark of a great NFL team is the capacity to sustain a few problems such as these and move on. A complete and total break-down such as the one the 2009 Pittsburgh Steelers are experiencing goes far, far beyond anything I’ve mentioned here.
All of these across-the-board meltdowns, combined with now getting beat on the big play, in addition to getting beat frustratingly underneath and Ike Taylor’s false reputation as a big-play cover corner, can only mean one thing: Mike Tomlin has lost this team.
What happened to the man that put Casey Hampton on the PUP list during last year’s training camp? Wait, I know! He ran Camp Cupcake this year and gave some of his veterans Wednesdays off.
What happened to the man who said no job is safe and everyone is accountable? Wait, I know! He keeps playing guys who habitually make the same, gigantic mistakes over and over.
What happened to the coach that said football is a game of attrition? Wait, I know! It’s the same coach that allows his pass-happy offensive coordinator run the Steelers right into the ground.
Mike Tomlin, very obviously, wants to be liked, to be a buddy. He, in turn, however, has lost the respect, the ears and the soul of these men. The hypocrisy of the Tomlin administration has bit him in the ass.
Mr. Wunderkind himself, the man who had a meteoric rise through the coaching ranks of collegiate and NFL football, is the same man now that is in a major quagmire. He is very lucky he works for the Rooneys; otherwise, his three-year tenure would be coming to an abrupt end.