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Does Tomlin Deserve Any Credit for This Season?


footbull3196

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58 members have voted

  1. 1. How much credit does Mike Tomlin deserve for helping to keep Pittsburgh competitive this season?

    • None (0%)
    • A little (up to 25%)
    • Some (up to 50%)
    • Majority (up to 75%)
    • Vast majority (Up to 100%)


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3 minutes ago, wwhickok said:

Yes Tomlin deserves most of the credit. He is the guy getting his team prepared. Keeping them focused. It would have been all too easy to just call it a season when Ben went down. He also has major influence on the defense as far as we have come to understand.

40% to an incredibly easy schedule? 4 of oir first 5 games were against NE, Seattle, SF and Baltimore. I'm sorry but there wasnt anything easy about that. Yeah, we all of those but outside of NE we were also in them. Against Seattle, despite mistakes officiating played a heavy part in the outcome also. You might not like it, but its true, but we just didnt do enough. Since then we have rebounded with a QB that, before this season, hadn't taken a single NFL snap.

The players have rallied around each other under Tomlin despite possibly the worst OC in the league.

Imo 50% Tomlin 

40% Defense (you can add Butler to this If you want but its the players executing the plays)

10% offense (let's be honest they've struggled)

I actually agree with most of what you said, and can get on board with your percentages.  Regarding the bolded though, you have to place some value in the fact that out of all 4 games against tough opponents that you listed, all of them were losses.  Two of them were with Ben (technically 1.5), and it shouldn’t be discounted that the team did pull off this 4 game winning streak against all losing teams outside of the Rams, who haven’t looked impressive at all this season.  Don’t forget about one of those wins coming due to the Colts refusing to find a kicker under the age of 40

The most impressive moment of Pittsburgh’s season was running train on the Chargers in LA and I put a ton of stock into that performance because it came with a 3rd string QB.  But I feel that if anything will keep them in playoff contention this season, it’s their schedule.  Their next 6 games are incredibly easy and all against teams with 3 wins or less, with the exception of the Bills who I see as a fairly notable pretender

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Tomlin is a good coach. There are two things that can make a head coach successful. X's and O's or being leader of men. I feel like Tomlin excels at being a leader of men. Tom Coughlin was one of those coaches as well. That's not to say they're not good at X's and O's. But if you can inspire a group of players to go out there, give it their all, and play hard, your team will always have a shot.

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37 minutes ago, wwhickok said:

If Ben plays all of the Seattle game. We probably win. If he plays against a SF team that turned the ball over 5 times, we probably win.if he plays against Baltimore, at home, we probably win. 

That's a 3 game difference. You say 1-2, okay well we only lost 4. If those games were spread out in the middle of our schedule, no one would even bat an eye.

We are in the position we are now, because of the #1 defense in the league.

 I think they are on pace to go 9-7 right now and they probably go 11-5 with Ben.

For all you know Ben may have attempted a throw that the backups wouldn't have in any of those games which would result in an extra turnover or whatever else. A 2-game WAR in a 16 game season is actually extremely big. It would be like a baseball player having 20 WAR which is unheardof.

 

Edited by Bolts223
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13 minutes ago, Gmen said:

I feel like Tomlin excels at being a leader of men.

There was a time I would've agreed with this, but it's pretty apparent now that he basically let the inmates run the asylum when Brown and Bell were there. How they couldn't have at least more of some kind of success with prime Ben, Brown, and Bell, is embarrassing. Oh, Brown is too much of a pill that nobody can reach him? Fine, but they still enabled him, looked the other way, and let it happen for years. If Tomlin really was strong in this front, he would've either gotten control of the situation, or let the front office know that certain players had to be jettisoned, no matter how talented.

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38 minutes ago, Bolts223 said:

 I think they are on pace to go 9-7 right now and they probably go 11-5 with Ben.

For all you know Ben may have attempted a throw that the backups wouldn't have in any of those games which would result in an extra turnover or whatever else. A 2-game WAR in a 16 game season is actually extremely big. It would be like a baseball player having 20 WAR which is unheardof.

 

9-7 makes sense but if the offense continues to improve, 11-5 isnt impossible 

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5 hours ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

Pittsburgh Wins:

  • Bengals
  • at Chargers
  • Dolphins
  • Colts (against Hoyer)
  • Rams 

Pittsburgh Losses:

  • Patriots
  • 49ers
  • Ravens
  • Seahawks

They've lost to every good team they've faced, sans the Rams who at this point in time I don't even know if you can classify them as a good team based upon the product they're putting on the field.

I'm honestly not sure what to make of this team. They're winning games against bad teams with a backup QB playing checkdown ball. Their defense has vastly improved with Minkah Fitzpatrick, though. 

Their next 6 games:

  • at Browns
  • at Bengals
  • Browns
  • at Cardinals
  • Bills
  • at Jets

Then they close out the season in Baltimore. There's a very real chance they could be fighting for the division or a playoff spot due to that schedule.

I do think it's notable that 5 of those final 7 are on the road.

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Tomlin deserves a ton of credit. He lost his all pro QB, Wr, and RB in the last two years and he completely changed the identity of the team from being an offensive juggernaut to a smothering defense in a year. 

Tomlin deserves most of the credit. Many coaches couldn’t overcome the personnel loss he’s had to endure the last couple years and still be on track to make the playoffs 

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13 hours ago, footbull3196 said:

I meant to say the defensive players playing well fell under butlers share of the credit.  So a better way to rephrase that would be 40% to d coordinator and their new players

Butler is DC in name only.  Tomlin calls the defensive plays and butler coaches the OLB.  Terry Austin ( DB coach) is a very big improvement as well.

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12 hours ago, footbull3196 said:

I actually agree with most of what you said, and can get on board with your percentages.  Regarding the bolded though, you have to place some value in the fact that out of all 4 games against tough opponents that you listed, all of them were losses.  Two of them were with Ben (technically 1.5), and it shouldn’t be discounted that the team did pull off this 4 game winning streak against all losing teams outside of the Rams, who haven’t looked impressive at all this season.  Don’t forget about one of those wins coming due to the Colts refusing to find a kicker under the age of 40

The most impressive moment of Pittsburgh’s season was running train on the Chargers in LA and I put a ton of stock into that performance because it came with a 3rd string QB.  But I feel that if anything will keep them in playoff contention this season, it’s their schedule.  Their next 6 games are incredibly easy and all against teams with 3 wins or less, with the exception of the Bills who I see as a fairly notable pretender

The Colts were 5-2 when they played them, so the rams were not the only 'winning team' they beat...and to put the ENTIRE stock of beating the Colts to a missed FG at the end, by a 40+ YO PK is shortsighted---plus, as was shown, the placement was terrible (laces), and combined with a 'chili dip', which has nothing to do with age of the kicker, was why that FG was missed.

Plus, let's remember that they lost to Baltimore, in OT, due to a fumble that put them in FG range, playing against the Steeler's 3rd string QB for a good portion of the game...

The point?? Every W or L will exhibit a few quirky plays, that will help decide the outcome of a game. And not to mention that the last 2 wins came with only a PS RB, a RB signed off the street, and the 3rd down back...both starting RBs have been out (Connor/Snell).

Tomlin absolutely deserves credit for what he has put together this season. 95% of the fans/media thought the Steelers were 'done for' after Ben went down. That same 95% also equated the 1st Rd pick traded for Minkah was most assuredly a top 10 pick...meaning??  everyone thought the Steelers were done, and would be lucky to reach 5 wins on the season, let alone, the first 9 games.

The fact that the Steelers are above .500 are in large part due to Tomlin's Defensive coaching/coordinating, and the signing/trade of Minkah...one can pontificate all day long about how these wins were accomplished, or opposing records, or player injuries, etc, etc.  Bottom line is, they are winning games that, 5 weeks ago, seemed a pipe-dream of ever happening, and that is in large part due to coaching and preparation, hence, Tomlin deserving a big deal of credit for these wins.

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First off, yes...he deserves a ton of credit. This team has played incredibly hard this season, especially after Ben went down. Everyone saying that we lost against the good teams we faced needs to go check out those games. The Patriots game was the only game we were embarrassed in... but what else is new? We played the Ravens, Seahawks and 49ers, three of the top five teams in the league... Down to the wire.

Secondly, while Tomlin is absolutely a deeply flawed coach... Outside of Bill Belichick, who isn't? He has his strengths and weaknesses, and this year, we are seeing his strengths more than his weaknesses... Which is pretty much the flip side of last year.

 

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