lillloyd
Third String But Playing on Special Teams
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2010
- Messages
- 502
- Reaction score
- 776
I was going to come in here and make a quick "good game, good luck the rest of the way" type post. But I lingered a bit, and was strangely relieved to see that your boards our no different than ours after a loss. Which is to say: a handful of level heads taking the long view, and a handful of VERY vocal fans ready to cut and fire everybody.
I would urge those of you in the latter category to take a couple of steps back from the ledge, for the following reasons:
Your fanbase is probably one of the few in the league that's as spoiled...er, not used to losing, as ours is. After losses, our posters want to fire Arians, Tomlin, and even Lebeau, gut the roster, and start over. We kill the front office for every missed pick, as if we're supposed to hit on every single one, and often prematurely ("Bustamalu" was Troy's nickname his first year LOL). Anything less than complete season long dominance is a massive disappointment, so we overreach with massive, categorical conclusions drawn from a single game.
So sadly it's not just you. (Fan Panic...Everybody's doing it! )
lillloyd
I would urge those of you in the latter category to take a couple of steps back from the ledge, for the following reasons:
- You just lost a nearly meaningless midseason game. You've proven you can win in Pittsburgh over the years, so home field tiebreakers mean little. And despite all of the hype over this matchup over the last decade, the winner of this regular season game when Brady plays has never actually gone on to win the SB...you're actually better off *losing* in this regard.
- You're forgetting your own history. Not just '04, when you had a terrible loss at Pitt midseason and rebounded to win it all...but even last year, when you morphed from a nice team into a dominant one over the last half of the year. A lot can change in a *single* week in the NFL, let alone 9 weeks, and with your coaching staff I have little doubt that you'll address your defensive issues and improve significantly by the end of the year.
- You're forgetting NFL history. It's been a long, long time since there was a wire-to-wire juggernaut that won the Super Bowl without MAJOR problems or doubts at some points during their seasons. Last year GB sustained a ton of injuries and barely made the playoffs; in '08 Pitt featured one of the worst OLs to ever make a Super Bowl; in '07 the Giants nearly started 0-3 and nearly fired Coughlin; in '06 the Colts featured an almost historically bad run defense down the stretch...the list goes on, but the point here is that these problems were arguably much worse than your single, midseason 6 point loss.
- You don't need your defense to become dominant...you just need it to become competent on the back end. That's not a huge leap. With just an average defense, your team will be favorites to get back to the SB, because your offense is so explosive. (I have no doubt that BB will find schemes to counter the press coverage we deployed Sunday).
- Losing in Pittsburgh, when we're playing extremely well, and when we *surprise* you with a new scheme (hell, I was positively stunned with the press coverage!), is hardly something to go off the deep end over. If we meet again in the playoffs, I (along with a lot of other Steelers fans I imagine) will still be extremely nervous about it, because I know that BB will now have tape on Sunday's wrinkles, and will develop effective counters to them.
- Bad losses tend to overemphasize strengths and weaknesses when reality is somewhere in between. Yesterday's effort notwithstanding, the Patriots still have a dominant offense, and their defense will likely improve. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, still has significant issues in their OL and potentially their secondary to overcome, even if they appeared much improved and played extremely well yesterday.
- There's no true dominant team in the NFL this year. Everyone's flawed. Even Green Bay has major defensive issues. I don't think it's time for many teams to start conceding that they can't make serious noise come playoff time if they can get hot, let alone the Patriots.
Your fanbase is probably one of the few in the league that's as spoiled...er, not used to losing, as ours is. After losses, our posters want to fire Arians, Tomlin, and even Lebeau, gut the roster, and start over. We kill the front office for every missed pick, as if we're supposed to hit on every single one, and often prematurely ("Bustamalu" was Troy's nickname his first year LOL). Anything less than complete season long dominance is a massive disappointment, so we overreach with massive, categorical conclusions drawn from a single game.
So sadly it's not just you. (Fan Panic...Everybody's doing it! )
lillloyd