Pride Before the Fall

Glossed over flaws, unimproved execution, and overall careless play led to Sunday's not so stunning loss to the Broncos. . . . 

"You are what you put on tape." 

It turns out Mike Tomlin was right. The extra gear some were waiting for the Steelers to shift into for the postseason was nowhere to be found on Sunday. There were no hidden switches, special game plans, or other surprises the Steelers had in store for the Broncos at Invesco Field. They were the same team they had been all season: a good team beset by their own flaws and poor execution. Instead of stepping up their overall game in the sudden-death postseason tournament, playing on the road in the playoffs only served to magnify the problems the Steelers had not corrected all throughout the season. In that way, Pittsburgh's loss and overall performance against the Broncos shouldn't be that surprising to anyone who has closely followed the team this year.

In the aftermath of an upset loss in the playoffs, we fans naturally try to immediately diagnose what went wrong for our team while giving the mark of death to any individual player or coach we felt let the team down. As said earlier this season, there isn't a worse crime a NFL player or coach can commit than to not meet the expectations fans have set. But it should be noted that as fans we're only given a glimpse of a team's final product on Sundays. We aren't privy to see, or even qualified enough to digest, all the preparation that takes place on the practice field. Even on game day, our brief three hour window to diagnose all the working parts of our team, we don't get a view of the full picture. We don't see what is taking place on the sidelines, or hear what is being said over the headset or in the huddle. So whatever we're left to infer from is guesswork at best. 

So when Ben throws a quick screen to Mike Wallace, we're not entirely sure if that was a call from Arians or a check from Ben at the line of scrimmage. When Wallace drops what likely should have been a fumble off of that lateral pass, do we put all the blame on Wallace for the drop, Ben for checking it to him and throwing it behind his own starting point, Arians for either the play call itself or for the freedom he gives Ben, or do we blame the coaching staff in general for the poor execution? When Polamalu sneaks up and bites on a quick read, vacating a zone and leaving the corner behind him with no help, who do we hold accountable? Troy for the misread, Ike Taylor for giving up the completion, the play call itself, or Dick Lebeau for allowing Troy so much freedom to freelance in the first place? Are coaches like Arians and Lebeau simply play callers or are they responsible for the execution of the players under them on the field, especially if those players are making consistent errors in execution all throughout the course of a season? Do players deserve more of the blame through errors made in the freedom they're allowed in a system, or do the coaches themselves deserve more blame in misplaced trust and freedom in their players to begin with? How much share do we give to each side of the players vs. coaches debate balanced against how much credit the other team truly deserves? 

As you can see, the quick rush to judgment minutes after a game doesn't hold much water. Football is the ultimate team sport, and the reactionary singling out of individual players or coaches is a foolish path to go down. Whatever problems the Steelers may or may not have, they will take their time in evaluating and addressing them. 

But from this line of thinking comes the fact that every team in the NFL has some sort of balance between how strictly the coaches want their game plan to be adhered to compared with how much freedom some players are allowed to have within a system. When we watch a team like the Colts play, we're naturally jealous of the freedom and trust of the coaching staff Peyton Manning has to read the field and call plays as he sees fit. Others might watch the Steelers on a random Monday night game and jealously wish they had a player that was allowed the freedom to roam and make plays all over the field as Troy Polamalu does. It's a fine line for a coaching staff to walk, as while giving a veteran player freedom to operate like that can have its obvious benefits (see James Harrison's pre-snap read and interception against the Cardinals in the Super Bowl), there are obvious downsides to this as well, as we saw Sunday evening. 

Throughout watching yet another game full of self-inflicted wounds from the Steelers, this was a thought I kept coming back to in my head: that perhaps the fine line between allowing players freedom within a system and simply working hard to execute a game plan had been crossed. Perhaps the best thing for this team would be a back-to-the-basics approach that focuses on eliminating errors and improving their execution rather than a backed-off approach that puts too much trust on veterans who aren't practicing that much late in the season to still fully prepare and get the job done. 

Is there a point with a veteran team where you put your foot back down on the pedal? Do you reel in some of the flexibility given to veterans in light of consistent mistakes in key moments throughout the course of a season? I believe the answer to that is yes, and I expect Mike Tomlin to work hard this offseason so that the mistakes the Steelers made seemingly every week in a year where they finished 29th in turnover differential and 21st in scoring are not repeated. If some feathers are ruffled, or if changes are made to the coaching staff to accomplish those means, so be it. 

Some Closing Thoughts: 

-- Not to be lost from Sunday were the performances of Isaac Redman and Emmanuel Sanders. For anyone who still had questions about Redman as a featured back, hopefully you got an answer. As for Sanders, that was a great way to finish off what had been a disappointing season. For a second straight postseason, Sanders led this team in both receptions and yards while he was on the field, including a phenomenal catch down the sideline late in the fourth with the Steelers driving for a possible win. While I expect Ward to retire and Cotchery to move on for whatever money he can find, it's good to see our forgotten young wide receiver show the world he's still very talented. 

-- With the Steelers reportedly being around $20 million over next year's projected salary cap, expect more turnover this offseason than the Steelers have had in a long time. For several players key to this era of great Steelers football, Sunday might have been the last time they suit up for us. Time marches on, but the standard remains the standard. 

-- While Ike Taylor certainly had an awful game, Dick Lebeau did him no favors with his overall game plan and lack to adjust after the second quarter. Given how the Steelers lost both Hampton and Keisel early in the game, you could understand Lebeau wanting to keep his safeties up near the line of scrimmage to help contain the Broncos #1 ranked rushing offense, but not making sure Thomas, the only threat the Broncos had down the field, was doubled late in the game was a mistake to say the least. Take Thomas' big plays out of the equation and the Steelers win. No question. 

-- The death knell for the Steelers offense was Ben's injury, but not for the obvious reason you might be thinking of. With Ben hobbled and not much of a threat to extend plays out of the pocket, opponents got physical with Pittsburgh's wideouts and dared the Steelers to beat them deep. Not having a physical threat outside or over the middle really does limit what the Steelers can do, and with opponents not fearing getting dominated in one-on-one match ups, it made the field that much harder for Roethlisberger to read. For an offense that mainly depends on magic from Ben to get passing touchdowns in the red zone, this was especially crippling to our scoring. 

-- Lastly, I want to give my personal thanks to the staff at SteelerFury for giving me the opportunity to write for the front page. I know I don't bring the experienced insight as the other great writers here, but for this season I just tried to share my own perspective on the team we all equally love and I'm very grateful for the chance. It should go without saying, but I definitely appreciate all the feedback I get on the boards as well. Some weeks it can be hard finding the time or inspiration to get something out, but the genuine feedback and compliments do mean a hell of a lot to me. Win or lose, agree or disagree, this is still the best place on the net for talking about our Steelers, and I definitely want to thank everyone for making that possible.