Unleashing Some Fury

68 years today, Hell was unleashed on the United States when the Japanese initiated a surprise attack on U.S. soil by bombing a Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

About 10 days ago, Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin told the world that the Steelers would "Unleash Some Hell in December" after losing to Baltimore.  Sounds good, right?

Americans have always been good at unleashing hell.  A few years after Pearl Harbor, Dresden saw what unleashing hell meant.  Japan surely did with the Tokyo fire bombings and subsequent leveling of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Hanoi residents saw some hell unleashed with the carpet bombings and Rolling Thunder.  Iraq saw some hell unleashed on them during the first 30 days of the air campaign in Desert Storm and in Operation Iraqi Freedom, The Shock and Awe effort had the Iraqis scurrying around again.

Tomlin attended the prestigious College of William and Mary but obviously went light on the history courses.  He earned a degree in Sociology and after watching him get this 2009 team fired up and trying to make this squad cohesive makes you wonder how much he paid attention in that discipline.  This team has as much cohesiveness as my wife's Jell-O.  Throughout history, leaders have rallied their subordinates through motivational speeches and rhetoric.  In fact, some of the more notable motivational speeches did not come from elected leaders or military leaders, they came from sporting coaches.  In 2009, Mike Tomlin's rhetoric is empty and his players are unresponsive.  Tomlin's "Unleashing of Hell" was uninspiring, weak and full of crap.

On this anniversary of Pearl Harbor there are six AFC teams with better records than the Steelers:

There are four AFC teams that are still in the hunt should one of the teams above falter:

At 6-6, the Steelers season is not over.  10-6 could earn a playoff position so each week from now will require the math gurus to start doing some ciphering.  Three of the Steelers last four opponents each have playoff aspirations; Baltimore, Miami and Green Bay.  After watching the Chiefs and Raiders games, the Browns are not a gimme and they have shown that they can hang some points, if needed.

Why this Season Frustrates Me:

• We are generally the same team that won the last Super Bowl less than a year ago.  The team has talent on paper but hasn’t put it together on the playing field.
• The defense is the unit I wasn't worrying about.  Now they are the problem.  Sure Troy is out and teams nowadays need to plan on having an impact player out of the lineup.  It happens.  We've been placing all the defensive failures on Troy's knee.  While Troy is almost impossible to replace with our current roster, good teams figure out how to adapt. 
• Special Teams...I don't think I need to elaborate any further.
• The team appears not to be a team.  A leader hasn't emerged even though this roster has several players capable of bringing this team together.
• Too much complaining and excuse making.  Hines is the obvious one, but there are others.  There appears to be some confidence lost in the coaching staff, play calling, toughness ect..  Some of this laundry is being aired publicly, a bad sign for any team in any sport.
• Dick Lebeau.  He has a lot of talent to work with but has gone vanilla in the 4th quarter.  His schemes are unimaginative at times and predictable.  The Dick has been given passes due to his reputation as a player and as the inventor of the Zone Blitz.  Dick will likely enter the Hall of Fame as a player, coach or contributor.  That is why it is hard for me to criticize him.  The man is a legend, but just like Bobby Bowden, legends need to go away.  Dick is getting to that point quickly.
• We've made average opposing QBs look like Johnny Unitas.
• We've ended a lot of other team's negative streaks. 
• Lack of putting together a complete game.  The closest to a complete game was against the Broncos.
• We are used to having some luck and lady luck isn't on our side this season.

If the Steelers don't enter the 2009-10 tournament or if they are mathematically eliminated from advancing prior to the season ending, I'd like to see some player change ups.  This is an old debate and I'm certain my philosophy will fall on deaf ears by the coaching staff since they will likely play to win each game, even if reaching the play-offs are not a reality.  My philosophy is let’s see what we have in depth.  We have a roster filled with players that don't see the field that often.  We have players that have played in 12 NFL games this season and we know what we have in them (good and bad).  I'd like to see Sweed, Burnett, Hood, Dixon, Wallace and others get more significant playing.  They are likely to play in games against teams that are in playoff contention and I think it would be a good test or evaluation before heading into free agency and the draft.

I'm not conceding this season by any stretch because 10-6 may be good enough to advance.  If playoffs are not going to happen, I want to see some new meat in real game situations. 

Hopefully the frustration ends, but dropping four conference games in a row, is placing you in a hole and the NFL can be a hard hole to dig yourself out of.