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Ask Ed: Steelers Losses Bring Them Out

By Ed Bouchette
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 8 years ago

Good morning,

Losses always elicit more questions than victories and that would be the case again this week with the Steelers. So we start with a bunch of them in Ask Ed. Chat today at 1:30:

YOU: Ed, I'm seeing a lot of people angry about the decision to kick the FG with 3 minutes left. I had no problem with the FG call. If you don't convert that 4th down into a touchdown and they go down and get FG you need a touchdown plus a 2 point conversion to tie it. If they go and score a TD then it's a 2 score game vs if you kick the FG and your defense stops them, then a FG wins it or if you hold them to a FG you can win it with just a TD. Obviously they scored a TD and it became a 2 score game regardless but you have more options kicking the FG and seeing what your defense can do. The most common arguement I see against it is that the defense wasn't stopping them but if that's the case what difference does it make if you kick the FG or go for it and turn the ball over anyways? Also even if we scored a TD the argument is we cant stop them so theyd go down and score one of their own taking back the lead again so what difference does it make if the whole argument is we cant stop them? You take the FG and if you can either get the stop or hold them to a FG, then you get the ball back with your two timeouts left and have a chance to win it with little to no time left on the clock.

ED: Chuck Noll would have kicked in that situation, as would many other coaches. If the Steelers defense had stopped them on that third down and the offense came back to kick a field goal, it would have looked like a brilliant situation. But then, that’s why they call it Monday Morning Quarterbacking.

--- YOU: Hi Ed, I've been one of the few supporters of Blake this season, but good god, he struggled last night. I've never been a huge fan of Will Allen and he was just as bad. Might the staff look at changing starters at those two positions? Really, how much worse could Boykin and Golden do?

ED: The problem with the secondary is that nearly everything the Steelers have done recently to bolster it has failed, including the draft, trades and free agent signings. The one exception is Mike Mitchell. I agree with you that how bad could those other be? But then, the coaches see these guys in practice all the time and their desire to win is greater than yours, believe it or not, and you have to believe they play the ones they believe give them the best chance to do that.

--- YOU: Possibly the biggest and most obvious weakness the Steelers have had over the last five years, has been and continues to be the secondary. A good suggestion might be to bring in Mel Blount and Rod Woodson, in the spring after the draft and have then work with the DB's. Teach them to:

a. play man to man

b. look back to the ball to break up passes/intercept

c. wrap up receivers and strip the ball

d. tackle aggressively

e. don't play off receivers by 10 yards, gives them too much open space

These two hall of famers know the techniques and could also assist evaluating collegiate DB's. Cant hurt and unless Steelers upgrade the secondary, this team is not going to be competitive in the new NFL, which is pass oriented.

ED: Great players sometimes do not make for great coaches and great coaches may not be able to  turn below-average players even into average ones. There has to be some talent involved. They have one of the best defensive backs in their history coaching them now, Carnell Lake. Rod Woodson, by the way, is a secondary coach for the Oakland Raiders, who have the fourth-worst pass defense in the league – right behind No. 3, the Steelers.

--- YOU: Why do you guys continue to use quotes from Anton Blake? This is the most inept so-called football player that I have ever seen in my 80 years.

ED: Last week, some readers were upset that I interviewed Mike Vick. Now you want me to stop talking to Antwon Blake. Maybe I should just ask for a list from the readers of which players I am permitted to interview. If we talked to only those who were playing well, it would be no fun and if that also were the case, there are a few years in which I covered the team that I may not have been able to talk to any player.

--- YOU: Have you ever had one of those reoccurring dreams that always seems to end badly? Every time I seem to watch a Steeler game, I find myself having one of those instances. And, the villain in this particular dream always does something so extraordinarily bad when I awake I find myself trying to rationalize it to be not all that bad.

Ed, I believe you do much the same when you see Tomlin consistently make a football stupid decision like he had when he made his team fake a field-goal which would eventually put it in motion a series of plays that would cause him and his team to lose.

And, like all bad recurring dreams I find myself saying please stop please stop. But, since I do not know as much as a professional football coach or for that matter A professional sports writer or writers I place myself at the mercy of falling asleep and once more experiencing my reoccurring dream hoping somewhere down the road everything will once again be predictable as Steeler football had been in years past. Oh how delusional I must be.

ED: This belongs more in a Tell Ed than an Ask Ed blog. Nevertheless, here you go: You don’t live in your fears, you live in your nightmares.

--- YOU: 1. In the first half, instead of kicking a field goal, he "goes for it" with his backup QB with fake. 2. In the 3rd quarter, it's 4th and 1 on the two, and he doesn't go for it. He tries to draw Seattle off sides, takes a 5 yard penalty and kicks a field goal. 3. In the 4th quarter, he doesn't go for it at the 3 yard line.

I know he's coached us to one Super Bowl victory, another appearance and multiple playoff appearances, but he makes some highly questionable game day decisions. The only one I agreed with wad the last one. What do you think?

ED: “He,” of course, is Mike Tomln. I did not like the fake field goal, even before it failed. I didn’t like the fake punt that worked earlier. As for the other decisions, coaches have made those both ways since football was invented. They are the right choices when they work and they win and, like Sunday night, not so right when they lose.

--- YOU: Believe The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated The Pittsburgh Steelers! Tomlin said he does not live in fear but in hope! How about living in reality?The fake field goal defies logic the way the offense was moving the ball. If you do not want to kick a long field goal. let Ben try for the first down. Believe you have to go for the touchdown late rather than kicking the field goal. If you do not make the TD. Seattle does not have good field position. A hold there should give the Steelers good field position for another try. And to top it off, Ben may have a concussion!

ED: A hold there might have given the Steelers good field position for another try to win it with a touchdown but a defensive hold on third-and-10 at the 20 also would have given them another try to win it with just a field goal. And we know how that turned out. Either way, the defense would have had to hold the Seahawks and they did very little of that all game on Sunday.

--- YOU: I am writing to you concerning the blog that follows your Steelers post game report/story – especially this week’s edition. I am all for freedom of speech and freedom of the press but with that comes some level of responsibility and maturity. Fans voicing criticism is a great thing – when done in a responsible, civilized way and with “class”. And the Steelers deserve it

however….

There is a certain cowardly poster that hides behind the name of Richie Rich who has gone way over the line and because of his racist and slanderous comments, I am filing a formal complaint with this email.

Please take a look at his comments. Is this the type of “rhetoric” that the PG wants associated with its paper? I don’t think so.

This poster had been lurking on Pitt and Penguins post game blogs as well earlier this year but has vanished – hopefully he has been banned as a result of my letter writing and/or just good common sense on the PG’s part.

We can criticize without personal attacks and keep the site as professional as possible.

ED: Thank you!