PITTSBURGH, PA – JANUARY 03: Head coach Mike Tomlin speaks with Troy Polamalu #43 of the Pittsburgh Steelers during their AFC Wild Card game against the Baltimore Ravens at Heinz Field on January 3, 2015 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Why the coaching and schemes were partially to blame for the Steelers Super Bowl drought.
Pictured above is Troy Polamalu and Coach Tomlin. It’s clear to me as a fan that what the Steelers are sorely lacking are playmakers on the defensive side of the ball…or are we lacking in the coaching of the players? I think the answer is this: we are lacking both.
Look, I realize the Steelers are not going to “hit” on every draft pick, so that’s where coaching comes into play. I also realize that Coach Tomlin is the head coach and not a position coach, but don’t you think that if the Steelers HC (Head Coach) tells both the O-coordinator and the D-coordinator that he wants a certain scheme run or he wants a specific game plan for a particular opponent that the coordinator is not at least going to appease the HC and implement the plan?
If the game plan or scheme does not play to the strengths of the players whom the Steelers drafted, whose fault is that? If the game plan or scheme is not working, whose responsibility is it to make adjustments? Who is ultimately responsible for the team’s success? Whose sole mission should be getting the Steelers back to the Super Bowl and winning it to erase the decade long drought? The answer to all of the aforementioned questions is Coach Tomlin.
Of course, this is not to say Coach Tomlin has ignored his duties as Head Coach, but you have to wonder how many more times we would have won the AFC North had it not been for the one or two or three games we lose every year to an inferior team or how many more times we would have advanced in the playoffs had it not been for collapses on the defensive side of the ball.
I can not help but think that, for the most part, Coach Tomlin has left the O-coordinators to their devices. I think Coach Tomlin left Dick LeBeau alone in that he did not try to “suggest” to Coach LeBeau what a game plan or scheme should be for a particular opponent. I give Coach Tomlin many kudos for keeping Coach LeBeau as the D-coordinator when he became the HC; however, once Coach LeBeau exited, I firmly believe Coach Tomlin became heavily involved in the defensive schemes, so much so that it appears, from the outside looking in, that Coach Tomlin is running the show on defense. If that is true, that is not Coach Tomlin’s job.
Keith Butler learned from the best, in my opinion. If Butler can’t cut it, let’s find that out by allowing him to run the show completely. Does anyone else find it odd that after a 13-3 season in 2017, Todd Haley was shown the door but Keith Butler wasn’t shown the door after the utterly disgraceful shellacking the Steelers suffered at home against the Jags (Jaguars) in the Divisional round of the playoffs, a game in which the defense gave up (45) points? It was 7-28 at one point. Right there proves my theory, as far as I’m concerned.
So what does all of what we discussed in parts one, two and three mean? Well, it means there does not exist one factor as to why the Steelers have not won a Super Bowl in a decade; there exist many reasons for the Steelers Super Bowl drought, all of which are interwoven but come back to one area, in my opinion, and that’s coaching.
If the Steelers draft a player, that player needs to be a good scheme fit. If the player does not fit the scheme, it’s the responsibility of the HC to assure the position coaches are either “coaching up” the player or are trying to find players on the roster who can be “coached up”, as it were. It is also the responsibility of the HC to assure the offensive and defensive schemes are working. In the last (10) years, I would say the offense has been ahead of the defense, but, again, it comes down to coaching.
Coach Tomlin, whom I like, by the way, has to figure out how to get the most of the players we have, has to allow his coaches to coach, has to not be afraid to make a schematic change, if it’s warranted, has to have the creativity to maybe try players at different positions, particularly on the defensive side of the ball (Brain Allen is 6’3″. Unless he just can’t play at the NFL level, how about giving him a shake at Safety?) and has to understand, which I think he does, that Steelers fans are not satisfied with a winning record unless that winning record includes a Super Bowl victory.