Quick thoughts - Steelers

[Racehorse]

Originally Posted by sherck

To me, one of the factors that would indicate good coaching vs bad coaching is the size of victory or loss at the NFL level.

Honestly, the NFL draft system and salary cap ensures that the general player talent level across teams is "RELATIVELY" even under "COMPETENT" player acquisition schemes.

My gut feeling is that if you throw out the Browns because they have an incompetent player acquisition scheme and throw out the Patriots because they have a possibly once-in-a-generation coach/GM, then the other 30 teams in the NFL over the past decade have all been in the general ballpark of talent on each roster from a long-term perspective. ANY.....GIVEN......SUNDAY.

Year-in and year-out success then comes down to who can design, implement and direct a better coaching/play design/play calling system to get the most out of that "generally" evenish player talent level.

In other words:

Big wins = good game plan design/good player motivation/good in-game decisions
Big losses = bad game plan design/bad player motivation/bad in-game decisions

Lost by at least a 21 point margin:

Week 07, 2017 = Shut out by JAX 27 - 0
Week 04, 2017 = Lost by 28 to SEA
Week 01, 2017 = Lost by 37 to LAR
Week 12, 2016 = Lost by 21 to PIT
Week 14, 2015 = Lost by 35 to JAX
Week 13, 2015 = Lost by 35 to PIT
AFC Champ, 2015 = Lost by 38 to NE
Week 16, 2014 = Lost by 35 to DAL
Week 11, 2014 = Lost by 22 to NE
Div Champ, 2014 = Lost by 21 to NE
Week 12, 2013 = Lost by 29 to ARI
Week 10, 2013 = Lost by 30 to STL
Week 11, 2012 = Lost by 35 to NE
Week 06, 2012 = Lost by 26 to NYJ

Won by at least a 21 point margin:

Week 15, 2016 = Won by 28 over MIN
Week 13, 2016 = Won by 31 over NYJ
Week 13, 2014 = Won by 22 over WAS
Week 07, 2014 = Won by 27 over CIN
Week 04, 2014 = Won by 24 over TEN
Week 03, 2014 = Won by 27 over JAX
Week 15, 2013 = Won by 22 over HOU
Week 04, 2013 = Won by 34 over JAX

14 blow out losses vs 8 blow out wins. Only 2 blow out wins in the past 2.5 seasons (once our division rivals have gotten stronger; 4 of our blow out wins were against division opponents in 2013/2014).

I know this is not conclusive, but Pagano is averaging more than 2 blow out losses every season as head coach. Sure, 4 of them are to NE who is the best franchise of this era but 10 of them are then spread across teams, some of whom, honestly, have not been strong overall (JAX, Rams, ARI).

A good coach gets his team ready to play the opponent taking the field across from them. Pagano rarely seems to have his team ready for his opponent.

Walk Worthy,

He may have grown on that, given the play in the first half of most games this year, or it could be that teams just pay vanilla against us in the first half knowing we will not make any adjustments at halftime.

[ChoppedWood]

Originally Posted by Racehorse

He may have grown on that, given the play in the first half of most games this year, or it could be that teams just pay vanilla against us in the first half knowing we will not make any adjustments at halftime.

First off- great work Sherk- always appreciative of the analysis you smack down on us!

Race- BAM!

What did we hear all last year from Clappy--- "we gotta come out faster, we gotta get going faster"- and week after week after week they came out as though the Zoloft was just wearing off. Over and over the first half was atrocious with us just sleep walking and getting clobbered. Then, 2nd half, we would spring to life (or more likely Luck probably went in the locker room and said "fuck you and this stupid shit, we're doing this this and this because I can see what the fuck they are doing you stupid fucks..."). So many games last year were actually pretty wild in the 2nd half with us charging back.

This year, it is the absolute opposite. It's like he literally sat down and said okay, we're going to really go get em' in the first half but that means we have to be static in the 2nd half- because we will have shot all our bullets in the first half...

It's fucking perplexing and it is indicative of a coach that just is not capable of getting 60 minutes of consistent solid well executed football from his squad. The coaching staff as a collective is uninspiring and grossly inept and needs to be gutted.