Loose Slag from The Still Mill (Jan. 12th, 2004)

- Stiller DB coach Willie Robinson is being looked at by the 49ers.� Sure enough, the Pittsburgh media will fawn over Robinson, as though he's the next coming of Bill Parcells. I'm not privy to Willie's coaching sessions, but all I know is the slop that's put out on the field every week on my TV set.  I get the opportunity to see Robinson/Cowherd put out Burnt Alexander, the slowest free safety in football.  I get to see them put out "Hanging Chad" Scott, quite possibly the stupidest cornerback in NFL history, given his propensity to fall for the pump fake.  I get to see DeShea Townsend rot on the bench while the two starters smell worse than Lake Erie and downtown Cleveland.  I get to see the #1 draft pick, the guy we gave up three picks for, waste away on the bench, while Cowherd/Robinson blather that he doesn't know all the calculus and advanced trigonometry of the defensive scheme. 

All of the above seems plenty to make a judgment about the coaching capabilities/deficiencies of Willie Robinson.� If given the choice between Dick LeBeau or Slick Willie, bring back LeBeau.  Period.

Let's see -- choose between a coach who has a proven track record of never missing the playoffs during his tenure as Stiller Defensive Coordinator, or a coach who has a proven track record of managing one of the worst secondaries in Stiller history?

Tough choice.

- Said Stiller OC Mike Mularkey in an article the other day, "One of the things I expressed was our training camp was very disruptive with weather, not having the number of practices that we missed and traveling like we did," he said. �The rest of the article noted, "Heavy rain made it difficult for the Steelers to practice daily on the St. Vincent College fields, and they were forced to seek alternate sites and ride buses to get there."

What pathetic bullshit.� Mularkey had a veteran-laden offense that started exactly ZERO rookies, and in nearly every case, started a player who'd been with the team at least 2 previous seasons.� �Simmons was plagued, but given the fact that he had elbow surgery and was diagnosed with diabetes WEEKS before camp ever began, Mularkey had ample time to make adjustments.� And to pin the blame on "disruptive weather"?� Like Baltimore, Boston, and Cinci didn't have to deal with similar weather issues.� Maybe Mularkey and his supremely intelligent boss should have spent less time at the movie cinema and more time on the practice field during camp.�

- Speaking of gutless cowards, you'll note that gutless cowardice led to the demise of the Rams and Packers this past weekend.� The Rams had eons of time left, with the ball on the Panther 20-yard line, yet frittered away time, and then were content to wind the clock down and send the game into OT.� Given the "first chance", first-score wins nature of OT -- determined by the random flip of the coin -- exactly why would Martz, or anyone else, feel so eminently confident going into OT?��

Then there's the Jackers, who could have won the game had they stopped a 4th & 26.� But right out of the Tim Lewis playbook, the Packers GAVE that play away.� They failed to get any kind of jam on the receiver, which makes no sense at all.� Then, they went with the vanilla, conservative 4-man rush, and the Eagles easily blocked that softee rush and gave McNab plenty of time and vision to make the pass.�

Softee and gutless -- surefire ways to lose in the playoffs, as Billy Cowher has proven time and time and time and time and time again�..

- On the other hand, there's one of the truly greatest coaches ever in the NFL, Bill Parcells.� Said a recent AP article, "Bill Parcells knows playoff teams and championship teams. He also knows that, by his standards, the Dallas Cowboys were not really a playoff-caliber team, something Carolina proved by beating them, 29-10, in the first round.

"There's a lot to do, and I know what it is now," Parcells said. "This season has taught me a lot more than I could've expected to be taught. I'm not under illusions. Trust me. I'm probably under fewer illusions than the majority of people in Texas."

This is the opposite of Little Billy Cowher, the dim bulb who can't see 2 feet in front of him, with egotism blinding his one eye and stubborn loyalty to aging, worthless veterans blinding his other.� Billy Cowher is under the illusion that "just a few bad breaks" caused the 6-10 season, and that "a few tweaks here and there" will get the ship righted in time for the 2004 season.� This is why Bill Parcells is one of the greatest NFL coaches ever, and why Billy Cowher is one of the biggest farces ever.�

- Peyton Manning has been en fuego.� Now he has to face the man that might very well be the greatest defensive mind of modern-day (post Lombardi) football, Bill Belichick.� It will be very interesting to see if Manning can continue his prolific heroics against Belichick and the Pats.�

- By the way, the next time you hear or see some Cowher-loving simpleton recite the banal mantra of, "Bill Cowher is in practice every day, and he sees these players every day and he sees the game films, and I trust his judgment on player evaluation matters," simply respond with these two words:� DeShea Townsend.

(Still Mill and Stillers.com -- the only nationally read coverage on the Pittsburgh Stillers that has accurately predicted the how's and the why's of the past 3 Stiller playoff losses�.)