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Layoff a Hindrance, Not a help, For Stillers...

September 24, 2001 by Still Mill

20010711_powerrunning

Layoff a Hindrance, Not a Help, For Stillers...

The Stillers will resume play next Sunday, in what will amount to a 21-day layoff since the whipping the team absorbed from the Jaguars.(By the way, please note that this article is in no way, shape, or form condemning the NFL for the cancellation of games on Sep. 16th & 17th.I agreed wholeheartedly with the move.)

 

Some might be confused into thinking that this layoff is just what the doctor ordered after the asswhipping down in Jacksonville.

 

But, aside from small injuries to Kreider, Kimo, Bell, and Plex being allowed to heal, this layoff is about the worst thing that could have happened to the Stillers.For one, they had to forego what would have been an emotional opener in brand new Heinz Field against an inferior opponent and long-time rival, the Browns.�� Although the Browns have improved and have beaten the Stillers in each of the two seasons since their return to the NFL, it�s highly probable that the Stillers would have prevailed.

 

However, the bigger, and much more important, hindrance from the layoff is the layoff itself, and the absence of a tune-up before a string of several tough games.The last thing this blundering coaching staff needed was a lengthy layoff.

 

Just as no other coach in the NFL gets less out of a timeout than Billy Cowher, there is nobody in the league less efficient and more inept at using this much time to prepare for an opponent.Witness Super Bowl 30, in which Cowher�s team came out dazed, bewildered, and totally befuddled by the Dallas schemes en route to getting manhandled well into the second quarter.�� Only when Cowher extracted his fat head from his rump, and adjusted his offensive and defensive schemes to counter what the Cowboys were doing, did his team crawl back from a deep hole that it should have never been buried into in the first place. And Cowher�s gross and perennial inability to have his team ready for the season opener has been well documented on this site.Whether his team has been getting whipped on opening day, or stumbling its way to sloppy, eked-out wins over weak opponents, Cowher has set the NFL standard for overt slop and shameful ineptitude on opening day.

 

Remember, Cowher had over 4 months to prepare for the Jaguar game that took place two weeks ago on Sept. 9th.�� Despite this monumental amount of preparation time, the best Cowher could do was give us the same half-assed, half-baked shit-sandwich that we�ve all been forced to digest the past 3 seasons.There wasn�t one shred of evidence that the Stillers did anything -- not one single thing -- to �gameplan� the Jaguars and take advantage of an injury-riddled team that was starting a host of inferior players on both sides of the ball.�� Moreover, the entire Stillers team looked slow, tentative, and not anywhere near prepared nor ready for the high-speed, high-intensity nature of the regular season.If anything, the team presented itself as if it were playing yet another meaningless exhibition game, not a regular season game against a hated division rival.

 

Some will rationalize that Cowher is breaking in a new OC, and therefore, �It�ll take time to gel�, blah blah blah.That�s horse manure.�� There isn�t a single coach in the NFL who has more experience at �breaking in a new offensive coordinator.�Not one.�� Cowher broke in Ray SpermMan in 1998, and the result was an abortion.So Cowher fired SpermMan, and broke in Kevin Gaypride in 1999.The result was an abortion.��� Cowher then allowed Gaypride to commit the same abortion in 2000.�� Cowher then fired Gaypride and hired Mike Mularkey to be his latest puppet and blame-taker.The result from the 2001 season opener was yet another abortion, with an offense so meek, weak, and anemic that, even if the refs had extended the game another 2 quarters, it�s highly doubtful this no-risk, no-reward offense would have scored a single touchdown.

 

Sadly enough, Cowher didn�t even appear to be fazed by the whipping his ill-prepared team received down in Jax a couple weeks ago.I didn�t sense a shred of evidence that indicated Cowher is fed up with his Nickle-Dime Offense that gains 3 yards a crack on a good day, nor his Mamby Pampy Defense that passively sits back and attacks nothing.It all starts at the top, and in this case, the man at the top is a dullard who is too stubborn, too cowardly, and too ignorant to make the kind of significant changes that must be made of this team is going to seriously challenge for a playoff spot.

 

He�s had 3 weeks to learn lessons from the embarrassment in J-ville and to revamp inferior schemes that have no chance on Earth to succeed.It should be very interesting to see what the Mensa Man, Bill Cowher, does this Sunday up in Buffalo.

 

 

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