View topic - Bouchette on fire.

[oldschoolhunkie Profile]

I don't really recall him ever being quite this negative.

I once quoted Dan Rooney after a loss to the Cleveland Browns charging "stupid coaching decisions" in the game. Chuck Noll was the coach at the time, which was in the late 1980s, I think 1988, when everything was going bad.

Too bad Dan’s in Ireland, because that comment would fit today. I also once talked to Bill Cowher after two big returns against the Steelers on kickoffs and I believe this too occurred in Cleveland.

Cowher was so upset he could hardly talk. This was early in his career, I’m guessing ’92 or ’93. He came into the old Three Rivers press room unannounced, a rarity. I asked him what happened on the kickoff returns. He talked about "leverage.’’ I asked him what he meant and he looked at me as if I had two heads. "Leverage!!! Leverage!!!" he said, his voice and anger rising.

I asked, What’s that?

He grabbed some chalk and outlined on a chalk board in that room what he meant. He talked about how you kick off to a spot and the leverage of the coverage, like a fulcrum, squeezed the return man in, using the sideline. I cannot remember the specifics but I do remember how angry Cowher was and feeling I was glad I was not that piece of chalk as he jammed it so forcibly into the board.

If he was that angry as he "talked" to me, I can only imagine his approach to those players.

My point is, I suppose, that this is where Mike Tomlin and the Steelers are today. Stupid coaching decisions and "leverage.’’ I do not expect Art Rooney to say anything about stupid coaching decisions and I do not expect Mike Tomlin to come into the press room and diagram what went wrong on the kickoff coverage. Times are different.

But you would think they’d do something about it and another sacrificial lamb tossed off the roster is not what I mean. Fix it. Make your point. At this rate, the kickoffs are demoralizing the entire team. I saw it in their faces and heard it in their words Sunday.

There was more to that loss in Kansas City than one kickoff return for a touchdown. That was one of the worst teams in the NFL and then they tossed Larry Johnson off their roster, their star receiver was suspended and Mike Vrabel did not play. They were wounded but the Steelers were the ones who spread blood in the water.

Stupid coaching decisions, yes. We all know what they were and have talked about them at length. The players have to take the blame as well.

Like Cowher, I’m not big on the what-if game but sometimes it can put things into perspective, so let’s play this one a little. What-if the Steelers did not mount the winning drive in the Super Bowl and lost to the Arizona Cardinals on what would have been the greatest comeback in that game’s history? Would what is going on today surprise anyone?

The Steelers also are a wounded defense. They lost Aaron Smith and Troy Polamalu. If you asked me before the season which two players on defense they could least afford to lose, I would have told you those two.

Perhaps what we are seeing is the slow decline of a defense that has been so good for so long. Smith is out, Casey Hampton is in his final season, it appears. Lawrence Timmons, in his third season, has not played to the level many thought he would. The cornerbacks are average, at best, and LaMarr Woodley has not played to the level he did last season.

And when you toss in three turnovers on offense against a poor team plus a kickoff return for a touchdown, it does not help that defense, which also failed to come up with two interceptions right in their hands.

I don’t like their chances down the stretch. I do not like some of the things I see. They’re a good team, not a Super Bowl team. They do not seem to have a philosophy on offense and their defense cannot carry them as it did in 2008. Ben Roethlisberger has been a savior and he deserves better than this.

[MendenHaulin Profile]

bouchette actually called out woodley? theyve been dropping him into coverage half the time.

[rick723 Profile]

Douchett is also the one who set up Anthony Smith before the Pats** game a few years ago.

[Rushmore Profile]

first of all: thanks for cutting & pasting Bouchette's blog.

2ndly: his remarks are refreshing: he actually spoke the truth.

3rdly: i'm not for 'what if's i.e. the SB comeback: that's opening a can of worms for any circumstance.

but, glass half full: take away the TD returns, this is 9-1 team and talk of a SB repeat is justified.

there is no buzz about the pending Ravens game. I don't hear a word out of either city.

-Rushmore