View topic - New Article: Dick Exposed....By His Own Players...

[StillMill Profile]

Dick Exposed....By His Own Players... has been posted by Still Mill at Stillers.com.

[Pump-N-Iron Profile]

I posted an article about a month ago in which Ike Taylor said in an interview that he asks Dick Lebeau every week if he can walk up on a receiver and play press coverage. Usually, Dick says no. On more than one occasion this season, Ike has proven that he is far and away better at press coverage than at playing a 10 yard cushion.

Kudos to Farrior for having the stones to say enough is enough. They must be sick and tired of watching opposing teams pick up 3rd and long, time after time, like it was nothing... all because the Limp-Dick called for a defense where DBs start 20 yards off the LOS.

[Pommah Profile]

This reminds me of the video of Ben admonishing Cowher on the sidelines of SupBowl XL to play to win, not to play not to lose.

I want to see Harrison and Timmons getting back to their tag-team blitzing act.

I want to see some of our younger guys, most notably Worilds, get more playing time. There is nothing like youth and speed in football. We've got to at least try other guys in for McFadden and Clark, who have not earned the right to all that playing time.

I want to see some of the opposing receivers get hit off the line.

Nobody even bothers to run against us anymore - at least not until they've gotten a big lead on us by tearing apart our sof-tee approach.

We looked like a bunch of high schoolers on Flacco's "bombs" sunday night. Not even close to the recievers.

[SteelTank Profile]

You can pick on Dick on all you want, but the problem is Tomlin.

The article even alludes to it about Farrior being old enough to say something to Dick. It has always been my feeling that Tomlin doesn't have the backbone to get on Dick and Arians about obvious short-comings with the Offense and Defense. This is due to his relative youth and inexperience.

Tomlin even said when he came in he didn't want to rock the boat.

Well, those days should be gone and Tomlin should have had the guts to say something long before this.

Do people not remember the Titan game that we almost lost after crushing them all day? Tomlin didn't correct anything after this game and it took a player to say something. Pathetic.

I'm sorry, I like Tomlin as a person, but he has failed as a head coach the past two years and doesn't show any signs of changing.

[IronCity__Man Profile]

Our pass rush began to fail miserably last year - and other than the second half of the Raven's game it hasn't been that great this season as well. Blitzes are just not getting there, save for a few plays and they are usually surprise DB blitzes (e.g., Polamalu, Mcfadden on Brees). I think that is why Lebeau has transformed his own coordinatin to try something different with coverage - dropping additional players back to compensate for a weak secondary. Of course the other remedy is blitz the hell out of them but last year that didn't work. So I think I see the thought process of Lebeau here. Granted I would like to see more Jets based Defense with 9 men on the line of scrimmage even if they only blitz 4 - it causes that ah shit feeling in opposing qbs. Maybe this will bring back the blitzing fire in Lebeau.

and by the way, we base most of our likes for Lebeau on the fact that we have had a better statistically ranked defense with him than without him over the last 20 yrs and better annual winning pct with him as DC than without him. Not bad credentials but I know this information will be passed over as "meaningless stats".

alright then - lets fire Lebeau - who do we hire?

alot of bad press here over the resigning of Hampton and Clark this offseason - but no solutions offered on what bottom ranked players available we were supposed to sign and fill their spots.

Ok then - who do we hire for lebeau - how 'bout some solutions - we already know the problems.

[deltadweller Profile]

You can pick on Dick on all you want, but the problem is Tomlin.

The article even alludes to it about Farrior being old enough to say something to Dick. It has always been my feeling that Tomlin doesn't have the backbone to get on Dick and Arians about obvious short-comings with the Offense and Defense. This is due to his relative youth and inexperience.

Tomlin even said when he came in he didn't want to rock the boat.

Well, those days should be gone and Tomlin should have had the guts to say something long before this.

Do people not remember the Titan game that we almost lost after crushing them all day? Tomlin didn't correct anything after this game and it took a player to say something. Pathetic.

I'm sorry, I like Tomlin as a person, but he has failed as a head coach the past two years and doesn't show any signs of changing.

I said basically the same thing to my wife while I was watching the game. I like Tomlin, but... If he's not capable of holding his coaches accountable or replacing them then what good is he as a head coach. He needs to go. If things aren't working then he needs to overrule their play calling or schemes. It starts in the film rooms, but it carries onto the field.

In response to Iron...I think there has to be someone within the defensive coaching staff that has knowledge of the D that is capable of taking over. I'm sure a Kevin Greene or a Greg Lloyd would at least be worth consideration.

[zapunto Profile]

You’ll hear all sorts of babble in defense of Dick. “He blitzed Pola in the 1Q, and we gave up a 61-yard bomb.” Actually, this play had 2 grisly, asinine tactical mistakes by The Great Dick.

First off, he did blitz Pola, but instead of from the OUTSIDE -- where he’s got SPACE to maneuver -- he blitzed him right up the GUT, right next to the NT. The congestion, even on a favorable play, is ugly, and the blitz pickup by any half-mediocre RB is as easy as pie. You’ll note the game-changing strip by Pola came on a blitz from the OUTSIDE, not up the gut where there is more traffic than the Ft. Pitt Tunnel during rush hour.

2nd, he placed slow-footed Ryan Clark -- the absolute slowest, worst coverage man of any starting free safety in the entire NFL -- up in PRESS coverage in the face of a slot receiver. Stone stupid. Clark would have a hard time covering a toddler in a sandbox, much less covering a WR in press coverage. And with 3rd & 17, there wasn’t the need for press coverage like this; it wasn’t 3rd down and 4.

I'm actually writing this point to somewhat defend Dick LeBeau (never thought I'd say that), and basically lambast StillMill. What the hell are you watching? I watched the 61-yard bomb play to Anquan Boldin about 15 times (play is here: http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-fantasy/09000d5d81caee8e/QB-Flacco-to-WR-Boldin-61-yd-pass). What I see is that Dick made the RIGHT call, and that Willie Gay fucked up. Here is what I see:

• Pre-snap: Ravens line up with the ball on the left hash. Steelers show to man-to-man: Ike press on Mason, Polamalu on Boldin, Timmons has Rice, McFad on Housh, Gay and Clark are not even in the picture. My guess is that they are deep.
• Motion: Boldin motions to the strong-side. Polamalu now switches to Rice, so Timmons is now dropping into coverage. On the motion you see Ike Taylor yelling at either Timmons or Gay.
• Post-snap: Polamalu blitzes on his own (he's allowed to do this, and he's not worried about Rice as an outlet), Boldin gets a free-release with Ryan Clark AT LEAST 10 yards off the ball (not in press coverage as you said).
• The play: Rice picks up Polamalu (Troy got stoned easily), Gay drops IN THE WRONG DIRECTION, Clark is caught flat-footed as Boldin runs by him for the cake easy catch.

At the snap of the ball, the Ravens basically have 3 x 1: Dickson, Boldin and Housh all on the WIDE side of the field, and Mason on the other. Timmons and Gay actually drop to the same side of the field, leaving the middle of the field wide open. Mind you, the ball starts from the LEFT hash. why the hell is Gay dropping deep to Mason's side? Even the dumbest pissant high school safety would either line up correctly or drop to the CORRECT location -- middle or middle shaded. During the replay, you see Ryan Clark screaming at Gay and Gay having this "I fucked up" look on his face. I guess you can blame LeBeau for not preparing Gay properly for this situation, right?

What prompted me to write this was your assertion that Clark was in "press coverage" on 3rd and 15, when that simply isn't the truth. You're no better than the mediots at the Trib and PG if you're gonna spin doctor your analysis with petty untruths, just to make a point.

[steelandblood Profile]

You can pick on Dick on all you want, but the problem is Tomlin.

The article even alludes to it about Farrior being old enough to say something to Dick. It has always been my feeling that Tomlin doesn't have the backbone to get on Dick and Arians about obvious short-comings with the Offense and Defense. This is due to his relative youth and inexperience.

Tomlin even said when he came in he didn't want to rock the boat.

Well, those days should be gone and Tomlin should have had the guts to say something long before this.

Do people not remember the Titan game that we almost lost after crushing them all day? Tomlin didn't correct anything after this game and it took a player to say something. Pathetic.

I'm sorry, I like Tomlin as a person, but he has failed as a head coach the past two years and doesn't show any signs of changing.

The fault lies with the Rooneys in not giving him the control to bust his coordinators balls. Why does no one want to acknowledge this?

I outlined this in a post a couple weeks ago...

Yes, ultimately the issue stops with ownership. It's been illustrated in the worst-case scenarios that have panned out with control freaks like Jerry Jones and Al Davis. The Rooneys certainly aren't wallowing in the depths that the aforementioned owners are, but lets take a look at why those of you who want to run that man who coached our team to #6 with no o line or running backs out of town need to get off Tomlin's shit.

1)Since ownership sets the tone, ultimately, it is they who have cut Tomlin off at the knees in dealing with Dick LeBeau's refusal to call defense according to the reality before him. He came in with his offensive and defensive coordinators picked out for him by Dan and Art Rooney II. As we can see, it's apparent Tomlin can't hire and fire his own staff. It's not his fault. Cowher has complete sway over who his assistants were, with the exception of Dick Hoak, who was a running backs coach and did not call the offensive plays during a game. Blaming Tomlin at this point given the situation he was hired into pretty much just shows cracker ignorance. We won't know what Tomlin really wants until he' given the ability to shitcan mongoloid OC's and bullheaded DC's who should amicably be allowed to retire once they've shown they can't cut it.

2)The assertion that things would be fucking perfect if Dan Rooney had not accepted the ambassadorship to Ireland is absurd once you look at the facts.

a)During the 2003 season, Dan officially ceded control of daily football operations to his son Art II, but stipulated he would still be the final word on major decisions.

b)Dan Rooney is the guy who refused to pay players a competitive wage in the early 80's, which is why we lost players like Cliff Stoudt and Jimmie Smith to the USFL. Rooney also refused to draft Dan Marino because he did a little nose candy at Pitt and you know how that panned out. He refused to draft Marc Spindler, opting instead for combine baby sack o' shit Aaron Jones. He let Noll cut Duane Board. Throughout most of the 80's we had no money players on offense and only one offensive lineman worth a damn in Mike Webster, plus an invisible defensive line. In 2002, after Cowher had three AFCC chokes and one conference title under his belt, plus an entire year in which his defense (run by Cowher's boy Tim Lewis) got shredded, St. Dan lauded Cowher for what he considered one of the best seasons Chinzilla ever coached. Oh, and then he gave Cowher a job for life. Cowher hadn't done anything except choke and lose when it mattered most for 11 seasons. After that we all remember 2003. Also, throughout the 80's, 90's and the early part of the last decade Rooney got rid of numerous talented players that would have stayed longer had winning world championships been a top priority--players like Tim Johnson, Orpheus Roye, Earl Holmes, and Rod Woodson to name a few.

c)From mid-2003 onward, after Art II ran the team the following things happened: we finally got our hands on a top flight qb in the draft and we won two superbowls.

Perfect overall? No. As I said Art II needs to give Tomlin the innate authority a football coach should have to control who his coordinators are. It's certainly not perfect but good enough you can't whimper that all would be totally great if Dan still actively ran the organization.

Why does no one want to admit that Tomlin may not bust dick's and Arians' balls because he's not allowed by the Rooneys themselves? I mean would Josh McDaniels have fucked Denver up for the next couple seasons at least if he hadn't been given the authority by ownership?

[IronCity__Man Profile]

I'm actually writing this point to somewhat defend Dick LeBeau (never thought I'd say that), and basically lambast StillMill. What the hell are you watching? I watched the 61-yard bomb play to Anquan Boldin about 15 times (play is here: http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-fantasy/09000d5d81caee8e/QB-Flacco-to-WR-Boldin-61-yd-pass). What I see is that Dick made the RIGHT call, and that Willie Gay fucked up.

At the snap of the ball, the Ravens basically have 3 x 1: Dickson, Boldin and Housh all on the WIDE side of the field, and Mason on the other. Timmons and Gay actually drop to the same side of the field, leaving the middle of the field wide open. Mind you, the ball starts from the LEFT hash. why the hell is Gay dropping deep to Mason's side? Even the dumbest pissant high school safety would either line up correctly or drop to the CORRECT location -- middle or middle shaded. During the replay, you see Ryan Clark screaming at Gay and Gay having this "I fucked up" look on his face. I guess you can blame LeBeau for not preparing Gay properly for this situation, right?

What prompted me to write this was your assertion that Clark was in "press coverage" on 3rd and 15, when that simply isn't the truth. You're no better than the mediots at the Trib and PG if you're gonna spin doctor your analysis with petty untruths, just to make a point.

Thanks Zap - we are usually treated with enough insults from Mill that us pions that visit this site don't know anything about football and "we" don't review the tape so "we" don't know anything. I knew Sunday night where the mistake was you could see Clark schooling Gay after the play. I think even Collinsworth pointed it out and correctly assesed in your full post a few spots above. Funny how the first person every to re-review Mill's video call has easily shown his fallacy. I would like to compliment you for that but perhaps too easy for accolades. Mill also great at finding every video evidence of Farrior mistakes and explaining them ad naseum but when he has great plays it is passed off quickly as "Farrior had a better game than usual".

and damn it already - get Gay out of the lineup. Either Lewis, Butler, or Madison....well maybe not Madison...has to be better.

[Pump-N-Iron Profile]

I vote Crezdon Butler. That kid has some skills. But it will easily be Fall 2011 before he sees the field

[StillMill Profile]

THANK YOU for PROVING my point on this play.

Clark was in SOLO, ISOLATED, PRESS (albeit he failed to get closer to the LOS) COVERAGE on Boldin, and very CLEARLY turn and ran (futilely) as the WR sped by. NO ONE ELSE had coverage on Boldin, except CLARK. Of course, it was stone stupid to take a slow-footed SAFETY who is NEVER in that kind of coverage (aside from the goal line). Clark is ALWAYS way back in a soft DEEP zone coverage. Gay would have been better used to provide the SOLO coverage that Clark LAMELY tried to do, and put Clark in his more familiar deep zone cover.

A horseshit scheme from a coach that sucks horse cock. ....right along with some of the dimmer dim bulbs here.

[Pommah Profile]

I want to say I agree with Steel and Blood's take.

Look at all the young coaches who have been given free reign only to fail miserably. All the joker owners go, oh, the Steelers put a young guy in and they go to a super bowl, so the thing to do must be to put in a young guy who is fresh and has lots of energy and can relate to the players. Only thing is, they aren't ready-to-rock teams, and organizations, like the Steelers were for Tomlin. These owners make the mistake of thinking youth and energy will win out over age and wisdom and having seen it all before. They put these "kids" into situations where they are set up for failure. Tomlin was set up for success. I have seen this corollary many times in the business world. Tomlin was not old enough and wise enough to come in and run everything his own way, but I do think he's smart and I think he's learned a lot and should have a nice long run ahead of him.

The Rooney's probably felt comfortable putting a guy like Tomilin in charge knowing he had lots of seasoned help. But it's time to let him be truly be captain of his own ship.

[SteelTank Profile]

I want to say I agree with Steel and Blood's take.

Look at all the young coaches who have been given free reign only to fail miserably. All the joker owners go, oh, the Steelers put a young guy in and they go to a super bowl, so the thing to do must be to put in a young guy who is fresh and has lots of energy and can relate to the players. Only thing is, they aren't ready-to-rock teams, and organizations, like the Steelers were for Tomlin....

Hold on there. The point is not give him free reign and fire people and change the entire team as Josh did in Denver. The point is that he is not getting on his two main coaches when we can all clearly see huge problems from a play-calling standpoint on offense and defense.

No one is suggesting to have Tomlin start firing people and letting people go, but he certainly needs to be speak up and let his coordinators know they are doing a sub-par job and what needs to change.

He's not doing this. Therefore, he's not doing a good job as Head Coach.

[clarioncall Profile]

Why kis it we make 3rd Tier QB's look like the reincarnation of Joe Montana?
Short, dinky stuff at 8-10 yds a pop that uses long drives. Then, when we do apply pressure (Oak., Balt.) we prove we can stop people.

WTF DO THEY SEE WHEN THEY LOOK AT THE TAPES? Geez, for the life of me, I don't get it.
Ike is playing shut-down CB. OKAY,....put him on No. 1 and double the other. Play some bump at the line and let Troy handle the TE's when they are threats? Heap, etc.

Tomlin needs to grow a pair. Hell's bells, we make Buffalo look like a contender and we SHOULD HAVE LOST THAT GAME.
Do they learn NOTHING from 1-week to the next? I know the other guys get paid too, but ous Ass OC only wants to score when absolutely necessary. Can't be havin' big leads on anyone now, can we!

We don't put Ike on TO on Sunday, it will not be an easy game either. Balt game drained the tank pretty well I think.

[zapunto Profile]

THANK YOU for PROVING my point on this play.

Clark was in SOLO, ISOLATED, PRESS (albeit he failed to get closer to the LOS) COVERAGE on Boldin, and very CLEARLY turn and ran (futilely) as the WR sped by. NO ONE ELSE had coverage on Boldin, except CLARK. Of course, it was stone stupid to take a slow-footed SAFETY who is NEVER in that kind of coverage (aside from the goal line). Clark is ALWAYS way back in a soft DEEP zone coverage. Gay would have been better used to provide the SOLO coverage that Clark LAMELY tried to do, and put Clark in his more familiar deep zone cover.

Ugh. I'm not going to drag this out anymore because neither of us are NFL coaches. However, I think you're wrong.

Before the snap, Polamalu had Boldin in PRESS coverage. The fact that Boldin went in MOTION and Troy DIDN'T follow him meant purely that the Steelers were employing a ZONE defense (as LeBeau loves to do on 3rd and 15). Clark wasn't in press coverage at any point. How could he have possibly known Boldin was going to go in motion? Why did Clark get on Gay's case right after the play?

I'm not going to disagree that the Stillers seemed ill-prepared for a fairly simple offensive concept, and I'm not going to disagree that LeBeau isn't as good as his Hall of Fame reputation. To get on his case for blitzing 5 guys on 3rd and 15 seems a tad petty. Players have to make plays, too. Troy got stonewalled by Rice, plain and simple. Personally, I thought he should have went airborne...

[palbubba Profile]

Still Mill is just a Dick LeBeau hater why would you put any credibility to what he has to say. In his grades column he just bludgeons Dick and give him a D+. then writes an article about the players going to him and how wonderfully they played. With his experience and reputation he could have been as hard headed as Still Mill and not wavered. He listened and it worked, good for him. Guess who would have gotten crucified if it hadn't, only Dick not the players. The biggest problem on the Steelers is OC Bruce Arians plain and simple. Here is a team with a combined talent of skill players as good as any in the league and they score less than 21 points against such powerhouse defenses like Atlanta 15(OT), 19 Tennesee 17 Baltimore(1st game wo Ben), 19 Buffalo and 13 Baltimore with Ben. Talk about a clueless coordinator, Bruce is the poster boy. Points, who needs points, let's pile up a bunch of yards so Bruce looks good and let the defense win the game. Just look at last years collapse, the defense wasn't winning for them, so they missed the playoffs. Being nothing but a 3 man hater, LeBeau, Farrior, Woodley doesn't make you a DC only a hater.

[rifraff Profile]

The FINAL results to all this discussion comes against the Pats in the playoffs. We got to come up with a plan no matter how outside the box the thinking it is. Im leanin on Blitz hard, blitz often and hit em after every throw, flags be damned.

[IronCity__Man Profile]

THANK YOU for PROVING my point on this play.

Clark was in SOLO, ISOLATED, PRESS (albeit he failed to get closer to the LOS) COVERAGE on Boldin, and very CLEARLY turn and ran (futilely) as the WR sped by. NO ONE ELSE had coverage on Boldin, except CLARK. Of course, it was stone stupid to take a slow-footed SAFETY who is NEVER in that kind of coverage (aside from the goal line). Clark is ALWAYS way back in a soft DEEP zone coverage. Gay would have been better used to provide the SOLO coverage that Clark LAMELY tried to do, and put Clark in his more familiar deep zone cover.

Ugh. I'm not going to drag this out anymore because neither of us are NFL coaches. However, I think you're wrong.

Before the snap, Polamalu had Boldin in PRESS coverage. The fact that Boldin went in MOTION and Troy DIDN'T follow him meant purely that the Steelers were employing a ZONE defense (as LeBeau loves to do on 3rd and 15). Clark wasn't in press coverage at any point. How could he have possibly known Boldin was going to go in motion? Why did Clark get on Gay's case right after the play?

I'm not going to disagree that the Stillers seemed ill-prepared for a fairly simple offensive concept, and I'm not going to disagree that LeBeau isn't as good as his Hall of Fame reputation. To get on his case for blitzing 5 guys on 3rd and 15 seems a tad petty. Players have to make plays, too. Troy got stonewalled by Rice, plain and simple. Personally, I thought he should have went airborne...

The point is that Gay should have been covering Boldin but made a mental error leaving Ryan Clark one on one. Lebeau didn't devise the scheme; the correct scheme was not executed by Gay. Thanks again Zap. I should thank you also for deceiving Mill into thinking you proved his point - that is the only thing that satiates him because in his eyes he is never wrong.

[pitts965 Profile]

"We felt like we could disrupt, get in Flacco's face, if they gave us an opportunity,'' said Farrior, who recorded a team-high seven tackles and sacked Flacco in the fourth quarter.

"We don't question Coach LeBeau and the decisions he makes. Sometimes we just try to throw something out there and maybe he'll listen. Everybody has their own idea what we should be doing, but he's the guy.''

A smart guy, to be sure. Great coaches aren't too big to listen to their players. To his credit, LeBeau listened.

[steelandblood Profile]

I want to say I agree with Steel and Blood's take.

Look at all the young coaches who have been given free reign only to fail miserably. All the joker owners go, oh, the Steelers put a young guy in and they go to a super bowl, so the thing to do must be to put in a young guy who is fresh and has lots of energy and can relate to the players. Only thing is, they aren't ready-to-rock teams, and organizations, like the Steelers were for Tomlin....

Hold on there. The point is not give him free reign and fire people and change the entire team as Josh did in Denver. The point is that he is not getting on his two main coaches when we can all clearly see huge problems from a play-calling standpoint on offense and defense.

No one is suggesting to have Tomlin start firing people and letting people go, but he certainly needs to be speak up and let his coordinators know they are doing a sub-par job and what needs to change.

He's not doing this. Therefore, he's not doing a good job as Head Coach.

What part of an abundant lack of leverage over his coordinators since they were picked for him before he got there don't you understand?