It’s simple. This teams continues to make the same mistakes, have the same poor preparation, clock management, and is undisciplined. They are they’re own worst enemy time and time again.
The FG was blocked. Ok, it happens, but that guy from Denver has been doing that and the Steelers weren’t expecting it to stop him? Momentum shifts to Denver and they drive and score.
Grimble. You are taught in pee wee football to always switch the football away from the defender and possible contact. But no, he admits after the game that he could have cut inside but wanted to dish out some punishment on the play. So he keeps the ball in his right hand and lowers his shoulder when he didn’t have to. Moronic.
Connor with an inexplicable fumble after having a bad game last week and dropping a TD. He’s another one that refuses to take what he is given and go down instead of fighting for more and taking unneeded hits and risking fumbles.
Ben has 5 INTs in his last 2 games. As someone else already said, he’s Brett Favre. He’ll make a spectacular play that ooos and ahhhs and then make a boneheaded decision that costs the team.
Defense is what it is. Tomlin has been building this D since he got here and it still gets gashed repeatedly. And the secondary, Mike’s specialty’s is particularly bad. When the pass rush can’t get home, they are exposed badly playing their 15 yard cushions...
But you just don’t see the mistakes and the inconsistency from contenders. New England, New Orleans, KC, Rams. The Steelers have elite talent but they can never put everything together with consistency. They’ll have a blowout win and score 50 and then struggle to score 13 a week later. The offense will look unstoppable one week and then completely lost the next. They constantly shoot themselves in the foot and gift the opposition free points. You just don’t see those kind of wild swings from contenders.
You may see a mistake here or there from the Patriots but BB is on top of it in a hurry. The player is either cut or benched for the next game. I remember BB cutting their punt returner on the Monday after a game that he muffed a couple punts in. He benched players for running their mouths off the field as well. He benched Welker a few years back for taking shots at Rex Ryan in a press conference.
But Tomlin? Hell no. Players showing up late to meetings? Bah, no big deal. Players standing outside of the opposing locker room running their mouths? Forget about it. Players going crazy on social media? Hey, let it go. Penalty trouble year in and year out? Nothing changes. Confusion and discombobulation week in and week out. Not a problem.
This team is not tightly ran. It is full of dumb, selfish players that aren’t held accountable for their actions on and off the field. It’s a team full of big mouthed trash talkers that can’t back it up. It’s a team that beats themselves and takes themselves out of contention year in and year out. Sure, blame it all on the players, but it starts at the top. Preparation, discipline, accountability lead to execution on the field. There should be no excuse for miscommunication and disorganization that this point of the season, none.
This team has a lot of talent but they lack the football smarts to consistently make big plays and be contenders. The Pats may lack the talent but they make up for it with smart players that execute and have no issues switching schemes in the middle of a game without missing a beat. It is extremely rare to see Brady and his receivers not on the same page or the Pats taking stupid penalties, or fumbling the ball all over the field or Brady forcing balls into ridiculous coverage. They are a smart, well disciplined team that execute well the majority of the time and don’t beat themselves. James Harrison made it clear what kind of a ship BB runs when he said that he witnessed Brady running to get to a meeting because he was afraid he’d be late. You think Tomlin strikes that fear into his players? Naw, they’re probably live streaming as they lollygag in...
9-6-1, get ready for it.