Positives

[ToddHaleysNineIron]

The Steelers seem very easy to read.

I mean it's 3rd and 1 and they come out with a spread.

They ran what seemed to run the same play 3 times in a row.

The offense seemed very vanilla.

I watch the Patriots throw from heavy sets, run from spread sets. They dictate what you do then attack you. There is purpose.

The Steelers playcalling just seemed more about banging their head against a wall.

[steelmann58]

Ben was off on most of his deep balls last night.
and looks like I was wrong about Moncrief having a positive impact at least after game 1

[Minkah'n History]

I know he didnt get much of a chance tonight but did any of you guys think Conner looked very average? I love the guy but i just saw no explosion at all. Maybe it was just the matchup but he just doesnt seem like he scares many defenses.

I honestly felt that he could have had 200 all purpose yards if they wouldn’t have deferred the kickoff and got him established. He was primed and ready and I thought looked good. Just needed touches.

What fucking game did you watch?

He didn’t have a great game, but I didn’t see the oline open any holes.

Thought the oline was fucking horrible.

[Minkah'n History]

It may not seem like a positive but I really liked the work of Bush and Barron in coverage. I am sorry but James White and Rex Burkhead are probably the best pass catching RB duo in the NFL.

Bush is a rookie, Barron is playing in his first game as a Steeler, they are thrown into about the absolute worst position you could possibly be in terms of being an ILB in coverage.

Yes, we lost he game, and White and Rex did pretty well, and yet...

...I liked what I saw from Bush and Barron. They did not seem to be overly outmatched, I saw a lot of times where NE was really taking it to them with picks and rubs, doing every little trick to get separation.

B and B have the next 15 games to get better and better. The speed, quickness and fluidity is all there with these two ILBs. I would love to see B&B in a rematch with White and Burkhead when they have a full season of experience playing together.

Kam Kelly did about as well as can be expected facing Tom Brady. Yeah, he had a miscommunication that gave up an easy TD. I also saw him come up and make tackles that I didn't expect him to. Again, I liked what I saw from him and what he did in the preseason. But again, to start your first NFL game against Tom Brady in NE??? What were people expecting? That he would have 2 INTs, take one to the house for a pick six??

I didnt see what you saw out of Barron.

He was a step slow on just about every pass play. Looked slow.

You liked what you saw out of Barron? Dam I thought he was awful.

[steelmann58]

sorry but they really were no positives for me

[Minkah'n History]

positives.....cant imagine things can get any worse next week.

Agree Greek. Can’t play a worse game...I don’t think.

[Donnie Brasco]

I'm still bullish on this team

- First week vs arguably the best team in the league
-Ben is always rusty to start (I understand why he is, that's another convo)
-Handful of new players, especially the WR

[fritzthecat]

Positives: I don't think Tomlin lost any challenges. This could be the beginning of a trend!

[KCSteeler]

Boz 1-1 w a long of 19

No turnovers

Tomlin already in mid season form kicking a FG down 20-0 from the 2

No bad challenges

Switzer

Butler’s D rounding into form

No need to get emotionally invested, season promise up in smoke

Switzer is a positive? You're high.

[jeemie]

I know he didnt get much of a chance tonight but did any of you guys think Conner looked very average? I love the guy but i just saw no explosion at all. Maybe it was just the matchup but he just doesnt seem like he scares many defenses.

He was one of the best-looking players out there for the Steelers last night.

[steelmann58]

I agree Conner was one of the best players last night

[Legacy User]

I know he didnt get much of a chance tonight but did any of you guys think Conner looked very average? I love the guy but i just saw no explosion at all. Maybe it was just the matchup but he just doesnt seem like he scares many defenses.

I honestly felt that he could have had 200 all purpose yards if they wouldn’t have deferred the kickoff and got him established. He was primed and ready and I thought looked good. Just needed touches.

What fucking game did you watch?

He didn’t have a great game, but I didn’t see the oline open any holes.

Thought the oline was fucking horrible.

Hey calm down, i said it could have been the matchup, i could have been wrong. Lighten the fuck up. After i wrote that i new someone would get all pissy. Maybe it was all just such a clusterfuck i looped Conner in with the rest of it. It was a tough night.

[drmalba]

I know that we just got shellacked in all phases, but honestly, the defense played well for stretches. Yes they got tooled by Brady once or twice, as does everyone. But the offense was nonexistent, and led to the defense being on the field in long stretches, which leads to the breakdowns and mistakes we saw.

We need to fix the production problem on offense and that starts with Fichtner and Tomlin. The Stillers brain trust rolled out the same scheme that allowed them to run on the Pats last year thinking that they would be able to do the same. The Pats looked at our lineup and saw
a) solid WR at #1
b) mediocre journeyman at #2
b) unproven second-year guy at #3

they looked at their secondary and said, we are better than you, go ahead and try to throw and we'll stack up against the run and see what you can do. They didn't even double Juju for most of the game! And as it turns out, they were exactly right.

A lot of people are advocating to move Juju around and I agree this is part of what should be taking place. Is this quick throw spread BS really what Ben and this group are best at executing? And if you're gonna do a spread attack and distribute the ball around - where the fuck was the TE position last night? Scheme better and at least that game could have been competitive.

I'm not sure I buy that Ben is lost, he had a bunch of drops last night and it seems to me he's lacking confidence in this WR core. Montcrief should not be able to sit down this week, his seat should be so hot. One or two of his drops, especially the dropped TD, could have changed the tide of the game.

Im going to go ahead and believe the Steelers are still tinkering in the lab with the offense this year, they dont quite know what they have with this WR core, and eventually we will figure out ways to get the production to improve. An inauspicious start, to say the least.

[LakecrestSteeler]

I know he didnt get much of a chance tonight but did any of you guys think Conner looked very average? I love the guy but i just saw no explosion at all. Maybe it was just the matchup but he just doesnt seem like he scares many defenses.

I honestly felt that he could have had 200 all purpose yards if they wouldn’t have deferred the kickoff and got him established. He was primed and ready and I thought looked good. Just needed touches.

What fucking game did you watch?

He didn’t have a great game, but I didn’t see the oline open any holes.

Thought the oline was fucking horrible.

I already corrected myself above your post Hines. I did have to rewatch. Probably replying on the game thread too much.

[LakecrestSteeler]

Positives: I don't think Tomlin lost any challenges. This could be the beginning of a trend!

Funny....although, I hate to burst your bubble. Not challenging is a losing. He should have challenged the illegal pick play 2 plays before the penalty where they actually called an illegal pick on the Pats.

You are allowed to challenge pick plays.

[rocky mtn stiller]

They are easing into the season again. WTF

[jeemie]

Im going to go ahead and believe the Steelers are still tinkering in the lab with the offense this year, they dont quite know what they have with this WR core, and eventually we will figure out ways to get the production to improve. An inauspicious start, to say the least.

This is why this year, of all years, it was a crime for the Steelers to have treated preseason the same way they always treated it.

Ben should have played at least a quarter of game 2 and 2-3 quarters of game 3...to do this exact kind of tinkering.

This is a hard schedule this year and there are lots of good teams in the AFC...one game is going to be the difference between playoffs and no playoffs yet again. You can't ease into a season and give away a game yet again. Yeah- the Pats are that good they likely win no matter what we do, but last night shows what happens when your QB plays a relative millisecond in preseason and establishes no rapport with any of the key players he needs to establish it with.

This season starts with New England (loss), Seattle (still a good defense and Wilson gives us fits), out to San Fran (should win but it is a West Coast trio), and then Cincinnati and Baltimore.

Now JuJu and Watt are injured. "Easing in" could make this team 2-3/1-4 a quarter of the way through the season and buried in tiebreaker morass.

I guess I was wrong when I said I saw an intensity in preseason I hadn't seen before.

Well it better show up now.

[Orangesteel]

Im going to go ahead and believe the Steelers are still tinkering in the lab with the offense this year, they dont quite know what they have with this WR core, and eventually we will figure out ways to get the production to improve. An inauspicious start, to say the least.

This is why this year, of all years, it was a crime for the Steelers to have treated preseason the same way they always treated it.

Ben should have played at least a quarter of game 2 and 2-3 quarters of game 3...to do this exact kind of tinkering.

This is a hard schedule this year and there are lots of good teams in the AFC...one game is going to be the difference between playoffs and no playoffs yet again. You can't ease into a season and give away a game yet again. Yeah- the Pats are that good they likely win no matter what we do, but last night shows what happens when your QB plays a relative millisecond in preseason and establishes no rapport with any of the key players he needs to establish it with.

I guess I was wrong when I said I saw an intensity in preseason I hadn't seen before.

I agree. Russell Wilson plays in 3 of the 4 preseason games every year. Other QBs don’t play, but other QBs don’t look like complete ass like BR does at the start of the season.

But it’s not like Tomlin has the scrotum to actually COACH and tell Ben that he’s going to be playing more in the preseason to get acclimated with his new system; new WRs. Why would we expect Tomlin to do that? Hell, we are only playing the reigning champs week 1 on prime time.

Ben is a stubborn prick and our coach is a shithead moron and that’s just the way it is. All we can hope for is the team getting “hot” at the right time of the year and a miracle happening. Tomlin doesn’t scheme and Ben doesn’t think he needs to do anything to improve. Watch the interview he did with Chris Simms that someone posted a few weeks ago; Ben literally doesn’t do shit differently year to year. He practices, takes veteran days off and throws the ball around with his kids.

And look, I love Ben and think we are fortunate to have watched his career. But the dude is what he is and is going to be.

[swissvale72]

I know that we just got shellacked in all phases, but honestly, the defense played well for stretches. Yes they got tooled by Brady once or twice, as does everyone. But the offense was nonexistent, and led to the defense being on the field in long stretches, which leads to the breakdowns and mistakes we saw.

We need to fix the production problem on offense and that starts with Fichtner and Tomlin. The Stillers brain trust rolled out the same scheme that allowed them to run on the Pats last year thinking that they would be able to do the same. The Pats looked at our lineup and saw
a) solid WR at #1
b) mediocre journeyman at #2
b) unproven second-year guy at #3

they looked at their secondary and said, we are better than you, go ahead and try to throw and we'll stack up against the run and see what you can do. They didn't even double Juju for most of the game! And as it turns out, they were exactly right.

A lot of people are advocating to move Juju around and I agree this is part of what should be taking place. Is this quick throw spread BS really what Ben and this group are best at executing? And if you're gonna do a spread attack and distribute the ball around - where the fuck was the TE position last night? Scheme better and at least that game could have been competitive.

I'm not sure I buy that Ben is lost, he had a bunch of drops last night and it seems to me he's lacking confidence in this WR core. Montcrief should not be able to sit down this week, his seat should be so hot. One or two of his drops, especially the dropped TD, could have changed the tide of the game.

Im going to go ahead and believe the Steelers are still tinkering in the lab with the offense this year, they dont quite know what they have with this WR core, and eventually we will figure out ways to get the production to improve. An inauspicious start, to say the least.

Yes, defense did look okay at time....but then you have The Dullard Mike Tomlin follow it up by punting on 4th & an inch, kicking a field goal from the one fuckin' yard line. Can't play that way against these mother-fuckers....can't be risk averse....next you know you're down 27-3 and taking some bullshit solace that you put three points on the board.

[SteelPro]

I know he didnt get much of a chance tonight but did any of you guys think Conner looked very average? I love the guy but i just saw no explosion at all. Maybe it was just the matchup but he just doesnt seem like he scares many defenses.

I honestly felt that he could have had 200 all purpose yards if they wouldn’t have deferred the kickoff and got him established. He was primed and ready and I thought looked good. Just needed touches.

They got a 1st series stop and took over the ball with 12 minutes to go in Q1. I don’t get how deferring prevented them from getting the run established. They actually had a pretty decent start to the game. The first 5 minutes was their high water mark. Looked like utter trash from that point on.

[LakecrestSteeler]

Im going to go ahead and believe the Steelers are still tinkering in the lab with the offense this year, they dont quite know what they have with this WR core, and eventually we will figure out ways to get the production to improve. An inauspicious start, to say the least.

This is why this year, of all years, it was a crime for the Steelers to have treated preseason the same way they always treated it.

Ben should have played at least a quarter of game 2 and 2-3 quarters of game 3...to do this exact kind of tinkering.

This is a hard schedule this year and there are lots of good teams in the AFC...one game is going to be the difference between playoffs and no playoffs yet again. You can't ease into a season and give away a game yet again. Yeah- the Pats are that good they likely win no matter what we do, but last night shows what happens when your QB plays a relative millisecond in preseason and establishes no rapport with any of the key players he needs to establish it with.

I guess I was wrong when I said I saw an intensity in preseason I hadn't seen before.

I agree. Russell Wilson plays in 3 of the 4 preseason games every year. Other QBs don’t play, but other QBs don’t look like complete ass like BR does at the start of the season.

But it’s not like Tomlin has the scrotum to actually COACH and tell Ben that he’s going to be playing more in the preseason to get acclimated with his new system; new WRs. Why would we expect Tomlin to do that? Hell, we are only playing the reigning champs week 1 on prime time.

Ben is a stubborn prick and our coach is a shithead moron and that’s just the way it is. All we can hope for is the team getting “hot” at the right time of the year and a miracle happening. Tomlin doesn’t scheme and Ben doesn’t think he needs to do anything to improve. Watch the interview he did with Chris Simms that someone posted a few weeks ago; Ben literally doesn’t do shit differently year to year. He practices, takes veteran days off and throws the ball around with his kids.

And look, I love Ben and think we are fortunate to have watched his career. But the dude is what he is and is going to be.

What was more shocking last night; the way we played or letting yourself be talked into thinking a victory was obtainable?

You are also assuming MT cares about this game. While I am sure he would like to win, I think the organism that is the Pittsburgh Steelers is all centered around winning the division first and then piece together some game plans and hope winning the division makes you talented enough to win the 4 ball lottery (playoffs) and then the 2 ball lottery(Super Bowl).

That is it. Get it through our collective heads. That is why there is all this tinkering at the beginning of the season, and probably why we get burned when a divisional team is too early....1st or second week.

The Pats are all geared around being the absolute best......PERIOD....FULL STOP.....END OF TRANSMISSION!

That is the difference.

[Stosh-67]

Im going to go ahead and believe the Steelers are still tinkering in the lab with the offense this year, they dont quite know what they have with this WR core, and eventually we will figure out ways to get the production to improve. An inauspicious start, to say the least.

This is why this year, of all years, it was a crime for the Steelers to have treated preseason the same way they always treated it.

Ben should have played at least a quarter of game 2 and 2-3 quarters of game 3...to do this exact kind of tinkering.

This is a hard schedule this year and there are lots of good teams in the AFC...one game is going to be the difference between playoffs and no playoffs yet again. You can't ease into a season and give away a game yet again. Yeah- the Pats are that good they likely win no matter what we do, but last night shows what happens when your QB plays a relative millisecond in preseason and establishes no rapport with any of the key players he needs to establish it with.

This season starts with New England (loss), Seattle (still a good defense and Wilson gives us fits), out to San Fran (should win but it is a West Coast trio), and then Cincinnati and Baltimore.

Now JuJu and Watt are injured. "Easing in" could make this team 2-3/1-4 a quarter of the way through the season and buried in tiebreaker morass.

I guess I was wrong when I said I saw an intensity in preseason I hadn't seen before.

Well it better show up now.

100%.
Same routine.
Different year.
And as you say..............In a year in which our WR group and Ben needed as many game reps as possible........with a re-shuffling of WR spots, No AB, new players in Moncrief, rookie in Johnson, 2nd year cohesion with Washington...........we chose the standard, lazy, less intense approach towards preparation.

Vet days off kick in Wednesday.

[Orangesteel]

What was more shocking last night; the way we played or letting yourself be talked into thinking a victory was obtainable?

You are also assuming MT cares about this game. While I am sure he would like to win, I think the organism that is the Pittsburgh Steelers is all centered around winning the division first and then piece together some game plans and hope winning the division makes you talented enough to win the 4 ball lottery (playoffs) and then the 2 ball lottery(Super Bowl).

That is it. Get it through our collective heads. That is why there is all this tinkering at the beginning of the season, and probably why we get burned when a divisional team is too early....1st or second week.

The Pats are all geared around being the absolute best......PERIOD....FULL STOP.....END OF TRANSMISSION!

That is the difference.

Winning AFC games, no matter what time of the year it is, should be a priority. I forget, did we make the playoffs last season? If Tomlin doesn’t take games like last night as serious as he should, well then fuck him even more.

[COR-TEN]

I know that we just got shellacked in all phases, but honestly, the defense played well for stretches. Yes they got tooled by Brady once or twice, as does everyone. But the offense was nonexistent, and led to the defense being on the field in long stretches, which leads to the breakdowns and mistakes we saw.

We need to fix the production problem on offense and that starts with Fichtner and Tomlin. The Stillers brain trust rolled out the same scheme that allowed them to run on the Pats last year thinking that they would be able to do the same. The Pats looked at our lineup and saw
a) solid WR at #1
b) mediocre journeyman at #2
b) unproven second-year guy at #3

they looked at their secondary and said, we are better than you, go ahead and try to throw and we'll stack up against the run and see what you can do. They didn't even double Juju for most of the game! And as it turns out, they were exactly right.

A lot of people are advocating to move Juju around and I agree this is part of what should be taking place. Is this quick throw spread BS really what Ben and this group are best at executing? And if you're gonna do a spread attack and distribute the ball around - where the fuck was the TE position last night? Scheme better and at least that game could have been competitive.

I'm not sure I buy that Ben is lost, he had a bunch of drops last night and it seems to me he's lacking confidence in this WR core. Montcrief should not be able to sit down this week, his seat should be so hot. One or two of his drops, especially the dropped TD, could have changed the tide of the game.

Im going to go ahead and believe the Steelers are still tinkering in the lab with the offense this year, they dont quite know what they have with this WR core, and eventually we will figure out ways to get the production to improve. An inauspicious start, to say the least.

I can agree with all of that. However, the defensive scheme was the same brady and belichick have seen for at least a decade. The speed in the middle masked a bit of it since bush is fast. At least that's what it looked like to me. The o line was putrid, and BR didn't play well. The offensive scheme was predictable as hell.

But I have an alternate theory about the offense. Last year, when AB was held out of the last game, the team in general took a half to settle itself after the previous three days of AB's antics. Players admitted to as much. It would surprise me that the announcement on saturday that NE signed AB rattled the offense. Preparing all week to try and make a statement against NE, and then finding out the day before the game that the opponent you are playing is only going to get better with AB. IOW, they tried too hard. I know that sounds silly, but beating the pats is as much mental as it is physical. I'm not excusing tomlin's mistakes in personnel or the FG call at the one yard line, but players play. At some point one has to acknowledge that they are the ones on the field making plays, and not the coaches. Last night was the perfect storm of bad scheming, poor execution by a number of players, and an opponent that has had your number for a decade, at least. I said this in the game thread, but I think butler should go, regardless of how bad the offense played. And I'd like to know what percentage of play calls BR calls himself.

[steelmann58]

I was cautious optimistic about last night foolish me

[swissvale72]

I know that we just got shellacked in all phases, but honestly, the defense played well for stretches. Yes they got tooled by Brady once or twice, as does everyone. But the offense was nonexistent, and led to the defense being on the field in long stretches, which leads to the breakdowns and mistakes we saw.

We need to fix the production problem on offense and that starts with Fichtner and Tomlin. The Stillers brain trust rolled out the same scheme that allowed them to run on the Pats last year thinking that they would be able to do the same. The Pats looked at our lineup and saw
a) solid WR at #1
b) mediocre journeyman at #2
b) unproven second-year guy at #3

they looked at their secondary and said, we are better than you, go ahead and try to throw and we'll stack up against the run and see what you can do. They didn't even double Juju for most of the game! And as it turns out, they were exactly right.

A lot of people are advocating to move Juju around and I agree this is part of what should be taking place. Is this quick throw spread BS really what Ben and this group are best at executing? And if you're gonna do a spread attack and distribute the ball around - where the fuck was the TE position last night? Scheme better and at least that game could have been competitive.

I'm not sure I buy that Ben is lost, he had a bunch of drops last night and it seems to me he's lacking confidence in this WR core. Montcrief should not be able to sit down this week, his seat should be so hot. One or two of his drops, especially the dropped TD, could have changed the tide of the game.

Im going to go ahead and believe the Steelers are still tinkering in the lab with the offense this year, they dont quite know what they have with this WR core, and eventually we will figure out ways to get the production to improve. An inauspicious start, to say the least.

I can agree with all of that. However, the defensive scheme was the same brady and belichick have seen for at least a decade. The speed in the middle masked a bit of it since bush is fast. At least that's what it looked like to me. The o line was putrid, and BR didn't play well. The offensive scheme was predictable as hell.

But I have an alternate theory about the offense. Last year, when AB was held out of the last game, the team in general took a half to settle itself after the previous three days of AB's antics. Players admitted to as much. It would surprise me that the announcement on saturday that NE signed AB rattled the offense. Preparing all week to try and make a statement against NE, and then finding out the day before the game that the opponent you are playing is only going to get better with AB. IOW, they tried too hard. I know that sounds silly, but beating the pats is as much mental as it is physical. I'm not excusing tomlin's mistakes in personnel or the FG call at the one yard line, but players play. At some point one has to acknowledge that they are the ones on the field making plays, and not the coaches. Last night was the perfect storm of bad scheming, poor execution by a number of players, and an opponent that has had your number for a decade, at least. I said this in the game thread, but I think butler should go, regardless of how bad the offense played. And I'd like to know what percentage of play calls BR calls himself.

COR-TEN....this is either...
a. Complete, unmitigated bullshit, or.....
b. True, which would be wayyyyyy more concerning.

I'm going with a). Last night's loss had zero to do with Pats signing AB, and everything to do with Mike Tomlin being a dumb mother-fucker and having his team completely unprepared for the opener. Last year, he ties the Browns; this year he's obliterated by the Patriots. And...the receiving corps that we were told by so many asshats herein, would be just fine, wouldn't miss AB...sucked ass completely.

[Kodiak]

The gameplan and personnel choices last night were both bizarre and moronic. It was preseason-level indifference. It looked like a fucking preseason game where they were still trying to figure out who to play and what to do.

And it's the same imbecilic coaching and preparation we've come to expect to cost us a couple of games every year. The worst part was Tomlin had that thousand yard stare most of the night that seemed to indicate he was shocked none of this worked. Yeah, you can't fix stupid....and you're dumber for trying.

Like I said before, it was great to get NE week one. We know we almost always lose to them, and we know we normally shit the bed easing into the season. So the NFL actually did us a favor. Didn't seem like they were trying to win the game....except Tomlin looked like he thought they were.

[Stosh-67]

I know that we just got shellacked in all phases, but honestly, the defense played well for stretches. Yes they got tooled by Brady once or twice, as does everyone. But the offense was nonexistent, and led to the defense being on the field in long stretches, which leads to the breakdowns and mistakes we saw.

We need to fix the production problem on offense and that starts with Fichtner and Tomlin. The Stillers brain trust rolled out the same scheme that allowed them to run on the Pats last year thinking that they would be able to do the same. The Pats looked at our lineup and saw
a) solid WR at #1
b) mediocre journeyman at #2
b) unproven second-year guy at #3

they looked at their secondary and said, we are better than you, go ahead and try to throw and we'll stack up against the run and see what you can do. They didn't even double Juju for most of the game! And as it turns out, they were exactly right.

A lot of people are advocating to move Juju around and I agree this is part of what should be taking place. Is this quick throw spread BS really what Ben and this group are best at executing? And if you're gonna do a spread attack and distribute the ball around - where the fuck was the TE position last night? Scheme better and at least that game could have been competitive.

I'm not sure I buy that Ben is lost, he had a bunch of drops last night and it seems to me he's lacking confidence in this WR core. Montcrief should not be able to sit down this week, his seat should be so hot. One or two of his drops, especially the dropped TD, could have changed the tide of the game.

Im going to go ahead and believe the Steelers are still tinkering in the lab with the offense this year, they dont quite know what they have with this WR core, and eventually we will figure out ways to get the production to improve. An inauspicious start, to say the least.

I can agree with all of that. However, the defensive scheme was the same brady and belichick have seen for at least a decade. The speed in the middle masked a bit of it since bush is fast. At least that's what it looked like to me. The o line was putrid, and BR didn't play well. The offensive scheme was predictable as hell.

But I have an alternate theory about the offense. Last year, when AB was held out of the last game, the team in general took a half to settle itself after the previous three days of AB's antics. Players admitted to as much. It would surprise me that the announcement on saturday that NE signed AB rattled the offense. Preparing all week to try and make a statement against NE, and then finding out the day before the game that the opponent you are playing is only going to get better with AB. IOW, they tried too hard. I know that sounds silly, but beating the pats is as much mental as it is physical. I'm not excusing tomlin's mistakes in personnel or the FG call at the one yard line, but players play. At some point one has to acknowledge that they are the ones on the field making plays, and not the coaches. Last night was the perfect storm of bad scheming, poor execution by a number of players, and an opponent that has had your number for a decade, at least. I said this in the game thread, but I think butler should go, regardless of how bad the offense played. And I'd like to know what percentage of play calls BR calls himself.

COR-TEN....this is either...
a. Complete, unmitigated bullshit, or.....
b. True, which would be wayyyyyy more concerning.

I'm going with a). Last night's loss had zero to do with Pats signing AB, and everything to do with Mike Tomlin being a dumb mother-fucker and having his team completely unprepared for the opener. Last year, he ties the Browns; this year he's obliterated by the Patriots. And...the receiving corps that we were told by so many asshats herein, would be just fine, wouldn't miss AB...sucked ass completely.

8 months to prepare for a season opener and we get this unprepared, sloppy, un-focused team.
I have said it many times, over and over.
This team loses more games before the coin toss, before the opening kick than any team in football.
Starts with the HC.

[steelmann58]

The gameplan and personnel choices last night were both bizarre and moronic. It was preseason-level indifference. It looked like a fucking preseason game where they were still trying to figure out who to play and what to do.

spot on it was like they were drawing the plays in the dirt to call yesterday,
ALSO why have a FB if you don't use him?

[drmalba]

An inauspicious start, to say the least.

Yes, defense did look okay at time....but then you have The Dullard Mike Tomlin follow it up by punting on 4th & an inch, kicking a field goal from the one fuckin' yard line. Can't play that way against these mother-fuckers....can't be risk averse....next you know you're down 27-3 and taking some bullshit solace that you put three points on the board.

The FG kick decision was indefensible, I agree.

As far as fourth and an inch, when the fuck is Ben just gonna line up and push forward get us the first down?? You want to talk about a lack of stones...lets look at Benji on this one. To me, that play should be AUTOMATIC with a 6'5" 220+ lunk like Roethlisberger and one of the best lines in football. It's not like Haley is holding him back now.