Quote:
Originally Posted by SmootSmack
But what about the argument that "Hey look at the Steelers. They don't have a great offensive line. Yet Roeth helped make things happen. The best QBs make something out of close to nothing. Roethlisberger with no line, McNabb with no WRs..."
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Wow, I've had this argument with my brother (a Steelers fan) so many times that we've almost had to stop talking about football altogether, but the reason the Steelers won the Super Bowl this year is very simple, they had the best defense in the history of the game, BAR NONE. Better than the 85 Bears, better than 2000 Ravens, the Purple People Eaters, whoever. They played the toughest schedule in 25 years and the defense still led every single statistical category by a wide, wide margin. Christ, Kordell Stewart went to two AFC Championship games with the Steelers defense and he has a lifetime QB rating of 70.
In Football Outsiders rankings, they have Roth at 23rd in DYAR and 27th in DVOA. He was also 24th in QB rating (80.1). Incidentally, Campbell was much higher in all of those stats, and threw for more yards (to Moss, ARL, and James Thrash not Ward, Nate Washington, and Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes). His QB rating against the NFC East was like 57.4. I'm also pretty sure that about half of those sacks on Rothlesberger came because he holds the ball too long.
Now, I'm not arguing that Campbell is a better quarterback because Rothlesberger obviously has a Montana/Elway knack for winning games, and I think the reason his 2008 season didn't replicate his 2007 season (32-11) is because he separated his shoulder early in the season and it didn't really heal until the playoffs. But the only reason the Steelers were in all of those games where Rothlesberger made comebacks is because the defense was so good it kept them in the games. Yes, he was the best in football at orchestrating late drives, but for the first 55 minutes of the game he was really, really average. You put Peyton Manning on that team and they go 16-0.
Now, I think very few qb's in this day and age are capable of doing it by themselves, football just requires too many components. The thing that has really kept the Steelers where they are has been CONSISTENCY IN COACHING AND MANAGEMENT. That's what we need to emulate. I honestly believe that there is maybe no one in football who throws a better 8 yard out then Jason Campbell does. It's a small thing obviously, but it underscores the fact that we have a qb with great character, who has a cannon for an arm and has been extremely accurate at every level of the NFL playing in its undisputed toughest divisions (SEC, NFC East). If we could only just give this poor kid some stability, the ability to stay in the same offense, with the same coach working on the same terminology, we're going to see the guy who had a 100.7 QB rating and completed 67% of his passes the first 8 weeks of last year, and that included 3 NFC East road games. Then the line fell apart, ARL and Thrash were our top 2 receivers with Moss limping, and so did Campbell. Not to mention the fact that teams were teeing off on our plays because we were only running half the playbook. I mean, the announcers were saying that on TV, and they aren't exactly Football Outsiders. I mean, Christ we look at the players, but we made the playoffs with Todd Collins, and why was that? HE WAS THE ONLY GUY WHO KNEW THE PLAYBOOK!!!
Now, its a football truism that receivers take 2 years, they just do, period, with the exception of like 4 or 5 guys. So we trade down and take arguably the 2 highest rated receivers coming into the draft as well as the best TE to package with Cooley (which I thought was a BRILLIANT move by FO). The idea should have been that we were getting everything ready for this year, 2009 INCLUDING GIVING CAMPBELL ENOUGH TIME TO LEARN THE SYSTEM, but we started winning and people got ahead of ourselves, and now, when it would logically seem that everything that was started in 2005/06 and was leading toward fielding a consistently good team, a plan that should now be coming into fruition in 2009, and the FO is giving up on it?!??!!?1?
All we need is a top tier right tackle, the defense has been upgraded significantly since last year when it wasn't the problem in the first place. Let the receivers mature, pick up one of the nasty tackles, and let Campbell FINALLY feel comfortable in an offense he knows. You think the Colts switch playbooks every year? The Pats? Doesn't it make sense that changing strategies every year is going to have a profound effect on the team's performance.
I really don't think its the personel, its the lack of consistency in coaching and management and philosophy. The Steelers defense has been nasty since the early 90's, the names and faces are constantly changing but the system stays the same and until Danny learns settles on something, we're going to end up repeating the same mistakes, year after year.
Oh, and for the record, this DOES NOT MEAN BILL COWHER. He's a great player motivator, but not a personel guy. We need Kevin Gilbride/Scot Pioli, not Danny holding Vinny on strings.