I liked what I saw from Mike Tomlin today...

[Troyisabeast_43]

At his weekly press conference. I liked Tomlin's demeanor during it and his sense of urgency. He looked as if he was ready to go out and play the Baltimore Ravens later tonight. Tomlin really seemed to stress them fixing their problems on Special Teams, not turning the ball over as much, and working on finishing off scoring chances as well. He insisted time and time again that all of those areas would be a lot better as the move forward. If Tomlin can transfer this type of enthusiasm and this kind of demeanor to the team this week in practice and going into the game on Sunday night in Baltimore I like the Steelers chances to win in Baltimore Sunday night.

[lloydfan4life]

.... If Tomlin can transfer this type of enthusiasm and this kind of demeanor to the team this week in practice and going into the game on Sunday night in Baltimore I like the Steelers chances to win in Baltimore Sunday night.

Let's hope so cause the whole team has looked flat lately.

Any word during his press conf. concerning Ben?
(nevermind... saw the answer in another thread.)

[DanRooney]

I heard on the radio that there were no signs that Ben suffered a concussion when he was hit and he will be ready to play Sunday.

[75Steeler]

It is not Mike Tomlin's performance as a head coach I worry about. Tomlin has been great for this team since he got here. I just hope he can manage to turn things around to get us in the playoffs.

[Goodfrom55]

I just hope losing to an inferior KC team gives the Steelers a healthy dose of humble pie and they come out on Sunday night in search of blood.

[BlitzburghRockCity]

Nice of him to wait until we've had 8 or 9 games in a row of special teams horror before he decides to make changes. I get the whole not jumping to conclusions and pulling the trigger too early with changes and all, but man did it take this long to finally atleast appear to get serious about it?!

[LatrobePA]

When this season is over I see him cleaning house, some coaches and players will be sent down the road....

[BlackGold4vr]

Read a nice article that talked about Mike Tomlin reviewing the 75 Steelers season following their first SB to see how they reacted to the pressures of defending their title. The average margin of victory over teams with losing records that season? 21.3 points! The 70's Steelers knew how to take care of the bad teams which is what the good teams do. I hope he learned something from that review. I do like the quick decisive firing of people after poor performances. Some coaches might wait until the end of the year to make changes. Here are the problems as I see them.

- Special teams suck! Our guys sprint down the field and then seem reluctant to make the tackle when they get there.

- Defense is not getting much pressure on opposing QB's. This is exposing what is a very weak secondary minus Troy. 10 weeks in and our DB's have zero interceptions. That should tell you something.

- O-line is still missing lots of blocking assignments. I know Ben holds the ball too long and the offense relies too heavily on the street ball plays where things break down. It is very hard to establish a rhythm offensively when you are relying on having enough time to deliver a ball AFTER the plays break down. I don't believe that our receivers can't get open on their assigned routes. I think that Ben has an addiction for these big plays he gets after plays break down - street ball.

[BlitzburghRockCity]

The OL is always going to miss some blocks, I think that's just a given whether we like it or not. Considering how far they've come though I'm happy to atleast see them doing better than before; baby steps are better than going backwards.

I wish Tomlin would have done this a couple weeks ago; I mean 5 weeks of poor ST is bad enough but 8 is gloom & doom like we've seen. I hope he hasn't been waiting for something good to happen with these guys over that long and then finally realized it wasn't going to happen. He should know more than anyone else that it is what it is, or was as the case may be. Either way, atleast something is being done now so lets see what happens.

Harrison is back in double digit sacks, Wood is coming on and getting better so I like where they are going, but it's painfully obvious that lack of consistent pressure without Aaron Smith and Polamalu in there, even having Kirschke was atleast somewhat of a replacement. The young guys learning curve is quite steep IMO. You just simply cannot discount how different this D is without Troy, it's as simple as that. Both he and Ed Reed are the best of the best, they make their unit's better. You can't replace a Polamalu no matter how much the team wants to downplay it, the fact is he does everything out there and he makes offenses gameplan for him. Nobody game plans for Ty Carter.

[Woodson_DownUnder]

The OL is always going to miss some blocks, I think that's just a given whether we like it or not. Considering how far they've come though I'm happy to atleast see them doing better than before; baby steps are better than going backwards.

I wish Tomlin would have done this a couple weeks ago; I mean 5 weeks of poor ST is bad enough but 8 is gloom & doom like we've seen. I hope he hasn't been waiting for something good to happen with these guys over that long and then finally realized it wasn't going to happen. He should know more than anyone else that it is what it is, or was as the case may be. Either way, atleast something is being done now so lets see what happens.

Furthermore, put yourselves in Coach Tomlin's shoes. The Steelers are outplaying their opponents week in week out pretty much but those critical errors are STINGING so hard that they bite the team in the 'overall result'. I'm not too concerned that the Steelers are 6-4 but make one thing clear, losing to the Ravens on Sunday night will really make it difficult as the Steelers will be 1-3 vs the Division and further behind in the Wildcard chase... and gone will be defending the Division title. On that bit of not being too concerned of being 6-4..... I'm going on the fact that the Steelers can stand up when playing in the face of adversity.