What’s wrong with the Steelers? – Part 1
Obviously, this has not been the type of season that the Steelers (or their fans) expected. As reigning Super Bowl champs with most of their starters returning, the Steelers entered the 2009 season fully expecting to be able to defend their championship. But with only 3 games remaining in the season, the Steelers are effectively eliminated from the playoffs, and have a record that is below .500.
Fans, journalists, and even players are now struggling to figure out “what’s wrong with the Steelers?” Some have offered overly simplified explanations for the Steelers decline. “The Steelers can’t win without Troy”. “The Steelers can’t win with Bruce Arians as offensive coordinator”. “The Steelers have a Super Bowl hangover.” These are just a few of the examples of the many over-simplified explanations for the Steelers’ decline that I’ve heard.
In my opinion, the Steelers decline is far more complex than that. It can’t be attributed to just one factor.
During the off-season, most of my articles are actually multi-part series. By writing multi-part series, it gives me more time to fully explore a topic. However, during the season, the short amount of time between games doesn’t allow me to write many series. But since the Steelers have essentially been eliminated from the playoffs, I am going to begin exploring what happened to their 2009 season. Because there are games that will need to be covered, I won’t be able to write the series in consecutive segments. But between games, I plan to investigate the many factors that have led to the Steelers failed season. In each segment of the series, I will focus on one factor that caused the Steelers failed season.
Factor #1 – Special teams coverage.
We all know that special teams has been a problem for the Steelers for a long time. It was a glaring weakness during the last 3 years of Bill Cowher’s regime. It was talked about over and over, but the problem never seemed to get fixed.
The problem lingered throughout Mike Tomlin’s first year as head coach. After his first season, Tomlin identified it as an issue, and even spent dedicated time working on it during training camp. The problem appeared to have been fixed. Special teams was actually a strength during the 2008 season. In fact, the Steelers’ kickoff coverage unit was the best in the NFL last season, allowing an average of 19.1 yards and no touchdowns.
However, in 2009 the problem re-emerged…with a vengeance.
So far this season, there have been 14 kickoffs returned for touchdowns in the NFL. Of those, the Steelers have allowed 4. That means the remaining 31 teams have allowed a total of 10. So the Steelers have allowed 29% of the kickoffs that were returned for touchdowns in the 2009. That’s pathetic!
The Oakland Raider are the only other team in the NFL that has allowed more than one kickoff to be returned for a touchdown (they’ve allowed two), and 23 teams have not allowed any this season.
Two of the touchdown returns that the Steelers have allowed actually came in games that the Steelers won. So while embarrassing, they didn’t actually impact the outcome of the game. However, the remaining two occurred in games that the Steelers lost. The Steelers lost those two games by 6 points and 3 points respectively. Thus, the return touchdown that special teams allowed ended up costing the team the game in both of these instances.
We can therefore conclude that special teams directly cost the Steelers 2 games.
Special teams probably indirectly contributed to other losses by allowing long returns on kickoffs or punts. But these two losses can be directly attributed to the Steelers special teams.
Part of the problem may have been that the Steelers released Anthony Madison at the end of training camp this summer. Madison had been the team’s top special teams tackler last season. The team seemed to recognize their error, and recently re-signed Madison. However, that change probably came too late to have an impact.
If I were the Steelers players, I would anticipate Mike Tomlin re-emphasizing special teams coverage this off-season, just like he did in 2008. If he doesn’t, then fans can probably expect 2010 to look much like 2009. And that won’t be a good thing.
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I agree that the Special Teams have been a glaring issue and needs a resolution after the season is over. I think a change in ST and the Offensive Coordinator position are a must. We also have to do something in the secondary.
1donald,
thanks for beginning this dialogue. I agree with your article.
Mark,
Can you believe the Steelers have two (2) special teams coaches! Unbelievable! When they did this I thought it was the most ridiculus thing I heard of. How can two coaches with different schemes work together with one unit? And if they have the same schemes then why have two? Laughable.
I say find one who knows how to develop a unit that performs.
2I’ve said it earlier that I think special teams are kind of fluky in terms of strategy. I think one thing that may possibly help is just making sure that all the players play until the whistle blows (yes that includes you Jeff Reed). Take last nights game even though Desean Jackson is really fast it just kind of seems like luck and making the right moves at the right time. I hate to say it but maybe all the guys just aren’t playing at a 100% effort level.
3I agree that poor special teams performance can account for several losses especially when you factor in the kicking game and missed field goals by Jeff Reed. Additionally, there does not seem to be any pride taken in performing on special teams. That seems to have carried over to BOTH sides of the ball. They went out and signed Stefan Logan and he has done nothing to create any significant excitement this season. Overall a poor performance by the entire team. Loss of McFadden didn’t help. Limus Sweed has not stepped up and assumed the role he was intended to take over. Bright spots: Rasheed Mendenhall, Vincent, and nice passing by Ben even under pressure! He can not continue to do this though. Ben needs help and lots of it!
4Tony, I noticed that they have 2. I agree, they need 1 with a reputation for cleaning these things up. They need to monitor the turnover this year and the Steelers need to grab the best ST coach that is available. I am not sure why Logan can not create the magic he did in the preseason, but I have to wonder if they will burn a roster spot for him again next season.
5mark,
agree!
i have been extremely disappointed with what i thought would be a great special teams outing this yr. with sepulveda back and logans returning. Really though we could filp some fields alot this yr but boy was i wrong!
6All,
Donald covered the subject pretty well. The only thing I would add to the discussion is that it appears (at least to me) to be more of a player issue than a coaching issue. That is, coverage is accomplished through 2 things – discipline (cover your lane) and desire (to make the tackle).
From my perspective, our weakness has been more in the desire department.
7Tony,
8I thought the same thing going into this season. With Sepulveda back and Stefan Logan added to the mix, I thought it was going to be a GREAT year for Steelers special teams. I guess they fooled us.
John,
9If you are correct that it is desire rather than coaching, then that speaks very sadly for the players. Most of the special teams players are hoping to catch the coaches attention. Hopefully they realize that enthusiasm and discipline is the best way to do that. Just look at Keyaron Fox. He impressed the coaching staff with his energy and enthusiasm on special teams. Now the coaches feel very comfortable putting him in anytime Lawrence Timmons gets hurt (which is pretty often). I hope the rest of the players have noticed that.
Great article, Donald. The Steelers STs have been bad since Bobby April left. He was ST Coach of the year in 2008, and even though the Bills don’t rank as high this year, its due to heavy personnel turnover. Herman Edwards referred to the Bills return unit as “scary.” That term has not been used in Steeltown in a long time, maybe since Rod Woodson. BTW, with a new head coach coming in for the Bills, April could well be on the market this offseason. I hoped they would grab Chris Carr when he was released by the Raiders, but there he is terrorizing our ST twice a year for the Ravens. One solution might be another former Steeler-Antwan Randle El. He’s got his money-maybe he’s ready to play for a winner again. Looking forward to your next article.
10While its a bit of an oversimplification to attribute the Chiefs loss solely to special teams (they never should’ve been within 14 of us), I definitely agree with you.
In fact, I’ve agreed with you since Tomlin’s first year when I read the bio on Bob Ligashesky who he picked as special team’s coach after Ligashesky was fired from the same position by the Rams after ranking rock bottom in ST performance.
I was at the Chiefs game and was yelling “fire Ligashesky” at the top of my lungs after the Chiefs returned the opening kickoff for a TD.
11