Don't be fooled by this team

[TimmayLake]

Beating the Lions was unexpected, to put it lightly. NHALS has been achieved, huzzah.

However I'm still not convinced this team is capable of winning the AFCN (I'll believe it when the Ravens are officially eliminated), much less win its first playoff game in 9 years.

Too many injuries (Watt and Herbig for starters), suspension likely for DK and a leaky defense.

Realistically I think we win AFCN but lose in our first playoff game, probably badly.

[Deebo]

Well more importantly than NHALS Mike Tomlin is sure to return next season.

There was a portion of me that believed if the losses got bad enough and the media chirped enough that Tomlin and Rooney would have a mutual parting. I mean the talking heads even rolled out the red carpet for this departure "Mike Tomlin deserves to choose his path".

Now, with NHALS and the narratives secured it's a lock that Tomlin will be back next year.

There will be no changes. Art Smith will keep his job too and we still won't throw to the WR2. We won't throw MOF unless NHALS is in jeopardy.

Austin will be back too along with TJ Watt jogging.
Can't wait to watch the same movie in 2026!

[Texas Black & Gold]

Tomlin needs 3 more NHALS seasons to tie Landry. He can do it in Pittsburgh or on another team. But I doubt he leaves the NFL any time soon.

[franco32]

Tomlin needs 3 more NHALS seasons to tie Landry. He can do it in Pittsburgh or on another team. But I doubt he leaves the NFL any time soon.

Landry won 2 SBs and went to 5. If Tomlin wants to be in that category, then he better get to another SB and win it.

[.Kodiak]

Landry won 2 SBs and went to 5. If Tomlin wants to be in that category, then he better get to another SB and win it.

Tomlin is way closer to Marvin Lewis than he is to Landry. I'm convinced Lewis would have been at least as successful in PIT with what Tomlin inherited. I'm not sure Tomlin would have been as "good" as Lewis in CIN.

[lifelongsteel]

Yeah they've got me fooled. They pulled me back in.

Rodgers is playing better than any Steelers QB since pre 2020 Ben.
Their offense appears to have a plan
Gainwell's emergence is quite enjoyable
OL coming together
Defense feels solidified - obviously they need Watt and Herbig

Their best 3 game stretch since . . . .

[Deebo]

Yeah they've got me fooled. They pulled me back in.

Rodgers is playing better than any Steelers QB since pre 2020 Ben.
Their offense appears to have a plan
Gainwell's emergence is quite enjoyable
OL coming together
Defense feels solidified - obviously they need Watt and Herbig

Their best 3 game stretch since . . . .

But they only did this to get to NHALS. Once that's been achieved, those things to get further wins are put in a box until they are needed again next season to achieve NHALS.

It's fools gold

[Dan Smith--BYU]

"obviously they need Watt and Herbig"

half true

QB is best since the teens and so are the RBs

[swissvale72]

Yeah they've got me fooled. They pulled me back in.

Rodgers is playing better than any Steelers QB since pre 2020 Ben.
Their offense appears to have a plan
Gainwell's emergence is quite enjoyable
OL coming together
Defense feels solidified - obviously they need Watt and Herbig

Their best 3 game stretch since . . . .

But they only did this to get to NHALS. Once that's been achieved, those things to get further wins are put in a box until they are needed again next season to achieve NHALS.

It's fools gold

Doubt that's at all true

[langer]

That game was an RCH away from being an embarrassing loss.

It should have been a loss. If TJ was there jogging around it might have been.

[Steelperch]

The last 3 weeks have been worst case scenario for any of us ever seeing a SB team here in the next decade.

[DumlinBumlinStumlin]

The last 3 weeks have been worst case scenario for any of us ever seeing a SB team here in the next decade.

That is a very astute understatement.

I feel on the hamster wheel to nowhere perch

Cannot take joy in the wins cause we know this!!

[Deebo]

Yeah they've got me fooled. They pulled me back in.

Rodgers is playing better than any Steelers QB since pre 2020 Ben.
Their offense appears to have a plan
Gainwell's emergence is quite enjoyable
OL coming together
Defense feels solidified - obviously they need Watt and Herbig

Their best 3 game stretch since . . . .

But they only did this to get to NHALS. Once that's been achieved, those things to get further wins are put in a box until they are needed again next season to achieve NHALS.

It's fools gold

Doubt that's at all true

Then why are QB's being told they can't audible? Why are successful plays barely every seen again?

If you look at the Wins over the years in context, there is a discernable pattern:

- Winning early in the year with the defense making heroic stands and stops while the offense sputters.
-Mid season lull when the turnovers dry up and the offense looks anemic
-If NHALS is in jeopardy, you start seeing MOF being used and more schematics on defense. QB's are permitted to audible and the playbook opens up.
-Once NHALS is secured, the foot is taken off the pedal and they go back to being the mid level offense and defense that we saw during their losing streak
-1st round playoff is a blowout bc the other team knows they'll go back to being predictable just as Edelman and everyone else says

I mean just go back to last year and you'll see the same patterns. Look at the forest, not the trees

[shellwagnerblount]

But they only did this to get to NHALS. Once that's been achieved, those things to get further wins are put in a box until they are needed again next season to achieve NHALS.

It's fools gold

Doubt that's at all true

Then why are QB's being told they can't audible? Why are successful plays barely every seen again?

If you look at the Wins over the years in context, there is a discernable pattern:

- Winning early in the year with the defense making heroic stands and stops while the offense sputters.
-Mid season lull when the turnovers dry up and the offense looks anemic
-If NHALS is in jeopardy, you start seeing MOF being used and more schematics on defense. QB's are permitted to audible and the playbook opens up.
-Once NHALS is secured, the foot is taken off the pedal and they go back to being the mid level offense and defense that we saw during their losing streak
-1st round playoff is a blowout bc the other team knows they'll go back to being predictable just as Edelman and everyone else says

I mean just go back to last year and you'll see the same patterns. Look at the forest, not the trees

This is the way and the truth! I think some of us unconsciously pick up on the losing patterns but can't quite put our finger on it or see the whole picture. Thanks for a great synopsis of the timeline for NHALS...It's a business model. Aim for the mediocre middle instead of the stars. Perhaps if they had a great, innovative HC to push back against this stuff, we'd be contenders despite the ownership group. Instead we have Mediocre Mike from accounting...lol

[DumlinBumlinStumlin]

Yeah they've got me fooled. They pulled me back in.

Rodgers is playing better than any Steelers QB since pre 2020 Ben.
Their offense appears to have a plan
Gainwell's emergence is quite enjoyable
OL coming together
Defense feels solidified - obviously they need Watt and Herbig

Their best 3 game stretch since . . . .

But they only did this to get to NHALS. Once that's been achieved, those things to get further wins are put in a box until they are needed again next season to achieve NHALS.

It's fools gold

Doubt that's at all true

triple yoi fools gold!!

[955876]

Tomlin needs 3 more NHALS seasons to tie Landry. He can do it in Pittsburgh or on another team. But I doubt he leaves the NFL any time soon.

It’s a record that only you, Jibbs, Dunce, and the chuckleheads on ESPN give a flying fuck about.

Dunce will let him try to break that record here in Pitt and if he does celebrate like they just won back to back to back Super Bowls.

Purgatory.

[the-other-burg]

Rodgers is the only human on the planet that can win with this offense. I dont think thats a compliment to the team.

[langer]

Rodgers is the only human on the planet that can win with this offense. I dont think thats a compliment to the team.

This is true, one has to take many many trips on a wide variety of hallucinogens, psilocybin, peyote, LSD, mescaline, DMT, and many other designer psychedelics.