Brownies vs Steelers game ball/goats (are there any game balls)?

Figured I start this, even though I can't comment either way.

I'm actually glad I didn't watch this game.

So what say you forum members?

Game ball- 1/2 a ball to Troy I think he played hard for an old guy. 1/4 ball to Mitchell
Goats- The entire rest of the  team.

To sum it up. This team has no balls!!!!

Absolutely zero game balls.

Goats: even though I felt pretty confident we would lose this game, the whole team look like it ate a pile of white dogshit right before kickoff. Absolutely terrible including the coaching staff. Don't fire anyone because then they don't get to live with the shame of the extreme beating they just received from the BROWNS.

Game Balls

No one.

Goats

The entire team, with 3 who get called out specifically ...

Troy. He was single-handedly responsible for the Browns' first 14 points because of bad reads. He had a great career, one of the all-time great Steelers players. But he's done.

Haley. I don't disagree with ALL of the play calling in the game ... it started strong ... but it seemed like he was more interested in trying to prove a point rather than trying to win the game. I'll have more to say on this over time.

Tomlin. While it's convenient to blame only Haley and LeBeau, this team has lots of problems. And it all falls on the head coach. Again, I'll have more to say on this over time.

Wallace108 wrote:

Game Balls

No one.

Goats

The entire team, with 3 who get called out specifically ...

Troy. He was single-handedly responsible for the Browns' first 14 points because of bad reads. He had a great career, one of the all-time great Steelers players. But he's done.

Haley. I don't disagree with ALL of the play calling in the game ... it started strong ... but it seemed like he was more interested in trying to prove a point rather than trying to win the game. I'll have more to say on this over time.

Tomlin. While it's convenient to blame only Haley and LeBeau, this team has lots of problems. And it all falls on the head coach. Again, I'll have more to say on this over time.

I don't think I agree that Troy was responsible for the second TD. I'm pretty sure that was a holding non-call on a run play. Maybe that was the 3rd td I had company and couldn't pay close attention so I reserve the right to retract after my stomach settles and I watch it again. I'll probably skip through the high points so it should be about a 2 minute game.

solardave wrote:

Wallace108 wrote:

Game Balls

No one.

Goats

The entire team, with 3 who get called out specifically ...

Troy. He was single-handedly responsible for the Browns' first 14 points because of bad reads. He had a great career, one of the all-time great Steelers players. But he's done.

Haley. I don't disagree with ALL of the play calling in the game ... it started strong ... but it seemed like he was more interested in trying to prove a point rather than trying to win the game. I'll have more to say on this over time.

Tomlin. While it's convenient to blame only Haley and LeBeau, this team has lots of problems. And it all falls on the head coach. Again, I'll have more to say on this over time.

I don't think I agree that Troy was responsible for the second TD. I'm pretty sure that was a holding non-call on a run play. Maybe that was the 3rd td I had company and couldn't pay close attention so I reserve the right to retract after my stomach settles and I watch it again. I'll probably skip through the high points so it should be about a 2 minute game.

Allen had contain on the outside. Troy was responsible for the inside, but he gambled on the run. Allen was on the outside where he should have been, and Hoyer threw the pass inside ... where Troy should have been if he had gambled correctly. Troy read run and was out of position, which left Allen without any inside help. Fire LeBeau!!

Game balls: NONE

Game goats: EVERYONE (coaches, and players alike)

stlrtruck wrote:

Game balls:  NONE

Game goats: EVERYONE (coaches, and players alike)

/thread

Fire Truck!!

Well, if this trend continues.......someone needs to have his head roll (I just don't know if it should be Haley, LeBeau, Tomlin, Colbert, Troy, Ben, Allen or Art II .......or fill in the blank_______ )

Gingerchip wrote:

Well, if this trend continues.......someone needs to have his head roll (I just don't know if it should be Haley, LeBeau, Tomlin, Colbert, Troy, Ben, Allen or Art II .......or fill in the blank_______ )

As for the coaches, that's something we're going to spend a LOT of time talking about in the coming months, so I'm not going to start those conversations just yet. I'll focus on changes that can be made immediately.

I'm not sure if I'm in the minority or majority, but I'd pull Troy out and start Shamarko in the next game. I'd bench Thomas and start Tuitt. I'd bump Bryant up to the fourth receiver. Those changes certainly wouldn't solve all of our problems, but it would be a start.

I want to see Sharknado in action.  Not a bad idea to pull Troy, imo.  I am hoping the D improves when Shazier returns.  I realize he is a one man rookie - but I think his return will help.  I don't think it certainly would hurt at this point.

Off the topic slightly - the Cowboys beat the Seahags on their own turf.  The Cowboys supposedly had one of the worst defenses in the league.  Yet every week - they seem to be improving.  Ours?  Not so much.

Edit: Was talking to a friend of mine. The Raiders came *this close* to beating the Chargers. What was worth noting is that they played like they meant business -- and they just got a new coach. I'm not on the fire Tomlin bandwagon at all.....just saying that coaching often times makes a huge difference in production of the talent.

Game Ball:
Antonio Brown. He was basically the only one who showed up today.

Game Goat:
Everyone. If the seats not hot on Tomlin, when will it be? I'm sick of hearing the same BS from his mouth week end and week out producing same results. Today was a complete embarrassment.

Wallace108 wrote:

I'm not sure if I'm in the minority or majority, but I'd pull Troy out and start Shamarko in the next game.

I agree, we need safety help. Mitchell looks lost from the beginning of the season. And Troy (love him) is slow and not good in coverage. Troy was a great player but age catches up to you sooner or later.

Steelerella wrote:

Wallace108 wrote:

I'm not sure if I'm in the minority or majority, but I'd pull Troy out and start Shamarko in the next game.

I agree, we need safety help. Mitchell looks lost from the beginning of the season. And Troy (love him) is slow and not good in coverage. Troy was a great player but age catches up to you sooner or later.

I also agree we need safety help but I don't think pulling Troy is the answer yet. What happens if we bring Shemarko in and switch Troy to free safety? I think he's a better option than Mitchell.

Game balls:
A Brown (he made some nice catches)
Heath (Caught everything thrown his way, unlike Wheaton, J Brown, and Moore)
Dri Archer (in the run game) (finally got to see some of his speed on the outside and not just on a screen pass)

Goats:
Everyone else, especially the old and soft defense. That defense needs to take some Viagra.

solardave wrote:

Steelerella wrote:

Wallace108 wrote:

I'm not sure if I'm in the minority or majority, but I'd pull Troy out and start Shamarko in the next game.

I agree, we need safety help. Mitchell looks lost from the beginning of the season. And Troy (love him) is slow and not good in coverage. Troy was a great player but age catches up to you sooner or later.

I also agree we need safety help but I don't think pulling Troy is the answer yet. What happens if we bring Shemarko in and switch Troy to free safety? I think he's a better option than Mitchell.

Troy is probably versatile to play both positions depending on situation. Coverage still concerns me though.

Steelerella wrote:

solardave wrote:

Steelerella wrote:

Wallace108 wrote:

I'm not sure if I'm in the minority or majority, but I'd pull Troy out and start Shamarko in the next game.

I agree, we need safety help. Mitchell looks lost from the beginning of the season. And Troy (love him) is slow and not good in coverage. Troy was a great player but age catches up to you sooner or later.

I also agree we need safety help but I don't think pulling Troy is the answer yet. What happens if we bring Shemarko in and switch Troy to free safety? I think he's a better option than Mitchell.

Troy is probably versatile to play both positions depending on situation. Coverage still concerns me though.

I agree coverage is bad because we have no corners either. The fact that our pass rush is weak leaves all these guys exposed.

SteelersYak wrote:

Game balls:
A Brown (he made some nice catches)
Heath (Caught everything thrown his way, unlike Wheaton, J Brown, and Moore)
Dri Archer (in the run game) (finally got to see some of his speed on the outside and not just on a screen pass)

Goats:
Everyone else, especially the old and soft defense.  That defense needs to take some Viagra.

I was looking for Heath's target numbers. I specifically recall him dropping an easy one at some point.

Not sure if this should go here or not, but has anyone thought of or brought up officiating? There have been some downright miserably called games this year. Tampa game really stands out to me, and I felt pretty strong the first 2 weeks about some of the flags too.

Yesterday, it appeared to me like the crew was letting it all go. Then all of a sudden, they start flagging stuff that wasn't being called earlier in the same game.

More specifically, I was pretty irate over 2 plays in particular:

The first TD run, I think Crowell, Timmons got a nice 2 hand shove in the back near the 1-2 yard line. He was sitting up looking at the referee in front of the pylon like WTF. (This reminds me of Spence getting turned around by his pads in the Tampa game.)

How does a referee NOT see something right in front of him? (I have an answer for this if anyone is interested.)

Second play is one of the RZ throws to AB, I think on the 0-4 on attempts after the Browns fumble. He got raped from behind, much worse than the contact made on Jordan Cameron earlier (don't confuse this with Haden's jump ball tip, that was IMO 100% clean.)


Considering all of this, you have a team that's getting flagged an average of 11 times per game (till last week) and getting their hands slapped constantly, only to find themselves seemingly playing by different rules yesterday, and at that, rules that don't apply to everyone. That has to be both frustrating and confusing at the same time.

Bonus point: I was wondering how Browns fans could go off on AB's punt return hurdle/kick and want blood, yet Brian Hoyer can go helmet first into our LB's legs legally during a fumble?

Please don't mistake this a rant about officiating losing the game. The referees didn't lose the game for Pittsburgh, far from it. The Steelers lost outright, calls or no calls. This is an observation of inconsistency and how it factors into how a team plays.

SteelCityUnderground wrote:

Please don't mistake this a rant about officiating losing the game. The referees didn't lose the game for Pittsburgh, far from it. The Steelers lost outright, calls or no calls. This is an observation of inconsistency and how it factors into how a team plays.

Glad you pointed that out, I agree. Officiating is terrible in the NFL period. Steelers have to learn to adjust, even though some calls will be overlooked. And yes, blown calls happen to other teams too. Again, this is a Tomlin issue, especially when specific players (rookies) have stated that they will continue to celebrate, etc.  Even yesterday, Mitchell was REALLY excited after breaking up a catch when we were down 21 points.

That INT was bogus. The non-call where Haden pushed himself up using Brown to swat the pass no-call was bogus. There were a lot of things that had me scratching my head. At one point, I said to my Browns buddies yesterday that even the refs felt bad for the Browns (this was early in the game) based on some of the calls.

It does make you wonder sometimes.

I also am not blaming the refs for the loss but they certainly didn't help.

Steelerella wrote:

SteelCityUnderground wrote:

Please don't mistake this a rant about officiating losing the game. The referees didn't lose the game for Pittsburgh, far from it. The Steelers lost outright, calls or no calls. This is an observation of inconsistency and how it factors into how a team plays.

Glad you pointed that out, I agree. Officiating is terrible in the NFL period. Steelers have to learn to adjust, even though some calls will be overlooked. And yes, blown calls happen to other teams too. Again, this is a Tomlin issue, especially when specific players (rookies) have stated that they will continue to celebrate, etc.  Even yesterday, Mitchell was REALLY excited after breaking up a catch when we were down 21 points.

I absolutely hate that!

It's like you were reading my mind. I was talking about this at work earlier yesterday. You have AB, Bell, Lance Moore, all celebrating... FIRST DOWNS? They need to get over themselves and start making REAL plays.

And Mike Tomlin body bumping players always turned me off. You have to draw a line between being a coach and being a best friend.

SteelersYak wrote:

That INT was bogus.  The non-call where Haden pushed himself up using Brown to swat the pass no-call was bogus.  There were a lot of things that had me scratching my head.  At one point, I said to my Browns buddies yesterday that even the refs felt bad for the Browns (this was early in the game) based on some of the calls.  

It does make you wonder sometimes.

I also am not blaming the refs for the loss but they certainly didn't help.

Of course Cleveland didn't play many replays in their stadium and I didn't get a chance to re-watch the INT. As a referee, I say call it a TO all the time and allow it to be reviewed. Forcing a team to burn a challenge is bogus, unless the referee feels they are 100% certain it hit the ground. If you get it wrong after the review, shame on you.

I thought Haden going over AB's back was bad, but nowhere near as bad as the one later in the game, I believe on the 4 blown chances in the endzone, or just before it. Defender ran up his back. Haden/Skrines are some of the most penalized DB's in the game, the referees MUST know that coming into the game, the same way they used to flag Harrison and Clark for clean shoulder hits, because they had a reputation of leading with the helmet.

That marks several head scratching calls/no-calls this year.

Timmons got shoved in the back on the Crowell TD, the first of the game. It was clear, 2 hands on the back of his pads and extended. Spence got spun around by his pads on Doug Martin's TD 2 weeks earlier. In the Panthers game, Markus Wheaton was clearly shoved out of bounds; the LOS was at the 6/7 so it's definitely illegal contact.

Each time a referee was standing at the pylon. Why are they missing these calls?

My theory is this: they have tunnel vision. Stare at this computer screen right now, and without turning your head or marginally diverting your eyes, try to look to your peripheral. You can't.

My question is: why are those officials closest to the play STARING at the goal line? Yes, scoring is the most important factor, BUT, you are looking at the same thing the far side official is. In fact, being on top of the play is probably worse than being 40 yards away from it. Granted, if you're 40 yards away, you MUST be on the goal line in order to make a determination of whether the ball crossed the plane... HOWEVER, that's what instant replay is for! Every scoring play is reviewed, so even if you as an official aren't 100% sure, CALL IT A TD AND REVIEW THE VIDEO.

In that way, you most certainly cannot get it wrong, because we're told they have a central command watching too...