Colin Cowherd: Why does Mike Tomlin get a free pass with the Steelers?

Cowherd was at it again, he was practically itching for my Hawkeyes to lose so that he could act like he told everyone they weren't for real. Acting like North Dakota State was a high school football team. You know because they haven't won 5 back to back National Titles, have came in and beat numerous Division I teams, and are barely under the requirements to be considered for Division I.

Seriously can't stand Cowherd. I think I hate him more than Skip Bayless, and Stephen A. Smith.

IowaSteeler927 wrote:

Cowherd was at it again, he was practically itching for my Hawkeyes to lose so that he could act like he told everyone they weren't for real. Acting like North Dakota State was a high school football team. You know because they haven't won 5 back to back National Titles, have came in and beat numerous Division I teams, and are barely under the requirements to be considered for Division I.

Seriously can't stand Cowherd. I think I hate him more than Skip Bayless, and Stephen A. Smith.

Is that combined or individually?

IowaSteeler927 wrote:

Cowherd was at it again, he was practically itching for my Hawkeyes to lose so that he could act like he told everyone they weren't for real. Acting like North Dakota State was a high school football team. You know because they haven't won 5 back to back National Titles, have came in and beat numerous Division I teams, and are barely under the requirements to be considered for Division I.

Seriously can't stand Cowherd. I think I hate him more than Skip Bayless, and Stephen A. Smith.

who cares what that tool thinks Iowa??...I cant stand that jackass either..never could. If given the choice between listening to him talk out of that oddly shaped mouth of his or a neverending loop of fingernails on a chalkboard I'd choose the latter

steelcrazy wrote:

IowaSteeler927 wrote:

Cowherd was at it again, he was practically itching for my Hawkeyes to lose so that he could act like he told everyone they weren't for real. Acting like North Dakota State was a high school football team. You know because they haven't won 5 back to back National Titles, have came in and beat numerous Division I teams, and are barely under the requirements to be considered for Division I.

Seriously can't stand Cowherd. I think I hate him more than Skip Bayless, and Stephen A. Smith.

 who cares what that tool thinks Iowa??...I cant stand that jackass either..never could.  If given the choice between listening to him talk out of that oddly shaped mouth of his or a neverending loop of fingernails on a chalkboard I'd choose the latter  

Haha same here!

As I recall, Cowherd is a big Seahawks fan who is convinced the refs threw SBXL for the Steelers.

He does get a free pass tho

I agree Tomlin loses games he shouldn't but Cowherd's argument is fucking stupid. Of course Manning and Brady made the playoffs automatically every year when they get 6 games each every year against the Texans, Jaguars, Titans, Bills, Dolphins, Jets. Pretty sure you can count the playoff appearances of those teams combined in the last decade on one hand.

The Steelers get two such games against the Browns and then have to play 4 legitimate games against perennial playoff contenders in the Bengals and Ravens. So it makes sense in the long run that they don't get the automatic 12-4 division crown that gets handed to the Patriots* and Colts before the season even starts.

Hawaii 5-0 wrote:

To be honest, I never liked Colin Cowherd for various reasons, but you really can't argue with what he is saying here. There really isn't anyway around it. Our players always seem to have a mental letdown a lot of the times when we play sub .500 teams. That is definitely a reflection back on coaching. I've always defended Tomlin since he became our head coach, but these last couple of years I have begun to wonder. To be honest though, I remember Bill Cowher being inconsistent over the years too, but now we look back and everyone remembers all of the great things about him. I guess what I am saying is there is no way I want a different coach, because it could be way worse. I just hope the Rooneys have finally addressed this issue with Tomlin and it will be fixed with time.

Jazzo wrote:

There really isn't anyway around it. Our players always seem to have a mental letdown a lot of the times when we play sub .500 teams. That is definitely a reflection back on coaching. I've always defended Tomlin since he became our head coach, but these last couple of years I have begun to wonder. To be honest though, I remember Bill Cowher being inconsistent over the years too, but now we look back and everyone remembers all of the great things about him. I guess what I am saying is there is no way I want a different coach, because it could be way worse. I just hope the Rooneys have finally addressed this issue with Tomlin and it will be fixed with time.

It is on the head coach but the veterans on the team are accountable as well.

One of the big reasons successful teams get that way is by stacking wins against inferior teams.  I have cited this stat before but it is still an amazing reflection of how mentally tough the 70s Steelers were in games they were expected to win.  IMO that was a combination of a head coach who maintained focus and team leaders such as Greene and Lambert who would not tolerate letdowns.  

Noll’s Steelers don’t get “upset.”  In their eight playoff years (1972-79), the Steelers’ record against teams with records below .500 is 59-1; until the Bengals upset them in 1979, they were 56-0.

http://mmqb.si.com/2014/06/17/chuck-noll-pittsburgh-steelers-coach-man-not-myth

He does have a point, way too much talent on this team to be underachieving like this.

Yeah, a team is reflective of their coach. The veteran players are accountable too but the coach is responsible for preparation and getting the team focused. Players execute, but coaches get the players focused in order to execute. Noll and Belichek are good examples of coaches who had their teams always focused. We lost games we were supposed to win not from lack of talent but from dropped passes, poor QB decisions (Mostly Ben) poor tackling and dumb penalties: that's on the coaches. How do we beat Cincy without Bell, yet get mauled by Miami with him in the lineup? I don't think a coaching change is the answer either, yet. I just want Tomlin to get this team prepared and start winning the games their supposed to.

With our personnel we are a contender. We had no business losing to philly and Miami, even with the injuries.

And how that over in he is the only third H.C. for Pittsburgh. And really that really says something about the team and organization as a whole!

I am beginning to think that Colin Cowherd is still butthurt from Superbowl XL. He was a local sports radio host here in the NW (Portland, OR) and I used to listen to him on my commute to work every morning back then in 2005-2006. The next Monday morning after the Superbowl, he got a lot of the local NW folks aka bandwagon Seattle Shitbird fans all riled up by saying Superbowl XL was fixed. He went as far as saying that the Steelers organization must have paid off the officials and how the NFL just wanted to see Bettis and Bill Cowher retire with a ring.

As much as I couldn't disagree with his assessment about Tomlin vs sub .500 teams earlier this season, there is no excuse for not giving Tomlin credit since all the criticism. Tomlin has responded the old fashioned, "Actions speak louder than words" saying! We need to start calling Colin Cowherd, Colin COWARD instead. How could this lame not give credit to all of the Steelers after the performance this last Sunday against Miami?!

http://steelerswire.usatoday.com/2017/01/10/colin-cowherd-continues-to-criticize-mike-tomlin-despite-wild-card-win/

"Throughout the 2016 season, Fox Sports personality Colin Cowherd has used his platform to continually call out the Pittsburgh Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin. To say Cowherd is not a fan would be an understatement. His main issues seem to surround Tomlin’s record against sub .500 team, his number of playoff wins and division titles with Ben Roethlisberger and that the head coach does not have his team “buttoned up”. What “buttoned up” actually means is anyone’s guess, but Cowherd does like to use this phrase A LOT when talking about Tomlin.

While many onlookers might have been at least a little impressed with the Steelers dominant 30-12 victory over the Miami Dolphins last Sunday at Heinz Field, Cowherd was not one of them and he was more than willing to share his thoughts once again on his show “The Herd” this Monday.

Cowherd opens his rant with the arrest of Joey Porter, a situation which is apparently Tomlin’s fault as he is “not buttoned up”. These things do not happen to Bill Belichick, Cowherd tells us, all the while glossing over the fact that Belichick did have one of his players jailed for murder, one who had just signed a large contract extension despite a checkered past which included drug use and being investigated for another shooting in 2007. That does not seem like buttoned up behavior.

Oddly, while Cowherd found the Seattle Seahawks running game impressive, 38 carries for 177-yards, the Steelers 35 carries for 179-yards left him cold. Le’Veon Bell is the best back in the league Cowherd concedes, therefore Tomlin should have made more out of him last Sunday. Indeed, while Cowherd respects the talent Pittsburgh has assembled, Tomlin also gets no credit for drafting them or coaching them up, at all.

When it comes to division wins, five out of 10 is not good enough for Cowherd, especially in a weak AFC North as he see’s it. Perhaps blinded by his hate, or just because the facts get in the way of his rhetoric, Cowherd seems to ignore the existence of the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC North. He is not wrong in his assessment of the Browns and the Bengals, but to dismiss the Ravens altogether is rather inexcusable, no matter what point he is trying to make.

According to Cowherd, Troy Aikman and the Cowboys, for example, did much better, despite also winning only 50 percent of the division titles available to them. After all, they had a Super Bowl winning team in their division, who does Tomlin have? John Elway did better too, even though he only won the division seven times in 16 years. They had the Raiders, Cowherd reasons, ignoring the fact that Oakland only made the playoffs six times in Elway’s 16 seasons in Denver. Still, the Steelers apparently have no one in the division as competition by comparison. Certainly not a Baltimore team that has made the postseason six times in the last 10 years to go along with a Lombardi.

To be fair to Cowherd, his inaccuarte takes are not just limited to Pro football. Earlier in the season he chose to take on Clemson, calling out their entire football program and proclaiming they would get destroyed in the playoffs:

“Clemson’s a fraud. Clemson is going to get their ears boxed by whoever they play. They should have three losses, maybe four. I don’t buy into Clemson.”

With the National Championship belonging to the Tigers after a dramatic last-second touchdown to clinch the title, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney had plenty to say about the outspoken commentator in his post-match press conference.

There is no better assessment to the value of the opinion of Cowherd than Swinney’s final words on the Fox Sports host, ones that are equally valid to his thoughts on Clemson as they are on Tomlin:

“The only fraud is that guy, because he didn’t do his homework. I hope you’all print that!”"

Haters gonna hate. Sounds like Cowturd is just a Tomlin hater and wants to criticize him. Free country, so he is free to criticize Tomlin.

Funny how he bashes Tomlin for only winning the division 50% of the time and tries to discredit the AFC North, but doesn't point out that Tomlin's Steelers have 7 seasons of 10+wins out of 10 years. He points to the AFC East, but that division has been a garbage dump other than the Patriots* for over a decade.

Honestly, I always turned the station when I heard him on XM radio. More for the whiny voice, dead airspace and lack of insight than ever knowing he was a Steeler hater.

El-Gonzo Jackson wrote:

Haters gonna hate.  Sounds like Cowturd is just a Tomlin hater and wants to criticize him.  Free country, so he is free to criticize Tomlin.

Funny how he bashes Tomlin for only winning the division 50% of the time and tries to discredit the AFC North, but doesn't point out that Tomlin's Steelers have 7 seasons of 10+wins out of 10 years.  He points to the AFC East, but that division has been a garbage dump other than the Patriots** for over a decade.

Honestly, I always turned the station when I heard him on XM radio.  More for the whiny voice, dead airspace and lack of insight than ever knowing he was a Steeler hater.

I know, right? He is also all over Belichick's nut sack by claiming that the Joey Porter incident would never happen under New England's organization. Did Colin Coward forget about a certain TE that played for Belichick who was convicted of murder??? Does Aaron Hernandez ring a bell?

Jazzo wrote:

El-Gonzo Jackson wrote:

Haters gonna hate.  Sounds like Cowturd is just a Tomlin hater and wants to criticize him.  Free country, so he is free to criticize Tomlin.

Funny how he bashes Tomlin for only winning the division 50% of the time and tries to discredit the AFC North, but doesn't point out that Tomlin's Steelers have 7 seasons of 10+wins out of 10 years.  He points to the AFC East, but that division has been a garbage dump other than the Patriots*** for over a decade.

Honestly, I always turned the station when I heard him on XM radio.  More for the whiny voice, dead airspace and lack of insight than ever knowing he was a Steeler hater.

I know, right? He is also all over Belichick's nut sack by claiming that the Joey Porter incident would never happen under New England's organization. Did Colin Coward forget about a certain TE that played for Belichick who was convicted of murder??? Does Aaron Hernandez ring a bell?

I believe Julian Edelman was once arrested for harassing a stripper and they recently claimed Malcolm Floyd who was even more drunk than Peezy was and behind the wheel. I am sick of the Belichick nutsucking. The guy doesn't have high standards. He wants to win and that's fine but don't act like he won't tolerate certain things. And yes the AFC East compared to the AFC North is a cakewalk. The Ravens, Browns, and Bengals are a much tougher 3/8 of the schedule than the Bills, Dolphins, and Jets the past decade. I agree though. Cowherd's a Seahawk guy still not over SBXL because he like so many of their asshole fans think it was "stolen" from them and Rooney paid off the officials.

Yeah, you guys are on this. Tough to say this wouldn't happen under Belichek, when he has a former TE in jail, a WR on the roster who was sleeping drunk in traffic and we don't even get into the sanctions/suspensions for Deflategate, Videogate or telling Ted Johnson to play with a concussion.

Still, Cowturd isn't as terrible a human being as Skip Bayless.

Steelers win more when they aren't having their butts kissed and being told they aren't as good as they really are. This is a benefit, not a negative.

OX1947 wrote:

Steelers win more when they aren't having their butts kissed and being told they aren't as good as they really are. This is a benefit, not a negative.

I agree OX! I have also noticed that pattern over the years.

Sometimes sports isn't much different than politics. People believe what they wanna believe, and facts don't matter.

Wallace108 wrote:

Sometimes sports isn't much different than politics. People believe what they wanna believe, and facts don't matter.

I am beginning to think sports is becoming more like the WWE. Colin can't be this naive and stupid. He knows what he is doing... I just think he is a wanna-be Skip Bayless, especially after you see that promotion Skip recently received.

On a related note, we should probably change the SX banner. Tomlin looks too much like a cheerleader on it.