The Ghost of Bill Cowher Lives

Bill Cowher might no longer be the Steelers coach, but we did see a little of his approach seep into the Steelers playbook Saturday night.

The knock on Cowher was that he was too cautious, too prone to pull the gameplan in at the first sign of a lead he could sit on. The result was some come-from-behind losses in AFC Championship games and comparisons to Marty Schotenheimer, at least until Cowher won Super Bowl XL.

Cowher might be gone, but his old wide receivers coach is still calling the plays in Pittsburgh, and with the game on the line, the Steelers got too conservative.
After taking a one point lead with five minutes to go, Pittsburgh's defense got the stop it needed, forcing a punt that gave the Steelers the ball back with three minutes to go. Two first downs and Pittsburgh can start booking its flight for next week. Heck, one first down and things get very difficult for Jacksonville.

First down was a Najeh Davenport run, which went for five yards. The Steelers went back to Davenport on second down for -1 yards and a third and six. Up to now, everything made sense. Pittsburgh had gotten into a doable third down situation and had forced Jacksonville to burn some timeouts.

But on third down, Pittsburgh had a couple of options. On one hand, they could simply hand the ball to Davenport again. There would be very little likelihood of him actually getting the first down, but it would force Jacksonville to burn its second timeout.

Or the Steelers could put the game in Ben Roethlisberger's hands. He'd gone 17 for 23 in the second half to lead the Steelers on a great comeback to take the lead. Admittedly he'd also thrown three picks in the first half, but in the second half he'd clearly shown he had a hot hand.

Arians tried to compromise, in a bad way. He called a quarterback keeper for Roethlisberger. It's the kind of play that would have been a fine call on third and two, but there was no way Roethlisberger was going to get six yards. He was stopped for one yard, Pittsburgh punted and a couple of minutes later the season was over.

The frustrating part of the play call was Arians (or Mike Tomlin's) lack of realization that time was on Jacksonville's side.Running three straight running plays in a game where Pittsburgh was held to less than 50 yards rushing could only be explained by trying to milk the clock. But even with that, when Pittsburgh punted, Jacksonville still had 2:38, a timeout and the two minute warning to go. There was virtually no situation where Jacksonville was going to run out of time. They could turn the ball over, they could lose the ball on downs, but needing only 20 yards, there was no was that they were going to find themselves running out of time.

That became even more clear when the Jags ran down the clock deliberately to the two minute warning, and wasted their last timeout on a failed challenge. Jack Del Rio didn't worry about losing the timeout because time wasn't an issue.

If the Colts or Patriots had been in a similar situation, they would have put the game in their quarterback's hands, watched them complete the short pass and walked away with a win. Ben Roethlisberger may not be in their class yet, but he's not too far away. At some point it's time to fully put the games in his hands.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-06-2008 @ 12:42AM

paul nichols said...

Roethlisberger sucks! Hes a newer version of Drew Bledsoe...Big,slow,and dumb.

1-06-2008 @ 1:01AM

l. a. s. said...

i agree fully jj! i thought the same thing when i saw the play develop right before my eyes. what was needed at that point was a 1st down not a blown timeout by the jags. too much time left. all day long the short routes where there with either hines or heath miller. i would even settled for a play action for limited trickery. not no qb keeper. with more experience maybe tomlin overides that call in future years. ben is growing as a qb the 3 picks where bad but to show the things he showed in the 2nd half means the steelers have a stud that needs to have the confidence of the coaching staff behind him win or lose.

1-06-2008 @ 1:24AM

tbaker said...

Arian's play calling has angered me all season and when no "real" attempt was made to get a first down at the end of the game I knew the game was lost. It would interesting to know exactly who made the calls. JJ's comments are right on the money.

1-06-2008 @ 12:22PM

Joe said...

Say what you will about Cowher, he never would have blown this game. Going for 2 from the 12 was the call of a high school level coach.

And its not just this game it was all season. Wiz out coached him big time earlier in the year.

Remember Cowher for all his faults produced a winner year after year in spite of the the fact that the Rooneys let Pro Bowl Player after Pro Bowl Player leave because they were too cheap to keep them. With Tomlin as coach in a few years things will look like the Pre-Noll days.

1-06-2008 @ 4:35AM

klokorn@yahoo.com said...

Thank goodness, others are screaming about that call. What could Tomlin/Arians been thinking to just have Ben do a QB sneak on 3 & 5 with about 3:30 to go in the game, especially with how terrible the special teams coverage had been. The steelers obviously do not make it and punt with Jax returning it 20 yards--getting the ball at the 50 with 2:30 to go.

The steelers had a chance to control the game and win. That coaching decison, in spite of all the turnovers and bad special teams play, was the Steelers' biggest mistake of the game. Making Jax spend a timeout is not a good enough reason to not to try to get a first down, esp. w/Ben's good play in second half. That call was so disappointing.

1-06-2008 @ 8:26AM

charlie shaw said...

its about time luck ran out on the steelers , to much loud talking and bullying on and off the field
we seen from heniz ward the way they were trying to play the jags , And Ward should have been flagged a few times , the Refs put the game in Pitts hands more then once with bad calls , But the Jags , kicked the bullys ass , Go Jags

1-06-2008 @ 9:26PM

Harley said...

You r exactly right about the Refs.They did all they could do to give the Steelers the game. Behines Sychoward should have been flagged for a face mask penalty in the end zone along with the penalty the Jags revieved.Steeler fans should have seen this loss coming when they only beat the WORST team in the league 3-0.despite having the ball on the Miami side of the 50 most of the game.The Patriots or Colts would have slaughtered Miami givin the same conditions.Ben is going to be another maddox one good year that's it.Only difference the Steelers bought the Super Bowl.

1-06-2008 @ 9:37AM

thedog said...

the steelers were playing not to lose again. Big Ben is the leader and he should have a chance to win the game with his arm. who ener made that call on the qb keeper with the game on the line should be fired. you think Tom Brady or Payton Manning would be running the ball in the same situation???????? I think not. I love the Steelers but sometimes I just shake my head at them

1-06-2008 @ 11:15AM

c palm said...

I'm a diehard steelers fan, which means I love them whether they win or lose. I do agree that they should have let ben use his arm. the qb keeper got them nowhere. I do not think that the refs made bad calls in favor of the steelers. The jags were in ward's face and they got called on it. Tomlin did good in his first year....Go Steelers in 2008!!!!

1-06-2008 @ 11:20AM

bizzo5000 said...

I agree Ben sucks. It's not like he was second in the league in passing rating or had a franchise record 32 TD's this year and in four years won 14 games in a row as a rookie and won a Superbowl. The Steelers should cut him.

1-06-2008 @ 9:43PM

Dennis Allen said...

Everybody needs to keep in mind that the Steelers played exceptionally well in light of having so many players lost to injury. They finished far better than I expected with a first-year head coach driving them to a winning record for the season. And they were in it with the Jaguars all the way up to the final whistle after an amazing and improbable comeback against a good team like the Jaguars who also have a winning record and a good coach. And Ben Roethlisberger is a fine quarterback and he is blessed to wind up with another fine coach in Tomlin who was mentored by his previous coach! The only losers here are those attitudes from you spoiled fans!

1-06-2008 @ 12:06PM

Charles said...

I think Mike Tomlin will probably become a good coach. But not today (or yesterday, as it were). He blew it on Pittsburgh's last series by not calling a pass play to either Hines Ward or Heath Miller that had a realistic chance of getting a first down. But I think where his inexperience really caused him to make a mistake in judgment was in not kicking the extra point after the penalty on the next-to-last extra point. They had no chance at all to make the two-point conversion from the 13 yard line, so why not just kick it. Had they done that, which was the smart play at that point, then they could have gotten to 31 points by just kicking an extra point after their last touchdown. Tie game at 31, unless that caused Jacksonville to make more of an effort to go for a touchdown on that last drive. But Mike Tomlin blew it by continuing to go for two after the 10-yard holding. Too bad for the Steelers' fans. I don't think an experienced head coach (certainly not Cowher or Noll) would have made that mistake.

1-06-2008 @ 12:32PM

Pitt58 said...

Well, the Playoff season came and went in a dis-appointing blurr. I've been following Steeler football for 30+ years and was shocked at this years teams lack of game preparation from week to week. It was hard to watch a team who prides themselves on smash mouth football lose 3 of 4 games in DEC (playoff run time) and lose to the Bronco's, Jets and Cardnials and barely beat Miami all in the same season. I personally blame the playoff loss on the knucklehead who called the 3 straight runs with 3+ minuets to go in the game. Ben started off slow to say the least, but you could see in the second half, he wanted the ball and wanted the game to be placed in his hands, well for 27 minuets of the 2nd half, the brain trust in Pittsburgh did just that and guess what? We took the lead, but the game is a full 60 minuets long. You need to finish on how you got the LEAD, play to win and finsh teams off, not try to play not to lose. Big Difference in mind set!!! It is time to let Ben run with the offense and check off certain plays when he sees the defense with 9 guys in the box! Let him audible to a PASS, he has won a Superbowl, give hime the respect he deserves! Jack Del Rio had more confidence in BEN then our coaching staff and that is why he allowed the time to run all the way down to the 2 minuet warring, he know If given enough time Ben would find a way to beat them. Yes he out coached Tomlin and his crew. Del Rio wasn't going to let his QB Garrard who threw 2 interceptions in the second half (CHOKE), pass on 4th and 2. I was screaming watch the draw or even option, some kind of running play, we needed a spy on the QB in that situation. Blame this loss on the entire coaching staff!! Special teams coaches all the way up to Mike Tomlin. I don't mean to take anything away from the Jaguars, they came into Pittsburgh, twice in 3 weeks and handed us a beating after Pitt got back in the game. Did I mention we were out coached? Jack Del Rio 2 - Mike Tomlin 0...

1-06-2008 @ 2:24PM

Armando said...

I'm a steeler fan and I agree that the team was outcoached, and that the jags did a terrific job winning last month and in the playoff game,but one thing that annoys me and I think that should be reviewed strongly by the league is that"holding rule",it's not that I mean that it went only against the steelers but that it has been called in most of the time inconsistently in all the games in the NFL,and in this game first in the conversion point by the steelers when the center was charged with it and that is a situation that occurs every play,and in the play where Garrard ran to gain 32 yards at the end of the game,it is very clear that first Polamalu was held by the lineman and immediately when he decides to run Harrison was held too by the lineman allowing Garrard to run freely by that spot,I'm not saying that the Jags didn't deserved to win,because the steelers have been playing in a very inconsistent way since a long time ago and those two plays were keys to the result of the game.

1-06-2008 @ 4:20PM

Jim said...

Too funny Jags fans saying the officials tried to give the Steelers the game. what game were you watching. Almost every big play you had was set up by a hold including the long return. One of the Steelers receivers who was already out of bounds was shoved in the back of the head and went flying yet no flag. And you complain about HINES facemask as he was already being held? All day we watched the Steelers , especially Harrison get held and then the officials some how called Mahan for a hold on the two point play. You are incredible. Enjoy your victory but you know it is hollow. Look at your offensive numbers. Just pitiful.

1-06-2008 @ 6:05PM

Rick Vogt said...

It's all message board talk and mostly bull. Easy to sit behind a keyboard and talk tough. Jealously runs rampant....buying SuperBowls and crap like that. It's a short list of teams who have never played in a SuperBowl and I'm gonna guess the Jags will still be on that list when the 2008 season starts. Fans of any team that covers seats to create the illusion the stadium is full should really just be quiet. I applaud you on your win. You deserved to win. Beating the 2007 Pittsburgh Steelers is no great feat. The real test starts next week and like I said before, when next season starts you'll still be one of those teams to have never played in the big game. Get some Prep H for those roids cuz they are gonna be there for a while yet.

Rick said...

I am not a Jag fan I know the Jags are going to lose this week. They barely beat the Steelers and it is obvious thatthe Steelers are not the best team in the league I look for a blow out.