Penalties and Pass Rush

[GoFor7]

Tomlin is a good coach, but ever since he took over the Steelers have seemingly become more and more undisciplined each year. There are times he needs to stop being buddy-buddy with the players and kick ass when they take these stupid-ass penalties.

There was a fear factor when Cowher was coach when the players ****ed up. There needs to be one with Tomlin.

[OX1947]

Originally Posted by GoFor7

Tomlin is a good coach, but ever since he took over the Steelers have seemingly become more and more undisciplined each year. There are times he needs to stop being buddy-buddy with the players and kick ass when they take these stupid-ass penalties.

There was a fear factor when Cowher was coach when the players ****ed up. There needs to be one with Tomlin.

Yah, the Steelers were also allowed to tackle players when Cowher was coaching. Now, you have to let them catch it, let them come down, wait for them to face north, then wrap your hands around their waste otherwise you will be called for headhunting even though you hit them in the chest or shoulder. By the way, you have to do all this within 0.1 seconds. **** the NFL, honestly, if it werent for the steelers, i would have turned in off two years ago.

[GoFor7]

Originally Posted by OX1947

Yah, the Steelers were also allowed to tackle players when Cowher was coaching. Now, you have to let them catch it, let them come down, wait for them to face north, then wrap your hands around their waste otherwise you will be called for headhunting even though you hit them in the chest or shoulder. By the way, you have to do all this within 0.1 seconds. **** the NFL, honestly, if it werent for the steelers, i would have turned in off two years ago.

Only two of the penalties in the Eagles game were personal fouls if I remember. It goes way beyond any rule changes Goodell has enacted. Need to take off the black and gold glasses on this one. The Steelers are becoming more and more undisciplined.

[tony hipchest]

cowher never had to deal with a commish that had a hard on for the team.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...o-helmet-hits/

Art Rooney breaks ranks on helmet-to-helmet hits

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on October 22, 2010, 6:50 AM EDT


It’s one thing for current and former players to complain about the league’s new focus on eliminating, as to defenseless receivers, the use of the helmet and/or the striking of the head and neck.

It’s another thing for coaches like Mike Tomlin to join in the parade of voices claiming that hits the NFL has deemed to be illegal aren’t really illegal.

The dynamic moves to a new level when an owner speaks out regarding the situation, especially when the owner’s last name rhymes with “Mooney.”

According to Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Steelers president Art Rooney II has declared his support for linebacker James Harrison.


“I think the play was a legal hit,” Rooney said. “It’s on the borderline, though.”

Rooney explained that he’s not sure whether the hit against Browns receiver Mohamed Massaquoi was an illegal launch or a legal lunge.

“James’
play, I think, was a football play,” Rooney said. “I understand the
part about not launching yourself. I think that’s the part that was on
the borderline. I mean, did he lunge at the guy to make the tackle or
did he launch himself?”

This argument, while valid, overlooks that the fine was imposed not just for launching at a player who has made a catch but has not yet had time to protect himself, but for violating “Rule 12, Section 2, Article 8 (g) of the NFL
Official Playing Rules, which states that it is unnecessary roughness if
the initial force of the contact by a defender’s helmet, forearm, or
shoulder is to the head or neck area of a defenseless receiver who is
catching or attempting to catch a pass.”



Rooney also echoed the notion that the fine against Harrison was part of the broader reaction to a 15-minute slice of real time on Sunday afternoon when multiple hits to the head occurred in games throughout the country. “If
you look at the plays last weekend, there was only one play . . . that
was flagrant; and yet when the fine comes out, our guy gets the biggest
fine,” Harrison said.

Yes, but Rooney fails to mention the fact that Harrison’s extra $25,000 came not from the hit on Massaqoui per se, but from the fact that it was Harrison’s second unnecessary roughness fine of the year.




“My
concern going forward is how is this discipline going to be handled,
and are they going to try to draw a distinction as far as suspensions
between something that is flagrant and something that’s just a fine. I
hope that is the direction we’re going in, but I don’t know,” Rooney said.


“I’m
supportive in general trying to take the [illegal helmet-to-helmet] hits out of the game if we
can,” Mr. Rooney said. “But I’d hope we don’t overreact and we try to
draw distinctions between what’s flagrant and what isn’t flagrant.”


It’s a fair point, but surely it’s one that Commissioner Roger Goodell would have preferred that Rooney had handled with the same discretion that the league office applied to the Rooney family’s circumvention of the rules regarding simultaneous ownership of an NFL franchise and gambling interests that beyond the league’s narrow gambling exemptions. In that case, the league office worked quietly and patiently behind the scenes with the Rooneys, giving them all the time they needed to fix the problem — and frustrating officials from other teams who wondered whether their owners would have received similar consideration. In the end, the special consideration included the league treating Rooney and his father, Dan, as one person under the league’s clear requirement that only one person own 30 percent of each team.

It’ll be interesting to see whether the league office has anything to say about Rooney’s remarks. In October 2006, only two months after Goodell was appointed to his current position with strong support of Dan Rooney, Goodell fined Dan Rooney $25,000 for criticizing game officials after Pittsburgh’s overtime loss to the Falcons.

Ironically, that game also featured a helmet-to-helmet hit against Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, which knocked him out of the game with a concussion. No fine was imposed against Falcons defensive end Chauncey Davis.
In this case, Art Rooney arguably had no choice but to speak out in support of Harrison and coach Mike Tomlin. Still, at a time when player confusion has been exacerbated by a head coach who refuses to accept the fact that Harrison’s hit was beyond the boundaries of the rules, a public acknowledgment of that same fact by Art Rooney will serve only to make the players feel even more like they’ve just taken a succession of helmet-to-helmet hits of their own.

[GoFor7]

You guys do realize I'm not just talking about helmet-to-helmet hits, right? Yes, you can certainly make valid arguments that Goodell has been horribly inconsistent and that Ben doesn't always get the same protection as other QBs. In this case though, that is besides the point. There are plenty of other penalties that the Steelers are being flagged for that show the team lacks discipline. That's on Tomlin to correct. He needs to make the players fear him for taking these stupid penalties.

[cubanstogie]

Ike's penalties have been frustrating me. I know the corner position is tough and Ike is covering the best receivers but he could have been flagged for many more than he has got this year. Ryan Clark is the only thing holding the secondary together right now.

[Hawaii 5-0]

On the Steelers: Penalties on Tomlin's list of corrective measures

But Harrison's knack for drawing fines/suspension seems to have made LB vigilant

October 9, 2012
By Ed Bouchette / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Steelers coach Mike Tomlin will go to work to prevent the pile of undisciplined penalties his team has been committing, but there's apparently one player he won't have to worry about.

Pro Bowl linebacker James Harrison became the most notorious player in the league for piling up fines and penalties for personal fouls to the extent the NFL suspended him for one game last season.

Sunday, Harrison returned to play for the first time in 2012, and Tomlin praised him for his work that included a team-high three quarterback pressures. But on his best shot at sacking Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick, Harrison pulled up and let him throw. He explained why, that all those penalties and fines came to roost right then and there.

"I was nervous," Harrison said of that second-quarter play, which resulted in a deep incomplete pass. "I thought he might duck his head, I might hit him. I can't take [a] fine. I was worried more about a fine.

"It's Michael Vick; he goes shake and bake. You have to sit there and wait almost just to see what he's going to do. Because if he at the last second drops his head and ducks down and we make helmet-to-helmet contact, it's the fault of the defender."

Dear NFL commissioner Roger Goodell: James Harrison got the memo. Many of his teammates apparently did not. Two of them drew personal fouls on a Philadelphia touchdown drive.

Ryan Clark was called for roughing when he slammed helmet-to-helmet into tight end Brent Celek, who was in the process of being tackled by two Steelers. Although no one heard a whistle, the officials dropped the flag on Clark.

Five plays later, Ryan Mundy rocketed high into wide receiver Jeremy Maclin and another flag dropped. Mundy was penalized for a helmet-to-helmet hit even though replays showed it was shoulder-to-shoulder.

Both players thought they were unfairly penalized. Tomlin did not want to talk about either. He is a spokesman for the UPMC-Steelers campaign to educate football players dubbed "Don't Hit The Head, Don't Use The Head."

"We're not going to dispute calls," Tomlin said Monday. "Those [officials] are doing the best they can, particularly in light of some of the instances that we have in today's NFL regarding player safety. Just know that we're trying our very best to play within the rules and it's disappointing for us when we don't.

"We have a desire to play within the rules. We also have a desire to increase our chances of winning and when you're picking up 30 yards in penalties in one drive, that's going to give people an opportunity to score. Obviously, we're trying to rectify those things. I'm less concerned about judgments and interpretations and so forth and I'm more concerned about playing in the manner that the flags stay in the pocket."

There were plenty of those that left the pocket Sunday. The Steelers were charged with nine penalties for 106 yards, which ballooned their total to 37 penalties in four games. Their 346 penalty yards outgain their 331 rushing yards. They are tied for fourth in the NFL for most penalties and tied for fifth in yards.

"What needs to disappear and it didn't disappear [Sunday] are some of the presnap penalties, illegal formations and false starts," Tomlin said Monday. "Those are self-inflicted wounds. We won't tolerate that. We cannot tolerate that. It's my job to get them fixed. We will work on it this week.

"Penalties hurt you in a lot of ways. They put you behind the chains. They eliminate explosion plays and limit field position. They minimize scoring opportunities."

Ruled out

Troy Polamalu and, it appears, LaMarr Woodley will not play Thursday night in Nashville against the Tennessee Titans. Each left the game at the end of the first quarter Sunday with injuries. Polamalu has a severe calf injury and Woodley a mild hamstring injury.

Tomlin said Mundy will replace Polamalu again "but we're also willing to look at Will Allen some as well."

He said James Harrison and Rashard Mendenhall came through the game "relatively fine," although Harrison's "knee had a little swelling but nothing major."

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/...#ixzz28qZioiIa

[tony hipchest]

hmmmm....

one day the steelers woke up and suddenly got extra sloppy?

or one day roger goodell woke up and told the refs (and especially replacement refs) to keep REALLY close eye on certain teams who have drawn his ire.

i know which theory holds more credence with me.

[maddog78]

That was a sloppy performance coming off of a bye week, no doubt. I'll take the win, but some things need to be cleaned up.

Let's get that first road win on Thursday and get ready for divisional football.

Long way to go. Rather be 4-0 than 2-2, but 2-2 isn't a death sentence in the age of parity.

[GoFor7]

Originally Posted by tony hipchest

hmmmm....

one day the steelers woke up and suddenly got extra sloppy?

or one day roger goodell woke up and told the refs (and especially replacement refs) to keep REALLY close eye on certain teams who have drawn his ire.

i know which theory holds more credence with me.

That's the thing, it hasn't happened over night. It has been a trend for the past five or six seasons.

Who's fault is it that Colon holds? Who's fault is it that Golden runs down the field out of bounds during a punt return? Who's fault is it that AB false starts? Who's fault is it that Wallace lined up in an illegal formation?

Ryan Clark even admitted later on that he was wrong for hitting Celek late on that play he got flagged for. Goodell is inconsistent, but these penalties are mostly self-inflicted by the Steelers themselves.