Tomlin: Unwavering or Stubborn?

[tony hipchest]

Originally Posted by tanda10506

We need to at least put Gilbert at LT and Scott at RT so at least Ben can see the guy who is about to hit him and hang on to the ball.

people keep saying this.

would you rather see a loose ball bouncing around on the turf, or bens head?

they wrote a book and made a movie about michael oher, called "blindside".

he still hasnt been able to master the position.

what makes you think a2nd round rookie with absolutely no practice at the position with nfl starters, and who admittedly loafed his way through the 1st coupla weeks of camp, can do better?

[effyou515]

seems like the Steelers start off slow.

here is to a lot of ugly wins this season

[Killer]

Stubborn and arrogant - Tomlin press conference - "Make no mistake, we intend to prepare with the men that we have here," Tomlin said Tuesday. "Those will be the guys that will help us win this football game. Anyone we add will be simply for the purposes of practice or numbers."

[dcsteel5804]

Thanks everyone for the great discussion. It seems that some folks defend J. Scott in the name of "being a good Steelers fan", while others feel like me, he sucks. Again, I'm not taking any personal shots at the guy, I just don't think he's an NFL caliber tackle and has no business starting.

Most people feel like Tomlin is doing the right thing by not publicly addressing the issue and sticking behind the guy that he deemed to be the starter from the beginning of the year. A class move for sure, but somewhat hollow because we all know that he knows how bad the situation is.

Allow me to put a different spin on it: What if all this class is actually hurting the team? I mean, every coach says "We'll put the best 11 on the field". Obviously, J Scott would not be included in that group of 11 on any NFL roster, not even ours, yet he starts. Is Tomlin hurting the team by not trying to improve it in the name of "Having a players back" or "Being a players coach"? My opinion is that if you can improve your chances of winning by putting a better player on the field who's not going to consistently force Ben to look like a drunken buffoon trying to dodge traffic, you should do it. Make no mistakes about it, if Ben goes down, the season is over. He needs more protection and putting a better player on the field should be the teams top priority.

I know left tackles don't go on trees, but in my humble opinion, we may have better players already on our roster (Gilbert, Essex) and potentially better players not signed (Starks, Adams). What do you guys think?

[Killer]

"Marcus Gilbert will be at right tackle. We are comfortable with what he is doing and with Trai Essex lining up on the left side, and what he is capable of doing on the left side of our offensive line. We have played a lot of football with Trai in the past, and he has generally been above the line, and that is what we anticipate him playing."

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pitt...#ixzz1ZFp4stCk

[steelfury02]

I think you have boiled it down nicely

As Steelers fans - we applaud Tomlin for not throwing him under the bus, can give Scott somewhat of a pass because we made it to the show last year and have won twice in a row - BUT

We realize that there is a decent chance that at the current rate Ben's season could be in jeopardy and something needs to be rectified at the blindside.

Now - we can move things around and put Essex in there but I think Ed and Tomlin have told us that "the ship has sailed" on Starks and Adams and we are going to compete with the guys that are already in house.

We need to hope that Scott is going to improve, Essex comes in instead, or we see Miller/Ward staying in more often for extra protection.

As Tomlin has said "This is the bed we made and now we are going to lay in it."

Overall - I don't think as fans we are going to get the perfect situation we want (and that means a complete upgrade at the blindside) so eventually, we gotta hope the Ws keep coming and just roll with it. And yea - if Ben is seriously injured, I'm sure we'll have a season full of P'offed comments and what if this and what if that. Gotta hope the coaching staff gets them ready to meet this challenge and the o-line has some consistency and chance to get some chemistry.

I'll go back to last season - even though we had Pouncey and Adams - our line was pretty dang shakey and got very, very good towards the end (i.e. - ground and pounded the hell out of the Jets in AFC champ game) THAT is where our goal should be. If we can get anywhere near that level we should be in good shape - at least good enough to get some respect for the threat of the run

[tunes4life]

Don't forget gents, Tomlin doesn't have much of a choice. We are out of money for another OL. We couldn't afford Adams or Starks now if we wanted to.

[MoneyMikeWallace]

Why can't they switch Gilbert to LT and Scott to RT? This would at least usually match up Scott with the weaker DE or OLB and give Ben a chance to see the rush coming instead of getting blindsided.

[wera176]

What do you expect him to say to the press? There is little that can be done this week regarding player signings in time for Houston, so he should throw those that has to play under the bus? Say "Yeah, he sucks and we are going to replace him as soon as we can?" That'd be smart and would sure motivate those guys to protect Ben...

We have no idea what, or what not, the FO is working on.

[Steel4ever95]

Originally Posted by steelfury02

I'll go back to last season - even though we had Pouncey and Adams - our line was pretty dang shakey and got very, very good towards the end (i.e. - ground and pounded the hell out of the Jets in AFC champ game) THAT is where our goal should be. If we can get anywhere near that level we should be in good shape - at least good enough to get some respect for the threat of the run

Very very true on last year with the line coming together at the end of the year. Its only been three games and I'm trying hard to hold out hope that the line will pan out. I'm hoping they step up quick though that way Ben has time to at least find his first option in a passing play. Does Scott deserve another chance, probably cause Freeney is a monster to contain, and if the line is to develop any consistency they do not need the LT spot to be a revolving door. I really hope the line in general start to gel by the time Ravens come to town, or else it could be a very long day for Ben.