Commentary
Accept the Steelers’ loss without assigning blame PITTSBURGH – It used to be that the one indisputable truth with the Steelers was that the Rooneys were cheap.
Then they handed out millions of dollars in signing bonuses and that one was quieted.
The replacement is Bill Cowher Can’t Win the Big One.
What’s interesting about this is in Cowher’s 11 seasons, the Steelers have lost at every level of the playoffs – wild card, second round, AFC Championship game and Super Bowl.
That means, obviously, that the definition of “big one” is flexible.
It has been 23 years since the Steelers won a Super Bowl, which means if you’re 25, you have about as much first-hand knowledge of their being the best team as you do of World War II, JFK, Watergate and all the other stuff that’s consigned to the history books.
Steelers’ fans got spoiled. Four years into his tenure, Chuck Noll had taken a team that had won just one game and made into a playoff qualifier – back when fewer teams got into the playoffs.
After six years on the job, Noll was leading the Steelers to their first Super Bowl championship. In his 11th season, Noll picked up his fourth Super Bowl ring.
In some ways, it’s become easier to have success in the NFL. More teams make the playoffs and we’ve seen that a wild card seed is no impediment to a Super Bowl season.
The economic system is the most equitable in sports.
A salary cap and reverse order in a fruitful draft system make a worst-to-first scenario possible.
In other ways, it’s more difficult. Parity has reduced the number of “easy” games.
Until this year’s realignment, a first-place finish resulted in a tougher schedule.
That said, this was not a successful season for the Steelers because they fell short of expectations and didn’t even get as far as they did last year.
They returned virtually the entire team and made reaching the Super Bowl their goal.
They fell two steps short, unlike last year when they self-destructed in the Conference championship game against New England.
It was a significant season, though.
Along the way, they switched quarterbacks and became a team that passes first and runs later.
But what of Cowher? He put the blame on himself at his last news gathering of the season on Tuesday afternoon.
Some of it his responsibility.
Early in the season, it looked as though the Steelers were still challenged to make in-game adjustments. By the end of the year, though, it was obvious Cowher had overrated the talent in his secondary, which was why the defense could get shredded by Cleveland’s Kelly Holcombe.
Kevin Colbert handles personnel for the Steelers but Cowher asked for and got significant input.
He has to take some of the blame for the failure of the defensive backs because he wanted them.
The defense struggled all season, consistently failing to stop teams on third down, even when there was a significant amount of yardage to make.
Whether it’s personnel or schemes, the buck stops with Cowher, who has traditionally paid more attention to matters on the defensive side of the ball, which means only that Cowher has work to do rather than suggesting the Steelers should find someone else to coach the team.
Making a change would be the ultimate risk for the Steelers, who have had exactly two head coaches in the last 34 years and don’t like to change unless they absolutely have to.
The Rooneys showed that when they stuck with Cowher during his in-house battle with Tom Donahoe.
There were a lot of factors that went into the decision to force Donahoe to resign but the overriding factor was their realization that it was easier to find a new personnel man than it was to find a new head coach.
True, Cowher hasn’t won the big one.
But starting over might leave them with a guy who can’t even get to the big one.
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No, the NFL doesn’t need to change its overtime format, its postseason bye week policy or its enforcement of running into the kicker.
None of those things would have been issues if the Steelers had found a way to beat the Tennessee Titans last Saturday.
Accept the loss and resolve to get better instead of whining about anything and everything.
John Mehno can be reached online at: johnmehno@lycos.com