A tale of two coaches

[MHS831]

Tomlin and Rivera are both "player's coaches".  They both like to pound it in the ground game.  They both have a big, strong-armed QB.  They both have a few issues on defense.  They both had 3 days to prepare for each other.  The teams were pretty even going in, but the Steelers had a tough game on Sunday vs.  the Ravens, while the Panthers struggled to hang onto a 35-7 lead (that dwindled to 35-28 in the fourth quarter) at home vs. the lowly Buccaneers.  We could have rested a few players in the second half vs Tampa on a short week,  but not in the RR era.

Tomlin and the Steelers got up on us early, and never let up--they went for the throat. I saw a composed team who took the lead and buried us.  Why can't the Panthers do that against lesser teams than Carolina?  Why, for years, have we never been able to effectively hold a lead? Sure, we win a lot of close games, but many were blowouts until late.  Why can't we put teams away like Pittsburgh did to us?

The difference between a leader and a pretender is hard to define, but it is a thing.  I think Tomlin smells blood in the water and attacks, while we see the lead and gulp over losing it.  The Steelers were aggressive and hungry with the lead---I thought,, "Man, why do we not do that?"  Meanwhile, on the other side of the field from Tomlin, RR is throwing the red flag in the second quarter to challenge a bad spot on first down because he saw a bad spot on the JumboTron.  Can y'all not see the difference? 

Here, our talented players get the lead, and then the coaches get involved to preserve it. They start working the clock, calling conservative plays, and other things that break momentum and abort the pace and strategy that got the lead.  How that happens is a reflection on the coach. I speak of a pattern, one that was obvious to me last night when I saw a real coach get a lead who knew what to do with it.

 

[panthersphan]

They put in Dobbs in the 4th.....

[Wolfpack352]

Simple really......Point to Ron Rivera.  He plays scared and soft, not to lose when we get a lead.  Said it before....play every dang quarter as if you are behind.  But......doesn't matter if the D craps the bed. 

[Wolfpack352]

1 minute ago, panthersphan said:

They put in Dobbs in the 4th.....

Have the Panthers put in their backup QB this season?  Previous seasons?  I feel like we could have a couple times if we simply twisted the dagger instead pulling it out. 

[KillaCamNewton]

Ive never been that high on Tomlin but he deserves a lot of credit. Our team would be a trainwreck if our best player was playing the games Bell was playing

[KSpan]

16 minutes ago, KillaCamNewton said:

Ive never been that high on Tomlin but he deserves a lot of credit. Our team would be a trainwreck if our best player was playing the games Bell was playing

Why? Bell didn't show up, which definitely was significant, but after that who cares? They answer a few questions about it but it's not like Bell's there messing up practices or something. I'm not a huge fan of Rivera the coach but he's navigated the team through plenty of significant 'disctractions.' I think what went down with JR and Gettleman were just as significant as Bell, moreso in the case of JR, and the team wasn't a trainwreck.

I also don't agree that Bell is their best player, and even if he is he's apparently not important enough to keep the team from winning.

[TheCasillas]

 

1 hour ago, MHS831 said:

The difference between a leader and a pretender is hard to define, but it is a thing.  I think Tomlin smells blood in the water and attacks, while we see the lead and gulp over losing it.  The Steelers were aggressive and hungry with the lead---I thought,, "Man, why do we not do that?"  Meanwhile, on the other side of the field from Tomlin, RR is throwing the red flag in the second quarter to challenge a bad spot on first down because he saw a bad spot on the JumboTron.  Can y'all not see the difference? 

You must not watch many Steelers games if you think this was a blood in the water situation. Also, Im sure if we were playing against a team and averaging 10+ per play and throw only 3 incompletions, we would have done the same thing. Dolphins last year maybe?

Btw Tomlin is not the coach you are portraying him to be. He does not have that locker room under control, they just have a hell of a lot of talent, and a QB that procures that offense. The only difference I saw last night was one DC with an awesome gameplan, and another playing Russian roulette with his PB. 

[Jesse]

The crazy thing is about Tomlin & Pittsburgh is that their fans call for his job every other week. The grass is always greener, huh.

[Professor Chaos]

Lol Rivera being conservative had nothing to do with last night. They straight up reamed our defense and there was nothing we could do to stop them.

[Lumps]

All great coaches now days that understand the way the league and it's rules and design are headed do this.

Patriots

Steelers

Eagles

Saints

Hell even the Chiefs and Bengals aren't going to let up and will play with urgency.

And teams who do this, are winning now days. Coaches who aren't may win but won't be consistent.

[Lumps]

I've said it over and over, the way the Panthers have been investing in offense is as if they understand what I posted above, but refuse to consistently game plan around letting the offense take over and win games. Having the defense play they way they do as if they'll win a game for instance. All the teams above will score 30+ points most of the time. I am not sure Rivera is the coach the personnel and direction the NFL is going.

That said, even while I believe the Panthers should be shifting to the offense winning games for us, there is no excuse for the defense giving up that many points last night.

[RumHam]

Actually, with a travel day, we probably only get two days.

[JARROD]

Tale of 2 depth charts,..

the steelers have 3 times as many legit starters as we do and 75% of their depth players would be starters for the Panthers,...

so they could rotate fresh constantly for the weekend game and this game without missing a beat.

remember when they showed down a little later in the first half? Backup tightends, fullbacks and running back rotations?

our team has to play every best guy every down to have a chance— we have no backup players.

CJ sitting is criminal but CMac is just that good. Even he should be able to sit some— and obviously he got throttled trying to block like he’s Stewart or something—

depth gents,.. we have none and that’s why our team looked so outclassed.

[Jon Snow]

17 minutes ago, JARROD said:

Tale of 2 depth charts,..

the steelers have 3 times as many legit starters as we do and 75% of their depth players would be starters for the Panthers,...

so they could rotate fresh constantly for the weekend game and this game without missing a beat.

remember when they showed down a little later in the first half? Backup tightends, fullbacks and running back rotations?

our team has to play every best guy every down to have a chance— we have no backup players.

CJ sitting is criminal but CMac is just that good. Even he should be able to sit some— and obviously he got throttled trying to block like he’s Stewart or something—

depth gents,.. we have none and that’s why our team looked so outclassed.

Typical Hurney built team.  He can find a few good starters but he has never in his life been able to build adequate depth.  

#GetARealGM