murra Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 The Stillers were absolutely loaded with talent for nearly every minute of Cowher's career. When he took over their roster consisted of some of the following players: Dermontti Dawson John Jackson Eric Green Barry Foster Tunch Ilkin Merril Hoge Rod Woodson Greg Lloyd Yancy Thigpen Levon Kirkland Carnell Lake Leon Searcy Darren Perry Hardy Nickerson Tom Donohoe continued adding talented players like Jerome Bettis, Kevin Greene, Alan Faneca, Joel Steed, Hines Ward, Jeff Hartings, James Harrison, etc etc etc ad infinitum. And after 14 more years of his regular Sunday afternoon asshattery, Cowher finally got to put on Dick LeBeau's ring. James Harrison was not drafted by Donahoe (who left the team following the 1999 season), and did not contribute during the superbowl year at all. It probably furthers your point actually, that Cowher had such a tremendous talent but had no clue. He was never a full time starter until the '07 season. Aside from that, pretty solid point. The major difficulty with the theory that coach x won due to awesome talent, is that many teams are talented year-in and year-out. Norv Turner is a prime example of a coach who's team is incredibly talented on both sides of the ball, yet he clearly isn't this tremendous coach. I think you're right in that LeBeau's defense won Pittsburgh its superbowls, but its not as concrete an argument as you make it. Cowher had to have done something to get his talented players to play hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Vader Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 Cowher's biggest problem: Believing that Kordell Stewart could be a franchise QB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benderbender Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 Just sayin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ganesh Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 Tomlin has as many SuperBowl victories as Cowher. AND in a lot less time.... Just saying.... Tomlin also inherited the #1 defense in the NFL and a super bowl winning team from Cowher....Just repeating..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ganesh Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 Sorry, but the core of the Championship team is still there. You say it was Cowher's team. Well Cowher still only won 1 Superbowl with his team in a lot more seasons..... All that list is not important......They are missing their BEST PLAYER on defense.....In NFL winning and losing is a very thin line...A great player like Polamalu can hide the issues and put you over the hill. The Steelers have a similar OL mess as ours....But Big Ben makes plays....That concussion and accusation by his teammates is taking its toll...Plus they have not been able to Run the Damn ball......Rings a bell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuckincincy Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 I read the articles in the Pgh. Post-Gazette's site this morning. They weren't crying into their terrible towelettes - they were ripping the Stillers a new one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Vader Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 This year the defending NFL Champion Steelers have victories over the Chargers & Vikings, and they have lost to the Bears, Browns, Chiefs & Raiders. Are you still sure that parity is dead in the NFL? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCbillsfan Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 This just goes to show you how fleeting and fragile the recipe to winning in the NFL actually is...Wow did this team fall off.... The difference though is how good teams rebound from bad seasons and draft well following a bad season. Something the Bills need to figure out for a change. Every team has busts in the draft but the Steelers have drafted far better than most teams in recent years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apuszczalowski Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 But Tomlin really just inherited Cowher's team. Didn't a lot of the core players and key staff came in under Cowher? Didn't Cowhers Offence and defence co-ordinators leave too that year? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prissythecat Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Didn't Cowhers Offence and defence co-ordinators leave too that year? Lebeau has been DC for Pittsburgh since 2004 (in addition to his stint in the mid 90s) so he was there with Cowher... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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