RIP Chuck Noll

[3_Octave_Fart]

Do you remember people who impeded your career path, even after you feel you made it?
Bradshaw didn't care for his boss.
That's not an unusual thing.

 

[da man]

Well, I mean look at his coaching peers from the 1970s.
Landry was practically deified despite winning less than Noll and being beaten by his teams. Hailed as innovator and skilled tactician.
Madden is more famous than Noll was, for obvious reasons.
Shula is considered on the short list of the greatest coaches of all time.
Nobody was really throwing around genius dust in association with Noll, as numerous lesser coaches have gotten.

In that way, perhaps having so many HOF players on the roster worked against him, sort of the old "well, anybody could win with that team" line.

Now, who would ever say something like that about a multiple-Super Bowl-winning coach?

 

[nmmetsfan]

Well, I mean look at his coaching peers from the 1970s.
Landry was practically deified despite winning less than Noll and being beaten by his teams. Hailed as innovator and skilled tactician.
Madden is more famous than Noll was, for obvious reasons.
Shula is considered on the short list of the greatest coaches of all time.
Nobody was really throwing around genius dust in association with Noll, as numerous lesser coaches have gotten.

In that way, perhaps having so many HOF players on the roster worked against him, sort of the old "well, anybody could win with that team" line.

Now, who would ever say something like that about a multiple-Super Bowl-winning coach?

And he was right.

 

[da man]

Well, I mean look at his coaching peers from the 1970s.
Landry was practically deified despite winning less than Noll and being beaten by his teams. Hailed as innovator and skilled tactician.
Madden is more famous than Noll was, for obvious reasons.
Shula is considered on the short list of the greatest coaches of all time.
Nobody was really throwing around genius dust in association with Noll, as numerous lesser coaches have gotten.

In that way, perhaps having so many HOF players on the roster worked against him, sort of the old "well, anybody could win with that team" line.

Now, who would ever say something like that about a multiple-Super Bowl-winning coach?

And he was right.

But he couldn't replace the guy who put that team together.

 

[Drip]

RIP

 

[Steak Snabler]

Shula's the most overrated coach of all-time, at least in the big games. In the second half of six Super Bowls (2 with Baltimore, 4 with Miami), his teams scored a total of one offensive touchdown (and that counts the games they won).

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

Don't agree at all.
Shula won in several kinds of ways.
Won with offense, won with defense, won with high-octane offense, won with a punishing ground attack.
The mark of a coach who can adapt to his personnel.

 

[joe king]

Shula took a team to the Super Bowl with David Woodley as his quarterback. If that isn't enough to prove his greatness, I don't know what is.

 

[jr/shotglass]

What's that make Brian Billick?

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

Billick was a great organizer and motivator for that team. I don't think that was ever in question.
But it's hard to say that a team with one of the greatest defenses in the history of the league necessarily stretched its talent.
Some of Shula's teams did.

 

[jr/shotglass]

That is true. And probably a better defense than Shula had to work with alongside Woodley.

But ... Trent Dilfer ...

 

[cyclingwriter2]

Pretty sure Bradshaw skipped Rooney's funeral as well.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Shula took a team to the Super Bowl with David Woodley as his quarterback. If that isn't enough to prove his greatness, I don't know what is.

And Noll took Woodley, a year older, and got that team to the AFC Championship game... Just sayin'.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

That was Mark Malone, who was even worse than Woodley.

 

[outofplace]

That was Mark Malone, who was even worse than Woodley.

Actually, it was both, though Malone started more games, including both playoff contests. Woodley started seven games that season, including the first five. Neither was particularly good even though the team ran the ball pretty well and had good receivers.

That team was pretty solid all the way around, but they couldn't find a quarterback and the secondary just had no answers for Dan Marino, who lit them up in the AFC Championship game.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

Actually, it wasn't both.
A guy benched at mid-season does not lead his team to the conference title game.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

That was Mark Malone, who was even worse than Woodley.

Actually, it was both, though Malone started more games, including both playoff contests. Woodley started seven games that season, including the first five. Neither was particularly good even though the team ran the ball pretty well and had good receivers.

That team was pretty solid all the way around, but they couldn't find a quarterback and the secondary just had no answers for Dan Marino, who lit them up in the AFC Championship game.

I recall the pre-game for that one Pete Axthlem picked it Miami 48-0. I miffed but hardly incensed. Even at the ripe age of 12 I knew the Steelers had NO chance against the Dolphins.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Actually, it wasn't both.
A guy benched at mid-season does not lead his team to the conference title game.

Who said ANYTHING about Woodley - or Malone - leading the team to the conference title game? The Steelers got there in spite of the QB play - of Woodley and Malone.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

Actually, it wasn't both.
A guy benched at mid-season does not lead his team to the conference title game.

Who said ANYTHING about Woodley - or Malone - leading the team to the conference title game? The Steelers got there in spite of the QB play - of Woodley and Malone.

Malone was decent down the stretch for that team and in the post-season.
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/MaloMa00/gamelog/1984/
You don't win in Mile High in that era by hiding your quarterback.
We're splitting hairs here.

 

[outofplace]

Actually, it wasn't both.
A guy benched at mid-season does not lead his team to the conference title game.

Who said ANYTHING about Woodley - or Malone - leading the team to the conference title game? The Steelers got there in spite of the QB play - of Woodley and Malone.

Malone was decent down the stretch for that team and in the post-season.
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/MaloMa00/gamelog/1984/
You don't win in Mile High in that era by hiding your quarterback.
We're splitting hairs here.

They ran for 169 yards in that victory in Mile High. Frank Pollard ran for 99 yards and two scores and caught four passes for 48 more.

Woodley and Malone took turns wasting a pretty good group of receivers all season.