Rope-A-Dope Game

Sox-n-Hawks

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Does anyone think the Cincy game was a Rope-a-dope? Vanilla playcalling, almost at a warm up pace, not much ground and pound etc. It's almost as if PC wanted the Steelers to be overconfident coming into this... with the media backing that philosophy. This reminds me of the 2012 season when we barely eaked out a win against the failing Carolina Panthers just to play our best football of the season the next weekend and beat a strong Patriots team the next weekend.
 

sutz

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I think Pete does this every September. :229031_shrug:

In many ways, he thinks of September as just an extension of the pre-season.
 

Vesuve

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Sox-n-Hawks":3e6jccpg said:
Does anyone think the Cincy game was a Rope-a-dope? Vanilla playcalling, almost at a warm up pace, not much ground and pound etc. It's almost as if PC wanted the Steelers to be overconfident coming into this... with the media backing that philosophy. This reminds me of the 2012 season when we barely eaked out a win against the failing Carolina Panthers just to play our best football of the season the next weekend and beat a strong Patriots team the next weekend.

IMO,

The game is too complex.

We could have lost.

You play for NOW when you're on the field.

The "rope-a-dope" comment Is just more Pete.
 

olyfan63

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I see why you would think that about the Cincy game, but I think it has more to do with just getting everyone playing as a team, playing the way Pete wants his team to play, and seeing what players step up. Pete is willing to take an L or two early in the season to stay the course and get the team playing his brand of football, so that by the end of the season, the team is in the groove.

Yes, it was hard to watch at times, but in the end the 'Hawks came through. Now we can see the week-to-week progress with the improvements made vs Pittsburgh. Schotty is getting warmed up too, making mid-game adjustments, finally, to counter what an opponent is doing that causes us problems.
 

chris98251

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olyfan63":1jwbn150 said:
I see why you would think that about the Cincy game, but I think it has more to do with just getting everyone playing as a team, playing the way Pete wants his team to play, and seeing what players step up. Pete is willing to take an L or two early in the season to stay the course and get the team playing his brand of football, so that by the end of the season, the team is in the groove.

Yes, it was hard to watch at times, but in the end the 'Hawks came through. Now we can see the week-to-week progress with the improvements made vs Pittsburgh. Schotty is getting warmed up too, making mid-game adjustments, finally, to counter what an opponent is doing that causes us problems.


I think last year Schotty was following Pete's desires for the game plan to the letter and he and Russell were still feeling each other out.

Now I think Pete has given a bit more rope and trust and Schotty knows Russell's strengths and understands what he does well and worked with him to improve things he wasn't as good at.

So were seeing adjustments and trust present itself on the filed with changes and play adjustments faster and being done.

I think it will open up even more by seasons end.
 

mort

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olyfan63":26lvibpm said:
... I think it has more to do with just getting everyone playing as a team, playing the way Pete wants his team to play...

I think the coaching staff also reinforce the “you can’t win in the 1,2,3rd” mantra in the play calls quite deliberately.


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I think it was meant as we know our strenghts and weekness but we are reluctant to show you everything we got.
 
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Sox-n-Hawks

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Chawker":3l12wpf6 said:
I think it was meant as we know our strenghts and weekness but we are reluctant to show you everything we got.


Exactly
 

Chawker

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The original rope a dope came for the Ali Forman fight. Ali laid on the ropes and let George punch him until he was gased, then Ali knocked him out in like the eight round. Africa ? Ali boom by yah. SP which means Ali kill him.
 

xray

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There is no mystery plan...they are just grinding it out close wins .
 

SoulfishHawk

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Well, they flat out dominated this game. Were it not for two fumbles literally handing them 14 points, the game isn't close. They FINALLY made some really good adjustments to the game plan to counter with the defense was doing. Switching to the quick passing game was huge in this game. And Russ was flat out Nails yesterday, not sure why people still think he can't pass from the pocket and/or run a quick passing offense. Oh well, all a matter of opinion.
But, 25-17 on First downs. 426 to 261 on Yardage, to go along with almost 12 more minutes of time of possession. That's domination in my book. What a huge win, especially considering how many people were assuming we would lose. I actually had this as one of our few losses, very glad to be wrong. But like many of us said, that team could be knocked off, even on their own turf.
 

seahawkfreak

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Chawker":26nayfgd said:
The original rope a dope came for the Ali Forman fight. Ali laid on the ropes and let George punch him until he was gased, then Ali knocked him out in like the eight round. Africa ? Ali boom by yah. SP which means Ali kill him.

Rope a dope is a disingenuous term. Forman absolutely punched the hell out of Ali. No way that was a planned strategy. Credit Ali's jaw and an exceptional body and conditioning. Foreman got gassed afterwards which allowed Ali to start dodging punches (many by shear luck). Ali was one or two solid head shots from being knocked out.

So if we compare our team to this type of rope a dope, then I buy in.
 

olyfan63

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Interesting analysis, seahawkfreak. I recall at the time, as a kid, 6th grade or so, I could not believe the result, must have been fixed. I'll watch it again sometime and try out your take.
 

Sports Hernia

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mort":2e6ta3td said:
olyfan63":2e6ta3td said:
... I think it has more to do with just getting everyone playing as a team, playing the way Pete wants his team to play...

I think the coaching staff also reinforce the “you can’t win in the 1,2,3rd” mantra in the play calls quite deliberately.


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I’ve grown to really HATE that saying. It’s grown to be an excuse for poor game planning and poor play calling in the 1st and 2nd quarters IMHO.
 

chris98251

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Seen that fight and Foreman was a Monster of a man with a whole different mentality the he has as George Foreman the Pitch Man. He wanted to hurt people. He if memory serves never went beyond three rounds with anyone, he knocked them out by then.

He has the reach on Ali and height, Ali was never going to punch him out and knew it. Why the rope a dope, let his arms get tired and legs heavy and see if he could go a long fight. Ali's arms were so bruised and aching he could not lift them hardly for days after the fight.

Also Ali came up with that without telling his corner he was going to do it till he did it, Foreman lost all composure and you can see him just trying to use everything to hit Ali brute force no boxing technique at all in many instances, he was frustrated to a whole different level.
 

SoulfishHawk

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2-0, it's working......whatever you wanna call it. I call it winning both games, regardless how it looked.
 

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