People can blame the refs...and try to discredit teams that win...but mental toughness and playmaking win in the playoffs.

Take for instance the KC/Pittsburgh game - The Chiefs best player Kelce has a ball go right through his hands on a deep throw. He also melts down and has the 15 yard personal foul for shoving a Steelers player. Meanwhile, the Steelers aren't scoring TD's and kicking FG's and their defense keeps playing great. They could have missed FG's and folded and went into a funk, but they kept playing.

Green Bay had an injury to their best WR...and so far won 2 playoff games. They have a WR playing RB!!! And they're still winning. That's mental toughness. They have excuses to lose, yet they keep playing hard and win. They convert 1st downs when they need to. They also don't go into a shell and try to advance the ball. Yeah...they could have just took a knee and went to OT, but instead they went for the win with 34 seconds left. The Bengals likely take a knee and go to OT.

New England...mentally tough. Virtually mistake free. The Texans hung with the Patriots in the 1st half. What do the Patriots do? They come out in the 2nd half and absolutely demolish Houston.

So many of our playoff appearances have been marred by mental errors. The Dalton interception to Watt that I believe was returned for a TD. Dropped passes. Fumbles. Penalties at inopportune times. Dropped passes. Plays that show the stage is too big for our guys.

So many other examples are out there of the mentally tougher team winning...we need to draft mentally tough players.

(01-17-2017, 01:22 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: So many other examples are out there of the mentally tougher team winning...we need to draft mentally tough players.

That's great -- but when mentally tough players are coached by the mentally weak, it results in weakness. Marvin Lewis could sign the toughest member of the US Special Forces to play in Cincinnati and inside of six months that guy will be joining book clubs, taking women's studies courses online, drinking weak latte, and discussing his suppressed feelings with Dr. Phil.

(01-17-2017, 01:22 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: People can blame the refs...and try to discredit teams that win...but mental toughness and playmaking win in the playoffs.

Take for instance the KC/Pittsburgh game - The Chiefs best player Kelce has a ball go right through his hands on a deep throw. He also melts down and has the 15 yard personal foul for shoving a Steelers player. Meanwhile, the Steelers aren't scoring TD's and kicking FG's and their defense keeps playing great. They could have missed FG's and folded and went into a funk, but they kept playing.

Green Bay had an injury to their best WR...and so far won 2 playoff games. They have a WR playing RB!!! And they're still winning. That's mental toughness. They have excuses to lose, yet they keep playing hard and win. They convert 1st downs when they need to. They also don't go into a shell and try to advance the ball. Yeah...they could have just took a knee and went to OT, but instead they went for the win with 34 seconds left. The Bengals likely take a knee and go to OT.

New England...mentally tough. Virtually mistake free. The Texans hung with the Patriots in the 1st half. What do the Patriots do? They come out in the 2nd half and absolutely demolish Houston.

So many of our playoff appearances have been marred by mental errors. The Dalton interception to Watt that I believe was returned for a TD. Dropped passes. Fumbles. Penalties at inopportune times. Dropped passes. Plays that show the stage is too big for our guys.

So many other examples are out there of the mentally tougher team winning...we need to draft mentally tough players.

Halftime adjustments are things of myth and legend. They aren't actually real. Just ask Marvin Lewis.

2 kickers made 3 kicks of over 50 yards (4 if you count the time out one) in the final two minutes of the Cowboys-Packers game.

(01-17-2017, 01:35 PM)Fan_in_Kettering Wrote: That's great -- but when mentally tough players are coached by the mentally weak, it results in weakness. Marvin Lewis could sign the toughest member of the US Special Forces to play in Cincinnati and inside of six months that guy will be joining book clubs, taking women's studies courses online, drinking weak latte, and discussing his suppressed feelings with Dr. Phil.

I want to clarify something I wrote on this post so readers won't get the wrong idea: When I claim coaches like Marvin Lewis or Paul Alexander are mentally weak I am not in any way casting judgment upon their intelligence. These are highly intelligent men on any scale you might want to use. When I say mentally weak I don't mean stupid; I mean not tough. For example, Steven Hawking is very intelligent but he would be mentally weak at coaching a football team.

(01-17-2017, 01:50 PM)michaelsean Wrote: 2 kickers made 3 kicks of over 50 yards (4 if you count the time out one) in the final two minutes of the Cowboys-Packers game.

Yep. You just know our kicker would miss. We find ways to lose.

Remember in the late 2000s we needed to beat I think it was Denver to make the playoffs and the Bengals botched a snap on an extra point.

(01-17-2017, 01:50 PM)michaelsean Wrote: 2 kickers made 3 kicks of over 50 yards (4 if you count the time out one) in the final two minutes of the Cowboys-Packers game.

Yea.  Not sure if this has been mentioned around the board elsewhere, but so far, all kickers are 33/33 in FGs so far in the playoffs.

(01-17-2017, 02:23 PM)Goalpost Wrote: Yea.  Not sure if this has been mentioned around the board elsewhere, but so far, all kickers are 33/33 in FGs so far in the playoffs.

Damn.

(01-17-2017, 01:39 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Halftime adjustments are things of myth and legend. They aren't actually real. Just ask Marvin Lewis.

Journalistic jargon.  

(01-17-2017, 02:23 PM)Goalpost Wrote: Yea.  Not sure if this has been mentioned around the board elsewhere, but so far, all kickers are 33/33 in FGs so far in the playoffs.

That's a crazy stat.

These mentally tough teams also have franchise QBs that are playing like the best 4 QBs in the game:

Brady, Ben, Ryan and Rodgers.

(01-17-2017, 06:40 PM)Hammerstripes Wrote: These mentally tough teams also have franchise QBs that are playing like the best 4 QBs in the game:

Brady, Ben, Ryan and Rodgers.

Dak isn't playing like a top 5 team and they stayed in that game. They were down 16 points in the 4th.

Also, Big Ben had 0 TDs in his last game. 0. And the team won.

But sure. Give the credit to the QB for not scoring any points and not the defense.

Hmm, you think Dalton will win his first playoff game here or elsewhere, ala Palmer?

(01-17-2017, 08:51 PM)wolfkaosaun Wrote: Dak isn't playing like a top 5 team and they stayed in that game. They were down 16 points in the 4th.

Also, Big Ben had 0 TDs in his last game. 0. And the team won.

But sure. Give the credit to the QB for not scoring any points and not the defense.

Bell having 170 yards rushing had a lot to do with the Steelers win...and their defense flying around looks good.

I'm not a fan of the 3-4. They had nosetackles dropping into coverage and big 270 lbs linebackers covering WR's and TE's...but the Chiefs failed to take advantage of it.

Mental toughness gets your team to the playoffs in the first place. The Bengals did not finish many games and ended up losing. You need 60 minutes of grinding the game out and never giving up. Marvin gives up too easily at the end of the half or game. I'm even an advocate to run up the score or you leave the door open for a comeback.

(01-17-2017, 10:24 PM)guyofthetiger Wrote: Mental toughness gets your team to the playoffs in the first place. The Bengals did not finish many games and ended up losing. You need 60 minutes of grinding the game out and never giving up. Marvin gives up too easily at the end of the half or game. I'm even an advocate to run up the score or you leave the door open for a comeback.

Marvin Lewis made the playoffs 6 times in 7 years...by this metric the guy and his teams are pretty damn tough.  I'm quite sure you didn't mean to insinuate that though!

I do not like Rodney Harrison anymore than I do Mike Mitchell, but he said something in 2015 that I have to agree with, and that was, "This is the first time I've seen consistent mental toughness from the Bengals, which was always absent before."

What's also amazing is how in the last 10 years, the two Bengal teams with the best possible chance to win that last game of the playoffs, had the QBs go down, with critical injuries at the worst possible time. (2005 and 2015)

Last years playoff loss to the Steelers was one of the biggest meltdowns I've seen in an sport.

A fumble when they just had to run out the clock and 2 personal fouls. Epic meltdown. Epic lack of mental toughness.

(01-17-2017, 01:39 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Halftime adjustments are things of myth and legend. They aren't actually real. Just ask Marvin Lewis.

I've been working on a thread for tomorrow that gets into everything that's gone wrong in the playoffs, which is...well...everything. But seeing how Marv's teams have been outscored 96 to 29 in the 2nd half of playoff games, his stance that adjustments don't happen kinda explains why.

Pfffft.. Mental toughess..that's just too subjective and a made up idea.  
Every player in the league wants to win the super bowl and is probably just as mentally tough as the next guy. 
It comes down to actual talent and ability along with the right coaching. 
Things like providing for your children and standing up for your commitments to your spouse and/or partner takes more mental toughness than playing a kids game. 
If these guys were paid minimum wage to play it might be a different story, but they're often multi millionaires and live extremely opulent lives compared to most people. It doesn't require mental toughness to draw a salary well in excess of hundreds of thousands of dollars per game. It requires physical talent. 
But go ahead and fantasize about the mental makeup of football players. That sounds more like a bromance than anything else.