Be something on offense

[SteelerSask2]

I'm not going to comment on defense. That is a whole other kettle of fish. I think they lack talent on defense. This team does not lack talent on offense. they lack direction. Be something. If you think you have the oline and backs backs to line up and pound the ball, then do it. They finished the season last year as an up tempo, pass to run with quick throws to the backs on early downs to set up manageable thirds moving the chains and scoring. They played one half against the Browns like that, now they have no identity.
This point was punctuated, when still firmly in the game they were like second and three or four in the redzone. They tried a pass and then a jet sweep (A. Brown) to the weak side of the field which in of itself makes no sense whatsoever. Why would you run a slow developing play to the weak side of the field. Either ball out with passing for the endzone or inside the five, or ram it with the backs. BE SOMETHING.

 

[Coryea]

It takes the game out of Tomlin/Haleys hands when they do that, that's why we don't see it a full game. We don't have a deep threat, and these WR screens and end arounds do not work on a shortened field in the redzone, and for some reason Miller becomes a blocker in the redzone.

 

[SteelerSask2]

They took it out of Haley's hands last year and it saved his job that there is no way he has any business having right now.

 

[Coryea]

They took it out of Haley's hands last year and it saved his job that there is no way he has any business having right now.

I'm in total agreement, like I said in another post, everyone wants Ben to be Brady, Manning, or Rodgers, but he's not allowed to take over the offense when and where ever he wants to.

 

[antdrewjosh]

I'm in total agreement, like I said in another post, everyone wants Ben to be Brady, Manning, or Rodgers, but he's not allowed to take over the offense when and where ever he wants to.

Bottom line those guys dont miss wide open receivers. Has nothing to do with running the no huddle. Those were potential game changing plays. We are running our offense thru him as it is.

 

[Coryea]

Have you watched those guys recently? Brady missed guys in the super bowl a couple years ago, and in the afc title game, Rodgers missed a few last week too. They all miss people/plays. The point i'm making is they can change the O up anytime they want, they can slow it down, they can speed it up, they can dictate personel.

 

[Coryea]

FYI, Ben has the same career comp% as Tom Brady.

 

[Rod Farva]

He didn't have a good game but let's not act like this is Ben's fault.....he's the least of the problems.

 

[insaniti]

I also don't agree that we don't have a deep threat. We have two deep threats in Wheaton and Brown, but we don't have the time to get them the ball. Each time we dialed up a deep pattern last night, Gilbert got whipped and Ben went down. They did a good job of keeping Ben in the pocket. There were a few miscues between Ben and Miller and Ben and J.Brown, and SOME of that can be attributed to a short week and lack of experience (J.Brown).

I think the jet sweep play MIGHT have worked had it been timed correctly. It wasn't, you need to snap the ball BEFORE Brown goes by Ben, Brown had to slow down and wait for Ben to get him the ball after he had passed him. You need to snap the ball sooner so Ben can hand it to Brown on a full sprint. The timing was way off.

I thought Gilbert made good progress last year, this year it's like he's regressed to the level of Mike Adams. There is no reason what so ever for a 330 lb man to just be run over the way he was last night. Should not happen.

 

[blitzburghv5]

He didn't have a good game but let's not act like this is Ben's fault.....he's the least of the problems.

Hes not exactly standing out either.................hes been in the leaque way too long to be taking sacks that knock us out of FG range.

One thing ive learned over the years about Ben is he doesnt have very much confidence in his accuracy. He hardly "throws a receiver open" as some of the other QBs do or fit balls in tight windows, instead opting to hold the ball and wait til the receiver gets some separation. A great deal of his completions come from WR screens, slants or crossing patterns and recently hes hittin the backs out the backfield. This is why i believe when the field shrinks in the redzone, we struggle to get points because the real estate becomes tighter and wrs have less space in which to work. Im sure im not the only fan that sorta cringes when we hit First and goal inside the 10.

Dont get me wrong..he does a nice job of any QB that improvises when the play breaks down and in a wide field he can work. Shrink it down and it becomes an achilles. If im a DC, i blitz him red zone.

 

[Litos]

I also don't agree that we don't have a deep threat. We have two deep threats in Wheaton and Brown, but we don't have the time to get them the ball. Each time we dialed up a deep pattern last night, Gilbert got whipped and Ben went down. They did a good job of keeping Ben in the pocket. There were a few miscues between Ben and Miller and Ben and J.Brown, and SOME of that can be attributed to a short week and lack of experience (J.Brown).

I think the jet sweep play MIGHT have worked had it been timed correctly. It wasn't, you need to snap the ball BEFORE Brown goes by Ben, Brown had to slow down and wait for Ben to get him the ball after he had passed him. You need to snap the ball sooner so Ben can hand it to Brown on a full sprint. The timing was way off.

I thought Gilbert made good progress last year, this year it's like he's regressed to the level of Mike Adams. There is no reason what so ever for a 330 lb man to just be run over the way he was last night. Should not happen.

money post, if the Oline doesn't give him time how is he going to throw it deep?

 

[Coryea]

Brown and Wheaton are not deep threats, no way, they are quick route runners. Brady's best year he had moss and welker, Manning had welker and Thomas, Ben had Wallace and Brown, IMO if you want to be a pass first team, the lack of a deep threat will hurt you, it allows safeties to cheat up and kill you WR's when theycatch the ball. We got away from what worked again last night, we had 200 yards offense in the first half with mis-direction stuff, fake hand offs, etc. 2Nd half we didn't do harly any of that, I'm not sure if we ran any fake hand-offs in the 2nd half.

 

[insaniti]

Wheaton looked pretty good on his deep route last week. I've seen Brown separate from the DB quite easily. The offense is completely changed from Airans offense. We don't run a guy deep on every pass play, it's new goal is to get the ball out of Bens hands faster. Shorter quicker throws. That doesn't mean we don't have a deep threat, it means we don't use it as our defining offensive strategy.

 

[Vader]

Bottom line those guys dont miss wide open receivers. Has nothing to do with running the no huddle. Those were potential game changing plays. We are running our offense thru him as it is.

You didn't see Brady last week did you? You also didn't see him in the SB a couple of years back when he could have won the game by hitting an open Wes Welker. But he missed him even though there was nobody even in his zip code. Go watch the Denver game last year. He missed some guys in that game. Qbs miss open WRs. It happens. The problem with the Steelers is that if Ben isn't 100% they can't over come because their defense sucks *** and they have no offense philosophy. It's a collection of plays. One play has absolutely nothing to do with setting up other plays.

Ben isn't the best in the league but he is in the top 5-10. He can win games. But like all QBs he needs help from his OL, WRs, TEs and RBs. It's a team game.

 

[Coryea]

Wheaton looked pretty good on his deep route last week. I've seen Brown separate from the DB quite easily. The offense is completely changed from Airans offense. We don't run a guy deep on every pass play, it's new goal is to get the ball out of Bens hands faster. Shorter quicker throws. That doesn't mean we don't have a deep threat, it means we don't use it as our defining offensive strategy.

Brown has average speed for a WR, the browns Dlineman ran him down last week, he's extremely quick and precise with great hands, he isn't that fast, and yes Wheaton did look good on that deep route, I also saw Ward catch a 72 yard td pass vs the tenn or ne, but that doesn't make him a deep threat.

 

[antdrewjosh]

Brown is a legit 4.3 guy. He can get deep. Wheaton can too. We have deep threats. The problem with calling those routes is protection. Getting deep is not all speed either. Route running is a factor also.

 

[blitzburghv5]

Brown has average speed for a WR, the browns Dlineman ran him down last week, he's extremely quick and precise with great hands, he isn't that fast, and yes Wheaton did look good on that deep route, I also saw Ward catch a 72 yard td pass vs the tenn or ne, but that doesn't make him a deep threat.

I think I know which play youre talkin about....he didnt exactly run him down, moreso that Brown throttled down seein he was hemmed in between the db and the sideline....had he more clearing in front of him he wouldve left him in his contrails. Brown has a nice extra gear. Behind Dri hes probably the 2nd fastest on the team.

 

[Steelerfan]

Good God. Now we're denigrating AB, the brightest (if not the only) bright spot on this team. WTF is wrong with you people. AB is indeed a deep threat if he is asked to be that. Just because he doesn't have Mike Wallace speed (but he's damn close) doesn't mean he can't be.

 

[TDX27]

Our issues on O are not for lack of talent. That was shown in the first half of the Clowns game. I blame most of the issues on coaching. Sure, there is some on execution (fumbles, penalties, etc.).

We all know and the coaches must know how good the O can be and what works. Look no further than the first half of the Clowns game. The no huddle and what we did in that one half should be the norm for the offense. Instead, it is the exception. It makes no sense. You use what works and throw in some other crap to keep them guessing. You don't use the crap and then throw in a little of what we know works for this O.

Strategy and what the O does is on the coaches. As I said before the season many times and since the season started, we need to score as many points as we can especially at the beginning of the season. We need to come out ready to ram it down the throats of our opponent, whomever they are. They must stop us. They must stop what we know works. Don't second guess it. Just do it!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Rod Farva]

Hes not exactly standing out either.................hes been in the leaque way too long to be taking sacks that knock us out of FG range.

One thing ive learned over the years about Ben is he doesnt have very much confidence in his accuracy. He hardly "throws a receiver open" as some of the other QBs do or fit balls in tight windows, instead opting to hold the ball and wait til the receiver gets some separation. A great deal of his completions come from WR screens, slants or crossing patterns and recently hes hittin the backs out the backfield. This is why i believe when the field shrinks in the redzone, we struggle to get points because the real estate becomes tighter and wrs have less space in which to work. Im sure im not the only fan that sorta cringes when we hit First and goal inside the 10.

Dont get me wrong..he does a nice job of any QB that improvises when the play breaks down and in a wide field he can work. Shrink it down and it becomes an achilles. If im a DC, i blitz him red zone.

I don't disagree with the majority of your post.....BB has his flaws, accuracy at times and throwing deep among them. And while I agree with the red zone part (at least given this o line and coordinator) I think it's crucial to remember the fact that for a large portion of his career he has played behind a sub par line. He's certainly capable of being a consistent game winning QB and more, but he needs protection and weapons. It can't be either/or as Arian's wanted to believe.

 

[antdrewjosh]

Oh you mean march down the field like we were doing on the first drive until J Brown fumbled for no reason. Still pissed about that. The defender barely touched the ball. Smh

 

[blitzburghv5]

I don't disagree with the majority of your post.....BB has his flaws, accuracy at times and throwing deep among them. And while I agree with the red zone part (at least given this o line and coordinator) I think it's crucial to remember the fact that for a large portion of his career he has played behind a sub par line. He's certainly capable of being a consistent game winning QB and more, but he needs protection and weapons. It can't be either/or as Arian's wanted to believe.

But Rod, dont you think Heath is a nice weapon (save for the fumble hes got great hands and is reliable). Hes got ABrown, the leagues second most prolific receiver. Bell has great hands out of the backfield...Wheaton has proven hes better than who departed this offseason.........remember when we had Wallace, Heath, A Brown, Ward. He rarely connected w Mike and Mike could most always get beyond the deepest DB and he'd break stride, throttle back to wait for the pass to drop. Hes got enough weapons. Hes got more than Brady has and equally as many as Discount Double-check.

 

[Vader]

But Rod, dont you think Heath is a nice weapon (save for the fumble hes got great hands and is reliable). Hes got ABrown, the leagues second most prolific receiver. Bell has great hands out of the backfield...Wheaton has proven hes better than who departed this offseason.........remember when we had Wallace, Heath, A Brown, Ward. He rarely connected w Mike and Mike could most always get beyond the deepest DB and he'd break stride, throttle back to wait for the pass to drop. Hes got enough weapons. Hes got more than Brady has and equally as many as Discount Double-check.

But he doesn't have an OL nor does he have a HC who knows what the **** he is doing. Brady's OL struggled in Miami and they got hammered. Same with GB in Seattle. But somehow they are off the hook because?

 

[antdrewjosh]

But he doesn't have an OL nor does he have a HC who knows what the **** he is doing. Brady's OL struggled in Miami and they got hammered. Same with GB in Seattle. But somehow they are off the hook because?

See I'm not talking one game though. I'm talking career. Im still waiting for Ben to have that stretch of games where he is just lights out. All those QBs have had bad games yes. But they all have had stretches of brilliance. Streaks of games where they are putting up insane stats and points on the board. Except for the 2005 playoff run I havent seen that from Ben. We knew the defense was a work in progres we need that strecth of brilliance from Ben more now then we ever needed it.

 

[Rod Farva]

But Rod, dont you think Heath is a nice weapon (save for the fumble hes got great hands and is reliable). Hes got ABrown, the leagues second most prolific receiver. Bell has great hands out of the backfield...Wheaton has proven hes better than who departed this offseason.........remember when we had Wallace, Heath, A Brown, Ward. He rarely connected w Mike and Mike could most always get beyond the deepest DB and he'd break stride, throttle back to wait for the pass to drop. Hes got enough weapons. Hes got more than Brady has and equally as many as Discount Double-check.

Like I said....he needs both protection and weapons. I am pleasantly surprised with the progress of the weapons.....not so much with the protection.

But he doesn't have an OL nor does he have a HC who knows what the **** he is doing. Brady's OL struggled in Miami and they got hammered. Same with GB in Seattle. But somehow they are off the hook because?

Yep.