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Ben is the weak link at this point

Confluence said:
To be sure, it is clear that Elfie is the weak link.

And Ben has had dog games where he has been the principal reason for the team's poor showing (Baltimore, Philly, KC). So Elfie is not wrong here.

But that is a rarity.
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While I am loathe to agree that Elfie has a good point, he does in this instance, even if the verbiage seems off, to me.

I think rather than the title saying 'weak link' or 'weak link at this point', we've mentioned several times that Ben is the straw that stirs the drink. While sometimes that seems to have been migrated to Bell, IMO, it still applies to Ben. Ben has a bad game (for whatever reason), it is an ugly day for the team.

In the past few years, we haven't seen a D on the field that could stop the other team from scoring. In 10 of their regular season games, the Chiefs scored 21 or more points. In the two games vs the Steelers they scored 14 and 16. They only scored less points vs Houston in game 2. While the D has gotten better over the last part of the season, allowing 14 early in the season seems to be an anomaly versus such a good offense. I don't recall if they were hindered at that time, though.

In any event, if the D can continue playing well, we can hang on to win games even if Ben isn't playing well. For the offense, we haven't scored less than 24 since week 9 versus the Ravens. We scored 16 vs the *'s with landry jones, although I don't remember if any of that was in garbage time. The *'s averaged a 27.6 ppg during the regular season. We allowed then 27 with a lesser D. I'm told in previous threads that the *'s could have just scored more if needed, though.....
 
The weather is colder, passing is going to be a bit tougher. Haley needs to keep Ben and the receivers IN THE LOOP.

I would rather not see them get completely away from the passing game for 30 to 40 minute stretches. I don't think that's good game planning for any opponent. I would have been fearful if the Chefs had tied up the game last week and the Steelers needed to pass the ball downfield in a short amount of time after having pretty much abandoned the pass through most of the last 3 quarters.

There's conservative and there's turtle-ball. Know the difference, don't BE the difference.
 
It comes down to making smart reads and smart decisions with the football. He cant be afraid to check down after going thru his reads if nothing is open downfield...he has been doing that more lately than in past seasons. Losing Wheaton and Coates hurt chemistry especially when AB was being taken away via double coverage and hes had to trust in the newer kids (Eli, Coby and Demarcus).

Bens a gambler....hes gonna win some of those battles with vs the defense and hes gonna lose some. Belichek isn't a guy you wanna gamble too much with but I know if hes smart with the football and he takes what they give he can slice them up and throw in a mix of Leveon to keep them off-balance, they should be able to wear their ***** out and rack up the points. Getting into a shootout with NE is not a problem these days. We have a defense that can be opportunistic as we have seen over the last 9 weeks.
 
Ben is definitely not playing lights out football. Does he have an injury we don't know about? Or is the lack of talent at WR behind AB impacting Ben's ability to find open receivers. I'm going to go with the lack of talent at WR. Sorry but Rogers, Hamilton and Ayers are practice squad scrubs who shouldn't be on our active roster if we had healthy WRs, (Wheaton, Coates, DHB and Bryant if he wasn't suspended).
 
SteelBuckeye said:
I used to travel quite a bit for a job I held. If I was sick, I felt sicker when I was staying at a hotel than I did when I was home (my house, my mattress, my food, my routine). Some might say that was psychological. I'd agree. However, we do know that the psychological can affect the physical, leading to decreased performance (no matter what job you're doing).
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That's why I mentioned family in the first post. I was thinking more as distraction than what you brought up about psychical injuries amplified by the psychological.

That's a great point and a possible reason.
 
Oncemore... Roethlisberger, like manning, thrives on changing call at the line to fit what he sees... on the road with younger recievers he doesnt do wholesale changes as much. We play a more conservative or at least predictable style.. we also shy away from hot routes and quick throws probably cause we dont trust the guys to make the right reads... we also have limited changes based on each's knowledge of the system... again on the road we have a totally different approach than at home...
 
He also has absolutely brilliant 4-6 passing td games. I call it the zone. We need him to be in the zone for two games. We also need guys to step up and make plays outside of Brown&Bell. We have some inexperienced young guys who have talent who I'm counting on to do great things.The no huddle is uptempo is golden for him and the team. It's those long plays when he has too much time on his hands that makes me worry.

Weak link? Hardly. Without him we don't even sniff the playoffs let alone win in them. Just protect the football and play to win. If we get a good lead papercut them to death and eat the clock.
 
madinsomniac said:
Oncemore... Roethlisberger, like manning, thrives on changing call at the line to fit what he sees... on the road with younger recievers he doesnt do wholesale changes as much. We play a more conservative or at least predictable style.. we also shy away from hot routes and quick throws probably cause we dont trust the guys to make the right reads... we also have limited changes based on each's knowledge of the system... again on the road we have a totally different approach than at home...
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This is a great point. I agree 100%. Aside from AB our other WR's are a bunch of young fellows.....time for the to step up. Also I hope Ben will continue to look James' way.
 
Coryea said:
Yeah especially those dropped TD's what an ***. Can't just shut the passing game off and turn it back on.
We score when we go no huddle up tempo throwing the ball every where, 2nd half of both Baltimore games, the beginning of the Miami game, the first KC game, the Dallas game. It's great seeing Bell do what he does, but the passing game needs to set up the running game. The weak link on this team are the WR's, aside from Brown, who is going to make a big play? Hell even Brown has dropped at least 4 passes, one for a td and one resulted in an INT, but that's Bens fault. Brown didn't even run the correct route on the winning pass at KC.
If Brown and Eli do what they're supposed to and catch those two passes. Crappy road Ben would've been the highest rated qb of the weekend, not Brady, Rodgers, or Ryan.
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Sure it's the recievers.....so let's flip that around and look at what opposing defensive backs and linebackers have dropped to make Ben's play look somewhat better than it actually has been.

From the article:

According to Football Outsiders, Roethlisberger led the league with 13 dropped interceptions to go along with his 13 actual interceptions (in 14 games). And according to Pro Football Focus, 4.72 percent of all of Roethlisberger’s throws were considered turnover-worthy, which ranked 27th out of the 29 quarterbacks with at least 400 pass attempts. The irony in all this is that Roethlisberger is being protected better than ever. When he went to the lowB repuS in 2010 and won it in 2008, he played behind an offensive line with an adjusted sack rate that ranked 29th. This year, the Steelers’ O-line ranks fourth. Roethlisberger was sacked a career-low 17 times during the regular season, and per PFF, he saw pressure on just 23.2 percent of his dropbacks—down from 29.3 percent in 2015.

Enough said.

There is something going on with him. That's all I brought up, and that cued up the villagers with the pitchforks and the torches.

I also said he needs to get it straightened out( HAS TO!) by Sunday because Belichick will exploit any ,and EVERY mistake he makes.
 
It seems like noise might effect Ben in away games. Never thought it was a problem until he was concerned Steeler fans be quiet at home games.
 
I wouldn't use the radio or signals. Let Ben call the game and if needed shuttle a WR or TE to bring in plays from Todd.
 
stillwright said:
Let's hope it is a start of a trend for Brady. :)
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Agreed.

I know everyone has brought up pressuring him, but it is gospel.

You have to stay on him even if he's completing short crossing routes, slants, whatever. You have to ignore the desire to back off and keep punishing him till he cracks.

It's obvious, but most teams prefer to slow the bleeding and end up dying anyway.
 
Elfiero said:
Calm down, what are you 12? No one can say anything about Ben or you attack them?

Who put the line and Bell in good position? Haley that's who. But Haley can't keep Ben from overthrowing receivers and tossing gifts into double coverage.

As far as hot and cold and gameplan etc. That's a cop out. Brady can lean on the run, come back in the second half with what looks like a completely different O formation wise and pass away like he"d been doing it all day.


I watch the games, and even some opponent games. You should READ THE ARTICLE before you spew your anger over someone being honestly critical.
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I don't attack people who talk about Ben. I attack people who say dumb ****. Playoffs:
Week one. Two TD'S on the first two series. Then he correctly used the run. Last week a bad play by the LT and dropped balls by AB and Roger's. Or three TD'S. He helped move the ball up and down the field chewing clock and getting field goals. Some of you are stupid.
 
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Or it could be that we are pretty conservative on the road as an offense.

We started the season with AB, Coates, Wheaton, Bey all 4 guys had a good grasp on the offense and had played with Ben for a decent amount of the time.
All but AB got hurt and have been non existent for along time, and know we have guys who don't know the ins and outs of the offense, minimal time with Ben, so not much no huddle knowledge either. That's a big part of our lack of passing too.

You brought up the Houston game when gushing about Brady.
 
SteelerSask said:
I don't attack people who talk about Ben. I attack people who say dumb ****. Playoffs:
Week one. Two TD'S on the first two series. Then he correctly used the run. Last week a bad play by the LT and dropped balls by AB and Roger's. Or three TD'S. He helped move the ball up and down the field chewing clock and getting field goals. Some of you are stupid.
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In the Miami game he only threw the ball 15 times and two of those were picks. Should have been three but the Miami LB'er dropped an easy catch.

See i can cherry pick too.

We're talking about trends and stats....stupid.
 
FYI there is an article by Jim Wexell today about how Ben's road struggles mostly about lack of options after AB. There is merit to the 3 practice squad players (Hamilton, Rogers, Ayers) not being what we need them to be.
 
Elfiero said:
In the Miami game he only threw the ball 15 times and two of those were picks. Should have been three but the Miami LB'er dropped an easy catch.

See i can cherry pick too.

We're talking about trends and stats....stupid.
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One pick went right through the best wr in the NFL's hands, if he catches that we get at least 3, up 17-0, we aren't throwing later.
Brady should've had 4 picks last week
 
The weak link is our WR's and our long yardage D, how many 3rd and longs or 2nd and longs did KC convert
 
lulz Ben is the weak link.

Some funny **** right there, I don't care who you are.........
 
Coryea said:
The weak link is our WR's and our long yardage D, how many 3rd and longs or 2nd and longs did KC convert
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Not enough to win. :)
 
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