Thoughts on the game

[ZonaBurgh]

I'm not a football junkie like many here but seems to me it can only be 2 things, personnel or coaching.

Attempting a jet sweep on the 2nd play of the game and letting the 9er's play pitch and catch in the middle of the field has me thinking it's the latter.

 

[livingthrudying]

You're correct. Absolutely nothing has changed offensively and the quarterback can't run it. Not Ben,not Mitch and not Kenny.

The only thing that has worked to some degree is the 2 min offense.

None of it matters if they can't open holes on that line to run through. Teams have stacked the line for a solid 4 years now.

Its been done to death and hardly ever works regardless of "the system", some coach comes out of college thinking his "system" is going to change the league and it always falls flat. What works in College does not work in the NFL. And Matt Canadas resume as a OC in college says that it probably didn't work well in college either. Canada is not the answer.

 

[livingthrudying]

I think Kenny didn't trust the OL. On the 3rd play of the game Cole got tossed back like a rag doll. The pocket collapsed and he got sacked. That set the tone for the game. Kenny will be as good as the OL let's him be - like pretty well any QB. He was fine in preseason when they kept him clean although it was 2nd stringers. Hopefully these guys improve.

We have not put any serious resources into the center position in a while. Don't know what's going on but its been some really bad decisions at who has played the position since Pouncey retired. The line starts there and if the center is not good then its hard to expect the rest of the line to be good regardless of who else is on it.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

My thought is: Was there an element of psychological testing here? Was it intentional as it was a game against a non-division team? Trying to look for any rays of sunshine out of that disaster yesterday. Why would you elect to wear black on a summer afternoon for a mid-day kickoff? It wasn't Miami or Houston but when you overheat you tend to fall apart physically and mentally. Gets them out of a comfort zone and not believing their press clippings and working that much harder.

 

[steelcan58]

Its been done to death and hardly ever works regardless of "the system", some coach comes out of college thinking his "system" is going to change the league and it always falls flat. What works in College does not work in the NFL. And Matt Canadas resume as a OC in college says that it probably didn't work well in college either. Canada is not the answer.

The thing is no system works if you don't win the battle at the LOS. SF punched us in the mouth on both sides of the ball yesterday.

Whatever we did in preseason worked. Obviously it was against worse players and 2nd stringers. Let's face it - there's a good chance SF wins the Super Bowl last year with a healthy QB. The question - is our OL really improved or is it going to be the same old story as the last few seasons? If it's the latter, no system will work.

 

[DesertSteel]

Too many Pitt fans just anointed him the next great QB. Unfairly and undeservingly. But I am not going to write him off. I have said all along that you make realistic expectations and look for improvement. This was his first game of the season against a premier NFL defense. I want to see what his stat line looks like after 4 games. Then see if he improves in games 5-8 compared to 1-4. Then see if his second half was better than his first half. He has a long way to go and I am glad people are starting to realize he is not Roethlisberger. We were spoiled a long time with Ben and the fact is that with this team and this offensive line Ben throws for 250 and 2/1 vs the 49ers today. We are rebuilding and that is all there is to it. So it will be a long season and lets hope Pickett can get better and put us into the playoff conversation by December. Or at the very least show us enough improvement to get excited about his third season behind center.

I'm not writing him off either. But I've definitely lowered my level of optimism. I really just don't think he's going to be the guy. Sadly, it might take three years to move off him. He probably good enough to get us to 9-8, which is good enough for the organization lately. I'm rarely this negative, but yesterday took the wind out my my sails. It wasn't that we lost, but how we lost. I think we got our hopes up playing bad competition and then third stringers in preseason.

 

[tapeANaspirin2it]

A few more thoughts.

SF runs a Tampa 2 defense. Isn’t Tomlin a Tampa 2 expert? Couldn’t he help with gameplanning some plays that are good against Tampa 2? Apparently not.

Steelers need to have training camp scrimmages vs another team. Whether they can invite a team to Latrobe or travel to them, they have to have joint practices. It is now the norm that coaches are barely playing their starters in preseason games. Steelers played starters against mostly backups and what did that get them? Nothing but false confidence from easily beating up backups.

In today’s NFL if you want Ones vs Ones, you have to do it in joint practices. Steelers must start doing this even if they don’t want to.

 

[Troglodyte]

A few more thoughts.

SF runs a Tampa 2 defense. Isn’t Tomlin a Tampa 2 expert? Couldn’t he help with gameplanning some plays that are good against Tampa 2? Apparently not.

Steelers need to have training camp scrimmages vs another team. Whether they can invite a team to Latrobe or travel to them, they have to have joint practices. It is now the norm that coaches are barely playing their starters in preseason games. Steelers played starters against mostly backups and what did that get them? Nothing but false confidence from easily beating up backups.

In today’s NFL if you want Ones vs Ones, you have to do it in joint practices. Steelers must start doing this even if they don’t want to.

They used to do scrimmages with the Redskins. I went to one at Frostburg State.

 

[slashsteel]

I have been saying gotta give a rookie QB three years to judge. You can't call him the next great or the next bust until a body of work has been displayed. Pickett regressed in play yesterday. Lets see how he does this month. Too many people are quick to judge and I think player development takes time. It is a body of work and a progression.

You are full of ****. You constantly talk Kenny down and up every other QB not named Pickett. You are just exactly like cooch throw both sides of the coin out so you can be right somewhere long the line.

Yeah I saw your comment on someone you ignore. That says more about you than it does them. Nobody cares who you ignore snowflake.

Keep throwing the digs out nobody gives a ****.

 

[topseed]

You are full of ****. You constantly talk Kenny down and up every other QB not named Pickett. You are just exactly like cooch throw both sides of the coin out so you can be right somewhere long the line.

Yeah I saw your comment on someone you ignore. That says more about you than it does them. Nobody cares who you ignore snowflake.

Keep throwing the digs out nobody gives a ****.

FF gives three years to judge quarterbacks. Unless of course it's Mason Rudolph. Who, despite being in his sixth NFL season and second as a third-stringer, apparently hasn't had enough time in the league to be adequately evaluated.

 

[Buster]

I joked during the game yesterday that they were not going to play Renegade...they didn't. I don't ever remember that happening since they started.

 

[diver]

Well lets put it this way, actually a couple of ways.

First look at Matt Canadas resume. Its very telling.

Second Matt Canada is the OC that refused (as a first year OC in the NFL) to allow Ben (a future HOF two time winning QB to make audibles. Seriously who does that? Most OC's especially new ones that tried to tell a HOF franchise QB what they could and couldn't do would usually be shown the door and told not to let it him them in the *** on the way out. Not us though we back the guy who is new and unproven and hasn't been able to make it as a OC in the the college ranks and tell our HOF QB to do what he says. And this is the guy we have developing our new first round drafted QB running our offense on his College ideas.

You know, long before Matt Canada, I remember Ben making audibles. All that activity at the line, pointing, "Blue 52," the announcers saying "He's changing the play...", you are getting excited because you think Ben saw something, and then pfft. Not much. My friends and I would laugh at that over the years. Ben was a great QB, but he wasn't Captain Audible or something.

 

[Sarge]

There is clearly two camps here. There is a qb is the problem camp and a coaches are the problem camp. Thing is there have been three qbs in the last three years.

Then you can put me in the third camp. The coaches and the QB are the problem.

I say this because Canada’s system sucks, Tomlin does nothing to correct it ( it may actually be Tomlin’s system considering Fichtner’s offense looks a lot like Canada’s) and the QB, while being set up for failure, clearly hasn’t shown an ability to consistently take advantage when something actually IS there. The three of them are not a good combination.

 

[JMM]

Same as it ever was. They are trying to make the players fit a scheme rather than take what you have and get the most from it by devising a scheme. Round peg/square hole 2023-24.

 

[Lunar]

Same as it ever was. They are trying to make the players fit a scheme rather than take what you have and get the most from it by devising a scheme. Round peg/square hole 2023-24.

And you may ask yourself, "Well, how did I get here?"

 

[diver]

Then you can put me in the third camp. The coaches and the QB are the problem.

I say this because Canada’s system sucks, Tomlin does nothing to correct it ( it may actually be Tomlin’s system considering Fichtner’s offense looks a lot like Canada’s) and the QB, while being set up for failure, clearly hasn’t shown an ability to consistently take advantage when something actually IS there. The three of them are not a good combination.

I'm willing to give the QB time. Maybe he is following the pattern of most QBs ultimately do, as it takes time. Ben was an exception to that, for example. Burrow, too. I know there have been others. However, most take time. Ben and Burrow also had/have infinitely better coaching.

 

[Djfan]

This whole thing just sucks. Art II will do nothing, Tomlin is a great junior college coach, Austin is horrid, Canada looks up to Austin skill levels, and we wait until we can get a coach that can out coach a sardine.

Hockey starts soon.

 

[SteelerInLebanon]

FF gives three years to judge quarterbacks. Unless of course it's Mason Rudolph. Who, despite being in his sixth NFL season and second as a third-stringer, apparently hasn't had enough time in the league to be adequately evaluated.

How long did it take Dobbs to get a chance somewhere? You never know.

 

[xjx]

I had the wind knocked from my sails too. During the game I felt a letdown. We played a playoff team. They dismantled us. That's Mike Tomlin steelers.

 

[jiminoh]

Josh Pray doing his Tomlin expressions should be a good one at least.

 

[topseed]

How long did it take Dobbs to get a chance somewhere? You never know.

Yes, Dobbs was really impressive with that 4.4 YPA yesterday. 132 yards on 30 attempts.

The overwhelmingly vast majority of the time, after 6 or 7 years, you do know.

 

[SteelerInLebanon]

Yes, Dobbs was really impressive with that 4.4 YPA yesterday. 132 yards on 30 attempts.

The overwhelmingly vast majority of the time, after 6 or 7 years, you do know.

If someone has had at least a full season of games maybe.

 

[topseed]

If someone has had at least a full season of games maybe.

I'd be willing to bet a substantial amount that the Cardinals will turn to fifth-round draft pick Clayton Tune as their starter sooner than later. Then we can close the book on Josh Dobbs, and you can find some other clandestine way to support Mason Rudolph.

 

[SteelerInLebanon]

I'd be willing to bet a substantial amount that the Cardinals will turn to fifth-round draft pick Clayton Tune as their starter sooner than later. Then we can close the book on Josh Dobbs, and you can find some other clandestine way to support Mason Rudolph.

Just saying I don’t care how long any player has been in the league you never know. Who would have thought Tommie Maddox had a season like that in him. Kurt Warner others. Not saying Mason or particularly Dobbs will make it, we just can’t say until they get a shot. Honestly I am shocked Dobbs ever got a shot. Great guy. Talented physically but as smart as he is he seemed too slow processing under pressure. The whole way back to UT, he sucked in the 4th quarter. Give Mason Dobbs legs and he would have been something. I like Mason but only in a system where he can be a true pocket passer with great protection. He is a real throwback.

 

[SteelerFan448]

Regardless of what anyone believes the reason is, this team is a mess. I can’t remember the last game the Steelers played where they looked that bad in every phase of the game. I mean they looked like dogshit top to bottom, front to back.

Multiple times in 2022?