Game Balls and Goats (Steelers vs. Bengals)

I'm going to keep it short this week ...

Game Balls

Fernando Velasco. He played well, especially considering he just joined the team.
Cam Heyward. He made a few plays where he actually looked like a No. 1 pick.
Polamalu. He's looking like THE old Troy ... not AN old Troy.
Special teams. Who would have thought they'd be our most consistent unit?
Woodley. He got pressure and made plays.

Goats
DeCastro. He isn't looking like the beast we thought he'd be.
Haley. The play calling sucks. Period. This looks like Arians' offense.
Timmons. He didn't do anything to deserve a Goat necessarily, but where is he? He had a breakout year last year.
Tomlin. This team is too talented to be 0-2 and playing this poorly. Ultimately, the buck stops with the head coach.

Game Balls: Troy!!
Heyward!

Goats: Haley (seriously..)
Entire offense (DeCastro has me concerned -- did we waste a good draft pick on him? But
then again he didn't play all last year. This is like his rookie year, so I think he should get a
pass)

50/50 - Woodley. He made some good plays but capped it off with that bone-head penalty

Fire Todd Haley. That is all.

I agree with Wally but I would add Jarvis Jones and Moye.

Jarvis Jones has been a beast and he plays with a lot of fire.

Gameball: Ike Taylor. A.J. Green had 0 touchdowns and his longest catch was 10 yards. I'll take that any day.
            Runner Up - Keisel

Goat: Woodley. He did a lot of good things, but the two penalties were stupid and are the type that could cost them games going forward. I didn't think he was offsides on the first penalty, but he shouldn't have given the refs an excuse to throw that flag. That personal foul when the Steelers needed a stop (and when the Bengals were at 3rd and 6) was stupid ... 3 mins left and you decide to take out your frustration?
             Runner Up - Ben ... sorry, it's not Haley, it's Ben. He's looked underwhelming going 0-2. And it should be noted that the playbook had feedback from the players (eg: Ben). Because the O-line is playing so poorly, he only makes the Runner Up and not the Goat.

With 40 (or so) seconds left in the first half I believe it was Heyward (give him a gameball) who got to Dalton and the ball just rolled out of bounce.Lewis,Timmons and Woodley watched it go out. (there's your goats!!!) Why didn't SOMEONE fall on the ball and force a booth review? 50/50 shot it's ruled a fumble. We would have at least been in field goal range. While we're at it let's give the refs a goat vote for that bogus tripping call on the 30+ yard pass completion. Give Moye a gameball Give James Harrison one for not taking advantage of our lousy blocking by taking Ben's head off.

How can you say it looks like arians? I'm pretty sure it's significantly worse.

supytalpeht wrote:

How can you say it looks like arians? I'm pretty sure it's significantly worse.

I was speaking about the general philosophy of the offense:

*No fullback.
*Way too many screen passes.
*Empty backfield on third and short situations (in the Titans game).
*Less dink and dunk and more passes down the field.

The offense (system, not results) looks nothing like it did last year before Ben got hurt ... back when a lot of people were talking about him as an MVP candidate. The offense now looks like it did when Arians was here ... Ben dropping back, running for his life, and looking to make big plays down the field.

So what changed from what was working early last season to the first two games this season? The entire offense ... which we were told about during camp ...

Quote :

“There's been some changes this offseason in some of the offensive philosophies, playbook and some things that I think are good,” Roethlisberger said as he began his 10th season with the team. “It's some compromise from all the different position coaches, the running back coaches, the line, and quarterback coaches. I think we've taken a little bit of everything and made it a lot better.”

He added, “You can ask anybody on offense that, including coaches, and they'll tell you that we all like the way the offense is and where it's going.”

Read more: http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/4053516-74/offense-roethlisberger-steelers#ixzz2fDuP3nFw

Quote :

An 8-8 season, numerous offseason meetings with players and assistant coaches and self-evaluation caused Haley to refine his offense. To him, he's doing only what any good coach would do.

“(I'm) no longer the one lone wolf, the new guy on the block,” Haley said. “As you get to know and communicate and a trust level is built between player and coach, it becomes much easier to talk and ask questions and offer suggestions, which I'm always open to. I think as last year went on, that evolution started, and it was a natural progression during the offseason.

“Just get it right. That's always been my philosophy. It's not about my idea, my offense — I've made it clear every time I've talked, this is not my offense. … I think guys just understand that now. You're seeing a lot more give and take, and that's when you're able to succeed. It's not a my-way-or-the-highway-type deal.”

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sports/steelers/steelers-receiver-sanders-insists-he-is-concentrating-on-performance-697884/

Quote :

Running back Isaac Redman said the players are impressed at how Haley not only listened to them but also reworked his system to make it more familiar.

“He's willing to open up and take advice and take criticism. He said, ‘If you don't like this, if you don't like anything, come to me, and we'll fix it,' ” Redman said. “That says a lot, for him to stand up in front of the offense and say that. Just the relationship he has with the whole offense, you can tell it's a lot different from last year.”

As a result, Redman said, “The offense is just clicking for us.”

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sports/steelers/steelers-receiver-sanders-insists-he-is-concentrating-on-performance-697884

Quote :

Did Roethlisberger specifically request any of the offense be reworked?

“There were some things,” he said, laughing, without offering any further explanation.

Read more: http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/4053516-74/offense-roethlisberger-steelers#ixzz2fDv4IWpQ

It goes without saying that Ben liked a lot of things about Arians' offense. And some of it has returned. During one of the preseason games, I commented in the game thread that I was amazed at how much they were throwing the ball down the field. I thought it was a fluke because it was preseason, but Dave Bryan at Steelers Depot also commented on it after the Bengals game:

Quote :

Last year, the Pittsburgh Steelers offense was referred to as a "dink-and-dunk" one. Monday night in the 20-10 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, it was anything but that. In fact, you could probably call it a "chunk-and-clunk" one.

Penalty plays included, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw 9 passes 20 or more yards down the field Monday night and completed just one of them with one of those incompletions resulting in a penalty on Bengals cornerback Adam Jones for defensive pass interference.

To take the distance theme even further, Roethlisberger threw 13 passes 17 or more yards down the field and completed just three of them. Roethlisberger's average pass distance Monday night was a very uncharacteristic 12 yards and that includes all passes thrown during the game.

Now, I am all for the Steelers offense being more vertical than they were last season, but I never expected it would go from one extreme to another.

http://www.steelersdepot.com/2013/09/steelers-offense-has-gone-from-dink-and-dunk-to-chunk-and-clunk/

I made this comment after the Titans game, and I've seen nothing to suggest that it's not at least partially accurate ... Haley was brought in to change Ben, but I think Ben ended up changing Haley.

Game Balls:
Defense
STs

Goats:
Ben
Haley
Tomlin