Todd Haley Cannot Revert Back to His Previous Ways With the Steelers Offense

By Steel Dad

Being the offensive coordinator of a football team is essentially the exact opposite of being the back-up quarterback. Everyone loves the back-up QB because nine times out of ten they think the back-up can do better than the starter.

For the offensive coordinator however, there is little if any love. In fact, there is probably no love at all and instead we measure our approval of this position in different levels of hatred. Ladies and gentlemen of Steeler Nation, I give you Todd Haley.

I don’t care for Haley and this is not a secret but he is the current offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh and there isn’t a darn thing I can do about that. What I have to be when it comes to Haley is honest. If I can rip him then I need to praise him when necessary.

To say that Haley wasn’t involved with the offensive explosion on Sunday wouldn’t be fair. Did he have everything to do with it? Not at all, but he deserves some credit.

The real challenge now for Haley is being able to sustain what his offense started. It’s no secret he was brought to Pittsburgh to “tweak” Ben Roethlisberger’s game, keep him healthy and re-establish the running game but sometimes you have to realize what works even when it isn’t exactly working how you wanted it to.

READ MORE: http://www.steelcityblitz.com/2014/10/30/haley-revert-back-previous-ways/

I think that Bryant has been the biggest addition to the offense thus far. He sure has help spread out the field. I'm glad to see that the FB screen has been out of the game plan for a couple of weeks but I bet we see it again at some point and I bet it goes for big yards.

I can't say enough about Bryant. He looks like a Megatron "type" receiver that will present a real problem for opposing Ds. Haley must keep him in the game to open things up.

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What I have to be when it comes to Haley is honest. If I can rip him then I need to praise him when necessary.

Obviously, there are are a LOT of Haley Haters out there. And even if we win the Super Bowl and finish No. 1 in scoring with the No. 1 overall offense, they'll say it's all because of Ben and in spite of Haley. That's just the way it goes.

At the same time, I don't recall running across anyone who loves Haley. Even Arians had his diehard supporters, but from what I've seen, Haley doesn't have that kind of support. Instead, anyone who isn't a Haley Hater has been willing to give him a chance and avoided hitting the panic button. Those fans are fair in both their criticism and praise. That's the way it should be.

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It’s no secret he was brought to Pittsburgh to “tweak” Ben Roethlisberger’s game, keep him healthy and re-establish the running game but sometimes you have to realize what works even when it isn’t exactly working how you wanted it to.

keep him healthy: Ben played in all 16 games last season and has played in all 8 this season.

re-establish the running game: Bell is the third-leading rusher in the NFL.

“tweak” Ben Roethlisberger’s game: Ben is the third-ranked QB in the NFL.

For better or worse, Haley is doing what he was brought in to do. Unfortunately, it hasn't translated into enough wins yet. But Haley shouldn't shoulder all the blame for that. The defense has played a significant role in the Steelers' mediocrity the past few seasons.

Right now, I give Haley a grade of C.

My early knock on Haley was the same as BA,no adjustments during the game. Haley is evolving and so far IMHO he is learning how to taking full advantage of the talent at hand. I applaud playing Bryant and his play calling last week was nothing less than great. Giving Ben all the credit would be Crashish. Don't look now I think I invented a new word.

solardave wrote:

My early knock on Haley was the same as BA,no adjustments during the game. Haley is evolving and so far IMHO he is learning how to taking full advantage of the talent at hand. I applaud playing Bryant and his play calling last week was nothing less than great. Giving Ben all the credit would be Crashish. Don't look now I think I invented a new word.

Though the record may not reflect it, some of the numbers are starting to with regard to the changes Haley has made. If we continue to play like this on the offensive side of the ball, make the playoffs, and make a solid run... I think these growing pains will be well worth it.

Here is the thing with Haley:

His plays as designed aren't bad at all. But I don't think he is good at knowing when to call what. I've heard a lot about coordinators being better in the press box where he can see the game from above, maybe he would be better that way.

When the Steelers are running the no-huddle, or at least when they seem to be letting Ben call the plays at the line of scrimmage (he gives two plays in the huddle, and then chooses which one to go with at the LOS) the Steelers offense seems to work well.

When Haley seems to be calling the plays into the huddle, the offense seems stagnant and very predictable.

Everyone points to his success in Arizona that lead to his head coaching gig with the Chiefs for why he's a good OC. However, lets look at the talent he had in Arizona:

QB - Kurt Warner
WR - Larry Fitzgerald/Anquan Boldin/Steve Breaston
RB - Edgerrin James/Tim Hightower

That's a pretty damn good collection of skill players on offense. Warner & Fitz are likely Hall of Fame players, Boldin has a shot at that too.

The offensive line was pretty good, especially with Warner who probably had the fastest release since Marino.

Also, I think that Ken Whisenhut called a lot of the plays on those teams. I think Haley handled the game planning, but Whiz called many of the plays on gameday.

If Haley is willing to allow Ben to run the offense, and run a lot of the no huddle, then I don't have a problem with him being here. But if he's going to go back and forth, then he's got to go because that isn't what he seems to be good at.