Steelers are perplexed by hit-or-miss offense

By Scott Brown, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Answers, like offense in the second half Sunday at Heinz Field, proved to be elusive in the Steelers' locker room.

Then again, it is hard to explain how an offense that had seemingly hit its stride suddenly went into the fetal position.

"It's frustrating, because my expectations for this offense are so high," quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said after the Steelers held off the Jacksonville Jaguars, 17-13.

That frustration is understandable and shared by more than Roethlisberger.

The Steelers' offense is brimming with talented skill players, and it entered 2011 with lofty expectations. Yet six games into the season the unit remains something of a puzzle.

Read more: Steelers are perplexed by hit-or-miss offense - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/steelers/s_762396.html#ixzz1b6f0rw8R
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So let the armchair quarterbacking begin. What's the problem?

Dubs, I'm not sure I agree that they slipped into neutral and were coasting. I think the opposite is true ... They were trying to score on practically every play by going deep so much. Our receivers were open deep, but the wind was a factor, according to Ben. Had the wind not been a factor, we probably would have lit Jacksonville up. But the wind WAS a factor, so why keep trying to throw deep?

Also according to Ben, the Jags were covering all the underneath stuff, and that's why he was throwing deep. I need someone with more Xs and Os knowledge to explain this to me. How is it that J'ville was able to cover all the underneath stuff on every play? And why wasn't Arians able to call plays to free up stuff underneath? In my opinion, I think the reason why the offense struggled is because they got away from what worked against the Titans and what worked on the first drive against the Jags.You can blame Ben or you can blame Arians, but I think that's what the problem is.

No, I was asking how is it possible that J'ville's D coordinator was successfully able to shut down all of our underneath routes? Why wasn't Arians able to call plays to free guys up? I was politely trying to say that Arians was outcoached.

I kind of agree with Dubs that the offense went in to neutral during the second half and almost acted as if they had the game in the back. Then after the roughing the punter call, it seemed the bounce of the ball went J-ville's way.

Defense started to lose focus, and lacked discipline in key 3rd down situations.
Offense took the foot off the throttle and instead of taking what was given underneath, went for the long ball too many times in the second half. It seems the no huddle, and the dink-dunk rules do not exist for our offense.

Wally, I do agree that Arians was out coached in the second half. Tell me how, yet again, our offense can not make key adjustments in the second half once they realize the other team has made their key adjustments.

With the patriots* coming to town in two weeks, this team can not continue to play halfsies football and think it's going to get the job done. Such thinking by players and/or coaches will get us slaughtered by the cheaters! And as much as I hate belicheat, marsha, and the patriots*, they are the best in the game at making adjustments on the fly!

stlrtruck wrote:

I kind of agree with Dubs that the offense went in to neutral during the second half and almost acted as if they had the game in the back.

I'm not sure I get what you guys are saying. When I think of a team taking it's foot off the pedal, or going into neutral ... or whatever ... because they think the game is over, I think of a team that sits on the ball and doesn't really try to score. That's not what I saw. I saw them chucking the ball deep on almost every possession in the second half. They were trying to score; they just couldn't. I think it was poor play calling and execution. I didn't get the sense that they thought the game was over at halftime and they weren't trying. If they were just "coasting" or "in neutral," why were they throwing deep?

Wallace108 wrote:

stlrtruck wrote:

I kind of agree with Dubs that the offense went in to neutral during the second half and almost acted as if they had the game in the back.

I'm not sure I get what you guys are saying. When I think of a team taking it's foot off the pedal, or going into neutral ... or whatever ... because they think the game is over, I think of a team that sits on the ball and doesn't really try to score. That's not what I saw. I saw them chucking the ball deep on almost every possession in the second half. They were trying to score; they just couldn't. I think it was poor play calling and execution. I didn't get the sense that they thought the game was over at halftime and they weren't trying. If they were just "coasting" or "in neutral," why were they throwing deep?

What I mean is they went away from what was working, and instead of being aggressive, they just sat back and didn't seem as 'motivated' to move the ball down field and when they couldn't run they would try a bomb instead of just looking at first downs.

stlrtruck wrote:

Wallace108 wrote:

stlrtruck wrote:

I kind of agree with Dubs that the offense went in to neutral during the second half and almost acted as if they had the game in the back.

I'm not sure I get what you guys are saying. When I think of a team taking it's foot off the pedal, or going into neutral ... or whatever ... because they think the game is over, I think of a team that sits on the ball and doesn't really try to score. That's not what I saw. I saw them chucking the ball deep on almost every possession in the second half. They were trying to score; they just couldn't. I think it was poor play calling and execution. I didn't get the sense that they thought the game was over at halftime and they weren't trying. If they were just "coasting" or "in neutral," why were they throwing deep?

What I mean is they went away from what was working, and instead of being aggressive, they just sat back and didn't seem as 'motivated' to move the ball down field and when they couldn't run they would try a bomb instead of just looking at first downs.

I agree that they went away from what was working. Study Bruce Arians even in his Cleveland days ... that's what he does. If something is working, he stops doing it.

But I disagree that they weren't being aggressive. They threw the ball deep on every possession in the second half. How is that not being aggressive or trying to move the ball downfield?

If you want to leave it at they got away from what was working, I'll agree with that. But I don't agree that they thought the game was over at halftime and they took their foot off the pedal. If that was the case, they wouldn't have been throwing to the end zone so much. If they took their foot off the pedal, they would have been running the ball and trying to kill the clock.

Wallace108 wrote:

But I disagree that they weren't being aggressive. They threw the ball deep on every possession in the second half. How is that not being aggressive or trying to move the ball downfield?

If you want to leave it at they got away from what was working, I'll agree with that. But I don't agree that they thought the game was over at halftime and they took their foot off the pedal. If that was the case, they wouldn't have been throwing to the end zone so much. If they took their foot off the pedal, they would have been running the ball and trying to kill the clock.

When you go run-run-deep pass every time you have the ball, it's easy to defend and they used the deep pass as a means to make up ground they were losing by playing in neutral. Had they kept the throttle down, they could have used a lot more short gains and moved the ball with the same efficiency..instead it appeared as if they thought the game was in the bag and went back to run-run-oh crap we need the long ball incompletion-punt

Great info by all yens but our line stinks and we can not run the air out of the game like we used to. instead of I hate B/A lets take vote about how pathetic C/K and lets vote him off the island.

blastfurness wrote:

Great info by all yens but our line stinks and we can not run the air out of the game like we used to. instead of I hate B/A lets take vote about how pathetic C/K and lets vote him off the island.

C/K?

Arians told everybody it would happen remember

"everything is back to normal"