Mendenhall's role diminishes as Steelers offense comes to pass

By Gerry Dulac, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Among Rashard Mendenhall's latest beliefs is teams who run the ball can still win in the pass-oriented NFL.

Never mind that most of the top teams in the league still believe the path to the Super Bowl is through the air.

Crazy, huh?

Not to Mendenhall, the Steelers' top running back.

"I still think that's the formula to win," Mendenhall said. "I feel like the successful teams, when you look at the Broncos and what they're doing and the Texans and teams like that, teams that are able to run the ball, they have balance on offense and it does nothing but help them. Plus it gives your defense a break."

The Steelers (8-3) are like most of the NFL's top teams: They have leaned heavily on the pass in 2011, more than they did last year.

And the person most affected is Mendenhall, who has seen his workload -- not to mention his impact on the offense -- diminish.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11337/1194309-66-0.stm?cmpid=steelers.xml#ixzz1fRsyPTY2
---------------------------------------------


But I thought Arians said Mendy was the lead dog ...

Do you believe everything you hear from Arians?

What you didn't hear from Arians is that Mendy is ONLY lead dog WHEN they run.

You know there are teams that pass to set up the run, then there are teams that run to set up the pass. We are the latter. The media-hype would have you believe otherwise but everyone knows the Steelers run the ball. While our core strengths on offense (as far as weapons) have shifted to WR and not RB, without an offensive line to hold off the pass rush we can not be the team that sets up the run with the pass. We still need the offensive line to open up holes consistently when we run and they can't do that.

You can blame injuries, you can blame execution, you can blame Arians, or you can blame them all. But the bottomline is we need to run the ball and we need to run the ball better in order for our passing game to be tops.

l perfer the pass to set up the run offense when you have a QB like Ben and the WRs and TEs the Steelers now have. l also perfer the more athletic o-line men then the huge slower o-line men.

when you can pass the ball your running game looks more powerful because you are running against less 8 man fronts.

you still need a running game in the NFL but doesn't have to be a dominant one but one with enough push to make defenses respect it.

also salary cap what gets you more bang for your buck.

effyou515 wrote:

l perfer the pass to set up the run offense when you have a QB like Ben and the WRs and TEs the Steelers now have. l also perfer the more athletic o-line men then the huge slower o-line men.

when you can pass the ball your running game looks more powerful because you are running against less 8 man fronts.

you still need a running game in the NFL but doesn't have to be a dominant one but one with enough push to make defenses respect it.

also salary cap what gets you more bang for your buck.

I could handle the pass to set up the run IF we had the more athletic o-line men.

stlrtruck wrote:

effyou515 wrote:

l perfer the pass to set up the run offense when you have a QB like Ben and the WRs and TEs the Steelers now have. l also perfer the more athletic o-line men then the huge slower o-line men.

when you can pass the ball your running game looks more powerful because you are running against less 8 man fronts.

you still need a running game in the NFL but doesn't have to be a dominant one but one with enough push to make defenses respect it.

also salary cap what gets you more bang for your buck.

I could handle the pass to set up the run IF we had the more athletic o-line men.

Actually we take sacks and losses behind the line to set up both the run and the pass.

I agree we need better lineman whether they're big or athletic. In this day and age there are both, look at Pouncey. He's is not small but he is athletic. The problem is most of these guys are gone by the time we pick. Maybe we need to rebuild through loooosing. NOT A SOLUTION!!! It seems here lately (last 2 drafts) we've managed to find a couple. Pouncey and Gilbert. By the time Ben is ready to retire we'll give him all the time he needs.

Did anyone catch what the announcers said about blitzing against the Steelers during last Sundays game?

supytalpeht wrote:

Did anyone catch what the announcers said about blitzing against the Steelers during last Sundays game?

I remember them saying something, but I can't remember exactly what it was. I could be way off, but wasn't it something like teams blitz more against the Steelers than they do other teams?

effyou515 wrote:

l perfer the pass to set up the run offense when you have a QB like Ben and the WRs and TEs the Steelers now have.

Your chances of completing a 40-yard pass are much higher than getting a 40-yard run. So it makes more sense to use your running game to try to set up that 40-yard pass than it does to use your passing game to try to set up that 40-yard run.

Wallace108 wrote:

supytalpeht wrote:

Did anyone catch what the announcers said about blitzing against the Steelers during last Sundays game?

I remember them saying something, but I can't remember exactly what it was. I could be way off, but wasn't it something like teams blitz more against the Steelers than they do other teams?

Teams blitz us almost 50% of the time, more than any other team in the league.

supytalpeht wrote:

Wallace108 wrote:

supytalpeht wrote:

Did anyone catch what the announcers said about blitzing against the Steelers during last Sundays game?

I remember them saying something, but I can't remember exactly what it was. I could be way off, but wasn't it something like teams blitz more against the Steelers than they do other teams?

Teams blitz us almost 50% of the time, more than any other team in the league.

So what can we infer from this?

Wallace108 wrote:

supytalpeht wrote:

Wallace108 wrote:

supytalpeht wrote:

Did anyone catch what the announcers said about blitzing against the Steelers during last Sundays game?

I remember them saying something, but I can't remember exactly what it was. I could be way off, but wasn't it something like teams blitz more against the Steelers than they do other teams?

Teams blitz us almost 50% of the time, more than any other team in the league.

So what can we infer from this?

Our offensive line has major problems with moving targets and Ben is slow in the decision making department.

supytalpeht wrote:

Wallace108 wrote:

supytalpeht wrote:

Wallace108 wrote:

supytalpeht wrote:

Did anyone catch what the announcers said about blitzing against the Steelers during last Sundays game?

I remember them saying something, but I can't remember exactly what it was. I could be way off, but wasn't it something like teams blitz more against the Steelers than they do other teams?

Teams blitz us almost 50% of the time, more than any other team in the league.

So what can we infer from this?

Our offensive line has major problems with moving targets and Ben is slow in the decision making department.

I don't disagree. And here's where I think Arians hurts us by being stubborn. Arians has his system, and he's going to run it even if he doesn't have the talent to do it. Rather than trying to create a system to fit the talent, he's trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Look at what Denver is doing with Tebow. No one will ever mistake Tebow for Joe Montana, so Denver has structured the offense around what he can do. But Arians has his system, and he's going to run it no matter what the players' strengths are. I'd be willing to bet that if Arians was Denver's OC, Tebow would be dropping back and throwing the ball downfield every play.

Wallace108 wrote:

supytalpeht wrote:

Wallace108 wrote:

supytalpeht wrote:

Wallace108 wrote:

supytalpeht wrote:

Did anyone catch what the announcers said about blitzing against the Steelers during last Sundays game?

I remember them saying something, but I can't remember exactly what it was. I could be way off, but wasn't it something like teams blitz more against the Steelers than they do other teams?

Teams blitz us almost 50% of the time, more than any other team in the league.

So what can we infer from this?

Our offensive line has major problems with moving targets and Ben is slow in the decision making department.

I don't disagree. And here's where I think Arians hurts us by being stubborn. Arians has his system, and he's going to run it even if he doesn't have the talent to do it. Rather than trying to create a system to fit the talent, he's trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Look at what Denver is doing with Tebow. No one will ever mistake Tebow for Joe Montana, so Denver has structured the offense around what he can do. But Arians has his system, and he's going to run it no matter what the players' strengths are. I'd be willing to bet that if Arians was Denver's OC, Tebow would be dropping back and throwing the ball downfield every play.

Your hatred for Arians knows no bounds. Changing OC doesn't fix the problem of having big lumbering guards that struggle in space. Some of you act as if we throw deep 10-15 times a game when in reality we take 1-2 shots a half at most. On just about every Sunday the lions share of the fire Arians crew starts talking about "he called a pretty good game today" or "he's done a much better job this year" and then by Tuesday ya'll are right back to fire Arians, he sucks.

There are some good points made here. We do need better lineman and BA is stubborn. He has called better games this year but he also has had a few where you have to wonder when he'll get his head out of his ass. He calls a lot of runs agaainst teams that can't defend the pass and throws against the ones who can't stop the run.

He puts Moore in on the goal line instead of Redman.

Back to our lineman. They're almost always getting stuffed right at the line with the exception of Pouncey. We need a young Fanaca type who can do it all. I think Gilbert will be good. We need starters and let (Kemo, Legursky,Starks) be our backups so we do have depth.

I would be very curious to see how many audibles Ben calls during the course of a game. I've seen comments by people like Lolley that he audibles "quite a bit", but don't know how to quantify that.

supytalpeht wrote:

Your hatred for Arians knows no bounds.

I can't argue with that.

supytalpeht wrote:

Some of you act as if we throw deep 10-15 times a game when in reality we take 1-2 shots a half at most.

We're not talking about the long bombs. We're talking about the 10-20 yard passes. Admittedly, some of the problem could be Ben trying to force things rather than take what's given to him.

supytalpeht wrote:

On just about every Sunday the lions share of the fire Arians crew starts talking about "he called a pretty good game today" or "he's done a much better job this year" and then by Tuesday ya'll are right back to fire Arians, he sucks.

The only good, complete game Arians called this year was against the Titans.

Here's a post I made at SF that may or may not be relevant in this discussion:

Quote :

I was just looking at the scoring by quarters tonight. Our defense has given up 92 points in the first half of games and 96 in the second half. The defense is consistent regardless of quarter or half. The offense, on the other hand, is much better in the first half, scoring 142 points compared with 91 in the second half. The numbers suggest that if we're losing at halftime, we're going to lose the game. In fact, we've been down at the half four times this season, and we've lost 3 of those games.

There has to be a reason why our offense is a lot worse in the second half (and particularly late in the fourth quarter). I don't think the offensive line plays better in the first half than it does the second. I don't think Ben holds onto the ball longer in the second half. What makes sense to me is that teams are making adjustments at halftime and Arians isn't (or at least not the right adjustments). This is why it's hard for us to win by 20 points, unless we have a 30 point lead at halftime.

Wallace108 wrote:

supytalpeht wrote:

Your hatred for Arians knows no bounds.

I can't argue with that.

supytalpeht wrote:

Some of you act as if we throw deep 10-15 times a game when in reality we take 1-2 shots a half at most.

We're not talking about the long bombs. We're talking about the 10-20 yard passes. Admittedly, some of the problem could be Ben trying to force things rather than take what's given to him.

supytalpeht wrote:

On just about every Sunday the lions share of the fire Arians crew starts talking about "he called a pretty good game today" or "he's done a much better job this year" and then by Tuesday ya'll are right back to fire Arians, he sucks.

The only good, complete game Arians called this year was against the Titans.

Here's a post I made at SF that may or may not be relevant in this discussion:

Quote :

I was just looking at the scoring by quarters tonight. Our defense has given up 92 points in the first half of games and 96 in the second half. The defense is consistent regardless of quarter or half. The offense, on the other hand, is much better in the first half, scoring 142 points compared with 91 in the second half. The numbers suggest that if we're losing at halftime, we're going to lose the game. In fact, we've been down at the half four times this season, and we've lost 3 of those games.

There has to be a reason why our offense is a lot worse in the second half (and particularly late in the fourth quarter). I don't think the offensive line plays better in the first half than it does the second. I don't think Ben holds onto the ball longer in the second half. What makes sense to me is that teams are making adjustments at halftime and Arians isn't (or at least not the right adjustments). This is why it's hard for us to win by 20 points, unless we have a 30 point lead at halftime.

I tried to post a response to this before the game, but the "forum update" killed it 3 times so this will have too suffice. Todays game illustrates perfectly what your points scored and points allowed observations misses.

supytalpeht wrote:

Wallace108 wrote:

supytalpeht wrote:

Your hatred for Arians knows no bounds.

I can't argue with that.

supytalpeht wrote:

Some of you act as if we throw deep 10-15 times a game when in reality we take 1-2 shots a half at most.

We're not talking about the long bombs. We're talking about the 10-20 yard passes. Admittedly, some of the problem could be Ben trying to force things rather than take what's given to him.

supytalpeht wrote:

On just about every Sunday the lions share of the fire Arians crew starts talking about "he called a pretty good game today" or "he's done a much better job this year" and then by Tuesday ya'll are right back to fire Arians, he sucks.

The only good, complete game Arians called this year was against the Titans.

Here's a post I made at SF that may or may not be relevant in this discussion:

Quote :

I was just looking at the scoring by quarters tonight. Our defense has given up 92 points in the first half of games and 96 in the second half. The defense is consistent regardless of quarter or half. The offense, on the other hand, is much better in the first half, scoring 142 points compared with 91 in the second half. The numbers suggest that if we're losing at halftime, we're going to lose the game. In fact, we've been down at the half four times this season, and we've lost 3 of those games.

There has to be a reason why our offense is a lot worse in the second half (and particularly late in the fourth quarter). I don't think the offensive line plays better in the first half than it does the second. I don't think Ben holds onto the ball longer in the second half. What makes sense to me is that teams are making adjustments at halftime and Arians isn't (or at least not the right adjustments). This is why it's hard for us to win by 20 points, unless we have a 30 point lead at halftime.

I tried to post a response to this before the game, but the "forum update" killed it 3 times so this will have too suffice. Todays game illustrates perfectly what your points scored and points allowed observations misses.

Today's game illustrated that everything me and others have said is spot on. Ben threw only 23 passes, and we ran the ball consistently. This was not the usual Arians game plan. And what was the result? 35-7 victory. How can you argue with that?

Wallace108 wrote:

supytalpeht wrote:

Wallace108 wrote:

supytalpeht wrote:

Your hatred for Arians knows no bounds.

I can't argue with that.

supytalpeht wrote:

Some of you act as if we throw deep 10-15 times a game when in reality we take 1-2 shots a half at most.

We're not talking about the long bombs. We're talking about the 10-20 yard passes. Admittedly, some of the problem could be Ben trying to force things rather than take what's given to him.

supytalpeht wrote:

On just about every Sunday the lions share of the fire Arians crew starts talking about "he called a pretty good game today" or "he's done a much better job this year" and then by Tuesday ya'll are right back to fire Arians, he sucks.

The only good, complete game Arians called this year was against the Titans.

Here's a post I made at SF that may or may not be relevant in this discussion:

Quote :

I was just looking at the scoring by quarters tonight. Our defense has given up 92 points in the first half of games and 96 in the second half. The defense is consistent regardless of quarter or half. The offense, on the other hand, is much better in the first half, scoring 142 points compared with 91 in the second half. The numbers suggest that if we're losing at halftime, we're going to lose the game. In fact, we've been down at the half four times this season, and we've lost 3 of those games.

There has to be a reason why our offense is a lot worse in the second half (and particularly late in the fourth quarter). I don't think the offensive line plays better in the first half than it does the second. I don't think Ben holds onto the ball longer in the second half. What makes sense to me is that teams are making adjustments at halftime and Arians isn't (or at least not the right adjustments). This is why it's hard for us to win by 20 points, unless we have a 30 point lead at halftime.

I tried to post a response to this before the game, but the "forum update" killed it 3 times so this will have too suffice. Todays game illustrates perfectly what your points scored and points allowed observations misses.

Today's game illustrated that everything me and others have said is spot on. Ben threw only 23 passes, and we ran the ball consistently. This was not the usual Arians game plan. And what was the result? 35-7 victory. How can you argue with that?

and 3 touchdowns in a few minutes doesn''t have shit to do with play calling. My comment about your observations is 100% accurate. It doesn't take anything into account like turnovers, time of possesion ....

supytalpeht wrote:

and 3 touchdowns in a few minutes doesn''t have shit to do with play calling. My comment about your observations is 100% accurate. It doesn't take anything into account like turnovers, time of possesion ....

There's a saying ... the proof is in the pudding (actually, the saying is "the proof of the pudding is in the tasting," ... but we bastardize it). There have been two games this season where Arians has gone away from his usual play calling. The Titans game and today's Bengals game. Both games were our best games of the season. Going forward, Arians has a choice ... he can put in game plans like we saw today and like what we saw against the Titans, or he can have Ben drop back and throw downfield 50 times. But the proof is in the pudding.

Wallace108 wrote:

supytalpeht wrote:

and 3 touchdowns in a few minutes doesn''t have shit to do with play calling. My comment about your observations is 100% accurate. It doesn't take anything into account like turnovers, time of possesion ....

There's a saying ... the proof is in the pudding (actually, the saying is "the proof of the pudding is in the tasting," ... but we bastardize it). There have been two games this season where Arians has gone away from his usual play calling. The Titans game and today's Bengals game. Both games were our best games of the season. Going forward, Arians has a choice ... he can put in game plans like we saw today and like what we saw against the Titans, or he can have Ben drop back and throw downfield 50 times. But the proof is in the pudding.

First of all bullshit.


Dude, you're making this assumption that all defenses are created equal and require the same game plan. And to top it off your comparison of todays game and the Titans game couldn't be more off, against the Titans we were closer to 40 passing attempts than 20. Against the Titans we they took away the deep ball and gave us the underneath stuff and the play calling reflected that. Of course the following week against the Jags the defense did the exact opposite and ya'll called for Arians head for going against what worked and completely freaking ignored the fact that the jags had 10 men in the box for 90% of the game.

supytalpeht wrote:

First of all bullshit.

First of all, there's no point in even discussing this anymore. When we've run the ball and relied on short routes, we win convincingly. When Ben drops back and throws the ball downfield all game, the offense struggles. The proof is in the pudding.

Wallace108 wrote:

supytalpeht wrote:

First of all bullshit.

First of all, there's no point in even discussing this anymore. When we've run the ball and relied on short routes, we win convincingly. When Ben drops back and throws the ball downfield all game, the offense struggles. The proof is in the pudding.

huh

30 minutes ago it was limiting Ben's passes now it's relying on short routes...


Go ahead and ignore two different game plans against two different teams 8 weeks apart

supytalpeht wrote:

Wallace108 wrote:

supytalpeht wrote:

First of all bullshit.

First of all, there's no point in even discussing this anymore. When we've run the ball and relied on short routes, we win convincingly. When Ben drops back and throws the ball downfield all game, the offense struggles. The proof is in the pudding.

huh

30 minutes ago it was limiting Ben's passes now it's relying on short routes...


Go ahead and ignore two different game plans against two different teams 8 weeks apart

Dude, what made the game plans similar is that neither one had Ben dropping back and throwing the ball 20 yards down the field every play.

Seriously, there's no point in discussing this any more. You can continue to love Arians, and I'll continue to hate him. It is what it is.