Game Balls & Goats (Steelers vs. Jets)

I'll expand on this more later because a few players and coaches deserve special attention, but for now I'll keep it simple.

Game Balls

No one

Goats

Everyone

I'm so upset I can't even think straight. Listened to the game on Steeler's radio, and wish I had gone on a hike with a friend instead.

I honestly don't know what to say. Except advice for any budding fan:

Key to being a Steeler's fan

1) Expect the unexpected
2) If you are looking for consistency, look elsewhere
3) If you plan to place a bet while visiting Vegas, bet against the Steelers when they play the bottom feeders, bet for the Steelers when they play teams that are division leaders.

I shouldn't even be posting. I should be in shock, but for whatever reason I'm not. I'm just super po'd at the moment. Once again......

Gingerchip wrote:

3)  If you plan to place a bet while visiting Vegas, bet against the Steelers when they play the bottom feeders, bet for the Steelers when they play teams that are division leaders.

I told my son that I wish we were playing the Broncos or the Patriots* next week instead of the Titans. Maybe it's just me, but when they play teams like the Browns, Jets, Bucs, and Jags, they play like they expect to win and are just going through the motions. When they play good teams, they play with intensity and purpose.

Game balls: From what I heard on the radio, no one stood out

Goats: From what I heard on the radio, everyone


Maybe its just time for another Captain and Coke.

Actually, I heard Harrison's name mentioned favorably a couple of times, but otherwise.......

Still can't believe we lost to a dog killer and a man with a foot fetish.

You can set your watch to how these games against dogshit teams go, count on a loss. It's amazing, even when all week that's all Tomlin talks about, not playing down to the level of your opponent and never taking an NFL game for granted...that's exactly what they do.

Embarrassing football. Embarrassing effort. Predictable result.

Go home Steelers, you're drunk.

Gingerchip wrote:

Actually, I heard Harrison's name mentioned favorably a couple of times, but otherwise.......

Harrison made one good play where he hit Vick on the sideline and caused a fumble. Refs ruled no fumble (bullshit call), but that was about it. Other than that, Harrison was quiet all game.

Yeah, everyone is a game goat after today.

Heath and Blake get game balls because they didn't mess anything else from what I saw.

Other than that, we might as well be called the Pittsburgh Goats for a week.

Usually, I stew over a loss for an hour or two and let it go (even when the Rat's beat us).  After all, it is just a game.

For some reason, this loss just broke my heart.  They were so brilliant the last couple of weeks and I just can't wrap my head around wtf happened.  If the Pats* or AZ would have beat us, it wouldn't have bothered me as much as this particular loss -- and I don't even dislike the Jets as much as the Pats*.

No game balls for sure.

Goats: Ben for telegraphing throws into triple coverage and sticking to Haley's lousy game plan. We're down by 14 with a little over 12 minutes left and WE'RE RUNNING THE BALL!!!! This was a team with a worse secondary than us and we didn't take shots all day. Instead we throw screens? O-line for taking a vacation.

Our entire defense for not tackling but instead looking like bumbling idiots falling at Vick's feet. We also did a poor job covering receivers that I can't even re-call their names except Deker.
Blount on kick offs is a joke. At least Wheaton got us out past the 20 twice I think.

If Suisham doesn't miss A DAMN 23 yard field goal he would have gotten a game ball because he did make that 53 yarder.

Tomlin for not getting through to these guys how important EVERY GAME IS no matter who we are playing. Maybe he needs to approach these games against teams we should beat like the pre-season and evaluate some of our younger players. I mean if we're going to lose we might as well find out who wants to play.

The refs botched 2 calls. The no call on Vick's fumble and the so called offside on the onside kick. Still we didn't play good enough to deserve a win!! Hell, we just didn't play at all. I could go on and on but it's old news, we can't beat the chumps.

The biggest goats for me is the coaches. Despite all the talk all week about not looking past the Jets, they looked like they weren't ready to play. And here's a few questions I have ...

Why did Haley abandon what had worked the past few weeks and go back to what had not been working?
Regardless of the thinking coming in, why didn't they go vertical sooner rather than continue to throw screens and short passes when it wasn't working?
Why were Bryant and Harrison not involved in the game earlier?
Down 17 with 7 minutes left and a short fourth down inside the 10, why did they kick a field goal instead of trying to get the touchdown?
Why was Harrison on the field and running a pass route on a crucial red zone opportunity?

Not to take anything away from our own ineptitude, but I'm also giving a goat to the refs. Vick's fumble was clearly a fumble. I can understand the refs missing it on the field because watching it live, it looked like he went out of bounds. But on replay, he clearly lost the ball in bounds. I have no clue how that wasn't ruled a fumble. Also, I'm not convinced that Brown's first fumble was a fumble. I watched it 6 or 7 times in slow motion, and it looked to me like he never had possession of the ball.

Here's a video of Brown's "fumble." This is the only video I can find, and it doesn't give a good replay. But for anyone who didn't see it ... https://sports.yahoo.com/video/pittsburgh-steelers-wide-receiver-antonio-183700124.html

What you can't tell from the video is that the ball makes contact with Brown's left hand first. The ball then shifts over to his right hand and gets poked out. The ball was constantly moving in his arms up to the point it was poked out. He never really had possession of it (in my opinion).

Good insight Wallace.

I didn't think about the Brown fumble in as much detail as the Vick one. And then the offside call which was complete BS. The Gay dropped INT also lead to 3 Jets points. Give us that Vick fumble and the game turns out much differently IMO.

I'm really not convinced the game was as bad as everyone made it out to be. It was mind-numbingly frustrating as a fan, but they drove the ball well, etc. It was just like the Baltimore game, where they shot themselves in the foot each time they were in striking distance. Same gift wrapped TD to the Bucs at home too. The only game the Steelers flat out lost was against Cleveland. The other 3 are all go down to them beating themselves, which is becoming a recurring theme over the last 3 years.

Going down 17 in the first quarter didn't help matters either.

Here's a link to my blog about the game: Likes and Dislikes: Steelers vs. Jets

SteelCityUnderground wrote:

I'm really not convinced the game was as bad as everyone made it out to be. It was mind-numbingly frustrating as a fan, but they drove the ball well, etc. It was just like the Baltimore game, where they shot themselves in the foot each time they were in striking distance.

Frustrating is exactly the right word. Sometimes the other team is just better. Sometimes the opposing offense and/or defense just plays better. Sometimes an opposing player just makes a play. Sometimes there's no blame in failure in being outperformed ... the other team is getting paid and trying to win, too. But it's frustrating to see things that don't need to happen. On Ben's first pick, it was obvious to everyone (including the Jets) that he was throwing to Bryant. After a few series of not throwing vertically, I was yelling for them to throw the F'ing ball downfield. I don't think we were outplayed by the Jets in as much as we beat ourselves ... in both coaching and execution. And that's frustrating.

Agreed. We forget they do take some shots down field. Sometimes too many. Sometimes not as many as we'd like.

I think a few of those potential plays is where Ben got sacked or ended up with a dump or shovel pass to Bell and Miller.

The Bryant pass turned into pick, for a guy who pump fakes so much, he telegraphed it badly.

Biggest head scratcher for me is why complete a pass to Will Johnson that loses 5-10 yards when you can throw it away?

And why Blount, why are you not running FORWARD???

So many questions.

So few answers.

Tons of frustration.

Wallace108 wrote:

The biggest goats for me is the coaches. Despite all the talk all week about not looking past the Jets, they looked like they weren't ready to play.

I normally don't disagree with you Wally, but I'm calling out the players first and foremost. The coaches can only do so much and should never be looked at as the motivation for the team to win. That has to come from the players. If the players can't get motivated for each and every opponent, then you have a character flaw within the team. I never relied on a coach to get me pumped up to play and my intensity was just as strong playing for analytical coaches as it was for fire-breathing coaches. This team is 1-8 versus opponents with only 20% wins or worse in the last few years and that tells me the players are not taking those games seriously.

Wallace108 wrote:

Why did Haley abandon what had worked the past few weeks and go back to what had not been working?
Regardless of the thinking coming in, why didn't they go vertical sooner rather than continue to throw screens and short passes when it wasn't working?

I noticed the Jets were in 3 deep on the interception intended for Wheaton. I also heard on the Tunch and Wolf show that the Jets rotated between 3 deep and quarters. Those are generally used as prevent defenses. Given the beginning of the season when opposing teams were running with 2 deep safeties, it seems the recipe for beating Ben is force him to make decisions underneath. And it's working. The Jets have a strong front 7 that took away the runs, screens and underneath passes. That sh!tty secondary was told to not get beat deep. This is where I think they might have been able to take advantage of Archer's athleticism, but he's not ready yet and it would have been a sure tip that they intended to abandon the run.

Wallace108 wrote:

Down 17 with 7 minutes left and a short fourth down inside the 10, why did they kick a field goal instead of trying to get the touchdown?

When they first put the fieldgoal team out there, I thought the same thing. But after some consideration, it made total sense that if the offense was able to get moving, those 3 points would have helped.

Wallace108 wrote:

Why was Harrison on the field and running a pass route on a crucial red zone opportunity?

Totally agree here. Will Johnson is a stud FB. It would have been nice to finally pound one in from the 1 yard line. When I first saw Harrison out there, I thought maybe Johnson was hurt and Harrison was his back-up. But when they tried to throw to him, that just was not all that inspiring. Yep, it would have been a story to tell if Harrison catches it and the Steelers win, but what the hell? Go with the man who won the roster spot.

Game Ball:

Blake: thought he played well and looks to be improving each week; after the 1st quarter, the defense really settled down. I'm not giving the game ball to the entire defense because they gave up 17 points to start the game, but thought they played well after the 1st. Think about giving up 20 points when the offense has 4 turn overs (2 of those turn overs are deep in their own territory). I'll take that all day long.

Goats:

The entire offense. Ben, Antonio, Bryant (for dropping an easy 3rd down pass), the line, the backs. That was a pathetic showing and they should be more embarrassed then they probably are. They lost the game, period.

Suisham. Great 53 yarder, but that 23 yard miss is exactly what happened to our offense ... total lack of focus on execution.

I agree with you Kirkland that it's not totally up to the coaches to get a team fired up, but they certainly can help. Execution coupled with the play calling changed caused us to lose that game. I know that what we see from the TV camera and what coaches/players see doesn't always tell the story. BR7 just looked off all game. Throwing off the back foot? Throwing into triple coverage? His best throws were the impromptu ones. I don't know if people weren't open or if he started to get happy feet but that kind of offense isn't going to win us another game.