Roethlisberger: We’re getting better and making improvements on offense

The Steelers have won two straight games to open the 2017 seasons, but that hasn’t stopped them from landing on the list of teams facing questions about their offensive effectiveness.
They are averaging 312.5 yards per game, which is down from what Pittsburgh put up last year and every other year since the 2008 season despite having plenty of talent on hand. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said Wednesday that the team would like to have more success, but that there is “no cause for concern” at this point.
“I don’t know if it will ever get to our expectations,” Roethlisberger said, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “If we expect perfect and put the bar really high … we should set goals that are almost unattainable so you can just be the best you can be. We’re not worried about guys that missed time. We’re winning football games. We’re getting better and making improvements.”

https://sports.yahoo.com/ben-roethlisberger-getting-better-making-120231796.html?src=rss
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Ben is saying what he needs to say, but we all know after two games the offense isn't even close to where it was expected to be. Heading into the third game, there can be no more excuses or rationalizations. If they don't play noticeably better, it's time to think about changes, starting with Haley.

Wallace108 wrote:

The Steelers have won two straight games to open the 2017 seasons, but that hasn’t stopped them from landing on the list of teams facing questions about their offensive effectiveness.
They are averaging 312.5 yards per game, which is down from what Pittsburgh put up last year and every other year since the 2008 season despite having plenty of talent on hand. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said Wednesday that the team would like to have more success, but that there is “no cause for concern” at this point.
“I don’t know if it will ever get to our expectations,” Roethlisberger said, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “If we expect perfect and put the bar really high … we should set goals that are almost unattainable so you can just be the best you can be. We’re not worried about guys that missed time. We’re winning football games. We’re getting better and making improvements.”

https://sports.yahoo.com/ben-roethlisberger-getting-better-making-120231796.html?src=rss
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Ben is saying what he needs to say, but we all know after two games the offense isn't even close to where it was expected to be. Heading into the third game, there can be no more excuses or rationalizations. If they don't play noticeably better, it's time to think about changes, starting with Haley.

don't think its Haley.

effyou515 wrote:

don't think its Haley.

We have to point the finger at either Haley or Ben. I think the blame lies with Haley. The playcalling and offensive sets have been horrendous. I used to blast Arians for things like overusing screens and going with an empty set on third and short. Haley is doing the same things.

The coordinator has to put the players in a position to succeed. Haley isn't doing that. We have way too much talent for the offense to look this mediocre.

The Bears game is make or break for me. If the offense looks sluggish yet again, Haley will be in the doghouse formerly occupied by Arians.

If the offense looks sharp against the Bears and gets on a roll, then I'll gladly eat some crow.

I think it's a mixture of Bens poor passing so far this year and Haley's play calling. Bens throws have been high or off the mark an awful lot this year leaving his receivers hanging out to dry or just really uncatchable footballs. He has been erratic at best so far this year. Haley has been pretty dismal at play calling so far and it's lead to a lack of consistent drives.

Ben has also overlooked wide open receivers in the middle of the field going for the long bombs. They need to start putting together better chain moving drives.

Don't overlook the Bell effect in this. Naturally after missing training camp he'll be rusty, but it doesn't look like what he's doing is instinctive, he's waiting for gaps because that's what he does rather than finding gaps if that makes sense.

I have been questioning whether Haley is making the stupid calls like running Bell on 3rd-21 or empty backfield on 3rd-3 when he could put Conner or Watson in to pick up a first. Screens and reverses aren't working. But is Ben calling audibles? I hope they straighten this out today and going forward.

To quote myself from earlier ...

Wallace108 wrote:

The Bears game is make or break for me. If the offense looks sluggish yet again, Haley will be in the doghouse formerly occupied by Arians.

Well, it is what it is. There's too much talent on this offense for it to look this mediocre. We can sugarcoat it all we want, but I'm afraid the Haley haters were right.

I was wrong, imo Haley cut down on the sacks but he is not the future of the Steelers offense.

effyou515 wrote:

I was wrong, imo Haley cut down on the sacks but he is not the future of the Steelers offense.

I've been wrong as well. I've defended Haley quite a bit over the years. But he's had plenty of time and plenty of weapons to work with. There's no excuse for the offense to look this pathetic.

Offense is a joke right now and hasn't improved at all. Look like a JV team out there struggling versus the Bears mediocre defense. Not all of this is on Haley though, they left plays out on the field. Bryant dropped a TD pass to start the game. Receivers were dropping passes, Ben was inaccurate (again), and our running game isn't scaring anyone. Playcalling is abysmal, the offense is one-dimensional, and they look like they have zero urgency out there.

This was a pathetic, embarrassing showing. Particularly disgusting since they've dedicated this season to Mr. Rooney. Sure didn't look like they were playing hard for Mr. Rooney to me. They seemed more focused on their little National Anthem showing than they were on winning a football game against a shitty opponent. Yet again we come out and lay a big fat egg against mediocre competition.

Glad I went to Pittsburgh last weekend instead of this travesty of a game. How embarrassing it would've been watching that in person surrounded by opposing fans. Watching these guys give Trump the attention he wanted by giving him a reaction, then following up that mess by playing like total shit. I was livid watching this game at home, I feel bad for our fans that traveled and that's what they were treated to.

Steelers' offense feels like its wasting talent after overtime loss

PITTSBURGH -- The Steelers' offense, advertised as one of the league's most high-powered, has failed to score more than 20 points in a game through three weeks.

Players have had enough after Sunday's 23-17 overtime loss to the Chicago Bears.

"We're so much better than this. It's tough to waste all the talent we have," guard David DeCastro said. "Look at the offense we have. If we're not putting up 350, 400 yards a game, it feels like we're wasting it."

The offense managed 282 yards against the winless Bears and averaged 302.33 yards per game for the season. The past three seasons, Pittsburgh has hovered between 372 and 411 yards per game.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/20808300

I'm starting to wonder if Ben is the same QB anymore. I don't want to make any knee jerk assumptions after 3 games, but so far he's shown us nothing.

Hate to say it but he's playing like someone who actually wants to retire

Fire Arians wrote:

I'm starting to wonder if Ben is the same QB anymore. I don't want to make any knee jerk assumptions after 3 games, but so far he's shown us nothing.

Hate to say it but he's playing like someone who actually wants to retire

Last year when he put the retirement talk out there I wondered how it would effect things moving forward. I'm not saying this is the reason the offense has underperformed. It's just been my experience in life that when the chief talks about quitting, retiring, whatever, it's harder for the indians to follow him.

Fire Arians wrote:

I'm starting to wonder if Ben is the same QB anymore. I don't want to make any knee jerk assumptions after 3 games, but so far he's shown us nothing.

Hate to say it but he's playing like someone who actually wants to retire

Yeah he doesn't look himself at all. He's been prone to throwing some ugly passes every once and awhile but the stuff he throws that's normally on the money just isn't accurate. Doesn't look like the same playmaker that he has been in the past and makes stupid mental mistakes that a veteran of his pedigree really shouldn't be making. I do think age factors in as well, Philip Rivers was drafted the same years as Ben, as well as Eli Manning and none of these guys have been having anywhere near the level of success you'd expect of them.

If he wants to win a Super Bowl he needs to step up his game and elevate the game of his teammates. If he can't do that, we're going to be an early out in the playoffs if we make them at all.

This offense is lacking in every aspect.

- Bell isn't running to his full potential
- Passes are either 2 yards or a bomb
- There's no consistency

Defensively, HA!
- inability to tackle
- inability to catch the ball, yep could've had a TO late and had a game winning TD/FG, but instead we get an OT loss.

Hopefully the Bears game was a wake-up call to this team like the Dolphins game was last season. There is too much talent on this team to be playing down, and underachieving as much as they have. We just got beat by a career backup QB, and a one-dimensional run heavy offense. No excuses should be made about how poorly they played on Sunday. They need to treat every game like a must-win. Championship teams don't take any of their opponents lightly, and they find ways to win. This team has some growing up to do, and I think they'll be doing some soul-searching leading up to the Baltimore game. There's no one team in this league right now that looks like it's miles head of every other team. Lots of rust across the league.

Fire Arians wrote:

I'm starting to wonder if Ben is the same QB anymore. I don't want to make any knee jerk assumptions after 3 games, but so far he's shown us nothing.

Hate to say it but he's playing like someone who actually wants to retire

Ben wasn't the sharpest knife in the draw the motorcycle accident still lingers.

dobbs

I don't think its Ben slowing down, although he has been forcing it into double coverage and/or missing the open receiver running the underneath route. From what i'm reading and games i was able to watch, the play-calling is weird. such as a running play with 8 men in the box and one safety deep? Of course bell will have little room to run. I don't know what Haley and/or Ben is thinking.

they got Eli Rogers, JJ Smith-Schuster and the TE's for the underneath stuff and they're not using them enough. Not to mention some dump off passes to Bell, specially near the redzone. Would like to see more of that and less of Ben trying to play hero ball all the time or trying to ram Bell into an 8 man front.

Steeler-in-west wrote:

I don't think its Ben slowing down, although he has been forcing it into double coverage and/or missing the open receiver running the underneath route. From what i'm reading and games i was able to watch, the play-calling is weird. such as a running play with 8 men in the box and one safety deep? Of course bell will have little room to run. I don't know what Haley and/or Ben is thinking.

they got Eli Rogers, JJ Smith-Schuster and the TE's for the underneath stuff and they're not using them enough. Not to mention some dump off passes to Bell, specially near the redzone. Would like to see more of that and less of Ben trying to play hero ball all the time or trying to ram Bell into an 8 man front.

I think it's a combination of Ben being rusty, receivers dropping balls they should catch, and mediocre playcalling. Really the entire offense hasn't been very effective. The running game is severely lacking as well. Really they can all do better, and have to do better as a unit. The running game needs to improve, and for that to happen the blocking has to get much better. The passing game needs to improve and for that to happen the receivers need to run crisper routes, and catch the ball when it hits their hands. The playcalling needs to get better, we cannot be running the ball into 8-man fronts, and we need to stop trying to do too much at times throwing the ball deep when we could easily just take what the defense is giving us on a situational basis. If they come out and stack the box hit them with the pass, if they back off, hit them with the short pass, or the run. The whole unit needs to be better. There's no excuses for how poorly they've been playing since Week 1.