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Changes have to be made to keep Big Ben from looking like a dead mosquito on a windshield

It took the Indianapolis Colts exactly one quarter of Sunday night’s game to figure out the Steeler offense and knock it square on its rump.  In the first 15 minutes of Sunday night’s game, Ben Roethlisberger had the best passing quarter of his career and Mike Wallace had his best receiving quarter ever.  For the remainder of the game, the 2011 Steeler offense resembled a late 80’s Bubby Brister-led offense. 

Predictability and poor execution marred what seemed to be a promising evening when the teams switched directions at the end of the first quarter.  The Steelers had jumped out to a comfortable 10-0 lead, terrible towels were being waved and the Indy offense appeared to be ready to wave a white flag.  Unfortunately, the Steelers seemed to take an Ambien and nearly gave away a “should definitely win” game. 

There were many reasons for the lethargic play on Sunday night: poor and stale playcalling; a tentative rushing style; deficient offensive formations; using the same cadence to call the signals; and being careless with the football.  Bruce Arians has said in the past that he doesn’t believe it is his job to adjust the game plan to the players on the team, it is the players’ job to execute the game plan.  In my opinion, this is an insane philosophy.  Leading up to a game, 1000 things could change: the health of key players on the (Steelers or) opposing team; players being benched; new offensive or defensive schemes that the opposition is using for the first time; the weather; etc.  To form a gameplan on Monday and Tuesday and stick with it no matter what happens is being derelict of duty.  Don’t you think Lombardi, Landry, Noll and Walsh made adjustments as the game played out?

There are many ways in which an offensive coordinator or quarterback can assist the offensive line when facing a strong and talented pass rush like the Colts have. 

1)    Playcalling—Screens, shovel passes and draw plays.  In the second half, the Steelers finally called a screen pass to….Heath Miller?  Yep, that’s right.  Not Mendenhall with his quick feet or Isaac Redman with his bruising running style or even Mewelde Moore who is the designated 3rd down and specialty back.  You don’t throw a screen pass to a tight end in a stopped position in the middle of traffic.  It doesn’t work.

2)    Tentative rushing style—We all love the fact that Rashard Mendenhall can spin his way for an extra 3-5 yards on a regular basis.  But “twinkletoes” Mendenhall ran like he was afraid to hurt the field turf last night.  Indy has a small front seven and the Steelers did not take advantage of that with a power running game.  Mendenhall danced like he was wearing a Tutu.  I wanted to see Redman get more carries because he runs with power, but I only got a little tease of Redman last night.

3)    Chipping the defensive ends—If a defensive end is using a speed rush, where he runs as fast as he can around the offensive tackle, one way to slow him down is to line up a tight end across from him and have the tight end “chip” him.  This basically means that before running downfield into a pass pattern, the tight end blocks the defensive end for a split second, halting his momentum and creating an extra half-second for the tackle to block him.  This was not done.  Not chipping Dwight Freeney is like paying for his flight to Hawaii for the Pro Bowl.  I don’t care if you are Joe Thomas or Jon Kolb or John Runyan, every so often, your tackle needs help blocking a dominant player.  By the way, John Runyan was a very good tackle but every time he played against Michael Strahan, Strahan destroyed Runyan.

4)    Changing the snap count—Many times in the 2nd half, the Indy defensive linemen were crossing the line of scrimmage before our offensive tackles realized that the ball was snapped.  This causes a HUGE disadvantage for the Steeler linemen since they start from a stopped position and the defensive linemen have forward momentum in their favor.  By changing the snap count, you can get a few free yards by drawing them offsides and, therefore, keep them from guessing the snap count.

5)    Being careless with the ball—I know I’m going to catch flak from the Steeler nation for this but Ben has to stop floating balls into the secondary where safeties can basically call a “fair catch” to his passes.  Also, on the first strip/sack, Ben was carrying the ball like a loaf of bread and held it entirely too long.  The second strip/sack was not his fault. 

The good news is, besides Terrell Suggs, Dwight Freeney is the best pass rusher the Steelers will face this year.  The bad news is, not being prepared to handle him (and don’t forget Robert Mathis who is no slouch) or making in-game adjustments for playcalling, formation or snap count is inexcusable.

As far as the offensive line goes, I am willing to give them a couple more weeks to put it together as a unit (they got better as the season progressed last year).  The concerns that the O-line is too low in talent or is not ready for prime time, are real.  The responsibility for this falls squarely on Kevin Colbert’s shoulders.  He chose to cut Flozell Adams and Max Starks in favor of Willie Colon and Jonathan Scott.  He chose to draft, and cut, Craig Urbik.  He chose to sign Chris Kemoeatu to a $25 million contract.  Yes, he also drafted Maurkice Pouncey which, you cannot argue, was a brilliant move.  Marcus Gilbert is a work in progress and trying to judge his play is unfair right now.

The Steelers have a lot of work to do if they want to uphold “The Standard”, as Mike Tomlin likes to say.  There are many weaknesses from the front office to the last reserve offensive linemen.  If these weaknesses don’t get strengthened, the Steelers could have another long offseason after their most recent Super Bowl appearance.

What are your thoughts?  Your comments are welcome and encouraged.

photo courtesy of Getty Images

Is Everyone Off the Ledge?

Mike Wallace with an incredible fingertip grab versus the Seahawks.

Hines Ward with great footwork along the sideline to secure another Steeler first down.

Steeler fans around the world were freaking out all week long at the thought that maybe, just maybe, the dufuses, I mean professional commentators (are you listening Warren Sapp?--FYI, he won't respond to my Tweets to him.) might be right about the Steeler defense being too old.  To a certain extent, they were wrong.  The Steeler defense came loaded for Seahawks on Sunday and didn't let up until the clock hit zero.  The Steelers won the game, 24-0.  Do you realize how hard it is to shut a team out in the NFL nowadays?

The Steeler defense recorded 5 sacks and only allowed 8 first downs and 164 yards total offense.  The Seahawks were 2-12 on third downs and ran for a paltry 31 yards.  In fact, the Seahawks didn't even get into Steeler territory until 1/3 of the way through the fourth quarter.  If you just look at those numbers and that fact, you would think that this was total domination which, for the most part, it was.  For those of us who watch the game and like to pick up on the nuances, there were still a couple of trouble spots.  For example, Brett Keisel was the only defensive lineman to get consistent penetration on pass plays.  Casey Hampton, Ziggy Hood and Aaron Smith, barely got a sniff of the QB.  Also, our pass rush was not particularly effective even though the Steelers recorded 5 sacks (Tarvaris Jackson actually completed 20 of his 29 passes).  This is happening because teams are making James Harrison drop into coverage instead of rushing the passer.  When this occurs, the opposition only needs to block 1 rushing linebacker, Lamarr Woodley.  In the Baltimore game, Harrison dropped into coverage on 56% of pass plays.  This is why I am concerned about the push that we aren't getting from the defensive line.  If teams feel that our defensive line is a major threat, then they have to keep an extra blocker in the backfield which enables Harrison to rush the QB. 

On the offensive side of the ball, Steeler nation held their collective breath in the second quarter as Ben Roethlisberger was hit in the knees by Raheem Brock.  Initially, it looked like a dirty play.  On replay, it was clear that Brock was tripped by Marcus Gilbert who was making his first start at right tackle.  Gilbert was not flagged on the play although it appeared that he tripped Brock on purpose.  Gilbert's real penalty would have been served if Big Ben was seriously injured.  Ben sat out for 2 plays then returned to the game.  He limped around the field for a significant portion of the game but played all 60 minutes. 

The run game was in better form as the Steelers rushed for 124 yards.  Ben passed for 298 yards and Emmanuel Sanders even completed a 15 yard pass.  The offensive line was much less......offensive on Sunday.  Are all the kinks worked out?  Absolutely not.  The right side of the line is not very good right now.  Marcus Gilbert had some highlights and lowlights which is to be expected from a rookie in his first start.  Doug Legursky did not have a good game including a 15 yard clipping penalty (yes, it was bad) that hurt a Steeler drive.  I don't expect the offensive line to be fixed already as this is usually a work in progress but this needs to get better and fast because the Steelers play Houston (week 4), Tennessee (week 5), New England (week 8) and our friends from Baltimore (week 9) soon.  These aren't the greatest defenses of all-time but Houston and New England can score a lot of points and Baltimore and Tennessee are good, solid defenses.  The offensive line will need to play better to score enough points to stay with the Patriots and Texans and play more physically if they expect to beat the Titans and Ravens.

I am very happy to see that the Steelers showed their pride this week and played with the passion we expect from them.  Next week is a "trap" game.  It is called a trap game because Indianapolis is 0-2 and hasn't looked very good on either side of the ball.  The risk here is that the Steelers take Indy too lightly and lay another egg like they did in Baltimore.  I will have a preview of that game later this week.  Celebrate for 6 days Steeler fans, all is right with the world again.

Photos courtesy of Getty Images

Move it along people, Nothing to see here

William Gay would have trouble covering this woman right now

For those who prefer to live their life immersed in drama, you might want to stop reading now.  The Steelers lost their initial pre-season game (oh the humanity!) to the Washington Redskins on Friday night.  For some, it is the end of the Steeler empire.  For those of us living in reality, it was a pre-season game. 

There were a few things that I thought were interesting.  Yes, Big Ben overthrew Mike Wallace and Byron Leftwich overthrew Antonio Brown (who is looking better every day).  This is what happens when guys haven't played together for 6 months.  This was a recurring theme throughout the game.  There were episodes where the timing was off and that affected the defense, blocking schemes and pass patterns.  Am I concerned?  Only about injuries.  The pre-season is conducted to work out the kinks so that the regular season showcases the true abilities of the NFL's athletes.  Practice heals most wounds, especially with a veteran team where they know the playbook but just need to fine-tune the timing.  There were some other observations and here they are:

I said last year that Rashard Mendenhall had more spin moves than The Four Tops.  It appears that Isaac Redman is following in his (spinning) footsteps.  Add Hines Ward (and his DWTS moves) to the mix and we are a lead singer away from having the best 60's R&B group in the league.

Speaking of Isaac Redman, if you are going to try to tackle him, you better bring your crew because he sees the first tackler as a mild nuisance.

The more I watch William Gay in coverage, the more I need to drink while watching the game.  Right now, he couldn't cover the woman in the picture.  It just seems like WR's are always open when the ball is thrown in his direction.

In the long run (the 2011 season), I think the lockout will benefit the Steelers due to our advanced age on defense.  In the last 3 years, this veteran team has played more games than any other team in the league.  Our guys needed rest this spring, not more minicamp or OTA reps.  Be patient Steeler fans and don't panic unless we don't see any progress by the end of the 3rd preseason game.



Plaxico Redux?

Maybe they think we will only remember the good times. Maybe they think you can go home again. Maybe they believe this time will be different. What I recall about the Plaxico era in the Burgh was a guy who had some spectacular catches and games (I was at the tie game vs Atlanta in 2002), and some seriously bad screwups (spiking the ball 2 separate times before being called down by the referees). We know that Ben would love to have him back, but at what cost? Are we forced to cut Randle El who is a dual threat at receiver and punt returner? Does this mean that we have to cut somewhere else to save money (we are still $10million over the salary cap). I just don't see where this helps the Steelers. We have Ward, Wallace, Sanders and Brown that are the core receiving group (and don't forget Heeeeeeeath). How many catches would Plax have in that rotation anyway? Plax isn't a necessity and I just don't see him being a priority right now. I say pass ON Plax, not pass TO Plax.