Home 2014 Season SCB Steelers Wrap-Up; Saints Win 35-32

SCB Steelers Wrap-Up; Saints Win 35-32

by Steeldad

Don’t let the score fool you. This was a monster New Orleans win. The Steelers tacked on two late touchdown passes from Ben Roethlisberger to Antonio Brown.

-Drew Brees threw five touchdown passes against a secondary that was atrocious and that’s being nice. IkeTaylor and William Gay were both abused by the all-pro quarterback and his receivers.

-The Steelers dominated the first quarter and from there on out were out-coached and out-played.

-Red Zone issues are often deeper than just the numbers. Martavis Bryant has to make that catch prior to Shaun Suisham’s second field goal.

-Something is clearly bothering Ben Roethlisberger through the first half. Point of release looks lower than usual and the ball can sail in those situations especially if the footwork is bad.

-His decision-making hasn’t been good either. Throwing into double-coverage just isn’t going to cut it.

-One of the things I worried about coming off of Le’Veon Bell’s big game against the Titans was that Todd Haley would stick with more multiple tight end-fullback looks. That appears to be the case so far which isn’t good in my opinion. Have to spread the defense out.

-Great individual play by Cameron Jordan to bat the Roethlisberger pass then intercept it. Ben stared down that side of the field the whole way.

-The Steelers did a great job to get back in the game in the third quarter but the secondary’s failures have been just awful. Making Kenny Stills look like Jerry Rice.

-I expected the Steelers secondary to be better with Ike and Troy back. It’s been anything but…

-Tomlin Post-Game: “An unfortunate performance… We’ll look at it and make necessary adjustments…I’ll let Ben answer questions about his hand… Lack of cohesion…” Who in the hell asked that last question?

-The loss hurts even more considering that Baltimore and Cleveland both lost as well and Cincinnati escaped with a one-point win over Tampa Bay. From my perspective, the Steelers need to win out and I just don’t see that happening.

Marc Uhlmann writes for and co-owns www.steelcityblitz.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteelDad and the website @SCBlitz. Check us out on Facebook at facebook.com/steelcityblitz and on Fancred.com. You can hear him weekly during the season on game day on the Trib-Live Radio Steelers Pre-Game

 

You may also like

11 comments

Vittorio Di Stazio November 30, 2014 - 10:18 pm

You jump down Haley’s throat but isn’t the old saying “stick with what works” still effective. Most of the passes were thrown high and you blast Bryant for one? Show me 1 Steeler WR on this team that is going to jump for the ball? Heck if they did that and got cracked in the head you would sit there and say “why even go for those passes”. In my mind the saints played this way on purpose and lost the last 2 on purpose as well. My evidence is today’s game. How is that when the saints are at home and knowing that the Ravens and Bengals D are not capable of doing much against the best of the best how can you lose when you have Brees and Graham? All I heard was how to stop Jimmy Graham? The answer is Kenny Stills. Mark my words next week Jimmy Graham will have a bigger impact in the game and Stills will end up right back where he was before: on the bench doing nothing. In my mind his catch near the sidelines should have been called incomplete and the replay showed the ball clearly touching the ground but the damn ref is blind as is every of person who saw that catch as well. I kept screaming “Just crack Stills and forget the penalty’ by doing that you tell Payton find somebody else to catch the ball. They will beat Cincy next week cause they are always ready for the Bungals. Why teams like the Falcons and Saints are bad I have no clue other than they probably would do it on purpose. You can your peace or disagree with what I say I don’t care I wanted to “VENT MY FUSTRATION” and that’s exactly what I have done here.

steeldad December 1, 2014 - 1:06 am

Well Vittorio, I agree 100% that Graham will go back to having good games after this one and Stills will go back to being a “decent” wideout. Credit DLB with taking away the biggest threat but they still gave up a TD to a TE and a FB. This team just can’t cover period.

As for Bryant, the guy is 6’4″ minimum and has to be able to catch those type of balls. Ben was brutal today, I don’t deny it for a second but he didn’t get a lot of help either.

Vittorio Di Stazio December 1, 2014 - 1:30 am

All I hear from fans is: Play the young guys more. How is that going to help? Ben is 32 right now he can’t wait for the young guys on D to step up and play well right away. Ask any Steeler coach and they will tell you the same thing I say. Just because they brought in younger guys doesn’t mean they will succeed right out of the box. Guys like Heyward, Timmons, Polamalu and others don’t play well for a few years so fans need to deal with that. You can’t throw an entire Defensive playbook at these guys and expect them to become stars right from the get-go. Right now the D can only do so much in the way of playing to the best of there abilities and it falls on the Offense to get things going. I know Bryant’s height but I keep telling you there was no way he can make that catch in the endzone, no WR could have made that catch. You all have this sense that by replacing the vets with the young guys it will get better explain to me how that has worked in the past? Let’s go the DB’s for a moment, we all know they need to get younger but it takes a young CB 2 years to get fully acclimated to there D and I ask you this question: Do the Steelers have that kind of time for a young CB to get going? I honestly believe not. Look at the best CB’s in the game and tell me how long it took them to become the guys they are today. I read the Stat lines of Peterson and Revis and during there rookie year they played exactly like that but by there 2nd year they got better but there is 1 extremely big difference between those teams and the Steelers: Those teams were not going anywhere for a few years where as the Steelers were always a competitive team. It’s easy to sit here and say play the young guys but do any of you really understand they would play no better than what is the on field already, of course you guys don’t you just assume they will. At the start of the year I said the D would be good enough where they could hold there own for a while but ultimately it was on the Offense to get the job done. I ask you did I ever say that the D would be what is was before when they were dominant?

steeldad December 1, 2014 - 2:51 am

We’ll have to disagree about Bryant… I thought he should have had it.

General fans see youth as the answer to everything but as you point out, if that youth doesn’t play well or even get to play it doesn’t matter. There’s no question the secondary needs a major overhaul but I’ll take it a step further and suggest the whole defense could use a makeover. There are only a handful of guys I’d actually keep going into next season if it were viable.

Vittorio Di Stazio December 1, 2014 - 3:55 am

Okay here is how things shape out on the D next season: DL-Heyward, McClendon, Tuitt, McCullers. LB’s-Jones, Shazier, Williams, Spence, Timmons, Garvin. CB/S-Allen, Gay, Mitchell, Thomas, Polamalu, Ventrone, Will Allen. Yes they need more bodies but I wish fans would quit expecting these young guys to come in and just be good from the start. This is not a video game where you can just put guys in and move along this is the NFL nothing is given or guaranteed. There are reasons why guys like McCullers and Tuitt don’t see the field and it’s more than the vets in front of them. They must show the coaches they are ready and can handle the job there given but ask yourselves this: Why is it you think it’s so easy to just put a young guy and poof he fixes problem and don’t give me the line of “He can’t be much worse than this guy” cause that is just flat out BS and you the fans know it. It’s like this “I say what I mean and I mean what I say’

bob graff December 1, 2014 - 1:27 pm

Let me throw a few names out there Bradley Roby, Justin Gilbert, T.J. Carrie,Verrett and Fuller. These are all top corners playing at a high level in there rookie season. This crap that you can’t play rookies because our defense is way too complicated is just getting in the way of this team progressing. What happened to all this talk about fielding a fast young team?? As i have stated our unwillingness to improve on draft day is the cause of why this team is so inconsistent. Young players can get experience but for some strange reason the Steelers don’t have a player rotation and most first string players play the entire game.There is talent on this team but there’s not a great deal of it. And you would never know exactly who and how good a player may be because they simply just don’t play. Bringing a player in for a few plays to help and / or develop isn’t that crazy of and idea.

Vittorio Di Stazio December 1, 2014 - 8:44 pm

Bob Graff you mentioned Roby and Gilbert how are they fairing right now. I have seen and read the reports on them as of now they are getting in the game when the opponent is using 3 or more WR’s and are not playing well. How about I throw you guys some CB’s taken in the first 2 rounds that have not succeeded or are not around in the league: Kyle Wilson, Dre Kirkpatrick, Morris Claiborne and Ras I Dowling. Remember these names folks cause they are guys who were top 2 round picks and have not done anything in this league. CB’s take at least 2 years to become good and here are 2 prime examples: Pat Peterson and Revis. I read there stat lines and guess what in year 2 the light went off in there head and became good. Look at Peterson his rookie year can be defined by 1 thing Punt Returns and I dare you people to tell me otherwise. Other people said put the young guys out there I didn’t. I simply wanted them to put the best guys out there. Remember those D’s simplify there schemes for the young guys or the DC tell’s them what can you do and what I]you can’t do and will go from there. LeBeau does not see it that way. We can sit here until were blue in the face but lets face it how much time do you give these guys to succeed when Ben is 32 heading towards 33 and knowing he has 5 maybe 6 years of playing time left before he retires?

bob graff December 1, 2014 - 11:29 pm

Hey maybe you are right and we should just have all our young players just sit on the bench or practice squad. Then we can play everyone till social security kicks in and see who is left standing.Like i have said before we need to replace guys as they age out. And please our defense wasn’t so complicated that the Buccaneers couldn’t figure it out???? Here’s one for you let’s see if Harvey Clayton is still available or maybe we can draft another LB and make it three in a row. Just admit it we have skunk the joint up on draft day for several years.

Vittorio Di Stazio December 1, 2014 - 11:54 pm

What makes the Defense go is a pass rush. By having a Pass Rush the CB’s job becomes easier but you think fixing the CB problem makes a big difference it doesn’t. Anybody who watches the Steeler D through the years knows that they never had top CB’s and the reason is simple the pass rush was there. Fixing the DL is priority No.1 and then CB. They need a legit DE and NT to plug the middle of the D and from there everything else clicks. The LB’s are now being forced to go through double teams like crazy and it affects how they attack the QB. Show me evidence that supports your claim of playing young CB’s is going to fix the D? Fix the DL first and you watch how that opens things up for the LB’s. You want young CB’s fine go ahead and support that but don’t come here and complain when they stink up the joint right out of the box cause if you do I’ll counter by saying “you wanted young rookie CB’s more than anything else”

bob graff December 2, 2014 - 2:16 am

Hey i here Ohio State has a great defensive lineman. Then we can get a division 2 CB from who cares u and we are set right? I am sorry first they have to sit on the bench and learn from Moses for 8 years.

Vittorio Di Stazio December 2, 2014 - 8:21 pm

Bob show me evidence on this team that by playing a rookie CB is going to fix the D. You mentioned Kyle Fuller, Verret and how they succeeded but what about the other guys I mentioned that were top 2 round picks what’s your excuse for those guys not playing well and looking like busts? Remember Pat Peterson’s rookie year? That entire year can be summed up like this: PUNT RETURNS. Young CB’s take at least 2 years to get accustomed to there D and you know that read the stat lines of any CB that has played 2 or more years and you will see what I mean. The Steeler D is predicated on getting a pass rush not INT’s, getting sacks and forcing 3rd and longs plus creating fumbles. Most Steeler CB’s average 2-3 INT’s per year that’s a fact and don’t tell me otherwise.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.