I’m a little speechless after the Steelers latest loss to a bad team. I was angry at several times during the game on Sunday, but I’m not even sure who my anger is directed at.
I think if you want to blame the players, Mike Tomlin, or any of the other coaches you wouldn’t really be wrong to do so.
I wrote earlier this week that it was Mike Tomlin’s responsibility to keep this train rolling, and I still that is true. You can’t let him off the hook when he’s now 1-8 on the road against sub .200 teams.
However, we all know that this team has to really ride their offense in order to win… Which shouldn’t have been a problem yesterday considering the Jets struggles in the secondary.
This team has 3 superstars, and they’re Ben Roethlisberger, LeVeon Bell, and Antonio Brown. All three had terrible games against the Jets… and the rest of this roster just isn’t talented enough to overcome that on most Sundays.
Bell get’s a bit of a pass because the Jets have a really good defensive line, and most of us probably knew going in that he’d have a rough day running the ball.
The turnovers by Ben and Brown are inexcusable though, and they put them in a hole they couldn’t dig out of.
That being said, even when this team was down 17-3 at the half, they definitely could have come back and the offensive play-calling was really frustrating.
I’ve been one of the few Todd Haley supporters and I was screaming at my tv on Sunday, directing most of my hate towards the offensive coordinator.
Going into a game against the worst pass defense in the league, with a red hot quarterback, stop being cute and throw the ball down the field.
The Steelers did nothing but hand off and throw screen passes in the first half.
Martavis Bryant and Markus Wheaton were being covered most of the afternoon by an undrafted free agent starting his 2nd NFL game. Why in the world would you not exploit that?
Once the Steelers were in panic mode in the second half they went to Bryant to finished with 143 yards and a score on 4 catches. That was there all game if they wanted it.
With everything that went wrong yesterday it really just felt like it wasn’t their day…
Suisham shanks the shortest missed field goal in the NFL this season.
Heyward-Bey is off-sides after a PERFECT onside kick from Suisham.
The Steelers lose two really questionable challenges on Antonio Brown’s fumble, and Vick’s fumble along the sideline.
And despite all of that happening, they were still in a game that they lost the turnover battle by 4. We’ve seen this offense put up points quickly, and if Haley lets it rip, I think we’ve at least got a chance at coming back.
9 comments
I have been saying the same thing for 3 seasons now. “play towards your strengths” and every year the Steelers start out running up the gut and throwing screens. Then they break script find success only to revert back and do it all over again. I think everyone knows this team functions best just letting Ben be Ben, as soon as Haley’s offense is run we see this.And if you watched the 3 previous games we were not running Haley’s bubble screen ,dink and dunk, draws and reverses offense. If you have watched the 3 previous seasons it certainly appears history is repeating itself.
I’ll admit I’ve never hated the screen game as much as most of Steeler nation. Honestly screens do seem to work to the strength of Antonio Brown and LeVeon Bell (not to mention Pouncey).
That being said Haley seemed intent on doing them OVER and OVER.
You’re absolutely right though. We had a Strength vs. Weakness matchup that Haley seemed to have no interest in exploiting.
I understand that everybody is pissed off saying that Ben needs to be Ben is somewhat laughable and I know that sounds incredibly stupid but it’s the truth. Ben told KDKA’s Bob Pompeani that he calls the shots when there is the No-Huddle and when there not Haley is calling the shots. Ben said that the Jets took away the Deep Ball yesterday, now I never heard Ben lie about anything in his career so I’m inclined to believe him in that department. The answer as to why this team plays bad against these bad teams to it’s simple: They don’t care. I know that sounds utterly stupid but you try finding another answer. When they played the Colts and Ravens in there mind they saw teams that would give them a fight a challenge, but when they play those “other teams” it’s like meh why bother with this game. Now as far as the games with the Jags and Bucs go they battled Cleveland very well and the Browns split with them. Heck the Bengals had a hard time with the Jags so maybe there not 100% bad but there more like 90% bad and 10% good if that makes sense to anybody.
I agree. Haley keeps trying to create plays that are just not the right calls for this team. At one point during the game, Haley runs out on the field to talk to Ben. He shows Ben something on his clipboard and explains it to him. I thought, well here comes some razzle-dazzle type of play that will get us back on track. The play was a running play off the guard for no gain. We seem to run off right guard, run off left guard then throw to the flat. I am upset with the offense for missing catches, bad throws and less then stellar blocking but the play calling was just wrong!
Time and time again, Haley finds a way to outsmart himself by preparing a game plan that is COMPLETELY different from what has been successful in previous weeks. I don’t mind slowly adding a few tweaks to show a few wrinkles but to develop a game plan that totally forgets what you did the week before to dismantle the ravens is absurd. “Obviously” Tomlin will protect Haley yet again and say the game situation dictated what they could do offensively but that’s BS. We could have and most certainly should have been able have our way with the Jets. There’s a old saying called the KISS principle. Keep It Simple Stupid. Yes, I’m talking to you Todd Haley!
Stick with what works. It’s been said before for a number of different things in life and that includes football. The titans have a 2-7 record and are perceived to be a bad team, but are they? They battled the ravens for most of that game on Sunday. They only lost by 1 to the Browns so take that with a grain of salt. For the Steelers to win on Monday do these 2 things: jump on them early and stay aggressive. It sounds simple but for the Steelers that word doesn’t enter there vocabulary. I know that most of you wish that either Ben or Haley divulge what there gameplan was on Sunday but that’s not happening. Now 6 games left those 6 teams combined record is 25-27-2 with only the Bengals being above .500 or at .500 now certainly if those teams in the next 2-3 weeks win then the record gets better but that is a big “if”, so fans most hope some of those teams step up to the plate and get better or what happened yesterday will repeat itself.
Saying that a 1-8 team could dictate how a playoff bound Juggernaut can play is truly a joke. The difference between Haley’s base offense and what we were doing the prior 3 weeks is very easy to see. He tried to revert back to his B.S. to prove it can work and it doesn’t. It is so obvious that to say anything else would be fooling yourself. This man truly is what ties down the Steelers and to turn a blind eye to it is just ignorant.
I didn’t say that a 1-8 team could dictate how a playoff team plays. What I said was the Steelers just don’t see a reason to get up for those kinds of teams. When they played the Colts and Ravens most if not all people you talked to said the Steelers would have a tough time winning and I think it lit a fire under the Steelers a** so to speak. If the Bucs are so bad how did they hang with the browns or why did the jags play well against the Browns and for the most part against the Bengals. The Titans played tough vs the Ravens and let’s not forget they lost by 1 to the browns. You can blame Haley for these losses but what about before when the OC was Arians? You people seem to forget that under Arians they were beaten by the Browns, Chiefs and Raiders. How do you explain those defeats? Is it lack of execution? Is it bad game planning? Maybe it’s what I have said 2 times now and will say for a 3rd time the Steelers just have no interest in getting ready for those teams. I know that sounds stupid and terrible but can you fans seriously say I’m wrong about this situation/
Not at all haley’s fault for the lack of excecution, but rather a team fault for lack of interest in preparation and game day performance. This team can play with the NFL leaders of today but somehow manage to give away the games to lesser teams. Granted this is the NFL and every team plays to win, but as in the Jets eight out of nine teams they faced had handled them.
In weak nine the steelers could do no wrong, Ben was on fire, the receivers were getting open and holding on to the ball and must give credit to the OL for that. In week 10 the OL was handled a bit and preasure was evident on Ben, they did take some long shots (or medium to long) but it appeared that Ben’s arm was tired because he either wasnt reaching the reciver or not placing it in right spot. I do think that Bryant was surprised when that final shot actually reached him on the td score. So credit to the Jets DL, but we do know that this Steeler team is much better then they showed Sunday… and when a Jets player is heard saying that beating the Steelers is taken as winning the SB? Well just goes to show that every team puts a little extra when playing the Black and Gold and the Steelers should never get relaxed.