Stillers 34, Doncos 27... Dec 20, 2015…………Game # 14
Stillers-Doncos Postgame Analysis and Grades
The Stillers hosted the 10-3 Doncos, and dutifully played the role of gracious, polite Christmas hosts, handing the Doncs 28 points in the 1st half by offering no more resistance than the French did in either World War. Fortunately, with a host of sloppy play by Denver and the Stiller offense springing to life, the Stillers stormed back and secured a flimsy win late in regulation.
QB: Threw a hideous INT, with no pressure in his face, late in the 1Q, on a poorly thrown crosser to Wheaton. Threw a lollipop misfire to AB on 3d & 5, late 3Q, to force a punt. On 2d & 9 at 2:08 4Q, with a 7-point lead, Ben decided to get cute on a flush from the pocket, and got INT’d. A completely stupid, brainless play by a veteran QB. He could have simply kept the ball, taking a 3-yard loss, and living for a punt two plays later. The stupid-assed gratuity gave Denver new life on the PIT 41, with 2:01 remaining in the game. Lucky for Ben, the Doncos did nothing with that freebie possession, and the team held on for the W. Gaudy stats aside, it was a reprehensible boner. C+
RB:
DeAngelo – superb screen RAC, 2nd series, good for 19 yards. Good blitz pickup, 3d & 6 late in the game. Limited to only 14 rushes for 26 yards due to playing catch up. Flagged for a false start in the 1Q. B
Touissaint – No carries.
FB:
Nix – Saw a goodly amount of snaps.
Will Johnson – no noticeable PT on offense.
WR:
Brownie – snared 3 consecutive passes to start the 4Q….11, 12, and 17 yards. Finished with 16 grabs for 189 and 2 TDs. Not shabby. A+
Pinkie Wheaton – snared a 3d down catch, 1st series, and gained 12. Good pluck of high pass, late 2Q. Bounced off the DB (Roby) after a short out and scored the tying TD, early 4Q. B+
Bryant – dropped a perfect pass right in his hands at the DEN 3 yard line, 2Q. The Stillers settled for a FG, 2 plays later. Out-fought Talib for the pigskin on a crucial 3D slant pass from the PIT 10, late 3Q. Sadly, on the very next play, he dropped a deep out pass. Had 10 grabs for 87. B
Heyward-Bey – no grabs.
TE:
Miller – flagged for a hold, 2Q, which negated a 32-yard pass play to AB. The hold was caused by Miller, like a juvenile, lunging at the rusher and then getting abused. Had 3 grabs for a puny 12 yards. B-
Jesse James – barely permitted to play.
OL:
Villenueva – got abused on a spin move for a sack, late 2Q. Got completely tooled in an inside mopve, 3Q, for a sack. To add insult to injury, he was flagged for a hold, which of course was declined. Got humiliated on a 3d & 12, 4Q, forcing Ben to juke for his life. Definitely a worry that he’s getting exposed this late in the season. C
Foster – adequate play. Surprisingly wasn’t’ flagged amid the avalanche of flags. B-
Wallace – Got abused on a 3rd down play, 1Q, and then was flagged for a hold, which was declined. Flagged for a roughing on a pile cleanup, and then for holding in the 4Q. The roughing penalty was pretty brutal, and he can expect to receive a fine on Wed in the neighborhood of $50K or more. C
DeCastro – too soft, 2nd play of game, batted pass. Didn’t dominate in the run blocking scheme. B-
Gilbert – Fat Marcus got abused by V. Miller, forcing a throw-away to avoid the sack, 10:00 2Q. Flagged for a false start, later 3Q. Had a ton of chip-block help during the game. C+
DE:
Heyward – good swim move for the sack, last play of 3Q. Sadly, that was his only solo of the game. Took plenty of poor angles at the QB. B-
Tuitt – stupidly abandoned his rush lane, going waaay to the inside, allowed Osweiler to practically walk in for a TD to make it 20-7. A moronic play by a complete moh-ron. Clumsily and foolishly failed to corral Osweiler in the pocket, but it worked out nicely when Shaz INT’d the harried pass. Had 5 solos in a solid effort. B+
McLendon – blew up a 2d & G plunge, early 2Q, which forced a 6-yard loss.
Fat Cam – fortunately, rarely played.
LB:
Timmons – Got an untouched Dong Sack, 2d series. Fairly quiet all game long. B-
Shaquier – horrendously dogshit angle on the early running play where the Denv RB, Hillman, fumbled. He lazily jumped way to the inside, allowing Hillman a hole up right tackle large enough to fit a Hummer. Wretched play by an ILB. Busted up a short pass, early 3Q. Snagged a huge INT, late 4Q. Weak-assed flailed and whiff on Anderson after a short grab, 3:30 4Q. Had only 3 solos, which isn’t nearly good enough. B-
Harrison – Had a couple pressures. That’s about it. Held off the stat sheet. Tough to watch a legend fall this far. C
Jones – JarStiff got a fair amount of PT and did little. Had 1 solo. Biggest play occurred while standing on the sidelines, becoming entangled with a Donco RB who got shoved OOB.
Dupree – flagged for a silly-assed hold, negating a 5-yard loss on a blown up flare pass, early 4Q. Had (surprise!) no solos and 1 A. Very vanilla. C+
Moats – started over Dupree. Got sealed in, as easy as pie, on a Sanders end around that netted around 20 yards, 2Q. A short while later, on 1st & TWENTY, this dumbass, some 25 feet from the QB on his meager, worthless pass rush, took a silly-assed illegal hands to the face penalty, giving Denver an auto 1st down. Batted a pass, late 3Q. Finished with a whopping 1 solo. C+
Vinnie W. – did nothing.
Spence – saw a few snaps. Got totally humiliated by Sanders on a 3d down pass, 2Q, looking as ass-clumsy as a drunk staggering down Forbes Ave in Oakland. How soon can this piss-ass be cut from the club?? D+
DB
Will Allen – forced a fumble, 1st series. Made a rare bustup, on a 3D pass in the 3Q. Dropped a game-clinching INT, 1:52 4Q. Far too slow to react on the Thomas TD grab in the 1Q. Probably was out of position on the blown coverage on the Sanders 61-yard TD. C+
Mitchell – recovered the Will Allen FF, 1st series. Got injured, late 2Q. Had the rarest of occurrences, 3Q, busting up a 3d down pass. Stop the presses…..Mike Bitchell broke up a pass…!! Of course, in true Bitchell fashion, he got up and pranced and jubilated more than a pitcher who’d just pitched a perfect game. C
Golden – Assholically dropped an INT, 11:20 4Q, which might have been a pick 6.
Gay – flashed up and stopped a lateral pass, 4Q. Busted up the 4th down pass to Sanders late in the 4Q. Had 5 solos. Solid game. B+
Blake – abused for a 19-yard curl by Sanders, 2d series. Then, right after the 2MW, despite the ball being on the PIT 6 yard line, Blake was uber soft on his coverage of Thomas, and then stupidly tried to take on Thomas UP HIGH after a 0-step hitch. The result? An easy stiff arm for Thomas, who shoved Blake aside as though he were a toddler. TD, Denver. Thankfully and mercifully, he was demoted in the 2H, playing only in the dime. He completely sux ass. D-
Sharko Thomas – Not permitted to play on D, because, as you know, Allen is such a studly safety and this secondary is just so dominant. I guess he might get some PT in 2017. Inc
Boykin – busted up a WR screen, 2d series of the 3Q. Nice how he continues to rot behind Blake while Blake continues to stench out every stadium he plays in. The good news is that he supplanted Blake in the 2H, and provided stellar coverage, often times forcing the QB to look elsewhere. B+
Cockrell – abused by Thomas on a 3rd down pass, 2nd series. Cockwell then got juked out of his jock by Sanders on a simple stutter and go move, 3Q, good for 29 yards. Good coverage on D. Thomas, 2:20 4Q. B-
Spec teams:
Berry – Dogshit 38 yard punt to the Denv 17, early 1Q. Mediocre 36 yard punt that was FC at the DEN 15, 3Q. Sorry – I don’t subscribe to the entirely senseless “inside the 20” punt stat. A real stat, with some value, would be inside the 10. Booted an atrocious, weak-assed 36-yard punt late in the 3Q, which was returned for a TD. Only a bizarre “men came off the bench, illegal substitution” flag negated the TD. Nonetheless, it was a volmit-spewing punt by a man who is getting worse with each game. Then, at 9:20 4Q, got off a barf-inducing punt that travelled only about 26 yards, but luckily for Cherry it rolled another 14 for an entirely fortuitous 40-yard punt. F
Boswell – Booted a couple FGs in the 1H. His KOs were shallow today, which didn’t please me. B-
AB – had a couple decent punt returns.
Wheaton – Did nothing in the KO return game.
DHB – solid solo in KO coverage, 1Q.
Will Johnson was flagged for a moronic, brainless block in the back, forcing a 3Q drive to start at the PIT 3 rather than the PIT 28.
Sharko Thomas – entirely too casual in downing the punt, late 3Q, which was scooped up and returned for a TD (flag negated the TD.) When you down a motionless ball, you fuking DOWN it, with purpose and authority.
Late in the 4Q, Boswell got off a weak KO that was only 1 yard deep, and a reverse returned the ball to the Denv 40.
OC: Haley’s mind-numbing RZ offense again had its usual stall-outs in the 1H. Fortunately, they cashed in during the 2H.
There were too many piss-ant passes today that gained 2 or less yards. I don’t have the exact count, but it was at least 10. Yes, I realize there is a defense and some of these plays are hoping for RAC yards, but it became comical with the number of piss-ant 1-yard gains on pass plays. B-
DC:
Assler had a miserable 1H. Assler continued to poop the bed on favorable down and distance. The Stillers scored early to take a 7-0 lead. After the ensuring KO was returned to the 15, Assler proceeded to allow an 85 yard TD march. Thanks to Oswelier fumbling the snap, Denver faced a 2d & 17. Assler immediately gives up a 9 yarder, and then in comical fashion, his 2 DBs run INTO each other and allow a WIDE open completion of about 20 yards. Undaunted, Assler faced a 3d & TEN from the PIT 19 , and promptly allowed a TD pass to a WIDE open Thomas. In all on the drive, Assler allowed Denver to go 3 for 3 on 3rd down. A shit drive by a shit coordinator.
Not satisfied with that pile o’ shit, on the very next possession, Assler has NO ONE playing downfield due to a blown coverage (anyone remember the NE fiasco, in week ONE??), and Piss@ss Manny Sanders was WIDE open, with no one within 15 yards, for a cakewalk 61 yard TD.
After the INT gave Denv the ball at midfield, late 1Q, Denver marched for an easy TD. 3d & 6? Easy 1st down. 3d & 5? Easy 1st down. 3d & goal at the 7? Easy WALK IN touchdown by the QB.
Here’s a summary of Assler’s shit sandwich of a 1st half: Allowed the struggling (coming into this game), greenhorn QB to go 14 of 18, with 3 TD passes, and 8 for EIGHT on 3rd down conversions.
Don’t be fooled, as Assler had his struggles in the 2H. 3d & 16 from the Denv 10, 4Q, and Vernon Davis is WIDE open, with a perfect pass right into his hands. Luckily for Assler, Davis alligator-armed the ball and dropped what should have been a cake-easy 23 yard completion. Then, at 2:55 4Q, Thomas dropped a pass that clanged right off his hands on a wide open crosser that easily would have netted 20 yards.
Time and time again, the rush failed to account for Osweiler’s mobility. It’s as though this entire defense was prepping for the stone-footed, immobile Manning. This was shit preparation, plain and simple, and the fault for that lies squarely on the frail shoulder of Keith Assler. So, too, does the idiotic rotting of Boyin until last week. D-
HC: Mike Dumblin oversaw a hideous rash of 12 penalties, once again showing the complete lack of discipline. Playing at home, in a must win game for a wild card spot, this was an entirely unacceptable 1st half. The defense, which is supposed to be Stoogelin’s forte, was entirely too soft during the entire 1H, and allowed 28 points in the process. The completely asinine rotting of Boykin falls onto Stoogelin as well. He’s a damn fool, and a stubborn one that at. C
Synopsis: A fortuitous home win that was much tougher than it should have been. Up next, road games at Balt and Clev. Both games are like the Sup Bowl for those 2 teams and those 2 fan bases, so if Stoogelin and Co. think they are going to just waltz in and cruise to 2 easy W’s, they’ve definitely got the wrong perspective. Soft as this team is on the road, you can anticipate an egg lay in either of these tilts.
(Still Mill and Stillers.com -- when it comes to the analysis of the Pittsburgh Stillers, no one else comes close….)
Follow Mill on Twitter, at StillMill1