By CK Stiller
I usually leave the post-game to Mill, and I'm sure he'll have plenty to say on this one. I felt the need to give some thoughts following this one, however. No loss this season has bothered me more then this one here to the Jets. It is completely inexcusable. Who to blame for the loss? I'm looking at three things. The offensive line, Bruce Arians, and Mike Tomlin. And responsibility goes in that order.
Bruce Arians is benefiting from the same thing Whisencunt did when he was here. That's Roethlisberger's mobility. Phil Simms passed along to us an interesting take from Eric Mangini on defending the Steelers. It's almost like having to defend two plays, and that's the reality. The Steelers offense has been kept alive by Roethlisberger's play after the one designed by Arians has broken down. That makes the offensive coordinator look good. It's the reason the offensive numbers are so gaudy. But we saw today that when teams keep Roethlisberger in the pocket and defend that 'second play' well, Arians is going to fucking kill the team.
Roethlisberger played fine today. He wasn't missing open receivers and making poor decisions. The replays showed us enough to where I feel confident in saying that. What I saw, usually, was three Steelers receivers running 10+ yards down field. I saw Ward, Holmes and Miller generally running fakes. The Jets defenders were defending the deep ball all game. They were conceding the underneath stuff. The Steelers were max protecting while the Jets brought four or five all game. Comeback routes and posts in the intermediate area were there all game long. But Arians kept feeling the need to go vertical on a defense that was giving them everything but.
I can live with the shitty plan of attack, though. What really burns me is his play calling at the end of the game. The biggest error this guy made came on the final series of the game. The Steelers had one of their best kick returns all year long. They were set up right at the 40. They had all 3 TO's. There wasn't much time, only 20 seconds. That's enough for two big strikes, though. There's a chance of getting in FG range. Instead of allowing Roethlisberger to make a play, though...we get a fucking screen to Davenport. Yes, a god damn screen against a three man pass rush. Bruce Arians decides to take the ball out of Roethlisberger's hands and put the game into the hands of Davenport. If there's a minute left, I can stomach the moronic call. Given that the screen has been shut down all season, and that there was only a chance for two or three (at best) offensive plays, the playcall was simply unjustifiable. The Steelers followed this up with a shot down field. Even if it had been completed, odds were against making it into FG range because the previous play had aten up too much clock.
Then we got the sequence in OT, where backed up he decides to call a draw on 3-14. I mean, nothing says I don't trust my OL/passing game more then that. He hangs the defense out to dry here. Anything short of a booming, 60+ yard punt would have basically put the Jets in prime position to win it all. You simply can't play this way in OT. Well, the defense never got a chance to do anything. The game was over with the long punt return that followed. Because the Steelers special teams wanted to leave its fingerprint on this inept performance.
We saw no three step drops besides the occasionaly WR hitch. The Steelers did not spread the field at all. They kept putting themselves in third and forever by showing a stubborn, Bill Cowher-esque commitment to the running game to make things worse. That all goes on the coaches.
But, who lets him keep calling things this way? It ultimately goes on the head coach. Simms paraphrased Tomlin from us during the game. He said that he wasn't going to let any other team dictate what they were going to do on offense. In other words, it matched some of the past rhetoric from Tomlin on this being a 'we do what we do' sort of team. Well, we've seen the resulted against Arizona and now New York. The team refused to go away from the run until it was too late. Tomlin has been a lot like Bill Cowher in this regard, and it hurts the team. He's not the guy I was hoping for. He's not the guy who will come out and attack a team any which way. That's extremely disappointing. To stick with the same approach offensively all game when it clearly wasn't looking is unjustifiable. I'm disgusted by what I saw today.
Marvel Smith - What a disappointment he is. No, I'm not talking about his pass pro. I'm talking about his run blocking. I'm been re-watching the Steelers this past week. I wanted to see what was going wrong in the run game. What I saw was Marvel Smith getting abused. Watching the Ravens game, Marvel Smith was the single worst player on the OL when it came to run blocking. He was getting walked into the backfield or stalemated no matter who he was blocking.
Alan Faneca - He's not an elite guard, and I don't care how many homers try to tell me otherwise. The guy is above average at this point in his career. He isn't a great run blocker, though people try to talk him up as such. No, he's actually pretty mediocre here. He does not move DT's. He can't even turn them consistently to open a crease. What he does do well is pull. He's exceptional at that. But he sure isn't worth 8 mil a year. And let's not even touch his pass pro, where he may actually be one of the worst in the league.
Sean Mahan - The guy is what you would expect from a Bucs cast-off on the OL. That's mediocre. It says a lot that he was probably a Tomlin guy, and that he is still probably one of the better performers on this OL. He can't move people in the run game on his own. Not many centers can. But the biggest issue I have is, again, the pressure he tends to allow in the center. I've seen him beaten by one very simple pass rush move frequently, and that's the swim. I don't have big time complaints, but Mahan is clearly well short of the Steelers tradition at center.
Kendall Simmons - I can't say he sucks too much. His pass pro is horrendous (as anyone who has tracked the OL this season knows well). He can't move anyone in the run game with any consistency. Time and time again we get a bonehead play from him. If a defender gets penetration, or there's a pass rusher in Roethlisberger's face from right up the middle, it's usually Simmmons' man. And he's not even a smart player. Frequently teams will blitz or stunt in his direction and he misses it.
Willie Colon - Colon is a 'favorite' of mine. He badly needs to work on the mental aspect of his game. The holds, failure to pick up stunts and blitzes leads to a few break downs every game. He's the most penalized member of this OL by far, and that's saying something since he's playing next to Kendall Simmons (good for a call each game himself). Colon has potential, which is more than I can say for anyone else in this group.
The interior of this OL needs a massive overhaul. Only Simmons and Mahan are likely not going anywhere since both have been paid (I suppose one may lose his job, if we're lucky). Neither are the tackles. So, we'll likely go into next season with only Faneca being replaced.
Is this team elite? I still only see one team that has clearly superior talent, and that's New England. I'm trying to keep things in perspective, win or loss. I don't get as high as some after a win (like everyone in the media did following the comeback against Cleveland), or too down (like after Denver and Arizona). This game, though, really stung. The Steelers had something on the line in this game. The second seed was lost, maybe for good. Indianapolis has the following schedule down the stretch:
@ Atlanta
vs. Jacksonville
@ Baltimore
@ Oakland
vs. Houston
vs. Tennessee
There's one, maybe two losses on that list right there. It's an almost laughably easy schedule to end the season. The Steelers have helped them lock up that second seed by losing to far weaker teams.
This should have been a game where the Steelers should have overpowered their opponent. That's what the Steelers are supposed to do against front 7's like this. Even a bad Steelers OL should be able to do that. But they couldn't.
If the coaches don't wake up to reaity soon, this season is going nowhere special. They're looking at another blow-out loss to the Pats...well, if they're lucky to get that far.