Doncos 31, Stillers 20 ���. Nov. 5, 2006 ����Game #8��
Stillers-Doncos Postgame
Analysis and Grades
The
Stillers slopped away another loss, and all reasonable chances at the playoffs,
with a shabby showing versus the Doncos in a 31-20 loss at Heinz Field.�� Every problem that had hampered the
Stillers this season reared its ugly head today -- horrible turnovers; stupid-assed
post-whistle penalties; buttery fingers on KO and punt returns; and timely big
plays by the opponent and a lack of big plays by the Stillers.�� It all adds up to the 6th loss of the
season and an early start on the January amateur golf tour.�� �
Grades:
QB:�
Playing catch-up the entire game, Benji completed 38 of 54 for 433 yards
and only 1 TD.� He nearly completed
another TD to Ward late in the game, but Hines fumbled just before the goal
line while trying to vault in for the score.�
There was some good, and some bad, from Benji today.� He made a tremendous play on the TD to
Parker, first scrambling left, then right, and then having the presence to spot
Parker drifting from right to left and open in the EZ.� This was the Benji we all know and love.
There were a host of strong throws that led the Stillers back into the game,
and had Ward scored, they would have cut the score to 5 or 3 (depending on the
2-pointer).� But there were a host of
misfires, too.� Ben had Ward open past
Bailey on a deep ball late in the 1Q, but threw too line-drivish of a pass that
was a lil' short, and it was easily busted up.�
And then there was the utterly hideous INT to Bailey on a hurried out
pass to Wilson from the Denver 14, midway thru the 2Q.� This was the Benji we've come to know and
hate.� On 3rd & 7 from the 14, if
the play ain't there, whip the ball into the bleachers or take the sack !! ��The Stillers were only down by 7 at that
point, and the FG makes it a 4-point game.�
Overall, Ben played much better than in the Oakland disaster, and let's
face it, there are a plethora of other problems that ail this team right
now.��� B-�
RB:�
Because of the deficit, Parker never got into a groove and toted the
ball only 14 times, gaining a healthy 5 yards per carry with 70 yards.� He also grabbed what I believe is a career
high 7 passes, good for 67 yards and a TD.�
His TD reception really impressed me in terms of his maturity and growth
as an NFL player.� He was way over on
the far right, awaiting a valve dump, when Ben scrambled the other way.� Instead of standing around, Parker kept
moving, and eventually floated over the middle and into a wide-open space in
the EZ for the TD catch.� He also had a
good, tough run on his 3-yard TD run.� Parker
did put the ball on the ground once, but luckily the Stillers recovered.� With Haynes out for the season, Daven saw a
ton of work as the 3D back, and made the most of it with some gutty, tough running.� He grabbed 5 passes and displayed a ton of
good RAC work, barging and plowing for extra yardage., such as on the 19-yard
screen in the 3Q.� Duce Staley was not
permitted to dress; instead, John Kuhn got that honor.��� A.�
��
FB: Kreider saw limited work, with the
Stillers behind and using a ton of 3, 4, and 5 wide sets.�� �Inc.�
WR:�
Ward led the way with another brilliant overall game, grabbing 7 passes
for 127 yards. He made a spectacular play in the 4Q, catching a short hitch and
eluding the first defender, and then miraculously splitting 2 defenders near
the s-line and dashing past them for a 61-yard gain.� He nearly scored the late TD, vaulting himself over a defender
for what appeared to be a sure TD, until John Lynch came out of nowhere and
smacked Ward in mid-air, popping the ball out for a fumble that ended the
game.� �It's hard to fault Ward on this play, however.� Sure, perhaps he could have simply burrowed
for the goal line, but Ward has made any number of similar plays over the past
5 years and it was an amazing play by Lynch that forced the turnover.�� Lest I forget, Ward was magnificent with
his blocking today, springing the backs for some big runs, such as Parker's
20-yard jaunt when Ward blocked DJ Williams.�
Two plays later, Hines leveled Ferguson with a block and gave him a
slight concussion.�
���������� Wilson had a solid day, grabbing 4
passes and making a couple big plays.�
One big play, however, turned sour.�
On a 4th & 2, he caught a 0-step hitch and eluded the DB, and raced
35 yards to the Denver 5.� At the end of
the run, however, he was stripped for a very costly turnover.�
���������� Holmes was quite active in the
offense, grabbing 6 balls for 58 yards, mostly on lil' slant and curls.� Sadly, the offense isn't getting anything
downfield out of a guy they drafted in Round 1, which is very disturbing.�
���������� Nate W. had 3 grabs.��
���������� Overall, the WRs caught everything
thrown to them and blocked well.�� �Wilson's fumble hampers this grade a
bit.� B+.�
TE:�
Miller had a relatively "big game", grabbing 5 passes for 34
yards.� He did drop an easy curl in the
3Q.� Tuman grabbed a short out.�� The blocking was fairly solid.�� B.�
OL: A okay overall game, although there
were some blown plays that created the sporadic nature that has bogged down
this team.� Starks was whipped by Dumervil
on the 1st drive, resulting in a sack.�
Marvel Smith literally got clubbed to the ground by former Brownie
Kennard Lang for a 3Q sack, and was flagged for a hold.� Later, in the 4Q, Kendoll Simmons was just
abused by Lang for another sack, and was flagged for a false start.�� And, Benji spent quite a bit of time
running away from fairly quick pressure.�
Denver went away from bland vanilla and the line was not up to the
task.�� Okobi was flagged for a hold
that was declined due to an INT.� The
run blocking was decent, but regrettably, playing catch-up, the offense wasn't
able to consistently pound the ball.��
C+.�
DL:�
The D-line wasn't shabby.�� Bell
and Cobbs were held to peanuts.� Hampton
was back in the lineup, and the 3 starters had a solid game.�� B+�
LB:�
The Donco ground game was shut down, in large part to some solid play by
the LB corps.
���������� Farrior led the way with a very
strong effort, leading the team with 9 solos and adding 3 A's.� This was the best I've seen Farrior play in
some time. �However, he ruined some of
it �with a thoroughly dumbassed
post-play penalty.� Denver plunged on
3rd & 8 from their own 5 for 3 yards, but instead of punting from their own
EZ, they got 15 yards and a 1D thanks to the moronic roughness penalty by
Farrior.� �
���������� Haggans and Foote each had decent
games.�� Hagg gave RT G. Foster all he
could handle, although I would have liked to have seen Hagg slam Plummer a time
or 2.�
���������� At the bottom of the LB corps was
once again the "most feared" he-man, Big Joey Porter, who once again
was a total non-factor.� He finished
with 2 weak-assed solos and an assist, and had no more impact than the 2nd-team
ball boy.� Everyone's been waiting for
Big Joey Porter to make a crisp, sure-handed wrap and tackle behind the
LOS.� He did just that in the 3Q, coming
in totally unblocked and untouched and wrapping and dumping Bell in impressive
fashion.� Problem was, Bell didn't have
the ball.� Javon Walker did, and he waltzed
right around where Big Joey should have been, en route to a
72-yard TD jaunt that essentially sealed the deal. �Somewhere on Heinz Field sits Joey Porter's jock strap after this
hilarious fake-out.� Seeing Big Joey get
totally duped and fooled like a college freshman was an outright embarrassment .�
�
���������� The Big 3:�� B.��� Big Joey
Porter:�� C-.
DB:�
Some good, some bad.� �Ike Taylor made a couple of good plays,
sandwiched around 3 or 4 overly pitiful ones that either gave up TDs or big
plays.� On the first Donco play of the
game, he was badly tooled on a deep flag, despite committing a penalty for a hold.� This gained 38 yards and set a tone for the
rest of the game, in which any time Plumber needed a big play, he looked toward
Ike Tay.� Later in the 1Q, Ike busted up
an EZ lob to Walker, but on the very next play, Plummer went to the same lob,
and this time Ike was helpless on the TD pass.�
Ike busted up a slant to Walk in the 2Q, but really, this could have
been an INT if Ike weren't cursed with concrete fingers.� Early in the 4Q, Ike was hapless again
against Walk on an EZ lob, which was easily caught for a TD.� Midway thru the 4Q, Ike was burned on a stop
& go by Walk for 61 yards.� A very
long evening for Ivan the Terrible.�
���������� Town had his struggles as well.� He was totally incapable of busting up the
high pass to Smith for the 1Q TD.� Town
grabbed an apparent INT, but replays clearly showed that he foolishly juggled
the ball and did not have possession prior to going OOB.�� Town had a pitifully weak flail on Walker
near the LOS on the 72-yard TD jaunt.��
He also was
flagged for a hold.�
���������� Pola was somewhat quiet.� He did hit Plummer once as the threw,
forcing an errant pass.� 1 solo and 1
assist is a bit too little for a player of his stature.�
As usual, FS Ryan Clark was nowhere to be found.�� How in the hell does an opponent throw the
ball 27 times and rush another 23 times, yet the starting FS finishes the game
with zero solos, 2 assists, and zero pass break-ups ??� �With
the season over, it's time to get Tony Smith a ton of reps at FS.�
C-.�
Spec
teams:� Another gawdawful afternoon for the spec teams.� Goddammit, it feels like Groundhog Day with
these wretched special teams.� Holmes
coughed the ball up after a KO return early in the 1Q.�� Soon later, he fumbled away a short PR, but
the Stillers recovered. �That was enough
for Cowhard, who went with Wilson on PRs and the dubious hands of Ike Tay on
KORs.� Reed missed a very make-able
40-yard FG, and finished 2-3 on the day.�
The kick coverage was spotty.��
Gardocki's punting was mediocre.�
Tony Smith committed a dumbassed post-play penalty on punt coverage in
the 4Q.� Hell, I may as well paste the
same verbiage each week here�.nothing seems to change.�� D.�
OC:�
An ok, but hardly great, day for Cheezenhunt.� I wasn't enamored with the continued use of the shotgun formation
on 3rd & 2 and 4th & 2 in the 1H.�
I've said this 1,000 times, but why does a power running team eschew the
under-center snap, with play action, and instead ONLY use the shotgun
on 3rd/4th & short ?? �It's fucking
mad.�� That's the root problem with
Cheezenhunt �he gets entirely too tied into his boilerplate packages,
which makes it a snap for defenses to prepared and play against it.�� The 3rd down package is ALWAYS shotgun,
1-back, hell or high water. �WHY ?? ��Fer chrissakes, there are 7 other alignments
that could be used, but under Cheezenhunt's boilerplate offense, only
ONE is ever allowed, and no other.�
���������� The Gay Play o' the Day award was the
2 & 10 screen on the Denver 32 with 38 secs remaining in the half, which
gained nothing and killed a ton of clock.��
Ya don't run the gay-assed screen, with no timeouts, at that juncture,
Cheezenhunt !!��
���������� I'll give some credit for Cheezen for
going no-huddle in the 2H, which got Ben in a groove and rattled the Denver
defense.� Still, facing a defense
missing starters Ian Gold and Ferguson (after his injury), this was too
little.�� And despite the deficit, I
felt he too eagerly abandoned the ground game.�
C.��
DC:�
Some will fawn over Dick and claim that his defense was magnificent in
the face of the offense's turnovers, as well as shutting down the Denver ground
game.� However, Dick's defense, as
usual, didn't one single big play the entire game.� Worse, this defense is reverting back to its 2002-2003 form,
where is didn't maul or punish the QB at all.�
Plummer's shirt wasn't dirty, and not only did he not get punished AT
ALL, he also wasn't hurried or harassed much, either.� ��And getting outfoxed by
Shanahan so much that Troy Pola was a total non-factor, is downright criminal.�� C-.�
HC:� Billy Cowher
continues to oversee, and tolerate, a band of blunderers that make the same
mistakes over and over and over again, each and every week.�� When a team continues to make the same
mistakes over and over and over again, it's readily apparent that the head
coach is not only tolerating it, but also totally disinterested in, and
incapable of, actually fixing the problems.�
Cowhard appears totally disinterested and his hunger is long gone.� The time is now for this over-rated, pompous
idiot to step down so that someone with brains, gusto, and desire can take the
reins and put this very talented team back into playoff contention in
2007.�� Never has a Sup Bowl champion
played like such total dogshit the following season, and the blame must go to
the man running the ship, Billy Cowher. ��D-.
Synopsis:�
It is what it is, and right now this is a sorry, struggling team lacking
the focus, toughness, grit, internal fortitude, and playmaking to win
games.� The season is now lost and the
team must start working youngsters into the lineup to give them quality playing
experience as well as evaluate needs for the upcoming offseason.� �
(Still Mill
and Stillers.com -- when it comes to the analysis of the Pittsburgh Stillers,
no one else comes close�.)