Titans 26, Stillers 23 ……. Oct. 11, 2012 …………Game # 5 (Thur. Nite Football)
Stillers-Titans Postgame Analysis and Grades
The Stillers went out in front of lowly TENN 10-3, and it seemed the rout might be on. Instead, the entire team went into a funk, playing grab ass and fiddle faddle, and heading into the locker room down 6. The Stillers stormed back and had a 7-point lead midway thru the 4Q, only to watch their “vaunted defense” get shredded, once again, allowing an 80-yard TD march to tie the game. Suisham was just short on a late 54-yard FG, and The Softee Defense allowed a cake-easy drive for the Bitans’ game-winning FG as time expired.
Due to the late-nite nature of this game, this summary will be a bit more terse than usual.
Grades:
QB: After the first 2 drives, which produced 10 points, Ben and the offense went into a total funk. Ben was scattershot and no consistency was generated. Shitty INT late in the 1H on a hole-shot pattern along the s-line, in which he didn’t deliver the ball crisp or deep enough to Brown.
Took a cheap shot to the knees by Derrick Morgan after a throw-away at 8:27 4Q; no flag, of course. Ben rightfully had something to say to Morgan after this cheap-assed shot. But Ben misfired on a deep slant to a very-open Sanders on the next play to force a long FG that Suisham was able to convert. Savvy scramble on 3rd & 5 just after the 2MW, gaining 14 yards. However, on the final 3d & 7, when Ben scrambled to his left, he had AMPLE room to gain at least 3 or 4 yards, and quite possibly the 1st down. Instead, he did deep a loop-de-loop and then threw the ball away, forcing a 54-yard FG try that was a 1 yard too far. Ben does the run-throw read well went running to his right or up the gut, but when moving to his left he almost always eschews simply keeping the ball. The stats look nice on paper, but 23 points against the team that had given up the most points in the NFL is unacceptable. C+
RB:
Socrates Mendenhall - good power run, 2Q ,for 5 yards. He then had an Achilles injury of some sort and didn’t play from the 2Q on. Good thing the team rabidly rushed him off the 6-week PUP list.
Redman - good grab on seamer, 3d & 6 1st series, and then outstanding 2nd, 3rd, and 4th effort, breaking 5 tackles for a 33-yard gainer. (He was also face-masked on the play, but the “real” officials missed it.) Nice RAC on swing pass for an 11-yard gain, 2Q. Nice grab and RAC -- busting a tackle -- and dashing down the s-line for a 55-yard gainer late in the 1H. Another stellar RAC, after pin-balling off a defender on a valve dump in the 3Q, good for 14 yards. He had a nice 5-yard gain in the 3Q, but took a helmet on the knee and was in considerable pain. He was able to walk off, but never returned to action.
Special note -- Red became the 1st RB in Stiller history to have 100 yards receiving in a game since Frenchy Fuqua in 1970. 40 years of neglecting to throw the ball to the RB.
Dwyer - apparently did not dress.
Rainey - nifty RAC on bubble screen, 1st play of 4Q, on a good read and then a nice burst to the outside for 12 yards.
Baron Batch - had a plunge in the 3Q, 3 yards. He didn’t quite read the blocking right on this play. With the other RBs hobbled in the 4Q, Batch suddenly became the “feature back”. Had 2 successive carries late in the 3Q, gaining 4 and then 8 with some nice bit of running. Pussyfooted on a GL plunge early in the 4Q, but then followed it up with a good TD run. Mis-read Adam’s block on the late plunge that lost a yard, which set up a FG that was a yard short. B-
FB:
Johnson - looked like a FB on a wheel route that was hopelessly incomplete in the 3Q. Good block on the Batch TD plunge. B-
WR:
Wally - Mister Holdout, aka Mister Stonehands, dropped an easy TD pass on the 1st series, along with shit footwork that would have caused him to be ruled INC anyway. Piss poor as piss poor can be. Instead of an easy TD, the Stillers had to settle for 3. Wally grabbed a deep ball into his body on the next series, and had a fairly easy TD before easing off and celebrating too soon, like a jackass, as he was running to the GL. He was shoved near the pylon and allowed the ball to squirt out of his 1 hand, but the on-field ruling was an 82-yard TD, which was upheld. What a dickhead. He failed to make a block on a quick pass to Sanders at 9:00 2Q, and what could have been a big play was nabbed for a 2-yard gain.
Stop the presses !! Wally plucked a pass with his hands, and kept hit feet in bounds, on a deep out in the 4Q !! A first !!
Brown - was most relegated to bubble screens and 0-step hitches. Had 4 grabs for 20, an unacceptably low number for the best all-around WR on this team.
Sanders - good block on Ben’s long scramble late in the game. Had 4 grabs for 43.
Cotch - played sparingly and was never targeted. C+
TE:
Miller - clutch grab on 3d & 6, 2Q. Clutch grab on 3rd down late in the 3Q. Beaten on a GL blocking assignment early in the 4Q, allowing the defender to slice inside. Brilliant 1-handed catch late in the game, good for 4 yards.
Paulson - short grab on 1st play of 2H, 8 yards. The overall run blocking by the TEs was mediocre. B-
OL:
Starks: abused by Wimbley, 2nd play, flushed Ben. Poor. Beaten by Wimbley on a 3rd down completion in the 3Q. He had problems with Wimbley’s quickness all night long. Got shoved into Ben on the 3Q play that was initially ruled a fumble but then ruled incomplete…a terrible, shit play by Jaxwell Starks.
Gilbert - got beaten by a DE on a 3-man rush on a 3rd & 6, and then was injured, perhaps from getting whipped to the ground as the DE blew by and flushed Ben.
Adams - replaced Gilbert at 10:00 2Q. Did okay at times and poorly at times.
Colon - . Mister FatAss pulled on a Mendy run, early 3Q, and then stupidly failed to block anyone, and then man he was supposed to block ransacked Mendy for a 2-yard loss. Amazingly, he wasn’t flagged all nite long.
Foster - whiffed like a pile of shit on a Mendy run, late 1Q, which caused a 4-yard loss. Got abused and allowed a 1-yard loss on a Redman run, 5:00 3Q. Limped off the field at 3:24 3Q. Due to the review of the fumble, he was able to mosey back in without missing a snap.
Pouncey - Injured (gee, major surprise) on the 1st play of the game. Leggo replaced him at Center. Leggo did okay.
Overall, the running game was too feeble and inconsistent, and the O-line allowed too much leakage on routine 4 and even 3 man rushes. C-
DL:
Keisel - rare stop, 2nd series. Mostly untouched on a pocket-force that enabled Worilds to get a Dong Sack. No real pressure all nite long, and once again, no batted passes.
Hood - pretty much did nothing all nite long. Managed to stay off the stat sheet, once again, and had no more impact on the game than the 4th string waterboy.
Hampton - Waddled to and fro and did little. Failed to anchor the run defense.
Heyward - played some, and finished with 1 assist. Gee, hooray !
McLendon - nice job to chase down a stretch play and nab Johnson for 2 yards in the 4Q.
Overall, this unit did next to nothing. D+
LB:
Foote - helped set up Timmy’s stuff, late 1Q. Forced a fumble on a Dong Sack in the 3Q, and then, with the ball lying on the ground and Timmons in on the scrum, both linebackers somehow managed to get out-wrestled for the ball by 37-year old stumblebum Matt HasselJack. Sickening. Foote remains on the field for 99% of all snaps, despise being a horrific pass defender who generates nothing on the blitz unless totally untouched.
Carter - played sparingly (thank goodness)
Timmons - stuffed Johnson, late 1Q. Failed to deliver a crisp tackle on a 2nd & goal plunge, early 2Q, which resulted in a TD. Got the Stillers’ 2nd INT of the season -- in game 5 -- on a short crosser that HasselJack threw under heavy duress. Nowhere near as big a game as he had last week.
Woodley - did not dress, due to hamstring injury.
Worilds - got a Dong Sack after Keisel harassed the QB. Chipped in just a bit.
Harrison - Beat the LT for a sack, 1st series; superb use of low to the ground leverage and balance. Superb effort on swing pass to Johnson, fighting off a block and then, while on the ground, corralling Johnson. Sealed off by the TE on an 11-yard Johnson run in the 3Q. Dropped as a MLB and -- bad knee, poor conditioning, and all -- was hopelessly mis-matched against a fleet TE and got totally abused on a crossing route that gained 25 yards on 3rd & 5 to set up the chip-shot game-winning FG. 2nd half passer harassment was minimal.
Overall, poor play against such a shit offense. D
DB:
Pola - did not dress, due to the calf injury
Ike - Every so often, Ike has 1 of those games where he’s in a total funk and can’t cover a 59-year old car salesman. Tonite was 1 of those nites. Beaten deep, 1st series, and PI flag at 2 yard line. Beaten deep on a 3d & 8 late in the 1Q, and flagged for another PI that was declined. Got thoroughly abused by Nate Washington on a deep slant for 25 yards in the 3Q. Kind of busted up a weak lob to Britt near the GL at 4:40 4Q. He then was flagged on the very next play for a hold on a short slant on 3rd & 10, as stupidfuk a flag as you can earn in the NFL. 2 plays later, he was beaten by Britt on an EZ lob, but Britt simply dropped the ball. On the very next play, TENN came right back at Ike, who actually anticipated the route and was in perfect position to not only bust up the pass, but pick it off and race 99 yards for a game-clinching TD. Instead, like a complete dildo-inhaling simpleton, Ike feebly flailed at the ball as though it were a rabid Doberman, and the pass ended up in the hands of Britt for the game-tying TD. What a pile of shit.
PeeBoy Lewis - beaten on backshoulder pass, 3rd & goal, 1st series, but the rookie WR dropped a very catchable pass. This was a very weak effort on PeeBoy’s part. PeeBoy actually did something productive, busting up a 3rd down slant late in the 1Q. PeeBoy actually blew up a bubble screen at 6:50 2Q, forcing a 1-yard loss. Living u to his nickname, Pee boy feebly pawed and whiffed at Hasselbeck -- along with Cortez Allen - on a blitz late in the 2Q, which enable HasselJack to illegally forward-lateral the ball to Johnson for a nice gainer. A few plays later, PeeBoy took a shit-headed INSIDE angle on a curl, and then weakly pawed and whiffed (notice a theme with PeeBoy??), allowing an extra 6 yards and making the FG a make-able 47-yarder. PeeBoy had a CAKE-easy INT in the 4Q, but it clanged off his chest-plate and hands.
Will Allen - started at SS in place of Ryan Bundy. Was injured when he forced a fumble on a bit hit on Britt after Ikehad been torched deep, but came back in. Did very little in actual pass defense.
Ryan Bundy - after being declared the automatic starter in place of Clark or Pola for EVERT occurrence the past 3 years, Bundy was finally told to sit the pine. Perhaps Commissioner Adolf Goodell issued a memo, with his unlimited powers, ordering Coach Momlin to start a legitimate NFL safety, what with the game on prime time TV.
Cortez Allen - replaced Will Allen when Will was injured. Good aggressive tackle on a short curl on 3d & 3, which was stopped just short of the sticks. Busted up a quail-like post late in the 2Q.
Clark - busted up a pass; not with his hands, of course, but by delivering a blow to the TE as the ball arrived in the 1Q. Whiffed on Johnson at 13:15 4Q, and allowed an 8-yard gain. He redeemed himself the next play, walking into the box and then dropping Johnson for a 1-yard gain. Good run support on a plunge at 6:00 4Q, and solid run support throughout the game.
Facing such a pile of shit QB like HasselJack and a complete joke of a WR corps, this was a sorry, wretched performance by this secondary. D-
Spec teams:
Shoddy KO cover, 1st boot. The shoddy, flimsy KO coverage continued on nearly every boot. After a 3Q FG, Suisham booted the KO high and 8 yards deep in the EZ, but the ball was still returned to the PIT 21. The KO after the Batch TD was -8 deep, and still returned to the 25.
Nice KO return, Rainey, out to the PIT 44 in the 1Q.
Van Dyke was flagged for a hold on a Stiller punt return in the 1Q. Then was flagged for an illegal block on the KO return at 4:14 4Q. This sorry fuk has picked up like 9 flags since he joined the team from the Raiders. Will the Raiders take him back? His assfuked flag cost the team 10 yards on a drive that was 1 yard short. If Momlin were a real coach, Dick Van Dyke would be cut by Friday afternoon.
Stillers allowed a blocked punt, last play of 1Q. The long-snapper, Warren, and the up-back, Ryan Bundy, both blocked the same man, and Bundy moseyed too quickly to his left and abandoned his middle responsibility. The “NT”, Shaw (the same man who blocked a Shitpulveda punt last season) sauntered up the gut for the block that gave the Bitans the ball at the Stiller 1, which was converted into an easy TD 2 plays later.
Not that it was entirely his fault, but punter Drew Assler took about 2-1/2 minutes -- along with a THREE step approach -- to get off the punt that was blocked. Just about the only thing he didn’t do on this punt was inspect the laces to ensure they met the rigid NFL production standards.
As he was returning a punt, Tonio Brown ran into Worilds in the 1Q.
Rainey was finally permitted to field a punt near his GL, and shockingly enough, he didn’t fumble, or commit a penalty, or shoot an innocent bystander with a handgun. Nothing bad happened.
With the score 20-16 midway thru the 4Q, Suisham nailed a career-long 52-yard FG to give the Stillers a 7-point lead. With under a minute, Suisham tried a 54-yarder, which appeared would be good but was a yard short.
C-
OC:
Haley started out nicely, only to regress into an Arians-like funk of grab-bagism. The over-fascination with the bubble screen was maddening, as was the writing of Tonio Brown out of the offensive script. The offense reverted into the playgroundish, “Ben jukes wildly in the pocket and then throws on the run” mantra that dominated the Arians era.
Nice use of Redman, 3d & 6, 1st series, on simple short seamer in wide open zone. Clever use of Rainey as a RB in motion, and going deep, while Wally went deep on the other side of the field for a deep bomb. Of course, after this deep bomb for a TD, the Stillers went deep only one more time the entire game.
3rd & 1, early 2Q -- Haley used a SG, 1B formation, which enraged me. I was further enraged when a valve dumpoff to Redman did not connect, forcing a punt. This Titan defense isn’t the ’86 Bears, and there was no need to go into a pass-happy formation on 3rd & ONE. Redman has been money on 3rd and short, plus you can hit Heath Miller (remember him, anyone?) on a pop pass off of a running formation.
Gilbert was injured and replaced by Adams…and Haley totally forgot about the 2 WB set that had worked so well last week. Dumb…really dumb. Starks struggled like a banshee against Wembley all evening long, yet until the 4Q Haley rarely ever offered help with a wingback/H-back as he did last week vs. Philly.
Only 5 1st downs the entire 1H, and a piddly 10 points, against the worst defense in the league. Only 23 all game against this shit defense. D-
DC:
Dick started this game half asleep and ended it in a complete snooze.
1st play of game - PAP, wide open pass to Nate, 18 yards. 1st run, cut back, huge hole, 7 yards. Dick, who could have seized control of the game early, went conservative and softee and allowed a long, opening drive to the PIT 2 before TENN settled for a sack and then a FG.
TENN dropped 4 passes, 1st half. A couple more were dropped in the 2H.
Once again, the Steeler defense, led by the Almighty Defensive Coach himself, Dick LeBeau, manages to fritter away a 7-point 4th Qtr lead by allowing an 80 yard TD march, followed by a 33 yard drive for the game-winning FG. That's FOUR out of 5 games this year where this defense's last stand of the game has watched the opponent SCORE POINTS.
290 passing yard allowed to an inept 37-year old QB and a Tenn. WR crew who couldn't catch a cold in a Buffalo monsoon in January.
After Ben’s INT late in the 1H, Dick, the fuking dullard that he is, allowed the lowly Bitan offense to march 59 yards from their own TWELVE yard line in 10 plays in 1:32 and a key FG as the half expired, giving the Bitans a 6-point lead. Late in any half, Dick has a brilliant knack for going soft and giving up territory like the French army.
3rd & 8, 5:35 4Q -- 2 man rush (yes, a TWO man rush), and NO ONE covers a deep seamer, which is snagged for 35 yards. There was all kinds of confusion before this snap. Remember, this is a defense that plays ZERO ROOKIES. NONE at all. And it’s the 5th game of the season. Bullshit confusion is inexcusable, and the man who must take fault is none other than the senile dullard himself, Dick LeBeau. Here’s an idea -- call a TIMEOUT when faced with such disarray and confusion.
TENN had not scored a TD in their last 31 drives that began at or inside their 20. Sure enough, with the game on the line, Dick allowed an 80-yard TD march to tie the game with a bit over 4 minutes left in the game
3rd & 5, 39 seconds left in the game with the ball at midfield -- Dick, “The Surpreme Almighty Deity of Defensive Coaching, puts James Harrison, bad knee, poor conditioning, and all, in solo coverage as a MIDDLE LB, so they he can get abused by a TE for a 25-yard gain to set up the game-winning FG. Never mind that Harrison is, by far, your best pass rusher, and never mind that Harrison is in no shape whatsoever to be chasing fleet TEs in open space. A stop here might have forced a punt and OT, what with the Titans worried about giving the ball back to Pit at midfield.
Dick always seems to be the perfect tonic for a struggling stumblebum to suddenly do well. Tonite, it was both HasselJack, a 37-year old backup pressed into starting duty due to injury, and RB Kristine Johnson, who gained 91 yards on 19 carries (4.8 yards per crack). He was averaging a paltry 2.9 yards going into the game.
Look at the bright side....Dick and the Steeler defense scored a hat trick --
- last possession of the 1st half, 59 yards and a TENN FG as the half expired.
- 80 yard drive to tie the game late in the 4Q
- last possession of the 2nd half, 33 yards in 49 seconds and a TENN FG as the half expired.
Hat trick !!
Some defenses rise to the occasion. This one. led by “The Great Dick LeBeau”, descends to it. That's 5 of their last 6 that this defense has given up the go ahead points on their last appearance on the field. F-
HC:
You would think Momlin, the imbecile, would have learned from the opener about the stupidity of dressing only 7 active O-linemen. Sure enough, 2 of them got injured in the 1H. Why the Titans didn’t start a scuffle with any Steeler offensive lineman, with high probability of the automatic ejection of each player, is beyond me.
The special teams remain a complete fuking disaster, a trademark of Tomlin-coached teams. Perhaps Momlin needs to fire his special teams coach. (sic)
The decision to send in Suisham -- after using a timeout to think about it, no less -- was simply brain-dead. Suisham’s career long, in a career long enough to have statistical relevancy, is 52. Yes, Suisham “banged the 52 yarder”, as Momlin would rationalize in his post-game presser. So fuking what. Suisham could have easily missed to the right or the left, and being outside on a grass field, anything negative could happen. The decision here has to be either a pooch punt -- because of total lack of faith in the defense (remember Momlin’s lack of faith last week vs. PHI ?) or using your all-star QB, stellar TE, and the 3 excellent WRs to gain the 7 yards on 4th down.
The complete inability to get his team mentally prepared and fired up to play a lowly, pile of shit team on the road is simply incomprehensible. This has been going on since 2009 and it has happened 3 times now this season. Momlin is a fairly intelligent man. Problem is, he’s just not very smart. It all starts at the top, and Coach Momlin looks like a complete dufus who can’t think, can’t lead, can’t plan, and can’t inspire. F-
Synopsis: A shit loss to a shit 1-4 team playing a backup QB who sucks elephant gonad. The dim-bulbed fan will start to grasp at straws and rabid rationalizations......”The injuries...” (Sure, like no other NFL team has injuries.) “Playing on the road is tough” (No, playing shitty football on the road makes it tough.) The talent is ample enough to be sitting 4-1, at a minimum, at this point of the season. Instead, this team is 2-3 and is going nowhere fast.
(Still Mill and Stillers.com -- when it comes to the analysis of the Pittsburgh Stillers, no one else comes close….)