Stillers 24, Bungals 17 ……. Oct 21, 2012 …………Game # 6
Stillers-Bungals Postgame Analysis and Grades
The Stillers jumped to a 3-0 lead, but then a plethora of mistakes, flags, and softee defense allowed the Bungals to storm back to take a 14-3 lead. The Stillers tied it at 14 late in the half, and then ended the 3Q tied at 17. The Stillers finally finished off a decently long drive, with Rainey punching it in from 11 yards out to give the Stillers a 24-17 lead that held.
Due to the late-nite nature of this game, combined with my recent surgery to repair a broken collarbone, this summary will be a bit shorter and more terse than usual.
Grades:
QB:
Ben - shoddy, forced INT into double coverage to Miller in the EZ, 2Q. It was hasty and forced, and too high for Miller. His very next play, on the ensuing series, he had EONS of time in the pocket, and then got stripped for a turnover on the PIT 8-yard line. The dropped 2Q lob to Wally in the EZ was too quail-like and floaty; a better pass than this Tomczak-like quail is an easy TD as long as Wally holds onto the ball.
Had eons of time in the pocket in the 3Q, but held the ball forever and finally was sacked. Shit pass on 3d & 4 at 8:50 4Q, leading the pass too far OOB and forcing Brown to haul in the pass OOB. Shit pass, but Miller hauled it in and rumbled for a 30-yard gain at 7:47 4Q. Ben took another sack after eons of time at 5:42 4Q. Ben had a good pooch punt at 5:00 4Q. The challenged reception by Wally at 2:40 4Q as a classic Ben lollipop, where he aimed and softeed the pass instead of stepping into the pass and putting some mustard on it. On paper, Ben appeared to have a good, solid game, but the reality was that this was a very disappointing all-around effort by Benji. C-
RB:
Dwyer - After not dressing the past 2 games (brilliant coaching, by the way), he finally as permitted to dress and even started due to injuries. Good plunge, 3rd and 1, early 2Q. Good runs, 11, 4, 4, and 21 in the 2Q, although Dwyer kept stumbling and going down after minimal contact. Clutch run on 3rd & 4 at 10:35 4Q, gaining 15 yards. Dwy rumbled thru Peko’s tackle at the LOS for a critical 14-yard gain and a 1st down at 2:40 4Q. He then iced the game by breaking a tackle and rumbling 32 yards on a late 3d & 7 to finish off the game. Dwy finished with 122 yards on only 17 carries with obviously his best game of his short NFL career. If Redman is able to go next week, are Haley and Momlin really going to sit this guy in favor of Barron “Alligator Arms” Batch..??
Rainey - good block on Brown’s nice RAC, 2Q. Superb read and hole-hit, and then good dash to the GL, for an 11-yard TD early in the 4Q. Rainey has displayed 2 annoying traits thus far this season -- an ability to stumble to the ground amid zero or very little contact, and an insistence to take every run, be it a kick return or a RB run, at an ANGLE instead of getting north-south once in a while. Fortunately, on this TD run, he eliminated both of those traits.
Baron Batch - was wide open on a gadget play in the 2Q for an EASY walk-in TD, but alligator-armed the ball and allowed the ball to glance off his fingertips. What a complete fuking douchebag. I’d cut this sorry fuk tomorrow. 2 plays later, Ben’s pass to the EZ was INT’d, so the Stillers went from taking a 10-7 lead to remaining behind, 7-3. Did little at RB.
Redman - .did not dress, due to injury.
Socrates Mendenhall: Surprise (sic)….did not dress. Good thing he was taken off PUP (sic). Dwyer: A. Rainey: B. Batch: F-.
FB:
Johnson - gained 5 yards on a draw play in the 4Q. Good grab on low throw a few plays later, gaining 2 yards. He wasn’t used all that much as a blocker. B-
WR:
Wally - Mister Holdout dropped a PERFECT pass, for 1st down yardage, on the 1st drive, forcing a FG. His mistake was that he tried to catch the ball with his HANDS -- without using his body --- which for Wally is almost always a disaster. To start the very next drive, Wally dropped another OERFECT pass, right in his chest, that would have easily gained 25 yards, if not 40 or 50. With 3:00 left in the 1H, Ben threw a lob to Wally in the EZ, which was barely nipped by a DB’s fingernail, and the ball still hit Wally in the stomach, but the sorry fukstick dropped the ball. On a 3d & 11 at 5:00 4Q, Wally dropped a short slant for his FOURTH drop of the nite. Wally lazily went down for a low pass at 2:40 4Q and allowed the ball to juggle and rotate a wee bit, and Cinci smartly challenged the ruling. The ruling on the field was upheld, only because there wasn’t quite enough video evidence to over-rule it, but it was a shit effort by a dogshit WR. Quick -- sign this guy to an $80M contract !! The Great Holdout-er finished with 8 grabs for 52 yards.
Brown - good RAC after short curl, 2Q. Had several other good RACs during the game, including a 16-yard gain that sparked the winning TD drive. Threw a perfect spiral that was right on target to Carron Batch off the double-pass badget play, but Batch short-armed the ball and fought it off as though it were a garden shovel tossed from an airplane flying high above the stadium.
Sanders - clutch grab and huge RAC, 3d & 6, on final play of 3Q, good for 31 yards, which set up the game-winning TD. A superb play by the 2nd-best WR on the team. Did a shit acting job after a Ben sack at 5:42 4Q, suddenly going down in a heap with a supposed ham injury about 18 seconds after the previous play had ended. An embarrassing charade that is a disgrace to the team and fans of Pittsburgh.
Cotch - actually was targeted and had a grab in the 1Q, good for 20 yards. Wally: F-. All others: B
TE:
Miller - Good TD grab late in the 2Q. He then had a better grab on the ensuring 2-pointer, making an over-the-shoulder grab on a lob in the back corner of the EZ. For the most pasrt, stellar blocking, although he was beaten a few times and also flagged for a hold on a running play in the 2Q.
Paulson - had 1 grab for 7 yards and chipped in with some adequate blocking.
Pope - N/A. A-
OL:
Starks: struggled like a banshee in run blocking all nite long. Mostly protected Ben’s blind side, although he had, and needed, quite a bit of help.
Gilbert - did not dress, due to injury.
Adams - blocked no one and allowed leakage on jet sweep, 1st series, -5. Abused to the INSIDE -- as he always does -- for the strip of Ben in the 2Q that gave Cinci the ball on the PIT 8. Received plenty of help from chipping TEs and RBs to prevent him from continual abuse. Played adequately at times and will have to do so for another 5 or 6 weeks until Gil returns.
Colon - . good blocks on Dywer’s power runs in the 2Q. Hole-Lone got fork-lifted and thrown onto his back by Atkins, who then sacked Ben in the 3Q. Hole-Lone just got his ass whipped and abused on this play. Had some good pulls and lead blocks on counter plays, and helped open the hole for Rainey’s TD run. The thing with Hole-Lone is consistency, or complete lack thereof. He played acceptably this week, but we have no earthly idea what this pile of dung will do next week versus Wash.
Foster - Abused badly on a 3rd down play late in the 1Q, but Ben eluded pressure. Lateral footwork is just appallingly poor. Good downblock on the Rainey TD run.
Pouncey - did not dress, due to injury.
Leggo - good pull and block on Wally end around, 3Q. Good block on Dwyer’s late, long rumble. Played okay at times. Overall, the line fought hard and gave Ben decent time in the the pocket, plus it opened up plenty of holes for the ground game. A
DL:
Keisel - rare pressure to help force a punt at 12:40 4Q. Recorded zero solos and, of course, zero bats.
Hood - mauled and manhandled, 3rd down run, 1st series, 14 yard run. Total pile of shit. Stop the presses -- Hood had 2 batted passes, the first 2 bats for the entire defense all season….! It’s appalling, but not surprising, when the 2 starting DEs finish a game with a combined ZERO solo stops.
Hampton - mauled and manhandled 1st lay of game, 12 yard run. After doing nothing all game, Mister FatFuk finally did something, stuffing a plunge for a 2-yard loss at 4:40 4Q.
Heyward - was finally allowed to play a few snaps, but only a few. Had 1 solo, more than the combined efforts of the 2 starting DEs.
McLendon - didn’t play much. C+
LB:
Foote - dropped cake-easy INT off a dropped pass by AJ Green, 2nd play of game. Had a paltry 2 solos. Did little.
Carter - did not dress.
Timmons - solid game with 4 solos and 7 A’s, but no impact plays at all.
Woodley - On the 15-play opening drive by Cinci, Big LaMarr stood around and did nothing,…until the final play. He had a CAKE easy solo tackle attempt at Cedric Peerman, a career backup RB who weighs all of 211 pounds and gives up 70 (SEVENTY) pounds to Big LaMarr. But true to his nature, Big LaMarr pussed out with a weak-assed paw n’ grab at the RB, who trucked The Big He-Man and plowed into the EZ for a 5-yard TD run. Fuking pitiful, but oh-so typical of The Big He-Man. Had a slop assist after a short dumpoff, 9:32 2Q. Made a slop stop after a short dumpoff to Gresham late in the 2Q.
LaMarr got a Dong INT when a Dalton had the ball slip out of his hands on a pump fake and then the loose ball hit an O-linemen in the helmet, and then the ball softly bounced right into LaMarr’s waiting hands as he was standing in no-man’s land doing nothing. Got totally manhandled by an O-lineman on a SIX yard plunge, which was spotlighted by NBC on the replay of this wretched bit of linebacking. Got easily shielded off on a run up RT, good for 6 yards while Big LaMarr just stood there and accepted the shield. Any time you give up 6 yards on the ground on 1st down, it’s losing football. LaMarr had a Dong pressure a couple plays later when Dalton held the ball forever and then threw it away. LaMarr had a slop assist on a 2-yard plunge at 5:00 4Q. The $60M Man finished with a whopping 1 solo and 2 A’s.
Worilds - played only sparingly, because, you know, the starting OLBs are both in such stellar, injury-free, top flight condition.
Harrison - missed an ankle-grab sack of Dalton, mid-4Q. Was held off the stat sheet and was never a factor. Good thing Colbert rushed this man off the PUP list.
Timmons: B- Foote, Harrison: C Woodley: D-
DB:
Pola - did not dress, due to the calf injury.
Ike - had perfect position on an EZ slant to AJ Green, but inexplicably WHIFFED on a bat attempt, and the ball ended up in Green’s mitts for a 2Q TD. I guarantee Ike has incredibly poor vision, if he were to be actually tested. AJ Green practices juggling; perhaps Ike should take up this hobby as well. Busted up a 3rd down short curl to Green, midway 4Q. Stop the presses !! Green was held to just 1 grab, but much of that was due to the defense giving Ike gobs of shadowing and help, plus Daulton having a scattershot game and the Stiller ground game chewing gobs of clock.
Lewis - PeeBoy actually made a play on a passed football, batting away a 2Q pass in the EZ that Ike surely would have misplayed for a Cinci TD. Played ok, although the complete lack of a playmaker opposite AJ Green really hampered Cinci and enabled PeeBoy to at least look semi-competent.
Will Allen - started for Pola, but then hurt his ankle sometime in the 1H and was replaced by Ryan Bundy.
Bundy - inserted for the injured Allen. Didn’t do much, but at least he didn’t majorly botch up thins the way he often does.
Cortez Allen - played some and did little.
Clark - As usual, offered no help whatsoever on the slant TD grab by Green in the 2Q. On a late 3d & 10, Dalton threw a lollipop lob that, despite only going 20 yards downfield, was in the air at least 4 seconds, but Clark, as is usual, was entirely incapable of making an actual play on the FOOOTBALL. Green nearly made a miraculous 1-handed grab while Clark stood and watched.
Curt Brown - tooled for 3rd down conversion, 1st series. Tooled by Sanu on a 3d & 4 early in the 3Q. No physicality, no instincts. Can’t believe the Bungals didn’t prey on this man much more often. B-
Spec teams:
Aside from the FGs by Suisham and a couple decent KO returns, this was a complete fuking disaster. The Stillers somehow managed to get flagged on 5 kick returns, 2 of which were KO returns and the other 3 of which were punt returns. Sylvester, Van Dick, Batch, Robinson, and Ike were the culprits in a sickening display of assaholic foolishness and lack of discipline.
Van Dyke was flagged once AGAIN for a hold, negating Brown’s nifty punt return to the CIN 44. Instead, the Stillers started on their own 13, and Ben was stripped on the 1st play. Just like that, the game is flipped, all thanks to a pile of shit backup DB who commits spec teams penalties EVERY week and whom I said should have been cut LAST week, if this team had any sense of accountability. Fuk Dik Van Dyke.
Shitty KO coverage, opening KO of the 2H. Then, after Suisham tied the game with a FG in the 3Q, the KO coverage was again as leaky as a colander, allowing a return to the CIN 39. Fuking putrid, once again.
Good KO return, Rainey, 3Q. Also had a couple other adequate KO returns. Brown would have had nearly 100 yards in punt returns, were his effort continually not called back for one hold after another.
Butler punted just twice and did quite well. As noted above, Ben also had a good pooch punt that was downed at the CIN 11 in the 4Q.
Butler, Suisham, Rainey, Brown: A. All others, D-
OC:
2 WRs screens to 0pen the game, including the 2nd on 2d & 1. What in the fuk ?? It’s a free fuking play on 2nd and 1. Yes, I know opening plays are scripted, but a.) it’s assaholic to script 2 straight WR screens to open the game, and b.) you have a mike and can actually ADJUST a playcall. After a clock stoppage to measure late in the 1H, Haley comes back with a MINUS-1 yard pattern to Wallace, in the middle of the fuking field !! Brilliant ! This was right after a 1-yard pass to Miller fell incomplete. What in the fuk is Haley’s fascination with the 1-yard pass pattern from the 10 yard line ???
Of course, there was an extreme love affair tonite with throwing 3, 2, and 0 yard passes to the fastest WR on the team.
The offense pissed away 20 seconds of scarce time at the end of the 1H. At 1:03 2Q, Dwyer ran a plunge on 3d & 1, and the clock was stopped at 0:56 as the refs spotted the ball. NBC went to a TV timeout, which was to measure the spot to see if a 1st down was attained, which it was. After the spot and clock was re-started, the offense managed to fiddle-fuk for 20 seconds until snapping the ball at 0:36, which is patently unacceptable after the freebie timeout for the measurement. In that situation, that ball should have been snapped within 6 or 7 seconds of the ball being spotted, period.
1st down at the CIN 14, 1st play of 4Q -- 1 yard pass to Miller that gains 3 ! Brilliant !!
Wasted timeout on a 2nd & 10, 6:04 4Q. The playcall simply was not made in time, which is inexcusable.
Six games into the season, I see too much grabass and fiddle faddle all over the offense, and once this team enters the RZ, it resembles a Chinese fire drill. I am not seeing much of a difference between Arians and Haley at this point. C-
DC:
As is usual, Dick stood by helplessly as Cinci took over on its first possession, down 3-0 on its own 20, and then marched 80 yards in 15 plays for a cake-easy, go-ahead TD in the 1Q. Fuking putrid. Cinci did whatever it wanted to on that drive -- gashed the D on runs, converted 3rd downs (and even a 4th down), and completed passes with all the ease of a skeleton drill.
Then, on Cinci’s next-after possession, Dick had a chance to make a stand at the Steeler 8, but instead softly and meekly allowed a TD on the 1st play for an 8-yard TD pass.
Stop the presses -- Hood batted a pass late in the 2Q, creating the very FIRST batted pass at the LOS all season !! JJ Watt gets 3 of these all by himself per game, but Dick staunchly refuses to instruct his linemen -- who never get pressure on the QB anyway -- to at least get their MITTS up to bat passes. What a novel idea….having the D-lineman actually READ the QB and then bat a pass once every 4 months…!
The score was tied at the half, but Dick promptly pissed that away, allowing a cakewalk 7-play march for a Cinci FG.
Woodley returned to the lineup with his balky hamstring, and Harrison is still recovering to get to full strength, but LeBeau, the complete dimbulb that he is, refused to rotate Worilds in to give either man a breather. Sheer stupidity by a coach who is so out of touch with reality he may as well be calling the game from the planet Jupiter. C
HC:
As is his norm, Tomlin and his love affair with the 2-pointer was on full display last nite. Why got for the 2-pointer late in the 1H, down 14-12 ?? You have no earthly idea how the game will play out for the next 30 minutes. You don’t need to chase points and go for 2 points at this situation, and without their 2 best RBs, it’s not a good, high percentage alternative. Yes, Miller made a near-miraculous catch for the 2 points, but that doesn’t justify the stupidity of the decision.
If Tomlin condoned or had anything to do with the embarrassing late-game charade of Sanders getting an injury timeout with his awful acting, then Momlin should also be fined by the league office. C
Summary: A solid win over a weak foe, but at least it was a road win after being 0-3 on the road this season. Next week’s game versus lowly Wash should be a cupcake cruiser at home, but this team is well known for resting on its laurels, taking its foot off the accelerator, and of course being totally unprepared for a dual-threat QB like RG3. We can and should have no idea what to expect from the Stillers next week, except for a letdown and a chaotic array of mistakes, lack of discipline, and shoddy game management.
(Still Mill and Stillers.com -- when it comes to the analysis of the Pittsburgh Stillers, no one else comes close….)
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