The Flare Pass
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Before I delve into my Chiefs tilt analysis, let me state
that the Stillers.com presence is alive and well in suburban Detroit.� I'm at a suburban BW3 (Buffalo Wild Wings)
taking in the game and watching all my fantasy teams.� At the end of the game, a fellow Stillers fan approaches me and
hands me a stillers.com business card.�
Sure enough, it's Still Langer, and I explain to him that I too am a
writer for this website.� Talk about a
virtual organization!� We exchanged
pleasantries and did a little Gildong bashing, nothing unusual there.
I will not go into a summary of the game; for that you can either read Mill's
hard hitting commentary, or either Pittsburgh paper.� Rather my writings will take on a more strategic and analytical
nature.
As Mill pointed out this is an offense that appeared to be playing cutesy
ball.� I'm afraid this is quite simply a
recipe for disaster no matter how much the message board faithful loves this
"wing it downfield" approach.�
Some points to consider, no run and shoot style team has ever played in
let alone won a Super Bowl.� People may
point out the '84 Dolphins, '99 Rams, or '02 Raiders, to which my reply would
be yes the '84 Dolphins simply had one of the greatest QBs to ever play the game.� If you are blessed with that, then yes you
can take your chances with that style.�
Unfortunately, Shula tried and never did make it back to the big
dance.� The key things the Rams and
Raiders had in addition to their wide-open style of offense were a superior
strength on the offensive line (notably the offensive tackle positions) and a
running back who was a vital weapon in the passing game.� The first point is a no-brainer, if you are
going to be throwing the football upwards of 40 times per game, the defense is
going to be primed for pass rushing.�
Your offensive tackles had better be outstanding (which the Rams led by
Pace and the Raiders by Kennedy were) since they will be tested on the road in
noisy conditions where they lose a split second to the defender.� Quite clearly, Smith and Fordham are not in
this company and as such a running game has to be established to take the
pressure off of these two adequate at best tackles.�
As for the running back being a weapon in the passing game,
we've seen Faulk change the scope of the league.� Back in '99-'01 and really still today, Faulk was a dangerous
weapon catching little flare passes and taking them the distance.� In fact, Faulk would consistently have 1000
yards receiving (making him a tremendous fantasy weapon as all fantasy players
can attest to) to go with his 1500 rushing.�
Similarly, Garner produces big time receiving yardage for the Raiders by
catching easy passes in the flat and turning them into big gainers.� The Steelers have a potential weapon in
Zereoue, who while probably not as great a pass receiver as Faulk or Garner is
still decent and a major upgrade over Bettis.�
So what's the big deal with a RB catching little flare passes?� It all has to do with simple risk/reward
assessment.� Warner made his living and
his fame by dumping the ball down to Faulk and having him pick up what amounts
to about a 1000 yards of YAC.� So if
Warner threw for 4000 yards, he really threw for 3000 with Faulk generating the
incremental 1000.� You can use the
pretty much the same figures for Gannon and Garner, I know Garner's receiving
totals were a little less but not by much.�
Now enter the 2003 Steelers passing offense, which is
predicated on the trio of WRs.� When
Maddox hits Ward for a 10 yard gain, he's got to fire a throw downfield and
make correct reads.� When Maddox is
going for a big play, he's usually going over the top for Burress or Ward.� I just haven't seen those easy checkdown
flare passes to Zereoue with any consistency ala Faulk or Garner.� And I'm not talking about those slow
developing screen plays.� It seems to me
if you can give Maddox an easy 700 yards of passing via flare passes to Zereoue
then why not do that.� The glaring
difference between this Steelers offense and that of the Rams and Raiders teams
which made it to recent Super Bowls is that the Steelers offense is asking
Maddox to do much more than was asked of Gannon or Warner.
Defensively, the organizational blueprint in the Cowher era
has been to stifle the opponents running game and force them into a
one-dimensional passing mode.� Very
rarely have I seen a Steeler defense dominated by an opposing offensive line
and running game like this past Sunday.�
In fact, I can remember entire seasons where the Steelers would allow no
more than 2 rushing TDs.� This defense
has already allowed 4 to go with 2 via the air and 2 via return � that's quite
an interesting mix.� Another interesting
note on the defense, they have allowed 8 TDs and no field goals�what does that
say about the red zone defense?� Well it
was painfully clear prior to Sunday that this defense could be dissected via a
competent passing game, or atleast sliced up for huge chunks of pass
interference yardage.� Now it's even
more painfully clear that this defense can be run on, both between the 20's and
even moreso in the redzone.
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