Keys to Beating the Jags ��������������Jan 4, 2008 ����
First, some background�..��
1.� Consider
reviewing the Postgame Analysis
and Grades from the Jax-1 debacle back on Dec. 16.�� This will refresh your memory with the key
facts and analysis behind that asswhipping and explain why the beating
happened, which then leads us to what needs to be done to win on Sat.
nite.�
2.� The
injury list seems to grow for the Stillers, and there are mismatches all over
the field.� Although these 2 won�t face
each other, the one �match up� per se that the Stillers overwhelmingly have in
their favor is that Ben Roeth is the Stiller QB while Garrard will be making
his 1st ever playoff start for Jax.��
The Keys:
�Offense:
- Pass on �running downs�. ��I�m not advocating that the offense goes
into a pure pass-happy mode.�� But, to
think that this offense will be able to simply plunge the ball down throats of
the brawny, talented Jax D-line and solid LB corps is the height of arrogance and
stupidity.�� Several key facts support
this particular key to beating the Jags --
���������� a.� Prior to his season-ending injury, Willie
Parker was arguably THE most potent, consistent, dangerous weapon on the
Stiller offense.� He led the NFL in
rushing, and against these Jags, rushed for 100 yards on 14 carries.�� With Parker done, the most potent,
consistent, dangerous weapon on the Stiller offense is undeniably Ben
Roethlisberger.�� He had a superb year,
limiting his picks while passing for a franchise record in TD passes for a
season.�
���������� b.
The weakness of this Jag defense is its PASS defense.� This is as obvious as the cockroach on the billiard table.� �You
want to attack an opponent�s weakness with your strength.� Our strongest, most reliable offensive weapon
is Ben Roth.� Don�t make him have to beat
Jax with Favre-like heroics on 3rd & 9 every drive.� Allow Benji to use PLAY ACTION on 1st
&/or 2nd down, and let him use a talented group of receivers against a
weak-assed secondary.�
���������� c.� Parker�s rushing numbers were badly skewed
versus Jax, and at first blush, they give the false impression that we
dominated the Jaguar front 7 with our ground game.� In Jax-1, Parker ripped off carries of 13, 13, 16, and 27 yards --
69 in all -- on 4 carries.� The other 10
carries obviously netted 31 yards, which is a fairly pedestrian 3.1
yards/carry.� �Added to this is the very fact that the 27-yard run wasn�t a
running play at all, but rather a passing play in which Benji, being corralled
by a defender, lateraled the ball to Parker in desperation, and Parker dashed
through open field for the huge gainer.�
Yes, I realize that the blocking must have been adequate for Parker to
gain those 13, 13, and 16-yard carries, but this was WILLIE PARKER, the NFL�s
leading rusher, toting the ball�..not Carey Davis, Najeh Davenport, Verron
Haynes, or Gary Russell.�� There are
some average run defenses out there in the AFC that this fearsome foursome
could dent over the course of a game�.but not this Jax front-7.� In the playoffs, I�d much rather take my
chances beating a defense like Jax�s with Ben Roethlisberger, rather than Najeh
Davenport or Carey Davis.
Ben has got to be given the green light on 1st
&/or 2d down to hit Miller on quick pop passes, the backs on flare passes,
and of course the wideouts.� Sure, there
will be some imcompletions.� But,
really, aside from clock stoppage, what�s the difference between an incomplete
pass and a run that is stuffed for (-)1, 0, or 1 yard ??� And because this Jax offense isn�t anywhere
in the same league as Indy�s or New England�s, we don�t have an urgent need to chew
up loads of clock.� Getting 1st
downs, not aimless plunges into the teeth of a ravaging front 7, is
what is going to chew the clock.� �
�- Get
the fugging ball downfield in the passing game. ��Jax-1 was one of the most disgraceful gameplans
in modern pro football.�� That day, thanks to Airhead Arians, we saw
the epic return of the Ray Sperman/Kevin Gayrpride �Curl-aholic Offense�,
in which nearly every single pass play was a curl, stop route, or
buttonhook.��
���������� Review
the receiving stats from that game --
���������� Ward
- 4 grabs, 31 yards.� (He also had 2 big
drops, both on curls).�� Little piss-ant
receptions of about 8 yards per.�
���������� Holmes
- 4 grabs, 34 yards.� Just like Ward, little
piss-ant receptions of about 8 yards per.�
In fact, take away an 18-yard grab, and his other 3 catches netted a whopping
16 yards, or ~5 yards/catch.� Only Bruce
Arians could get such meager-assed production out of a big-play, downfield
receiver like Holmes.�
���������� Nate:
1 grab, 30 yards (TD).� Noted by Steeler
players as the fastest receiver on the team, this guy was written out of the
gameplan that day.�� Why?� His strength is his speed, not his route
running, and that day Arians wanted only to run curls and hitches, not
downfield routes.�
���������� Wilson:
1 grab, 12 yards
���������� Miller:
2 grabs, 24 yards.� One grab netted 18 yards
(a TD); the other 6.��
On the few times that we actually
went downfield with the ball against the then-27th ranked pass defense
in the NFL, receivers were OPEN.� Holmes
was open on the lone deep ball, but made a poor adjustment.� Nate hauled in the downfield pass for a
superb 30-yard TD catch.��
���������� When
you run nothing but curls and hooks against a weak-assed secondary, you play
right into their hands !!�� Jax�s
defensive coordinator loves nothing more than opposing teams running chickenshit
curls the entire game !!�� �
���������� And
I don�t want to hear bullshit fallacies that claim the QB needs 6 seconds in
the pocket to be able to throw the ball downfield.� The downfield lob down the sideline, for example, can actually be
thrown off a 3 (THREE) step drop. ��Benji,
on his part, must stop being an indecisive pussy and start unloading the ball with
conviction down the field.�
�- LT Trai
Essex must be able to pass block at least better than a large trash can.� In Jax-1, LT Marvell
Smith, playing with a bad back, had a piss-poor game.� In fact, had the Stillers simply placed a large trash can -- similar
to the ones in the concourses of Heinz Field -- out there at LT that day, they
could have gotten just as good of pass protection.� Essex need not replicate the play of Anthony Munoz in order to be
effective.� He merely needs to extend
his arms and ward off a pass rusher every now and then, which will be 15 times
more than what Smith did that miserable day.�
�The rest of the pass pro in Jax
1 wasn�t that gawdawful.��� Well over 90%
of the pass pressure that game came as a result of an injured, broken down LT
that was left in the game by a coaching staff too blind and stupid to see how
ineffective this man was playing.
�Defense:
- ILBs must actually play to some modicum of NFL-caliber
play.�� I
daresay I�ve reviewed more Steeler game tape than anyone on the planet except
the Stiller coaching staff.� The play of
the 2 ILBs, Foote and Farrior, has been utterly horrendous the past 7
games.� It hasn�t even been �okay� or �average��.it�s
been flat-out as smelly as a diaper that�s been sitting inside a trash can, in
90-degree heat, for the past 2 weeks.�� Two
recent plays show precisely how stench-laden these 2 stiffs have been:�
���������� a.
In Jax-1, Fred Taylor took a simple handoff up LG, and stuttered toward a small
hole as a scrum ensued.� Farrior, totally
UNBLOCKED on this play, and standing in the very hole that Taylor was heading
to, unbelievable vacated the hole and jumped into the scrum for
no good reason, thereby allowing a huge hole for Taylor to dash through, en
route to a 38-yard gain, his longest of the day. �What should have been, at most, a 2-yard gain, suddenly became 38
yards, because a no-brained, unblocked ILB foolishly vacated his hole in a
manner so assaholic that one can only wonder if Farrior was accepting bribes to
throw the ballgame.��
���������� b.
Last week in Balt., RB Cory Ross took a handoff on a stretch play to the
Stiller right side.� Foote, lined up as the LEFT ILB,
observed Ross on this stretch play, while being totally UNBLOCKED.� Unbelievably, Foote drifted off, waaay to
his right, BEHIND Farrior in no-man�s land, and when Ross cut the run back, he
had nothing but open sailing while The Footster was woefully out of
position.�� Again, what
should have been, at most, a 3-yard gain, suddenly became 42 yards, because a
no-brained, unblocked ILB foolishly drifted way off behind his fellow ILB in a
manner so assaholic that one can only wonder if Foote was accepting bribes to
throw the ballgame.��
���� It�s
no secret that Taylor and J-Drew are cutback lovers that will patiently survey
the scene and then look for gaping cutback holes.� I�m not asking Foote and Farrior to play like Mike Singletary and
Ray Lewis, but for chrissakes, they have got to extract head from asses and play
to some moderate degree of NFL linebacking.�
- Pray that Fat Casey Hampton actually is blocked by 2
blockers, or that when he is blocked by only 1 blocker (which happened 90% of
the time in Jax-1 three weeks ago), he actually does SOMETHING to blow up the
play or clog the lane.� As you�ll
recall from that Jax-1 game, here�s how Hampton was blocked on running plays by
Jax:
���������� 1st
Half Ground plays:
��������� Hampton solo blocked - 17 times
���������� Hampton
double-teamed - once �(1st & 10, Jax
9, 1:38 1Q)�
���������� 2nd
Half Ground plays:
���������� Hampton
solo blocked - 16 times
���������� Hampton
double-teamed - twice
���������� Hampton
chip blocked by a 2nd blocker for a tenth of a second - once
If the Fat Lard is being solo blocked 90% of the time this Sat. evening, then somebody -- a DE or LB -- should be free to make a stick.� And, if Hampton is just 1/10th as good as his outrageously glowing press clippings, then he ought to be able to actually SHED a solo block every now and then and make a stop himself.� Rest assured, I will personally review every ground play the day after the game and analyze the run blocking versus The Big Snack Monger.��
- Clark Haggans must anticipate, read, and then defend the
bootleg.�� In Jax-1,
Haggans got toyed with like an undrafted rookie making his first ever NFL start,
constantly getting bamboozled on one boot after another.� �Garrard
is a very average pocket passer, so Jax was astute enough to get him out into
open acreage on bootlegs in order to make easy-as-pie completions.� If Tomlin and LeBeau didn�t go over this
with Haggans at least, oh, about 78 times this past week, then both coaches
should be fired.�� Here�s a review of Haggans�
gross clumsiness in Jax-1:�
���������� -
On the PAP boot TD pass late in the 2Q, Haggans bit on the play fake like a
rabid wolf, which allowed Garrard an acre of space and eons of time to complete
the easy TD pass.�� �
�
��������� - after titty-jousting
for an eternity with a SOLO blocker, Faggans had Garrard dead to right for an
easy Dong Sack on the 2nd play of the 3Q, but whiffed in pathetic fashion.� The Jags went on to run 18 more plays, en
route to the 20-play TD march.��
���������� -
2 plays later, on a 3rd & 9, Haggans was slow, clumsy and inept in coverage
on Lewis, resulting in a cake-easy 18-yard reception and a 1st down.��
���������� -
After having not come close to an enemy QB since October, Haggans simply
couldn�t resist giving a lame, stupid-assed shot to the knees of Garrard well
after Garrard had released a pass in the 2Q.�
The 15-yard penalty was the longest Jax gain on the drive, which
resulted in a TD late in the 2Q.�
���������� -
On the PAP boot bomb to Northcutt for the TD, Haggans totally bites on this
play like a rabid ass-mongrel, which allows Garrard an acre of room, and time,
to casually loft the deep ball for the TD.�
���������� -
On Smith�s INT in the 4Q, Haggans, for the FIRST time the entire game, didn�t
BITE on the playfake like a 7th grader at his first school dance.��
���� As you can see, 2 of Jax�s 4 TDs that day were the direct result of Haggans getting totally fooled on the play-action bootleg.� I�m not asking Haggans to replicate the play of Lawrence Taylor or Greg Lloyd, but this turd needs to be able to defend the simple bootleg on Sat. nite.�
�Both
offense/defense:��
�- Be physical and intense.��� You can claim this should occur without
saying, but ever since the high-water mark of Ravens-1 back on Nov. 5th, this
team has not been physical, intense, or full of malice in any game since.�� Case in point -- Hines Ward had 2 pancake
blocks in that Balt-1 game.� He�s missed
playing time, but how many pancakes has he delivered since then?�� ZERO.��
The defense has rarely swarmed opposing ballcarriers in the manner that both
makes the runner tentative and scared, as well as liable to cough up the
football due to excessive hitting and raking.�
If you want to beat a physical football team like Jax -- and make no
mistake, Jax is the most physical team in the conference -- then you damn well better
play a physical brand of football on both sides of the ball.��
If, and only if, the Stillers can implement and execute
these keys, they�ll have a fighting chance of winning this ballgame.
(Still Mill
and Stillers.com -- when it comes to the analysis of the Pittsburgh Stillers,
no one else comes close�.)