Stillers
32, Cardinals 20� ��.
Oct 23, 2011 ����Game #7
Stillers-Cards Postgame Analysis and Grades
The
Stillers allowed the hapless 1-4 Cards to remain in the game, with a tight
score of 17-14 in the 3Q.�� The Stillers
stormed back, however, and scored the next 15 points to essentially put the
game out of reach, en route to a 32-20 beat-down of the Red Birds.��
Grades:
QB:� Ben had a very solid outing, perhaps his best
of the season.�� He finished 25 of 38 for
340, with 3 TDs, 0 INTs, and 0 fumbles.� Highlighting
his effort was the perfect deep ball to Wally, which was taken to da house for a 95-yard TD !�� (This surpasses the 90-yard TD reception by
Mark MaBlone, who as a young QB was forced into
action at WR due to injuries.)��� Perhaps
what Ben did best today was shuffling in the pocket to elude rushers, buy time,
and then hit open receivers on either valve dumps or decent gainers down the
field.� The highlight of this was the
10-yard pass to Redman in the 2Q, and then the superb TD pass to Sanders after
Ben juked former Stiller Clark Haggans out of his
jock.��
��� The lone major boner occurred shortly after
the safety, when Ben, under heavy pressure, flung an off-balance quail out into
the flats -- ala Mike Tomczak --
that was nearly INT�d but dropped.�� A really dumb, foolish
pass attempt that would have gained all of 4 yards and could have easily been a
pick 6 against a better defense.���
A
RB:� A week after his brilliant game, Socrates Trippenhall had his shares of struggles, gaining 32 yards
on 13 carries.� You can�t blame it all on
the O-line, as the other backs fared much, much better.�� Red had 29 yards on 6 rushes, while Moore
had 26 yards on 6 carries.�� Socrates had
a couple good wide bounces, coupled with some poor ones that lost yardage.�� He also tripped and stumbled more often than
a drunken wino walking on the Ft. Duquesne Bridge on a rainy, windy
evening.�� To his credit, Mendy took a
helmet-to-helmet shot by ILB Daryl Washington in the 3Q and kept on
chugging.��
���� Both Red and Moore provided a nice spark, especially
in the 2H.�� Red ripped off a 12-yard run
in the 4Q, and Moore helped chew the clock with some astute running late in the
game.���� Mendy:� B-�����
Moore and Red:�� A-�
FB: Not used much.�� Redman had a strong, churning run from the
FB spot on 3d & 2 in the 3Q, gaining 3.���
Very nicely done.��� B+
WR:� Wally led the way, with 3 grabs for a buck
18.�� The highlight was the 95-yard TD
bomb, which was just pure speed.�� Hot damn !� ��Wally did have a couple boners.� He stopped running on an earlier deep lob on
3d & 5, which barely was too far to catch.��
He also dropped a deep lob in the 4Q.��
�� Tonio
Brown had a monster game, grabbing 7 balls for a buck-oh-2, both career
highs.� His catching and RAC work were
superb.�� He made a stupendous 1-handed
grab near the sideline on 3d & 5 in the 3Q, gaining 13 yards.� His hands, route-running, and RAC work are
all brimming with confidence, and it�s becoming apparent that Brown needs to be
elevated to the starting lineup if this kind of production continues.��
�� Ward was fairly quiet, with 3 grabs for 21
yards.� Usually a strong blocker, he got
totally blown up by Wilson on a running play, getting blasted onto his back in
the Steeler backfield.��
�� Sanders came out of the woodwork with some
solid work, grabbing 5 balls for 46 yards and a TD.�� It�s good to see Sanders back in the mix
after weeks of totally neglect.��
�� Yancey Cotchery
finally dressed, and proceeded to drop the only pass thrown to him.�� ��������A�
TE:� Miller had a fairly big game, grabbing 3 for
38 and a TD, including a terrific grab on a flag route for 21 yards.�� His blocking was decent.� Miller was flagged for a hold late in the
game in what was garbage time.� The other
2 TEs did their best job to sabotage the Stiller
efforts.� Saunders was flagged for a
false start, and David Johnson was flagged for two false starts.�� ���Miller:�
A����� Johnson, Saunders:� C�
OL: The line,
reconfigured again with the loss of Doug Legursky,
had a decent effort today.�� They often
gave Ben plenty of time and room to complete downfield passes.� The running game was sporadic, although it
was sparsely used in the 1H.��
��� Pouncey had a
weak-assed whiff of an ILB on a Redman plunge that gained zero in the 2Q.� Kemo committed an assaholic
personal foul, when he dove to clean the pile, albeit 2 seconds after the play
was dead.� A really dumbassed, jack-muled play by a
complete stupid-ass.��� Meredith
was flagged for a mask in the 1Q.� �����B�
DL:� With Aaron Smith placed on IR 2 days ago;
Chris Hoke out with a stinger; and Fat Hampton still out; the Stillers went
with a make-shift DL of Hood, Kiesel, and Steve
McClendon at NT.�� The line held up just
fine.�� McClendon, in fact, stuck the
wood to Wells twice for stuffs in the 1st half before Wells left the game.�� Keisel also had a good stuff of Wells in the
1Q.�� Hood actually got on the stat
sheet, with 1 solo and 1 A.������� A-�
LB:� Big LaMarr led the team with 6 solos and an
assist, although, when you peel back the reality, you see that it wasn�t quite
the dominant effort that the Pittsburgh media will fawn and masturbate over in
the Monday newspaper.��� He had a couple of
sacks;� one when he was in an OVERLOAD
blitz and beat the RG, Rex Hadnot, and the other when
he was SOLO blocked by backup TE Jeff King.�� LaMarr was credited with a �forced safety�
on an intentional grounding when he was totally unblocked and untouched.��� He had a few other slop stops, including the
ridiculous credit for a solo on a plunge that gained 11 yards, and a slop assist on a play where The Dogger was
literally on his hands and knees, doing nothing, when the RB ran into a nearby
pile.��� He also had a sloppy pass rush, going was too far upfield, allowing Kalb to scramble
up a huge fissure for 11 yards in the 2Q.��
To his credit, he had a rare, but well executed, block-shed on a running
play on the 2d series of the game, shedding the block and nabbing Wells for a
quality solo stop.���
���� Larry Timmons did little from the ROLB
spot.�� Yes, he was more active and visible
than last week, but he still did little.��
���� Taunto Farrior did little, with 3
solos.�� He whiffed on a Smith gut run that
gained 11 yards in the 3Q.�� He then embarrassed
himself, his team, and his fans on a short completion to Stephens-Howling on 2d
& 18 in the 3Q.�� He got tooled badly
on the little drag route, and then clod-hopped as slow as a Dutch dairy farmer
wearing wooden shoes in his pursuit of Howling, and then quit on the play like
a complete loser.�� Howling ran untouched
for a 73-yard TD while Taunto -- �The Winged God of LB Pass Coverage� -- got
doused with a firehouse after this severe, 3rd degree scorching.��
�����
Larry Slow-A-Foote continued his eager display of ineptitude and
clumsiness.�� He turned his back and then
was mauled on the Wells run that gained 15 yards.�� He had a weak-assed dive and flail on the TD
plunge late in the 2Q.� Just really shoddy linebacking from a guy
who has no business, whatsoever, in starting for a team with playoff
aspirations.��
����� Farrior:��
D+���� Foote:� D�� ��Timmons:��
C+��� Woodley:� B+�
DB:� lke, who struggled
some last week, struggled like a banshee in the 1st half, getting penalized
more often than an NHL enforcer.��� He
was flagged for a PI on a flag that arrived about 14 seconds after the play in
the 1Q.�� This bled into an avalanche of
other flags in the 2Q....a hold on an inc. 3d & 8 pass, and then a hold on
a 3d & 6, although this perhaps should have been thrown at Pola
instead.�� Ike responded with a good 2H,
and overall he held Fitz to 78 yards on 4 grabs.��
���� Pola struggled some as well.�� He dropped a cake-easy INT on the 2nd
series, and whiffed on Fitz after a short grab in the 2Q.�� He clumsily slipped on the dry, indoor field
on the long Howling TD.�� He finished with
a measly 1 solo and 2 A�s.��
��� Gay played ok, and even had a good tackle
on Ducet on a swing pass.�� He also had a bat during a blitz near the AZ
goal line.���� Ryan Clark got a Dong INT
(the only kind of INTs this stiff ever gets) off a pass that deflected
off a TE and lazily plopped into Clark�s lap.�
On the long TD RAC by Howling, Clark was of no help whatsoever.��� ��Lewis saw some decent PT and did okay.����� B-�
Spec
teams:� Brown had a stellar game returning KOs and
punts.� He FC 1 punt
at his 5, which annoyed me, but otherwise was on the verge of busting one
nearly every time he touched the ball.�� He
nearly took a punt to the house in the 4Q, before tripping over Mundy on a
31-yard return.���
��� Suisham was
clutch, booting FGs of 41, 42, and 39.��
His KOs were good.��� LBs Chris Carter and Stevenson Sylvester
had good hits & stops on kick coverage.��
��A
OC:� Arians got to toy with a weak AZ
defense.�� To his credit, it was a gutsy
playcall to go deep on 1st & 14 from the PIT 5, which produced the 95-yard
TD.� It was also good to see this offense
actually produce in the 2H, rather than wallowing and slopping around like pigs
in a mud pit.���
�� �I was enraged with the foolish clock
management late in the 1H.�� The O took forever
to run a simple clock-spike, wasting an extra 10 seconds to do this simple
task.� Then, on the ensuing 3d & 1 at
the AZ 23, with 15 secs left, Arians calls for a
faggot-assed line plunge, which got stuffed.��
But even if it gained, say, 2 yards, then what ?�� You�d have to burn your final TO at about 12
seconds, and at that, you�d have 1 possible stab.��� Because they had 1 timeout left, that 3d
& 1 demanded a PASS play to or near the END ZONE, not a pissfuck
line plunge from the 23-yard line.���
�� ��I also hated the alignment on the 3d & 3
on the 1st drive of the 3Q.�� Arians went
EB (empty backfield), which is just maddening.��
Ben nearly throws an INT on the play, and we punt.�� It�s a faggot-fuk alignment
by a complete homo.��
��� �Lastly,
there was a wasted TO after Brown�s 1-handed grab in the 3Q.�� Why ??��� What, did the O need to stop and applaud Brown ??���� ����B� �
DC:� Dick, once AGAIN, got to feast on the weak
and the incompetent.� Last week, it was
Blaine Gabbert; this week, Kevin Kalb.�� Aside from Larry Fitz, the Card WR consists
of (hold your laughter) Andre Roberts, DeMarco
Sampson, and Early Ducet.�� To make matters easier, bruising starting RB
Beanie Wells left the game with injury in the 2Q and never returned.�
Of course, Dick still struggled like a
complete oaf.��� After the Stillers had
gone up 14-0 on the Wally 95-yard bomb, Dick quickly proceeded to do his �French
Army imitation�, allowing the Cards to march 80 yards in 13 plays for a
TD.�� Then, in the 3Q, Dick again got
picked apart and shredded, allowing an 89-yard TD drive to make it a 3-point
game.��
�� Not
satisfied, Dick then allowed a 4Q TD drive of 71 yards in 11 plays, in only
2:53 of game-time.��� ���C��
HC:� Tomlin had his men fairly well up for this
game, and they (the offense, at least) came out after halftime and ran up the
score.�� Asinine clock management
continues to be the norm rather than the exception, and Tomlin must take a good
share of the blame.� The man is totally
oblivious to the use of timeouts, spikes, 2MW, and other finer details that
high-performing pro teams prepare for and execute in a humdrum manner.��� B+�
NFL
rules:���
Arizona ILB Daryl Washington spent the entire game head-hunting like a psycho.�� He clearly and deliberately hit Brown helmet-to-helmet
after a WR screen in the 1Q, and then issued a helmet-to-helmet hit on Mendy
after a valve dumpoff in the 3Q.�� No
flags, of course.�� Let�s see if Adolf Goodell issues any fines.���
Synopsis:� An okay with over a shit-laden team that is
now in a 5-game losing streak and plummeting fast.�� This was essentially a non-conference game
against an FCS school like Akron.�� The
Stillers now have 5 wins against teams with a combined record of 7-24, while
their 2 losses came against teams that currently have a winning record.�� Now, the meat of the schedule, with a sure
loss next week to the Pats, followed by a more-important (than the Pats) tilt
against the PoeBirds that will obviously decide the
winner of the AFC North.��
(Still
Mill and Stillers.com -- when it comes to the analysis of the Pittsburgh
Stillers, no one else comes close�.)