View topic - My two cents on the decline of our almighty Stillers.

[LambertoCincoOcho Profile]

Injuries- Aaron Smith. We lost a pro bowler who has been a big part of our success. He's an incredible run stuffer. 3-4 ends like him are rare. Obviously losing Troy hurts too. He makes a ton of plays and wreaks havoc. He produces turnovers.

QB- Ben needs to keep his whores under control and this concussion hasn't helped. He needs some balance between extending plays and getting rid of the football. He also needs to release the ball earlier on deep routes to Wallace. Wallace beats his man deep every freakin time but is always under thrown. Some of that falls on the coaches shoulders.

Special Teams- Running down on kickoffs is all about attitude. Some how some way our coverage units need to add some players who have bad intentions. Short kickoffs with no hangtime is making a bad situation worse. Can someone please tackle Josh Cribbs?

Play calling- With a few more designed runs for Dennis Dixon vs. the Ravens and we may not even be having this conversation. We have become a pass first team. When you drop your lineman into pass pro all the time you take away the physicality of your team. And if you declare yourself a passing team where's the two minute offense? By huddling up you allow the defense to rotate players and to add exotic packages. Also its obvious other teams are onto what we want to do. To counter act this the offense hasn't evolved and there is no creativity.

Against the Raiders the defense let us down. Against the Browns the offense let us down. All year long the special teams has let us down. Reed cost us the Chicago game and we have had Lord I don't know how many punt and kick returns taken to the house on our puzzy azz coverage units. The team has gotten old fast. Hines has lost a step as well as James Farrior. Coming off the Super Bowl the team has gotten soft making the rounds on the banquet circuit. We need an injection of youth and fresh young talent around a nucleus of decent players. In a perfect world Mike Shanahan would agree to take an offensive co-ordinator position with us and we fire Bob Legashitsky. Sorting out the winners and losers on the roster needs to start sooner rather than later.

[uknowwho Profile]

good post ... hard to argue with any of this.

[Snockered Pedestrian Profile]

Shanahan, his son, and Bob Slowik will all be gainfully employed in the Nation's Capital.
Arians, Ligashesky, Jones, Zierlein, and Horton probably won't be in Pittsburgh.

[HowBoutThemSteelers Profile]

The way to send us going in the right direction

a. get rid of everyone on the coaching staff besides Mike and Dick
b. GO BACK TO SMASHMOUTH FOOTBALL
c. realize what we have in Mendenhall as the every down back and Parker as the change of pace.
d. Get some real cornerbacks.
e. Somehow convince Ben that he cant hold on to the ball for 5+ seconds in the pocket & that he NEEDS TO ACCEPT WARDS APPOLOGY AND GROW UP.

[steeleyfreak Profile]

The way to send us going in the right direction

a. get rid of everyone on the coaching staff besides Mike and Dick
b. GO BACK TO SMASHMOUTH FOOTBALL
c. realize what we have in Mendenhall as the every down back and Parker as the change of pace.
d. Get some real cornerbacks.
e. Somehow convince Ben that he cant hold on to the ball for 5+ seconds in the pocket & that he NEEDS TO ACCEPT WARDS APPOLOGY AND GROW UP.

AMEN!

[Jeemie Profile]

...he NEEDS TO ACCEPT WARDS APPOLOGY AND GROW UP.

Where's the evidence that he hasn't?

[SteelBeach Profile]

good post ... hard to argue with any of this.

[steelcitymetal Profile]

don't forget about holmes dropping (at least) 2 touchdown passes that would have given us wins

and all the dropped 4th quarter interceptions -- especially vs. OAK, and KC in overtime.

it is these plays, more than anything else in my mind, that are to blame. winners catch the ball and put the other team away. we haven't this year.