View topic - New Article: Stillers-Iggles Postgame Analysis and Grades

[StillMill Profile]

http://www.stillers.com/articles/2288.aspx has been posted by Still Mill at Stillers.com.

[darthsteel Profile]

c minus for the o line , are you sure you want to throw in the minus?

I am just curoius what the rest of the board would have given the oline, although I think I mite know.

hopefully the c minus was for commical purposes or a misprint and not what you really thought!

[Crosby4Life Profile Website]

I only saw about 30 minutes of it while sitting inside the Detroit airport. From what I saw though, our tackles, particularly Colon, were getting destroyed by their speed from the edge. I did see several cases where the line was outnumbered, but they didn't seem to be able to hold the pocket together even when things were even.

[Steeledge Profile]

The Stillers ventured eastward to face their state rival, a team they hadn’t beaten since 1966.

I guess you somehow overlooked Nov. 7, 2004 (in Pittsburgh):
Pittsburgh 27, Philadelphia 3

You need to edit your article and add "...in Philadelphia".

Unless of course having it wrong doesn't bother you...

I'm not sure you're properly grading the OL. They shit all over the bed and rolled around in it all evening and really stunk up the place. You mentioned the gaffes, the boneheaded plays, and blatant sheepish laziness with rightfully nothing good to say, and then they still get a passing C-?

I wouldn't have put it better than a D, leaning more toward D-. You called out some things about Simmons' lousy play, but honestly weren't hard enough on him. The huge gaps in how he lined up and the over-and-over turnstiling almost made it look like Gov. Rendell paid him off to get our franchise killed. There's no excuses for that shit.

I think the LBs did a better job than you give them credit for, but this is the crew our D is built around, so they rightfully get a little closer scrutiny. I still can't see giving Harrison the same grade as the OL, though. I think a solid "B" average fits the group on the whole, and Harrison at least a C+. After all, they did a lot to hold the "high-powered" Iggle-O to 1 ridiculous touch and 2 FG, with zero help from our O in keeping them off of the field.

Oh, but Foote stank like one, and that fuckhead deserves what he got, and the bench.

Other than that, a pretty good read, especially the "spot on" treatment of Arians.
Tomlin needs to finally grow a pair in his second year, tear this fucker's head off, and toss it in the confluence.

I could see Tomlin giving more or less a pass for the embarrassment of a job Arians did last year, as it was Tomlin's rookie season and his first as OC for the PS. To his credit, Tomlin relied heavily on the other coaches to do a lot of the leading, not wanting to come across as too tyrannical and authoritarian in his rookie season. But the longer he lets this shit continue this year, the more people will rightfully start calling for HIS head instead. You see it already in a lot of other threads on this board.

I've given him the benefit of the doubt to this point, but if he doesn't at least put that steaming pile of Arians on some kind of probation or give him a public warning to show some true leadership ability, then I'm really going to start losing faith in him as capable of being a head coach. With the bulk of the brutality of this year's schedule still looming, I will really start worrying for my team if nothing changes...

Tomlin has demonstrated that he's a good leader of men when it comes to the players, but I'm starting to have my doubts that he has what it takes regarding the coaches. This is really his chance, and I think we need to watch the next week or so very closely...

Aside: I had work done by an oral surgeon that grew up in Pittsburgh and actually has friends among the Rooneys and throughout the league. In fact, his son's best friend is the lead talent scout for the Cleve Brownies. Long story short, he constantly tells me how Arians, when hired as OC by the Brownies, would talk to him and say with much trepidation, "their making me the offensive coordinator?!? I don't know what the hell I'm doing!" He was fired by those losers after only 2 seasons, and now he's fucking everything up here!

[Field General Ben Profile]

Great analysis as always, Mill. But I must say you were quite lenient in your grades. Arians has to go - he is a complete moron, but Tomlin allowing him to stay on doesn't say much for him either. I'm getting tired of these WTF games under Tomlin.

[Guinness Profile]

Arians - F
Tomlin - F
OL - F
Ben - D-
WR - D
RB - D
TE - D

How anybody on the offensive side of the ball scores an average (C) or slightly below average (C-) score is a mystery. I would have loved to have seen an average performance yesterday. How could any player on the offensive side of the ball have a better grade than any player on the defensive side of the ball.

Millie is getting so obsessed with bashing Farrior and Foote that he is losing all objectivity. The defense gave up ONLY 10 points while their own offense sucked ass and did nothing to give them a breather or give them some momentum to build upon. The defense gave the team every oppty to win this game when they could have folded.

Millie is absolutely right on the money with his criticism of Arians. All day I kept talking to my TV begging for a screen pass, draw play, two step drop, roll out. The obvious fact is that Arians can not think on his feet. He is not a game day play caller. They have no offensive package designed specifically to defeat the all-out blitz. The other fact is we are stuck with this dimwit for at least this season so I pray that he has the ability to learn and adjust during the week.

[dan1412000 Profile]

I think that Hines was trying to convince Airians to call a different play during one of the TV time outs. Hines seems to be pleading with him, but to no avail. Airians and his play clalling lost that game. Ben had no time and no adjustments were made. The D actually looked pretty good. They tightened up and put a beating on Philly including the early knockout blow by Roye. Only giving up 13 points on the road to that offense is pretty good, but the "Sitting Duck" offense ultimately decided the game.

How do you not run a draw or screen or roll out at least once during a beating like that? I guess we know the answer to that, you think like Bruce Airians. No wonder Cincy let him go. Almost makes you miss Mike Mularkey.....almost.

[Zorro Profile]

I usually defend Arians when applicable. Yesterday Arians earned his abuse. Philly made it obvious they would blitz till we adjusted. We never adjusted.

[DirtDawson Profile]

When I saw the initial poll, i was dreading that most droans would vote out the O line as the Goat of the game, being spoonfed their information by the talking heads in the announcer's box rather than watching the game itself.


But once I saw how many people assessed the blame towards AirHead Arians, I was reliefed to see people actually knew what was really going on.


Don't get me wrong, the OLine looked like SHIT either way, as many ppl have already pointed out.


While avoiding the repeat what everyone else has already posted...

One sack came on a 4 man front. If you saw the replays, they let Trent Cole loose up the middle, while Justin Hartwig and Chris Kemu decided to double team the ghost of Reggie White.

In other words, THEY WERE JAMMING THIN AIR!!!!

LOOK AT THE PLAY AGAIN!!!

You have your TWO INSIDE LINEMEN blocking F*cking THIN F*ucking AIR, giving the DT a straight open root to Ben.



Another one of the sacks came in on a F*cking THREE MAN RUSH. WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU????


Dirt Dawson wouldn't have let that slide....shit neither would have Hartings.

Gawd I miss having Hartings....we should've bribed him out of retiring.




But in the end, as I've also been saying throughout the entire last f*cking season,

Arians is a Moron

Arians is a Moron

Arians is a Moron


Jimmy Johnson must have been salivating when he realized he was going up against the WORST OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR IN THE LEAGUE.

It was the biggest coaching mismatch we've ever seen. Clearly. Jimmy Johnson took his ass to coaching school.



After the draft, when Tomlin was asked "how do you plan on protecting Big Ben without having drafted any solid O-line?"

Tomlin replied

"There are OTHER ways of protecting the QB"

and ended with a smug smile.

[DirtySouth Profile]

Mill,

It's past the time where Larry "slow-a" Foote gets his own Gildong report type section on a weekly basis. It's clear that the only way that we were able to get Gildon out of here was to expose his weak play on a weekly basis. I truly think that this site is viewed by alot of local media and alot of the content gets filtered to the Steelers brass and players. Why not expose Foote and get his ass sent to the bench for good? His play would be easier to expose than Gildon or Porter. Right now he's being shielded because the D is playinig great. Work on Hampton to while your at it... Foote is a backup.

You mentioned McFadden prancing and dancing. To me that's fine if you make play's. And recently he's been making ALOT of them. He's playing better than Ike. If Tomlin sits Bryant for Townsend he's basically as dumb as Cowher was.

[zapunto Profile]

How Foote and Harrison can garner the same grade as the offensive line is beyond me.

Offensive line: F. Arians gave the offensive line no help, true. But for all the talk about the quick, athletic line the Eagles have, running the ball should have been a lot easier, as the Eagles tote a rotation of 255-lb defensive ends that all looked like all-world run stuffers. There was the dive play to Parker that was blown up by backside pursuit thanks to Heath Miller's disastrous blocking. Then there was the third quarter zone-blocking run to Parker that Bradley blew up for a 2-yard loss, and laying on the ground is a steaming pile of Smith, Kemoeatu and Hartwig.

I gave Willie Colon a Z grade. The Steelers need to replace this man immediately -- his pass blocking always will be a major liability to keep Big Ben upright -- he simply does not have the prototypical body of a NFL tackle and needs to be a *guard*. Too short-armed.

Not very evident from the game film was how bad the Marvel looked blocking Trent Cole -- Cole ate him alive most of the game -- the two plays I remember was Cole bullrushing Smith and sacking Big Ben -- nullified by a facemask -- and the off-tackle lead to Parker where Carey Davis actually had a solid lead block -- but Parker had to sidestep a diving Trent Cole that had easily knifed inside of the Marvel and gotten good penetration. Parker tried to bounce it outside and then got stuffed for a 2-yard gain.

Line communication was brutal -- on the safety, the Steelers lined up in max protect formation, Moore and Miller in the backfield. The Eagles rushed FOUR -- count 'em, four linemen. The combo of short-armed Colon getting beat, and high school stunts by the Eagles completely confused the offensive line and the backs left in to block. Party -- let's meet at Ben's!!! A good offensive line coach fixes this, not Arians.

Arians -- Z. Giving him an F does him no justice.

A good OC maximizes his team's strengths and hides its weaknesses. An offensive strength -- the combination of Mendenhall and Parker in the backfield -- never gets used. Another offensive strength -- Big Ben throwing the ball outside the pocket -- wasn't even an option as the pocket was never rolled. Another strength -- Ward and Holmes on quick hitters -- was tried meekly, and inexplicably abandoned even though it had hints of being successful (Ben barely missed on one to Holmes, and Ward dropped a good throw). An offensive weakness -- Colon's inability to pass block -- was poorly hidden, with Arians using Heath Miller and Moore to help out on the heavy jailhouse blitzes coming in from the right. Neither seem to have any decent backfield pass blocking ability. Both had no clue what to do on the safety, and Moore got trucked by Brian Dawkins on the airborne dive and strip. Heath Miller as a H-Back for large portions of the game is criminal, as he is clueless and useless in that format -- but I'll get back to that later.

A good OC maximizes his opponent's weaknesses and minimizes its strengths. In Philly's week 1 win over the Rams, Randy McMichael led the Rams with 5 catches for 77 yards. In their week 2 loss versus the Cowboys, Jason Witten led the Cowboys with 7 catches for 110 yards. In their blitzing and defensive schemes, opposing tight ends do well sitting down in zones. Heath Miller -- a good receiving tight end -- was wasted for much of the second half doing jack shit blocking, both on the line and in the backfield. The Eagles tote a slew of 260-lb defensive ends, and I'd like to think that we should have been able to run the ball better off the edges. That never happened, and Arians abandoned the run very quickly. Many of Philly's organic blitzes involved defensive linemen dropping back in coverage. This was never exposed.

A good OC is unpredictably predictable, and predictably unpredictable. Arians was simply predictable, to the point where the Eagles knew exactly what to do. A 3-TE set is a lousy run strong side. Max protect? Let's zone blitz and rush four, and drop lineman in coverage to confuse them. Empty backfield? Blitz Gaither up the middle. Offset I with tight end? Blitz Dawkins off the weak side and stuff the run in the backfield. Philly showed little apprehension on defense. A defense that shows exactly what they are doing is aggressive. One that does not, is tentative and apprehensive. Even the mighty Pats defense looked feeble defending the not-so-mighty spread offense of the Dolphins with Ronnie Brown under center. That represents good offensive strategy by the Dolphins. I wonder if Arians ever has this in him.

Tomlin - Z. This team looked as if it didn't practice in a sound bubble. Too many delay of games and false start penalties. Very unprepared. Little urgency. Down 21-3 yesterday, I saw Sean Payton getting in the face of his offense. They responded. When has Tomlin done this? Letting talented backups rot on bench for lack of "knowledge of the system", laughable in how simple opponents seem to think the Stiller system is. And the asskicker -- Tomlin joining McFadden and co. behind the Stiller bench to jump around and celebrate a Dong pick. Doesn't he have better things to do? Like yell at Scarians? With the notable exception of more attention to special teams -- which to some extent, has really improved this season -- how is Tomlin any different than Cowher? The rookies stil rot, the defense is the same, the offense is the same, the effort against well-schooled teams the same. All Tomline needs is a cute cardigan and he can be the Jim Tressel of the NFL in a hurry.

I'm taking the day off today. I feel ill.

-c-

[Steve0212 Profile]

I recall that there was one draw in the game in the first half somewhere and I believe Willie gained 6-8 yards on it. Roeth sprinted back like he was going to pass and at the last minute before being sacked, handed it off to Willie.

More proof that Arians is an idiot. It worked for a good solid gain and he never went back to it.

[stillgrill Profile]

Good analysis on Arians, Mill. It looked like the ghost of Cowher coaching this bunch: absolutely no halftime adjustment to jailbreak blitzes & failure to play the more-athletic young rather than the plodding-old. What I can't figure out is how other teams are able to employ a 3-step drop O vs over-aggressive blitzers, but this staff was confounded. Just once I'd luv to see them use a play that can get ANY RB in open space for a dump-off. Seems like anytime they try a screen to Willie, other teams can read it like a comic book.

[dukemcfister Profile]

c minus for the o line , are you sure you want to throw in the minus?

I am just curoius what the rest of the board would have given the oline, although I think I mite know.

hopefully the c minus was for commical purposes or a misprint and not what you really thought!

The O-line was non-existent. Simply pathetic. Despite the boneheaded playcalling by Arians, this pack of asshairs got beat like a red-headed stepchild crying at his parents while they were trying to kick heroin. The fact that they are even earning an NFL salary is a fucking joke. They should be forced to give the portion of the salary earned back to any Steeler fan who attended the game or who pays a goddamn cable bill and had to sit through this miserable piece of shit performance. There is absolutely no excuse for an offensive line with 3 veterans no it to take an ass whipping of this magnitude. What was all that shit they were talking in the Post-gazette this weekabout making the Eagles pay if they took cheap shots at Ben? they didn't NEED to take cheap shots at him. He was wide open for the pummelin' all game. What a complete fucking joke this game was on the offensive side of the ball. the O-Line deserves to have a frigin F------- for this goddamn hunk of shit performance. I have never seen such a pathetic performance in 30+ years of watching Steeler football. ben is lucky he doesn't have 2 more friggin plates in his damn face.

Tomlin also deserves an F---- as well. He did nothing to motivate this offense or coaching staff to put on a better performance, did not adjust to the flow of the game, and the ridiculous decision to not kick the field goal at the end completely topped this off. What a friggin joke!!

[jhmyersii Profile]

I just need to get this off my chest before it explodes. I live in Ohio and don't get to watch many of the Steelers games, so I have to listen to internet radio to get my fix. I can only thank God that I wasn't able to watch this game. This weekend's non-performance against the Eagles was the most pathetic display of heartless laziness I've ever had the misfortune of hearing. I expect this sort of thing from the Cleveland Clowns or the Cinci Bungles. But, never from my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers.

With even an infinitesimal measure of effort, (forget about self respect) the Steelers would have won this game. When you think of the money that's lavished on these lackluster sloths it makes me want to puke my guts out.

Yet week after week I sit there and watch or listen to them hephalump onto the field to collect yet another bloated paycheck.

It begs the question. WHY?

"I'm f&*$!$' stupid that way..." (Joe Pesci - From the movie Casino) GO STEELERS!!!

[crusader Profile]

If this does not change, then maybe, i know this sounds crazy, but is cohwer still out there? I have not seen our team not make any adjustments at the half. Like this team. Now i might not have agreed with everything cowher did, and some of the calls. But this was truley bull. It was like they gave up. I mean what did they think. If they kept doing the same thing, something was going to change.
Let's look at part of the problem. You throw only 1 deep pass, and it was not to holmes, who is suppose to be our deep threat, it was to washington. Our number 3 reciever, who was covered buy who? Just one of the best defenders in the league samuels. I mean it was a joke. Can some one tell me why throw it to his side? When you have a team blitzing like that you have to be in the shotgun, and throw deep passes, and timing passes. Not reaction passes. And 1 more thing. Why do we have heath, and spaeth on our team. I kept screaming at the TV. If the recievers are covered, throw the amm ball to heath. The best way to get them to stop blitzing is throw quick timing passes, and use the tight end. The sad part to this story was i was asking for byron to come in the game, because i said Ben was gun shy, from all of the heat. And i knew that if byron came in he will not care. He is throwing bullets. Now it might get picked off, but he is not going to stand there like a pinata. He is going to break fingers.

So my conclusion. Arians and Zierlein must go. Our offense stinks, and so does our o line. And if tomlin is not smart enough to see that this garbage will not win us a superbowl, and Cowher in 2010.

[Zorro Profile]

One thing to think about before we hang and quarter Arians... and before I start I will say that that may have been the worst game I've seen Arians call since being associated with the Steelers. So do not take this as an Arians defense. I just think there is something else to consider here.

Bruce Arians makes a play call. It goes to Ben. Then Ben leads the team to the LOS. Prior to the snap it is Ben's responsibility to make the pass protection calls, call the audibles, and make the hot reads. Arians cannot do any of the above.

[Jeemie Profile]

One thing to think about before we hang and quarter Arians... and before I start I will say that that may have been the worst game I've seen Arians call since being associated with the Steelers. So do not take this as an Arians defense. I just think there is something else to consider here.

Bruce Arians makes a play call. It goes to Ben. Then Ben leads the team to the LOS. Prior to the snap it is Ben's responsibility to make the pass protection calls, call the audibles, and make the hot reads. Arians cannot do any of the above.

One problem, though- the playcall isn't getting to Ben until there are about 12 seconds on the play clock. then the Steelers get to the line at 8.

That doesn't give Ben much time for his pre-snap read.

Why is the placall taking so long? Sideline problem or Ben's?

[Hoppy Profile]

If we don't open up Monday Night with an empty backfield and Ben taking a direct snap, we're nuts. Ravens will stack the line ala` Philly and we're going to have to attack their defense.

[Jeemie Profile]

If we don't open up Monday Night with an empty backfield and Ben taking a direct snap, we're nuts. Ravens will stack the line ala` Philly and we're going to have to attack their defense.

If we do that, but are in the bunch formation, better prepare the ambulance for Ben.