View topic - PROBLEMS/BIG PROBLEMS

[steelwest Profile]

The pieces of the puzzle are starting to take shape and the overall picture is not looking good. Did you see Jonathan Scott on the sack/fumble/TD with Freeney? That was the worst O-Line play I think I have seen in 30 years. Never laid a glove on him and never much tried. A straight run full speed to the QB. Terrible. Just terrible. No help by a RB either. That play exemplifies the Steelers' line play.
The offensive line is simply a sieve -- even by recent Steelers' standards. And no matter what else a team does, you canot overcome that (see Eagles, Philadelphia). It either needs to be fixed or it will be a long year. This is particularly the case as the formula for winning this year appears to be to score 28-35 points. Only the bad teams are consistently scoring less. We are one of those. The Steelers, due to their line issues, cannot score more than around 20-24 right now.
The performance last night was abysmal. The Colts had two players to be worried about: Freeney and Mathis. All we needed to do was protect against sacks, fumbles, picks, and make doubly sure that no defensive TDs occurred for the Colts. We did none of that, and it appeared we did not even alter our gameplan to try to do so.
The O-Line right now is the worst in maybe a decade. J. Scott sucks and he is now out so we will possibly have someone worse than him manning a tackle spot. Looking like rookie Gilbert at LT, the knee-drain wizard at LG (this appears to be a year long, never healthy scenario here), Pouncey in whatever state of health at C, an undersized RG that gets man-handled by any size, and a swinging gate at RT in the form of Essex, Foster, C. Scott, or god forbid Meredith. Or if we are lucky, maybe we can get someone off a couch to come in and try to play (see collins, kerry for how that works).
The D is okay but will not be able to hold the fort and playing conservative will not help us in the wide open offensive league this year (jets gave up 34 yesterday). We likely will get blasted in Texas this week. Ben got rocked repeatedly yesterday and it should only be worse this week. Can you imagine Mario Williams on the outside against Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum at the Steelers' tackles? Odds are Ben does not even finish the game and we can only hope he is not lost for weeks.
It is a shame because skillwise our backs, receivers, and TEs look good. On D, Troy has a burst and depth looks solid except for Farrior/Foote. But we will not be able to cover Andre Johnson, we will not cover the TE (we rarely do), we will not be able to run the ball, and the O-Line will prevent any consistent passing. I wish more positives could be said. Yuck.

[LenSherwood Profile]

steelwest ditto. WTF was Colbert thinking when he put together this line? Better get on the phone to F. Adams today.

[PGHeaven Profile]

Flozell where art thee? And Woodley sucks donkey dick as well. I like Ike so far this season though and he will be on Andre? Can Aaron Smith play Offensive tackle? He cant play defensive tackle anymore

[Steel Holiday Profile]

The Stillers have played two teams in the Ravens and Colts who excel at getting after the passer. The offense is on pace to take a handful, or so, more sacks than it did last season. Issues blocking for Roethlisberger are nothing new. It's not entirely fair to put every sack on the line though........Big Ben likes to get the ball down the field. Sometimes he waits to break away from the rush in order to allow a receiver who is covered to get open. That is, and always has been part of his game. Big plays go either way under that scenario. #7 makes more big plays than he gives away, but he does give some away. Mathis' strip/sack was an example of Ben running into a guy whose Gildong-esque wide loop rush had taken him out of the play for a quarterback stationary in the pocket. Despite how many hits Roethlisberger takes, the pass blocking doesn't worry me all that much.

Concerns regarding the offensive line should be directed towards the run blocking. Running the ball was an area of strength last season. A lot has changed since then. Adams is gone, Pouncey and Kemo have been gimpy, Foster has been found in the dog house.... The offensive line lacks some of the talent/nasty that made it a force to be reckoned with a year ago.

Running the ball is an attitude. An attitude of I am more bad ass than the man across from me. This current unit has to resurrect that mind set. I don't put this on Mendenhall. He isn't all the sudden a different runner from one season to the next. He will gain yards when the rest of the team comes to their senses and decides it's time to move the ball on the ground!