View topic - Stillers-Pats Postgame Analysis and Grades

[StillMill Profile]

Stillers-Pats Postgame Analysis and Grades has been posted by Still Mill at Stillers.com.

[Irishsteel Profile]

Mill, I hate when the Steelers lose. It drains the life out of me for a few days. I expected them to get steamrolled early, then come back with some garbage time points to make it respectable.

With that said, when they lost I couldn't wait to read your take on the decision to let AB throw a pass on a trick play, opening drive, on the road, with the Steelers o-line dominating.

I do think overall Haley has a better sense of timing than Arians, and develops better game plans, but little plays like that slip in from time to time and I felt it smothered their momentum. Horrible time for a call like that. When it happened, who else thought, "Here we go again. Time to screw up to HELP the champs* in their own building."

No clue what the defense was trying to do, so now I feel like a part of the defense. In all of my years watching pro football I can't recall a more confused, Night at the Roxbury approach to who should cover who, where should I line up, where are you going to be, etc.

Anyway, a good read that sums up my feelings on another wasted trip to Cheatsborough. F the Patriots - karma's a b*tch. Enjoy the season.

[palbubba Profile]

Mill you sound like Obama still blaming Bush. "When he was hired, my biggest concern was that he’d be a dull parrot of Dick’s tired, worn schemes." How about the position coach who turned a Steeler strength into a weakness should not have been promoted. That is on Dumblin and his closet full of cliches, which are very good. I only wish his coaching was as good. Totally unprepared, worst special teams even though he has replaced multiple coaches, worst clock management in the NFL or the NCAA. If the skill positions were switched the score might have been 60 to 10. I've been a Steeler fan for over 60 years and back in the day when they were medicre at best every year, teams hated to play them, now they just lick their chops when they see what the Steeler defense has become under Dumblin. You wanted Dick gone you got your wish. The old saying is, "be careful what you wish for".

[Steelerssix Profile]

I actually believe that the Stillers should have won that game with the following: The pot smokers in the game, no stupid trick plays when you are jamming it down the pats throat, better clock management at the end of first half (how long has tomlin been a head coach), successful field goal attempts (scobee has been around awhile so why the "jitters"), and ANY defense! Agree at this early stage that the D does not look any different this year except for a few jersey numbers. Still no pressure from the front and I heard Collnsworth say that Blake got the nod at corner because of his "hustle" in preseason on special teams. Is that correct? I too was certain that Mill would be off the farm about the trick play. Williams did a great job at RB and can only imagine what might have been last year with a capable RB when Bell went down. I had to disagree with Collinsworth when late in the game he said the Steelers didn't miss Bell. I think Bell brings the added value of the dump-off pass to the RB that I did not see last night not sure why unless Ben didn't feel "comfortable" with Williams. Sure looks to me as though they will have to score 30-40 ppg to win with this defense. Sure could use another TE at this juncture. Miller is getting a bit long in the tooth and who else is there? Hopefully Butler can do better with the defense as time goes by or it will be a long season.

[PGHeaven Profile]

Gave Ben too high a grade. I thought Ben was foolish and scattershot. C-

Other than that - Mill gives life to the horror we all witnessed in that Mill style we all love

[fred Profile]

Agree with the vast majority of what was written. The hands to the face call was BS. Sure looked like the PI on Allen coulda, shoulda been on the reciever. Ben had a number of poorly thrown balls with the Int being the best example. That pass accurate and DHB might have atoned for a very highschoolish play in the EZ.
Boykin decision surprising. Butler got schooled, but made some quick adjustment after first series. NE was doing a lot of picking on the secondary. Secondary looking so confused on multiple occasion is not surprising given the most chaotic preseason roster I have ever witnessed, I would credit some of the blame to a usually well prepared Coach Lake.
Bellycheat played smart football giving Williams rush yards to concentrate on pass D, Williams had only the appearance of a quality RB. NEs very rookie interior Oline was the difference in this game, they played very good ball. That is directly on Butler, Mitchell, and Tomblin.
Scobee and DHB could have changed the outcome.
I think that we will see M'Lady Braidy again later this year....

[isfry Profile]

Agree with just about everything. Scooby Don't makes those two FG's and GHB keeps his fucking foot in bounds and we win this game 31-28. Period. Despite all the defensive gaffes and the ASININE trick play and the poor clock management and headset chicanery.

I am surprisingly upbeat today. We went in Suxboro with a defense that we knew was a work in progress at best and with two of our three best skill players on offense absent, plus our starting center. To make matters worse we went after the cheats beat Seattle a few months back and beat Goodell just days before. This place was ramping up for an embarrassment. While I agree there is no excuse for a lack of preparation at this level, we lost by 7 points to the Patsies at home without half of our arsenal and a defense that is a long way from figuring itself out. With a little luck and preparation and getting some guys back, we are a legit playoff team and can look forward to replaying the cheats with a full squad in January.

[Steelers76 Profile]

-I basically said the same thing you did when Butler was given The D.C. Position. Why would you hire someone that was a disciple of Dick for a decade or more and expect anything different or new?? If things don't improve by season's end, he needs to be gone. None of this "he needs a few years to find his footing" bullshit. And if he "doesn't have the right players", then whose fault is that?!?

-Scobee is horrible. There wasn't any rain or wind when he made those failed FG tries and NE's field is pretty good, so there existed no excuses. As another poster said, how is he ever going to kick at Heinz in November and December? Better start auditioning other PKs. Now you know why Jacksonville basically gave him away for nothing.

-New England continues to get away with running illegal picks on pass plays, but of course is never called. You have to make it at least look like your running a pass route and get in the defender's way, but Pats WRs were straight up blocking Steelers DBs before the ball was even thrown by Brady. It's called offensive pass interference.

-Only bright spot was Williams subbing for Bell at RB. He ran like his first few years with The Panthers. Good stuff.

[bubbybrister Profile]

The only recap and grades worth reading are those of Mills. Nice work again.

Wasn't surprised by the outcome of this game yet very disappointed in the confusion shown on the part of the defense last night. Like many mentioned on this site prior to the game, pressure up the middle was key to disrupting Brady. We saw none of it last night. Hayward and Tuitt should've dominated the interior.

I thought the grading of our Oline could've been higher. They pushed the Pats around for most of the game and gave Ben plenty of time in the pocket as we saw little need of his scrambling last night. The penalties were chippy and did hurt but should almost be expected with the quality of officiating in the league.

I would like to have seen Blake get benched for Boykin at some point. His coverage was way to soft and his missed tackles were killers. Same for Mike Mitchell who still hasn't defended a pass that I can remember and looks like ryan clark from 2 years ago.

[Pommah Profile]

Look, it is what it is.

We are not going to get an ability to manage the clock well all of a sudden. We have never had it since Tomlin has been coach and Ben's obviously not capable of doing it on its own. Why bitch about it now?

We are always going to be out-prepared and out-foxed by the better HC's in the league. Like on the Pat's D-line shift at the 1-inch line that resulted in an offsides on us. Steelers even knew it was coming and still fell for it anyway.

We're always going to have head-scratching play calls on offense. Everyone knows you run a trick play between the 40's when you're down to shift momentum. Except us.

We're incapable of drafting quality DB's since Polamalu over a decade ago. But we can keep the league fed with quality WR's we have drafted, since we will only pay one at a time.

Want to talk conspiracy? How come we didn't lose 50-21? Was not Brady pretty much completing everything for most of the game? Did we have any answer for Gronkowski at all? Anything? Why on earth did the Patriots bother to run the ball 24 times, when they converted more than 3/4 of passes and Tom Brady has a 143.8 QBR? How did they not score 50 on us? If there is any conspiracy going on, it's that the score was that close when they could obviously walk all over us any time they wanted. There had to be some kind of order from above to keep it within 2 TD's at all times. Had to be.

[bubbybrister Profile]

Well, now that you mention it.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2565 ... ing-impact

[FuckTomBrady Profile]

Mill, Spot on and accurate as always. I have to say, your grades are a bright spot after a loss and to come on here and read your analysis. The hard thing to accept is: nothing has changed. No sense of urgency, no attention to detail, no polish. This is the same sloppy way we finished a one and out in the playoffs last season.

A few game notes:

NE 2 TE Wideout look in the red zone is pretty awesome, Hailey needs to take note and put Spaeth and Heath out there. For god's sake, it couldn't get any worse in the red zone.

The "Tampa II" is now known as the "Tomlin II"

Boykin M.I.A.- unexcusable unless injured

The Archer project can't end soon enough

Ben still has that bad throw, or as I call it a "Armstrong Tunnel moment" where his brain is on Second Ave and he heaves a 40 yard throw in the driving rain into double coverage to a guy that just plain sucks...Its either he plays lights out or has a few head scratchers. Wear a helmet for Christ's sake...

Our special teams continue to suck in all facets

Personally, I think NE is very beatable and will not defend

The best for last, a friend sent me a text he received from a Giants fan in the middle of the game and said " Tomlin has a look on his face like he just spent his last dollar on a scratch off lottery ticket and lost"

That my friends.................. says it all

BB

[Coke Oven Profile]

There had to be some kind of order from above to keep it within 2 TD's at all times. Had to be.

Of course there had to be. And it's about money. You gotta keep the tv viewers glued to their televisions so that they'll watch those expensive commercials. Unless it's the steelers on top, I know that I won't continue watching a lopsided game. I'll bet you won't either.

[PGHeaven Profile]

Defense looked like 11 Jason Gildons out there - oh wait - make that 10 sometimes

[fred Profile]

[quote="Steelers76"
-New England continues to get away with running illegal picks on pass plays, but of course is never called. You have to make it at least look like your running a pass route and get in the defender's way, but Pats WRs were straight up blocking Steelers DBs before the ball was even thrown by Brady. It's called offensive pass interference.

This is squarely on Tomblin. He must work the refs.

[ballhair Profile]

I agree ith pgheaven about Ben playing scattershot. I thought that if Ben had any kind of running game he could very well win that game considering the Pats defense is almost as bad as ours. Williams rushed for 130 yards but Ben couldn't put the ball in the end zone. Ben has got to play better for us to win consistently. Thank you for your time!