Why did we go 1-5 down the stretch?

[desertsteel]

Seems pretty clear to me. We lost 5 out of the last 6 because of FAILURE at the QB position. The first 3 Ben was out and the lone win was the result of Batch's stellar performance. The last 3, all losses, Ben played putrid. In clutch situations he CHOKED every time. And throughout the games, the offense was quite frankly offensive. Pathetic.

You can call for Tomlin to be fired, bitch about Haley's offense, complain about the D's lack of turnovers and sacks, or whine about the injuries to the O line all you want. But the absolute truth is that we lost 5 of 6 because of failure at the QB position. I don't know what was wrong with Ben the past 3 weeks. He didn't seem to have lingering effects from the injury. Maybe he was distracted by being a new father. Whatever the cause, the QB position is the one thing that let us down.

I mean after all, Tomlin is who he is. He didn't change the past 5 weeks. No one has been happy with the O Coordinator for the past several years and the O line is always banged up. The QB position is the root cause of this collapse.

[Steelers5895]

He didnt play well. Not sure why as I still consider Ben a top qb. In fact I put him only behind Brady, Rodgers, Manning, Brees then Ben based on career accomplishments.

This year the whole team seemed out of whack on offense. I honestly think a lot had to do with the regression of our "young money" wr corpsthey either dropped passes or fumbled what they caught. Plus, they had a hard time getting any seperation which is why Heath Miller had a big year with a ton of targets. Miller is a check down not a #1 option.

He had an off year as did all our wrs and all our running backs.

[steelfury02]

Originally Posted by Steelers5895

He didnt play well. Not sure why as I still consider Ben a top qb. In fact I put him only behind Brady, Rodgers, Manning, Brees then Ben based on career accomplishments.

This year the whole team seemed out of whack on offense. I honestly think a lot had to do with the regression of our "young money" wr corpsthey either dropped passes or fumbled what they caught. Plus, they had a hard time getting any seperation which is why Heath Miller had a big year with a ton of targets. Miller is a check down not a #1 option.

He had an off year as did all our wrs and all our running backs.

The Young Money crew needs to be broken up IMO. We need 3 separate WRs that are willing to lay it on the line to work hard and POSSESS the ball. Then worry about big down field plays or YAC. Back to the basics. Wallace needs to go first and foremost.

[Rick5895]

We certainly struggles at the end of the season offensively. I'm not so sure I blame it solely on the QB spot. We fumbled , dropped passes way too much for my liking.

[pete74]

Brown is a goid WR but I think he is overpaid. We signed him after last season thinking that we were getting a deal because if he took another step forward this season he might want even more money. Well he didnt take that next step and is making a lot of money for his stats. I like him but he is overpaid and way to cocky. Ben has been playing poorly but I think he wilk play better if we put better players around him. Tomlin im very displeased with this year.

[bornaSteelersfan]

1 and 5 down the stretch? One simple reason. Ben was injured and then came back timid and uninspired. "We know how important this game is. If the young guys don't get it from the look in my eyes, I may talk to them on the sideline." That is NOT going to cut it. Where was the fire?! Hell, where was the fire from the entire team?!

[Blonde Bomber]

The lack of a solid running game hurt us. I am glad we got a look at what Dwyer and Redman so there were no false hopes. I am not sure whatever happened to the Mendenhall that hit the line hard, but I am tired of seeing him dance at the line. A good running game opens up so many possibilities for the QB and Wideouts, hell even Weeden and his WR's looked decent when Richardson was having a good game.

After the last few weeks, I had to keep reminding myself that even a decent running game would keep the chains moving and start beating their Defense down, instead of it being the other way around. Our wide receivers would be the envy of many teams if we could actually sell some play action pass.

[DoctorCAD]

Putrid game planning by a group of coaches that would be fired from a junior high school.

[FanSince72]

Ben played poorly, there's no question about that.

But as for who to blame, I put it all on Haley and Tomlin.
When Haley was hired, I said that the worst thing he could do would be to try to turn Ben into a pocket passer or some type of game-manager and that's exactly what he did and Tomlin did little to stop it from happening.

Arians saw in Ben what many people see which is a player who actually prefers to improvise and who plays better when there's no specific plan. He knew that Ben sees the field better when he steps out of the pocket and he allowed him to do that, which is why Arians was often criticized for not seeming to have much of a game plan at all.

But Arians knew that if he tried to keep Ben home, he would lose his creativity and his spontaneity and become a rather boring player and that's exactly what's happened under Haley. That's why Andrew Luck is doing so well because in many ways he's a lot like Ben in that he also likes to "make it up as he goes" and he's had tremendous success in doing just that.

Some QB's are meant to be managed but every now and then a guy comes along who does his best work without a script and Ben is one of those guys. Arians knew it and didn't so much try to game-plan as much as he simply tried to let Ben be Ben.
Haley is too controlling and wants everything to be "his" way and Ben (along with the team) has suffered as a result.

[jaygorius]

Originally Posted by Blonde Bomber

The lack of a solid running game hurt us. I am glad we got a look at what Dwyer and Redman so there were no false hopes. I am not sure whatever happened to the Mendenhall that hit the line hard, but I am tired of seeing him dance at the line. A good running game opens up so many possibilities for the QB and Wideouts, hell even Weeden and his WR's looked decent when Richardson was having a good game.

After the last few weeks, I had to keep reminding myself that even a decent running game would keep the chains moving and start beating their Defense down, instead of it being the other way around. Our wide receivers would be the envy of many teams if we could actually sell some play action pass.

I think you really nailed it. We keep hearing about Ben playing so poorly (which he did) but I think a lot of it was because of the running game going no where. You need balance and can't go run run pass each drive if the runs get nothing