Starkey: The joke’s on the Steelers

[pete74]

Originally Posted by GoFor7

lol. And yinzers shit on Ben for the season. Look at how this offense worked, he was almost set up to fail. If it wasn't for his epic 3rd down play before the injury, 8-8 would seem like a championship season. The Steelers played scared, close to the vest football for the majority of the game, then hoped Ben would bail them out at the end.

Guys, you're allowed to admit Artie screwed up when he hired Haley. Really, you don't get struck by lightning when you criticize him. And no, I made no deals with the devil to do so.

Ben played poorly after coming back from his injury. That's all it was. I odds are he was still hurt but he'll never say so. Ben wasn't asked to do anything different at the end of the Cowboys or Bengal game. He wasn't picked off tossing a hail marry or anything. I he threw two very bad passes and like he stated, opinions the loss was on him.

[desertsteel]

Originally Posted by stb_steeler

Funny how most seem to forget the injuries

Nobody is forgetting them, but...

A) It happens EVERY YEAR
B) It happens to LOTS OF TEAMS

The reason I don't use them as an excuse is because they are a reality in today's NFL. You can count on em. The plus side is that it gives game experience to young players and we really need an infusion of youth on this team.

[Killer]

hello, if teams like Seattle can score 50+ a couple times a year, with a rookie QB no less, then hell yes I demand my entertainmnt too


keeping games close only invites more disasters

this team just looked like they played scared the last half of the year, Ben's aorta spooked them

[Darkstorm05]

Originally Posted by Killer

3rd and 1 - line up the single back 8 yds deep and run it up the gut

4th and 1- line up the single back 8 yds deep and run it up the gut


that's your offense, no misdirection, no play-action on 1st downs - just line up and run it up the gut

Is that 3rd down failure you're referring to the one where Mendy got stuffed? If so, you do know that was Ben's call from the no huddle and had nothing to do with Haley, right?

[cowherpower]

Originally Posted by Darkstorm05

Is that 3rd down failure you're referring to the one where Mendy got stuffed? If so, you do know that was Ben's call from the no huddle and had nothing to do with Haley, right?

Yeah but...it was Haley's fault Ben threw that pick six vs. Dallas in OT right? wait...they were in the no huddle...nevermind.

[defence]

All I can say about this offence. It is the worst I have seen in many many years. Why don't you just look at who we played. We could barely move the ball on the Chiefs; even before Ben got hurt. How many teams have played them after we have and lit up there d. We made the Chargers look like a playoff team. No matter who you want to blame; the end of the day; the coaches are responsible for that predictable disaster you call an offence. Did Ben throw the picks?? Ya. Should we have been tied 10 10 at that point? Fuck no!! Heck after the interception on the first play of the third quarter; we should have just kicked a field goal and not let Haley fuck up the play calling to take us out of field goal range. Haley is pathetic. he knew the Steelers could not run the ball but predictably he ran on 1st and 2nd downs so many times this year that he took momentum away from his own offence. This offence should have been designed like the old colts with Manning. Spread them out and attack. Run at them as a surprise. Until we get our oline to dominate and a feature back; we can't play like the STEELERS used to play. Haley failed to use his strengths on offence. And please people with the last minute stuff. The offence should be doing a lot more than 10 points with 40 seconds left then flip a switch and ask your qb to go out there and win the game for you!!

[GoFor7]

Ah. The Ben bashers can only point to a few instances where Ben threw INTs, but they won't look over the course of the entire season.

This season was the Steelers' version of Marty Ball. Play the game close, and hope Ben bails everyone out at the end. When he doesn't......... BOOOOOOOOO! BEN STINKS! BOOOOOOO! YINZ GOT AN EGO! BOOOOOOO! YINZ GOTTA YELL AT BEN LOUDER SO IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE ARTIE SCREWED UP! BOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Wanna know why the dink-and-dunk stuff started to fail? Because teams caught on and the Steelers didn't adjust. They hardly took shots down field to give the other receivers space in the middle. They never let Ben win the game early, it always came down to the last 2 minutes.

But hey, I know you guys don't want to hear that because it would make the owner look bad. So lets just go back to the 90's! After all, the Steelers won all those super bowls with no QB back then!

Oh wait...

[TRH]

the article makes a good point - and its hard to disagree with most of the "arians" stuff in there.

However - the problem i have with it is this : Where's the dozen or so paragraphs you would need to explain how atrocious, hideous, (and inured) our offensive line was?
About not protecting the QB (near the end of this season i got sick and tired of watching guys like Rivers, Romo, and Palmer have 15 minutes to sit back in the pocket and read a book, then decide to pass when they were ready - while OUR guy had to run for this life within 1.5 seconds...)
And about the other 90% of the stuff that was wrong that made this offense a "no-go"?
And all 3 sub-par performances by the RB's? Or the dozens of dropped balls, goof-ups, and laziness of our "young $$ crew" WR's? And other things that really made our offense go nowhere?

Article appears to be nothing more than someone taking a pot-shot at Ben, laying nearly the entire blame on him instead of spreading it out equally - which is what should be done right now. PLENNNNNNNTY of blame to go around all over the place - not just at Ben.

No one needs "to blow up at him". They need to protect him. They clearly didn't do it.

[GoFor7]

Originally Posted by TRH

the article makes a good point - and its hard to disagree with most of the "arians" stuff in there.

However - the problem i have with it is this : Where's the dozen or so paragraphs you would need to explain how atrocious, hideous, (and inured) our offensive line was?
About not protecting the QB (near the end of this season i got sick and tired of watching guys like Rivers, Romo, and Palmer have 15 minutes to sit back in the pocket and read a book, then decide to pass when they were ready - while OUR guy had to run for this life within 1.5 seconds...)
And about the other 90% of the stuff that was wrong that made this offense a "no-go"?
And all 3 sub-par performances by the RB's? Or the dozens of dropped balls, goof-ups, and laziness of our "young $$ crew" WR's? And other things that really made our offense go nowhere?

Arians had to deal with a lot of injuries, and an o-line that was just god awful to begin with - yet it was never an excuse for him. So why should it be an excuse for Haley following that logic?

Article appears to be nothing more than someone taking a pot-shot at Ben, laying nearly the entire blame on him instead of spreading it out equally - which is what should be done right now. PLENNNNNNNTY of blame to go around all over the place - not just at Ben.

Oh there might be some small shots at Ben, but this articles goes way beyond that, even if it doesn't mention anyone else by name. When Starkey mentions Arians in the sarcastic tone, you can also take that as a shot at Art Rooney II. Haley was his hire, and things got worse.

No one needs "to blow up at him". They need to protect him. They clearly didn't do it.

Sssshhhhhhh! Yinzers don't want to hear that!

[TRH]

I've definitely been disappointed by Haley's 2nd half coaching/calling. The 1st half of the season started off great. Protecting the QB & we started to get the run game going. 2 important things.