Good video on Haley and Ben's problems

[Fire Arians]

ben getting injured and coming back not 100% killed the season. and having no running game due to injuries on the o-line.

i thought haley's offense looked great until the above happened. he was doing a great job

[harrison'samonster]

Originally Posted by Fire Arians

ben getting injured and coming back not 100% killed the season. and having no running game due to injuries on the o-line.

i thought haley's offense looked great until the above happened. he was doing a great job

I completely agree. And all this Haley Vs. Ben is just the media trying to make a story out of nothing.

[lloydwoodson]

Originally Posted by Quackjack

He also said we can't. Arians never had a back to work with. I supported getting rid of Arians, but he threw so much because we never had a back to work with. It's a big mess really.

Arians had FWP and Mendenhall. Never had a back to work with? Wow.

Arians got rid of the power running game. The David Johnson experiment was a failure. DJ whiffed on more blocks than any player I can remember outside of Sean Mahan.

Arians and Tomlin both went with the "draft weapons for Ben don't worry about an OL" philosophy that has resulted in the inability to run the football.

Mendenhall claimed they hardly ever practiced running the ball and wanted a good lead blocker. Now Will Johnson has taken over for David Johnson and the kid has potential. Another reason I like Haley.

You could say Haley has not had a back to work with since Mendenhall was injured- but don't say a thousand yard feature back like Mendenhall is "nothing to work with."

[lloydwoodson]

Originally Posted by harrison'samonster

I completely agree. And all this Haley Vs. Ben is just the media trying to make a story out of nothing.

It's interesting you say this because Marshall Faulk said exactly the opposite.

Faulk said that players calling out their coaches is usually reserved for primadonna receivers like TO and he can't believe the media isn't jumping on Roethlisberger for criticising Haley to the press.

[lloydwoodson]

Originally Posted by Hawaii 5-0

Arians was too damn stubborn to "tweak" it, maybe if he had he would still be our OC.

Finally someone who puts Arians departure on Arians. If Arians had produced a top 10 offense he would still have his job. His failure to produce a consistent, effective offense is why he was "forced into retirement."

If Roethlisberger had come into camp in shape, and stayed out of trouble off the field Arians would still be there. Roethlisberger was an undisciplined mess under Arians. If Roethlisberger was a qb who did not need a babysitter the Steelers would not have hired a babysitter to watch him.

[plenewken]

Originally Posted by fer522

If Ben doesn't get hurt we would have ended up being #1 in our division

"In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king"

[harrison'samonster]

Originally Posted by lloydwoodson

It's interesting you say this because Marshall Faulk said exactly the opposite.

Faulk said that players calling out their coaches is usually reserved for primadonna receivers like TO and he can't believe the media isn't jumping on Roethlisberger for criticising Haley to the press.

again, that's just media ppl taking the situation out of perspective. I haven't seen any reason to believe that Ben and Haley have serious problems with one another.

[FanSince72]

Originally Posted by Edman

Bruce Arians had Willie Parker and Rashard Mendenhall. But still opted for throwing the ball a lot anyway. Arians didn't respect the merits of a complimentary running game.

And neither Parker nor Mendenhall are power running backs like Bettis so Arians went in another direction. I think BA "respected" a running game just as any other OC would but without a big back it's hard to HAVE that running game. So, since Ben was a prolific passer and the team had a decent stable of receivers, BA played the hand he was dealt and went more in the direction of a passing game.

And no, I'm not "apologizing", I'm just recognizing the reality of the situation. You can't use a sports car to do work that requires a truck.

[lloydwoodson]

Originally Posted by FanSince72

And neither Parker nor Mendenhall are power running backs like Bettis so Arians went in another direction. I think BA "respected" a running game just as any other OC would but without a big back it's hard to HAVE that running game. So, since Ben was a prolific passer and the team had a decent stable of receivers, BA played the hand he was dealt and went more in the direction of a passing game.

And no, I'm not "apologizing", I'm just recognizing the reality of the situation. You can't use a sports car to do work that requires a truck.

Bettis' last 1000 yard season was in 2001. I'm not sure how he has any relevance in discussing Arians inability to run the ball. FWP would likely have led the league in rushing if he hadn't broken his leg in 2007. FWP was a helluva RB in his own right.

You get farther in a sports car than you do in a truck.

Mendenhall was the main back during Arians era but for all the love he gets you would think he was a 500 yard rusher and the worst back in the league.

[FanSince72]

Originally Posted by lloydwoodson

Bettis' last 1000 yard season was in 2001. I'm not sure how he has any relevance in discussing Arians inability to run the ball. FWP would likely have led the league in rushing if he hadn't broken his leg in 2007. FWP was a helluva RB in his own right.

You get farther in a sports car than you do in a truck.

Mendenhall was the main back during Arians era but for all the love he gets you would think he was a 500 yard rusher and the worst back in the league.

Because he wasn't a power back.

How many times did Mendenhall get stuffed at the line of scrimmage versus how many times he ran for miles when he got outside?

Mendenhall would be great in a spread offense, or a West Coast offense or whatever you'd want to call an offense that doesn't depend upon a big runner gaining significant yardage by running between the tackles.

But after years of "Steeler Football" which featured big tailbacks with a fullback blocking, we suddenly found ourselves with lighter-weight backs as well as a perpetually injured O-line and neither of those makes for any kind of consistent power running game.

So what's the alternative?

Passing.

Or more specifically a pass-first offense that sets up the run and the runs it sets up are primarily outside runs and I think that's what BA was trying to do -- particularly when you have someone like Ben as the passer.
But a team like the Steelers, which has relied on a power running game for decades being asked to change gears to become a passing team isn't something that can be done in a season or two. Even if we had the personnel, the philosophy itself had to be changed and that comes from the Front Office and then trickles down to the team itself. But it's pretty obvious that the FO wasn't comfortable with it and as such they never really made a true effort to recruit the players to make it work. In the back of their minds, they still had this vision of "Steeler Football" and that vision didn't include a big time passing offense, so the best we could hope for was some sort of half-assed hybrid.

Look at the teams remaining in tjhe playoffs. All of them have good running games but can any of them - including the Ravens - really be called a running team? I don't think so. I also don't think of them as passing teams either but rather teams that have adapted to the modern game and who use running or passing to set up both as needed which is something that we can't seem to get a handle on. I think that BA tried, but he was bucking tradition and never really got the commitment from the FO that he needed.

All I know is that if the Steelers are going to be successful into the future, we can't "Be" just one thing but rather need to be able to morph into what we need to be when we need to do so and we're nowhere near that right now. Belichick recognized that years ago and as a result, the Pats defiy description because they the ability to adjust to any situation and that's the main reason why they've been so consistently successful for so long.

The days of "Imposing One's Will" against other teams are over and the sooner we realize that the better.