OK, Arians....

[thumper]

....he says the OL was only responsible for 19 sacks. They rest were due to TEs, RBs not picking up their assignments and WRs not running their hot routes.

OK, let's say that's true. Let's go with it, for the sake of argument.

Even if that is true, you can't tell me this OL is any good. Why? How about because they almost never open up any holes for the running game. Do you know where Pgh ranked (Pgh, the team who has the major identity of being a rushing team) for rushing in the NFL?

23rd....out of 32. I'd think, a team that emphasized the rush as the Steelers do, to be at least 16th.

And their average per rush? A more telling stat on where you really rate as a rushing attack? 3.7. Only two teams had a worse average rushing per attempt in the entire NFL. TWO! And it's not as if there isn't a BIG difference between the quality rushing teams and how pathetic Pgh was. NYG had a FIVE yard AVERAGE per RUSH. Broncos and Pathers had a 4.8. Can you even imagine how dominant this team would be with an above 4.5 avg. per rush?

Yea, we won a Super Bowl. But no one can tell me there isn't lots of room for improvement in our rushing game, and much of that is with the OL. Oh, and did I mention play calling? That's another HUGE reason for such an anemic rushing game.

I have faith that Tomlin knows they need to become a much better rushing game. Please, God, please make that true. They won't win another ring with that lame of a rushing attack. It won't happen again.

[revefsreleets]

There is absolutely zero doubt in my mind that a big part of the anemic rushing game was the lack of a power rusher. We did, after all, have Gary Russell as our lone power back, and he was cut by the lowly Bengals.

We have a playbook filled with running plays. Contrary to popular belief, they can't all be sweeps. So you do what you can with what you have.

[Preacher]

Sigh.

Maybe I should just resort to cutting and pasting.

EDIT: Here is my cut and paste. . .

Furthermore, isn't it just AMAZING how everyone forgets that last year, we played great defenses... (Yard per play, passing and rushing, pts is points allowed)

The Ravens, 2nd in total 5th in rushing YPP 3rd pts
The Eagles, 3rd in total, 4th in rushingYPP 4th pts
The Titalns, 4th in total6th in rushing YPP 2nd pts
The Cowboys, 5th in total 16th innrushing YPP 20 pts
The Giants, 7 in total, 11th in rushing YPP 5th pts
The Redskings, 8th in total, 8th in rushing YPP 6th pts
The Colts, 9th in total, 17th in rushing YPP 7th pts.

Maybe the quality of opponents we played had something to do with the numbers?

http://forums.steelersfever.com/show...717#post616717

[revefsreleets]

Actually, since apparently several people here think Arians is mentally retarded, and we also seem to have several offensive geniuses waiting in the wings on this board (I know, remarkable, isn't it? There are only 32 OC jobs in the whole NFL and we seem to have at least 10 guys on this very board who can do a better job than our own. Amazing!), then maybe Arians just made the number up?

[HometownGal]

Originally Posted by revefsreleets

Actually, since apparently several people here think Arians is mentally retarded, and we also seem to have several offensive geniuses waiting in the wings on this board (I know, remarkable, isn't it? There are only 32 OC jobs in the whole NFL and we seem to have at least 10 guys on this very board who can do a better job than our own. Amazing!), then maybe Arians just made the number up?

I couldn't have said it any better.

Get those resumes in!

[thumper]

Originally Posted by revefsreleets

Actually, since apparently several people here think Arians is mentally retarded, and we also seem to have several offensive geniuses waiting in the wings on this board (I know, remarkable, isn't it? There are only 32 OC jobs in the whole NFL and we seem to have at least 10 guys on this very board who can do a better job than our own. Amazing!), then maybe Arians just made the number up?

Never said he made the # up. What I _DID_ say is our rushing per attempt was absolutely garbage. We were 30th in the league. Now, you can say what you want about us not having OC jobs in the NFL, but there is no disputing that being 30th in rush per attempt means something really sucks with:

A.) Our OL
B.) Our play calling.
C.) Our running back.

And I am not discounting C all together. FWP still lacks vision and instincts and that doesn't help. And being down to our 3rd string back from injuries won't help your rushing stats either. But, still, I think there is no doubt A and B are the major problems. If Pgh isn't well above 4 ypc something is really wrong.

Correction: Pgh wasn't 30th in ypc, they were all the way up to 29th. Cinci was actually worse (and they were horrid at running the ball) with a 3.6 ypc.

[Preacher]

Originally Posted by thumper

Never said he made the # up. What I _DID_ say is our rushing per attempt was absolutely garbage. We were 30th in the league. Now, you can say what you want about us not having OC jobs in the NFL, but there is no disputing that being 30th in rush per attempt means something really sucks with:

A.) Our OL
B.) Our play calling.
C.) Our running back.

And I am not discounting C all together. FWP still lacks vision and instincts and that doesn't help. And being down to our 3rd string back from injuries won't help your rushing stats either. But, still, I think there is no doubt A and B are the major problems. If Pgh isn't well above 4 ypc something is really wrong.

Correction: Pgh wasn't 30th in ypc, they were all the way up to 29th. Cinci was actually worse (and they were horrid at running the ball) with a 3.6 ypc.

YEah, I also noticed that you completely skipped the part that half our schedule was against TOP defenses... and a decent part of that was against TOP RUSH defenses.

So, does that play ANY role in your little scenario?

[T.Richardson]

Originally Posted by thumper

Never said he made the # up. What I _DID_ say is our rushing per attempt was absolutely garbage. We were 30th in the league. Now, you can say what you want about us not having OC jobs in the NFL, but there is no disputing that being 30th in rush per attempt means something really sucks with:

A.) Our OL
B.) Our play calling.
C.) Our running back.

And I am not discounting C all together. FWP still lacks vision and instincts and that doesn't help. And being down to our 3rd string back from injuries won't help your rushing stats either. But, still, I think there is no doubt A and B are the major problems. If Pgh isn't well above 4 ypc something is really wrong.

Correction: Pgh wasn't 30th in ypc, they were all the way up to 29th. Cinci was actually worse (and they were horrid at running the ball) with a 3.6 ypc.

Will people ever give up on the "playcalling"

[pancake]

I'm not a big fan of Arains, but he is a Super Bowl winning OC, so I deal with that.

[Psyychoward86]

Originally Posted by Preacher

Sigh.

Maybe I should just resort to cutting and pasting.

EDIT: Here is my cut and paste. . .



http://forums.steelersfever.com/show...717#post616717

That's a huge part of it. We should all be happy we got as far as we did, winning the superbowl and all. There were so many intangibles that went wrong last year too: Consistency was an issue. Marvel and Kendall Simmons got injured, which meant backups became starters. Willie and Mendy both got hurt. Willie got hurt multiple times actually.