Enough Is Enough: Offense Needs New Gameplan

[Rockonsteel]

Originally Posted by DanRooney

The bubble screen is fine as long as they don't throw it to Hines Ward. I don't know why they think he's going to get any YAC. He's slow as molasses.

Because it works in practice. When they run it in practice, Hines turns it upfield for 60 yds untouched every single time. And Brucy boy just drools.

The scary part is, I'm sure all of the plays that end in disaster during the games, look good in practice. And ol' Brucey boy, I'm sure just stands on the sidelines grinning like a Cheshire cat, rubbing his hands together, just chomping at the bit to call that bullshit in a real game. DOHHHHHH!!!



Rockon

[Fire Arians]

Originally Posted by DanRooney

The bubble screen is fine as long as they don't throw it to Hines Ward. I don't know why they think he's going to get any YAC. He's slow as molasses.

agree, they should try that same play to brown. brown is probably our best open field runner, and ward is our best blocking WR. but using our players to their best strengths isn't an arians thing.

he'd rather use our worst blockers on the team (brown and wallace) to set the screen up, while our slowest WR takes the ball. it'll surprise the oposition!

what is arians hoping for? they tackle wallace by mistake? lol

[Killer]

Ben will never let you take his pet hamster Arians

[tony hipchest]

Originally Posted by ricardisimo

Spencer? You mean Everest?

my bad. mt. everest. dont know where the hell i got spencer.

Originally Posted by cubanstogie

was anyone else envious of the Redskins TD last night. I formation, play action fake to FB and then Hightower wide open in the flat for a walk in.I can't remember the Steelers scoring a short yardage TD that easily. Obvious problem, we haven't used an I formation since John Kuhn.

hell yeah!

the immediate second i watched that play unfold, my first thought was jealousy. i had almost forgotten how simple that play can be.

my 2nd immediate thought was how many teams in the same position would bleed out a TE as the steelers would sell out for a run, and the opponents tight end would score a td just about every time.

my third thought was how easilly we could run either of these plays with money miller and million dollar mendenhall.

[BigRick]

Very well written and insightful article. Most team run over the Colts rush defense. I live northof Indy and watching the sports shows since Manning went down. They made the point I've told Indy fans for years the defense was built to rely on the offense build a big lead. Mathis and Feeny are good,but light and rely on their speed but the rest of the defense is marginable.

[Rotorhead]

Well unfortunately for us, the lockout is what kept BA here this year, IMO. No preseason or offseason to learn a new offense from a new coordinator, made sense they should have kept him not knowing what was going to happen. We can just hope for a decent injury free year and a retool next year with a new OC!

[Riddle_Of_Steel]

While I am no big fan of Bruce Arians or his uber-predictable playcalling, or his inability to attack the opposing team's weaknesses-- I think some of y'all are just bashing away without thinking about it. Arians makes a nice, convenient scapegoat.

The problem with our offense right now, has less to do with the offensive coordinator or playcalling, and NEARLY ALL to do with the quality of blockers we have, IMHO. You can't really blame the QB, the OC, or the HC for an inconsistent offense when your Oline cannot even buy your QB enough time to hand off the ball on a simple dive play up the middle without getting smoked in mid-handoff.

Yes, they actually did run a bunch of RB screens in this last game (some of us, including myself, have been screaming for BA to learn how to design some RB screens-- we saw several this last weekend), and they went NOWHERE.

They didn't just run Mendy around the edges like you guys said-- there were fans on other Steelers forums complaining about all the ineffective runs up the middle on 1st down. There was NO BLOCKING and NO RUNING LANES, in the middle or the outside.

Redman could not even find any purchase to gain some yards on the ground.

Watch the games, when Ben is given some time in the backfield, he is dialed in to his receivers and he WOULD BE having a career season if not for the non-existent pass protection. Ben is getting wasted by the fact that his first read after the snap is not at his #1 WR, but who he is about to get destroyed by. Even the best scramblers' play at QB is going to go down the drain if they are having to fight off two sacks almost as soon as the ball is snapped on every play.

Some of you may recall, when we had a descent offensive line, Willie Parker was leading the NFL in yards and Ben was second behind Marsha Brady for passing TDs. Some of you may recall, in 2009, our offense lit it up because the Oline play was halfway desent and Ben had the time to find his guys downfield like Wallace.

I am not here to defend Arians-- I am ready to see him gone next year too, but I think the discussion could use a measure of objectivity and less piling on. Arians isn't ALL bad-- he designs some downright brilliant plays. he just isn't the best at knowing WHEN to call them. I would be happy if he went back to what he does best-- aas our QB coach or WR coach.

[tony hipchest]

Originally Posted by Riddle_Of_Steel

I am not here to defend Arians-- I am ready to see him gone next year too, but I think the discussion could use a measure of objectivity and less piling on. Arians isn't ALL bad-- he designs some downright brilliant plays. he just isn't the best at knowing WHEN to call them. I would be happy if he went back to what he does best-- aas our QB coach or WR coach.

all very valid points ROS.

what gets me is when troy went down and the steelers defense greatly suffered (and the offense lent no support whatsoever) the arians apologists said there was no way one players absense should make that big of a difference in lebeaus defense, and if it did, then it was dick lebeaus fault. it was essentially up to the "next man up" to step in and deliver without a drop off. sub par talent replacing troy wasnt accepted as a valid excuse.

here we are 2 years later and we have essentially lost flozell adams and replaced him with a younger more talented rookie, and according to the coaching staffs call, upgraded the rg position by inserting legursky.

being that arians coordinates the offense you would think he has some say in who plays on the offensive line.

so how come our offensive line is suddenly untalented, and why cant they just execute how mundy and burnett were expected to 2 years ago?

from what i remember, legursky, scott, kemo, adams, and foster had no problem run blocking just 8 months ago in the superbowl, and its not like they have gotten old and slow like our aged defense has been accused of.

i dont care if its faneca, o. pace, w. jones, or j ogden.... there simply isnt no o-lineman who is as important to our offense, that polamalu is to our defense.

i find it funny how the arians apologists cant hold him to the same standard (and i know you arent one- just making a point).

also, i believe the last year willie was leading the league in rushing, and ben was 2nd to brady in td passes was the last year they had a real FB on the roster.

i could be wrong, but want that dan kreiders last year?

[tony hipchest]

after researching, 2006 was really kreiders last year, and willie was leading the league in rushing with carey davis leading the way-

On November 12, 2006, in a home game against the New Orleans Saints, Parker rushed for 213 yards on 22 carries and two touchdowns, coming 5 yards short of the highest single-game rushing total in Steelers history. His two long gains of 72 and 76 yards set up touchdowns that capped off the Pittsburgh victory, 38-31. His 76-yard sprint late in the 4th quarter was the longest rush in Heinz Field history.

On December 7, against the Cleveland Browns, Parker broke the all-time Steelers rushing record for a single game, gaining 223 yards on 32 carries & 1 touchdown before being taken out of the game in the third quarter. The record was previously held by John "Frenchy" Fuqua. Parker also became the only Steelers running back to have two 200+ yard games in the same year.

Parker played in (and started) all 16 regular season games. He compiled 1,494 yards on 337 carries (4.4 average) with 13 rushing touchdowns. He also had 12 runs of 20+ yards. Parker also caught 31 passes for 222 yards (7.2 average) and 3 touchdowns. In addition, his 16 combined scores broke the previous Steelers single-season touchdown mark of 15 set by Louis Lipps in 1987. Parker served as a backup to LaDainian Tomlinson and Larry Johnson in his first Pro Bowl, where he would finish the game with 40 yards on 2 carries.

Parker was productive in 2007 as well, rushing for 1,316 yards but only 2 total touchdowns. He had eight 100-yard plus games, leading the league in that category and earning a second consecutive Pro Bowl berth before being injured late in the season. Parker suffered a broken right fibula early in a game against the St. Louis Rams on December 20, 2007, ending his season.[3] He was replaced by backup Najeh Davenport. Parker led the league in rushing yardage at the time of his injury.

carey davis helped parker get to that league leading yardage total, but parkers td's were greatly reduced w/o a true fullback.

looks like bruce could call a pretty successfull run game with a fullback. i wonder why he abandoned it. willies record setting performance against the browns is a far cry from that abysmal showing we gave in the 40+ mph frigid wind storm with 45+ passing attempts in '09.

point is, it all has more to do with just the talent on o-line.

[chizzler]

I wouldn't put the blame all on the O-line. Ben doesn't get rid of the ball fast enough sometimes. I understand he extends plays but you can't take 5 seconds or more all the time. Ben doesn't excell at timing patterns. He can't throw the deep ball to the recievers in stride. His balls catch too much air. He also wait to much for the reciever to turn around. I also think he doesn't read defences that good. He has gotten better but you can see sometimes he doesn't recognize them. Quick plays aren't his forte. We don't need 10 yard plays everytime. Yes the o-line sucks, but Ben is a big part of it. I also don't think we use Miller enough. That's BA. I do think we need to use a full back more often. Totally agree with that assessment previously stated.