An Apology to Arians! I Was Wrong!

[TRH]

I think Arians is a good OC, not a great one. I was never one of the "haters" although i was happy to see him go and i think Haley (as long as he's not offered a head-coaching job somewhere else which is entirely possible) will work out better in the long run than Bruce did. Arian's just wasn't a good fit here.

Funny now to see Arians as one of the hottest, some say the hottest, HC'ing candidates out there right now.

[TRH]

These 'knocking' Ben posts are so ridiculous i don't even have a comment for them.
There were a hundred other reasons our offense didn't go anywhere this year. Our QB actually had good stats and good accuracy. He made a couple bungles along the way - but many elite QB's in this league - made far many more and bigger mistakes.
No running game, injuries out the a**, OL can't open holes, OL can't protect the QB for more than 1.4 seconds, WR's dropping ball after ball after ball, fumbles, and on...and on....and on....and on.

[harrison'samonster]

I agree, the OC and Ben made mistakes, but as I saw it our major problems were injuries and then the running game came to a hault mainly due to injuries and mental mistakes. Therefore our offense became one-sided and stalled.

We can argue whether Ben is great or good or bad or ok. I know he makes mistakes and that the media view of him isn't so great, but he wins games and he's helped us win two SB's and go to one more.

[NSMaster56]

Originally Posted by GoFor7

I'm really not sure where this mentality about Ben comes from....

He can't win it all the time when the Steelers just try to play ball-control for the majority of the game. He tries to bail the Steelers out from their own stupidity at the end of the game, but he's not going to every time. This offense had no killer instinct. Just sat on a ball and hoped the defense would keep it close. Result: 8-8.

Not trying to knock Ben, it's just hard to back him blindly.

Much like Favre, it seems like he's bought into his own BS (and it's a terrifying omen).

He's portrayed as a 'playmaker'---which he is---so he's trying too hard to be that 'playmaker' every play/game.

The team won championships when they were a ball-control O first and Ben used his heroics only when neccessary.

Ever since Fast Willie's tires ran out of tread and Ben's been 'the guy', the O has tried and failed to build around him Brady/Brees style and the team has fallen short of winning another title. Ben's stats have gotten better, but the team hasn't.

Ben's a great player, it's just hard to tell if he's a great leader yet. Sometimes being a great/the best leader means game managing and not worrying about individual stats.

It's not all his fault, the lack of OL and run game is certainly a factor, as has been the play calling and schemes (for years), but something's gotta give.

Everyone wants to be the 79 Steelers/89 49ers/99 Rams: win and look good on paper.

Me, I just want my team to win. 05 and 08 weren't pretty offensively, but titles, not stats, are all that matter.

[FanSince72]

Originally Posted by lloydwoodson

I disagree here. You design a play, the quarterback goes through his progressions, and the quarterback improvises IF the play breaks down. You don't start out improvising.

Ben is more than capable of playing more structured football- he just doesn't wanna. He is best at 5 step drops and get the ball out whether he wants to admit that to himself or not.





I think you hade made a very insightful point here. I don't think there is another OC who will gain Ben's trust the way he did. Arians somehow managed to break through Ben's douchebag persona and become a father figure to him. Now that I think back on it that was pretty damn remarkable! Arians is more clever than he is given credit. Hindsight is 20/20.

At this stage in the game Ben will butt heads with any OC he has. If Jesus was his OC he'd want to kick his ass. I think he likes Arians because Arians let him do it his way and gave him more control.

It is just a shame "Ben's way" doesn't put more points on the board.

I get what you're saying but please understand that I was not suggesting that Ben be allowed to make it up or that Arians was always doing that.

What I was trying to say was that Arians saw in Ben a need to be himself and I really do believe that his plays were more "suggestions" than hard and fast "X's and O's" because he knew that if the actual play DID break down, Ben would be able to deal with it.

Haley, on the other hand, seems to need that "X's and O's" structure and I get the sense that he's forcing Ben into following the plan exactly as written and that isn't working.

I also agree with your "Father figure" analogy and I think that's exactly what Arians was and more importantly what Ben needs. Haley is the opposite and I think that Ben responds the way a kid might - that he resists Haley's structure because he doesn't get the nurturing from Haley that he was accustomed to getting from Arians.

Whether that's right or wrong is debatable, but the fact that Arians has had such success over at Indy with his "Father Flannagan" persona tends to support the argument that nurturing may very well be a better way to go than trying to "Lay Down the Law" as Haley seems to want to do.

Let's face it, guys like Ben are really just big kids and no kid really responds all that well to someone yelling at them - especially when that kid knows how good he is at something. Ben still has a lot of growing up to do and I think that he will mature. But I also think that Arians was "working on that" with him as well and now that that relationship has been dissolved, I think Ben does indeed seem lost.

Arians was good for him and the truth is that Ben was a better QB and the team as a whole was more successful with BA and I don't see Haley having that kind of rapport or success with Ben or with the team as a whole.

[NSMaster56]

Originally Posted by TRH

Funny now to see Arians as one of the hottest, some say the hottest, HC'ing candidates out there right now.

So were Chan Gailey and Mike Mularkey once upon a time...

[lloydwoodson]

Originally Posted by NSMaster56

So were Chan Gailey and Mike Mularkey once upon a time...

Hahaha too true.

[fer522]

Originally Posted by pczach

Excuse me, but how many Super Bowls have the team with the "best quarterback ever" (Tom Brady) won in the last 7 years?

Answer: 0. Yes, that would mean ZERO!

How many last minute, game-winning drives has he had in the last 7 Super Bowls?

Answer: 0 again!


I think someone's theory may have some holes in it.

Since Ben and Eli Manning have entered thier prime years, they have won 4 of the last 7 Super Bowls. I would like an explanation for this obvious but never mentioned fact.

Steelers D
Giants. D

[SteelersCanada]

Originally Posted by fer522

Steelers D
Giants. D

You're right. Our D is so good we should go ahead and trade for Brandon Weeden because our D can just take us to the Super Bowl every year and Roethlisberger had absolutely nothing to do with it. In fact, Brandon Weeden might be too talented. Let's go grab Blaine Gabbert and win a couple of championships because having an elite quarterback doesn't matter if your D is good, right?

Kansas City's D is truly talented as well, but they're picking first overall. Cleveland's D is good, too.

I'd like you to explain the fact that when Eli and Ben both have down seasons, both the Giants and Steelers miss the playoffs. I'm going to go ahead and assume this is a coincidence though, right? Maybe the D had down years and that's what caused us to miss it.

This whole discussion is so stupid it's mind-blowing.

[fansince'76]

Originally Posted by SteelersCanada

Also, Ben is an underachieving Quarterback? He has two Super Bowl rings. What the fuck else does this guy have to do to earn respect from the fans in this town?

300 yards, 5 TDs (at least) per week, every week, every year. Never minding that his play before his injury this year was the difference between this team finishing 8-8 and 2-14.