First off, I am far from a professional football coach. But the problem for Pittsburgh is, it seems Bruce Arians is too. The obvious play call that I am referring to is his genius shotgun draw in our own end zone that ended up going for a Jets safety and ultimately sealed our defeat. Anything but a safety, man! There are so many things wrong with this play, and it seems to me that anyone with the slightest sense of offensive football would know that. First of all, we are the Steelers. We play power football, so go under center, turn around and hand it to your running back. Second of all, that running back should be your horse that went for over a hundred yards, not Mewelde Moore who touched the ball four times all game. Thirdly, run a play where your big boys up front power block straight ahead. You certainly don't pull a guard and try to trap block with a debilitated offensive line, that up until that play had overachieved all game. They avoid that safety and we can go for a field goal to tie on that final drive instead of needing the touchdown. Man, this guy sucks. But aside from this moronic play, there was so much wrong with the Steelers offense yesterday that I honestly don't know how Arians made it into the locker room without being fired. What was up with all the passes to Matt Spaeth? In case no one noticed in the last three years, he stinks. He catches five balls a year, he's slow and he can't block anyone. And after yesterday we might as well throw in the fact that he can't catch. He was targeted nine times against the Jets. Heath Miller has only had that many targets one time all season. Spaeth now has as many touchdown catches as Heath Miller this season, one. And Matt Spaeth, you are no Heath Miller. We don't throw to one of the best tight ends in the league all season, but we throw to our bum of a backup nine times?
Meanwhile, we have a guy like Hines who only had three passes thrown to him all game, none of which were in the red zone, where he is third among active receivers with 47 TD catches. Makes sense. I wouldn't throw it to him either. Apparently he can't find the end zone.
Another stat that I found interesting was the fact that the Steelers were carrying the ball for 6 yards a pop, and throwing it at the same clip. Yet we threw the ball 44 times and only ran it 25. What happened to the power football playing Steelers? We have struggled to find a consistent running game for weeks, then when Mendenhall is running like a horse, we abandon it. In case they don't know, six yards a run is good, six yards a pass is not.
And finally, I am going to bitch about ol' Mike Tomlin a little bit. What happened to the swashbuckler that used to go for it on 4th down once in a while. In the first quarter, we punted from the Jets' 34 yard line on 4th and 5. It would have been a 52 yarder for a guy who hasn't missed a kick yet in the black and gold. Or maybe sack up a little bit and try to take control of the game early. The punt was returned to the 22, a 12 yard difference. Not much faith in the defense anymore or what, Mike?
I'm not usually one to believe that one guy can make a difference in winning and losing in a sport like football, but if Troy Polamalu were in the lineup, the Steelers would be 11-3. The Sanchize was floating and fluttering balls all over the field and no one seemed to want to go after them. Troy would have had a pick or two and also never would have missed the sack that Mundy whiffed on on third down of one of New York's scoring drives. If anyone in the league can be labeled a difference-maker, it's Polamalu. Good news for us, Mike Tomlin's injury update was optimistic for not only Polamalu, but also potentially Aaron Smith to be back for the playoff run, that we somehow clinched with a loss yesterday.
On a good note, the Steelers have only lost to the Jets, Pats, Saints, and Ravens, four good playoff teams. Problem is, that's who you play in the playoffs. The Steelers should cruise through their last two cream puff games and take the #2 seed and home field advantage, and hope someone else beats the Patriots (don't even act like you think we can beat them). But the emphasis on that statement is "should cruise", you never know what kind of losing game plan Arians can whip up for 2-12 Carolina.
No comments:
Post a Comment