Game planning, in game coaching, or execution?

There are four very telling issues now for Tomlin teams:

1. Injuries
2. Can't take the ball away
3. Turning the ball over
4. Can't beat lesser teams

Now, every team deals with injuries. But this team, especially on the o-line, just sees starter after starter and back-up after back-up go down. Most injuries are just bad luck. But imho, many of the o-line injuries are due to poor technique and conditioning. One year of this, I can understand. But this has been going on for several years now. That's not a coincidence. There's something wrong.

Takeaways. I have no answer. Some teams, like the Pats, just know how to sniff out the football.

Turnovers. 20 so far this season. Again, compare this to New England, who has eight on the entire season. The Steelers committed as many in one game as the Pats have the entire season. How is it that a team knows how to protect the football? THAT comes from coaching. pure and simple.

#4: It's about a mindset. Again: I can see this happening once a season. It now happens several times a season.

I am now convinced that these issues are Tomlin issues.

 

I am no longer convinced this team is put in a position to be successful. Besides, players execute based on the skills and mindsets they are provided. mental mistakes, bad penalties, turnovers...this IS on the coaches.

 

Initially, I thought the benching of each player who fumbled was a firm move by Tomlin. Problem is, player's do fumble. Rainey did ok, but we really needed Mendenhall or Dwyer back there. Dwyer was almost getting a rhythm just before he fumbled. I can see that once Tomlin had done it for one player, he perhaps needed to be consistent. But we needed Dwyer to be bruising their d-line to take the wind out of the pass rush.

I find the number of fumbles a bit of a mystery though (not so much the interceptions, as we were needing to throw it at that point, and Batch wasn't putting enough zip on the ball). It's not been a huge problem for us to date this season, after all. Is this something you just chalk up to "one of those days"? Is that enough of an explanation?

 

The chants of predictability, bad play calling, ect ect ect will surface sooner or later.

 

I'm on the "execution" side of this argument. If the turnovers don't happen and the breakdown on the special teams last week doesn't happen, we're all on here talking about how brilliant the coaches are for game planning to survive and win without Ben. At some point this has to come back to the players' failure to step up and execute in Ben's absence. Both of these games were winnable games and I think they were planned and coached to be won. While some might argue that players not hanging onto the ball is "coachable", how were the coaches to foresee that a team that had not been turnover prone up until now all of a sudden coughs the ball up 8 times? Regarding penalties, I wasn't surprised one bit by all of the holding calls. I told my son before the game even started that we would see a lot of holding calls on the Steelers. Why? Because they needed to keep Batch healthy and on his feet. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

I did not see or hear a single play of the game because I was traveling, but I am wondering how many of those holding calls avoided a sack on Batch. In fact, coaches may have told players to do whatever they had to do to keep him on his feet. Sometimes you can't have it both ways.

 

and rightfully so.

 

I'll go with later
I've seen a variety of more play calls in these first 11 weeks than I have seen in the entire BA Steelers OC career. The situational playcalling and 3rd down conversion percentage is outstanding when the starters play. Redzone offense is much better. If anyone can't see what an upgrade this offense is when healthy then they are simply not paying attention.

 

this quote was in response to who is in charge of preperation tue. thru fri. and getting them ready to play sun.? is it the whole coaching staff?

 

Of coarse it's the whole coaching staff but it ultimately falls on the players when there are 8 turnovers, multiple crucial penalties and staying with a QB that looks like he needs a hospital. Those 3 aspects are on Tomlin. Not Haley or anybody else IMO.

 

is it better? i'm not saying either way one is better than the other just yet, but here are some numbers.

lets compare:

2012 yards per game 339.8
2011 yards per game 372.3

2012 pass ranking 15th
2011 pass ranking 9th

2012 rush ranking 22nd
2011 rush ranking 14th

2012 pass yards per game 238.3
2011 pass yards per game 253.4

2012 rush yards per game 101.5
2011 rush yards per game 118.9

2012 3rd down % 45.3
2011 3rd down % 45.9

2012 offensive ranking 19th
2011 offensive ranking 12th

as of now BA's offense leads in every catagory. i'm not sure your statement holds water as of now. there are and should be concerns about where we are at this point compared to where we were.
again i am in no way defending either guy, just showing the output so far. it should be suprising to most.

 

D. All of the above

 

mac - I can't argue with your stats and neither can I look into the future. They are what they are. I do believe though that with time and a bunch of healthy starters that TH is much > BA.

I do know though that when I watched BA ball I could nearly predict about 75% of what was called. It got so bad that I would tell my wife exactly the next play given the situation. If I could do that then surely an NFL Defensive Coordinator could see it also.

Good Riddance to BA. TH offers up a new complete package of plays that are unpredictable to this point. It's the execution that is keeping his stats down. Too many penalties and a terrible turnover ratio. Whether that is entirely on TH or MT is subjective.

 

I like looking at the statistics - but take the last two games out and re-calculate. I think that BEN'S running of Haley's offense is better than his running of BA's offense.

 

the last two games should be drow because we had no qbs , and i would say no wallace and brown either

 

Precisely. And the most important stat is that prior to Ben going out, they were 50% on 3rd downs, an ungodly pace in the NFL. They've dropped almost 5% since then. Makes a huge difference.

 

We will have to agree to disagree. I'm tired of seeing:

1) QBs failing to get the ball to Mike Wallace, in stride, when he takes the top off the D. These are easy TDs and the Steelers are giving up about one of these opportunities per game. These opportunities come because Tomlin/Haley adequately diagnose the other team's D.

2) Weakness in the run game: I have seen plenty of Steeler O-Lineman standing in the right spot to make good blocks for the RBs but fail to execute the block. They either get owned by the opposing D-Line, or, even worse, fall all over each other. This causes holes to close before the RB can hit the line of scrimmage. The coaches have called a good scheme but the players don't execute it.

3) Horrid pass protection: All the QBs have to scramble... Even Lefty and Batch have had to extend the play instead of sitting in the pocket. Steelers analysts often point out how O-Lineman are just missing assignments. This could be the O-Lineman missing assignments, or the QB not diagnosing a blitz/rush and calling for a protection shift.

4) Screens: WRs not blocking well enough to make bigger plays when there is often plenty of room for a big gain.

5) False Starts

6) Holding penalties

7) WRs off-sides.

These are techniques the players should know. The coaches call adequate plays. The players don't execute. The D was having this problem early on, but they got it together. Why can't the offense do the same thing? But, then again, the D has ALWAYS outshone the O...

 

In regard to rushing yards: O-Line + no Mendy for most of this season.

 

just saying not alot of difference. this is all we have to go by.

heres RZ TD's

ranking; 2012-21st
2011-17th
2010-15th

scoring redzone TD's
2012-50%
2011-50.91%
2010-52.46%

red zone TD's per game
2012-1.6
2011-1.6
2010-1.7

red zone scoring attempts per game
2012-3.3
2011-3.2
2010-3.2

td's per game
2012-2.2
2011-2.2
2010-2.7

ben was out the first 4 games in 2010.

 

Crazy stuff...some of us non BA bashers are smiling just a little bit...

 

yeah and their were times the offense missed key players under the former OC but no one wanted to acknowledge that.

People in here believe that Ben would stay healthier in the Haley offense. Well that was incorrect because Ben was injured because he did what he's done his entire career (held onto the ball to long). The run game has been inconsistent for a majority of this season. The coach changed but the cast of characters remained basically the same. The offense may be different but it's just about in the same situation it was in the past, relying on Ben to make plays(especially on 3rd down). What did people say, "Ben bailed Arians out" Well I guess he bailed Haley out a lot this season.

 

oh thats right, here we go with the BA supporter and the BA appoligist crap. and you know it's crap and you ARE wrong. grow a pair and disscuss the state of this team instead of running your gums about things that are not even relavent.
it's about a football team that hasen't gained a thing. i could care less who coaches it. as a fan i want production for the team, not individual coaches or players. those change. have we improved the team is what this is about but it doesn't fit your agenda , so now we will throw stones. that's pretty much what i expected from you TE. no suprise.

if any other board members would like to discuss, where we are with this i welcome the banter. these are the stats we have, i didn't make this up to support either coach. i would think it's the players we have and have brought in here.
is it better to keep our qb upright, by changing systems, or should we get better linemen to block for him? to block for our RB's. two different systems same results. what say you? i'm not seeing the purpose this offense moves with as TE says.