Random thoughts after L @DAL

Bleedsteel · Dec 18, 2012

I really don`t have much to add, other than, there were a lot of good points made in this thread.
Tried to send "Dwinsgames" a PM, to show him a thread, where we participated in "football talk", as opposed to "cupcakes", but he has PM`s blocked...
So, Dwins, I didn`t mean to call ya out at the end of this thread, but since I couldn`t PM you about the topics here, do you have any thoughts about what has been discussed?
I think WWW was pretty much dead on, and "Dick Shiner" brought up anything "WWW", didn`t.
Care to add to the football discussion?
Edit... BTW, "Dick", why do you think Pouncey has "kinda sucked this season"?
He has at least been healthy, and played out of position, when needed.
I will admit, I don`t usually focus on the line, unless they are blowing people up, or getting called for penalties...

JAD · Dec 18, 2012

Dick Shiner said: ↑

WWW said: ↑

-I can't remember the last time we had 0 penalties before today
-Key moments: A Brown's fumble denied us a chance to close the game with a 30 yd drive & FG, 2 consecutive sacks our next-to last series when we were at our 45, OT int
-Although, it wasn't everything: our D got only 1 turnover, in the 1st qtr, and after that we weren't even close to having a 2nd one
-Too many underthrows by Ben. Was he being cautious or just bad passes? (I counted at least 4 of them)
-Someone needs to tell Victorian that his tackling tecnique is awful! He gave at bunch of YAC to their WRs and RBs
-A Brown, Wallace, Sanders.. all of them have serious issues holding the football. Blame them, but blame their position coach too
-With Sanders probably out, Plax will get a shot next week. Is he worth looking for next year's roster?
-Dwyer and Redman have durability issues, which must concern our Coaching Staff
-And... this means Mendy still has a shot?
-Rainey's size becomes an issue when running between the tackles (that guy tackled him with one hand!)
-Why wasn't Miller targeted at all after halftime?
-Wallace is improving a bit, is it too late for him?
-What impact is T Polamalu having on D?
-We overcame injuries to our QB, RB, OL, LB... but what about I Taylor's absence? This guy is proving his value while off the field
-Harrison has had flashes of his old self, but hasn't played a complete A-game since last year
-Our punt coverage unit needs to do something, and quickly. I can easily imagine our staff asking Butler to punt out of bounds next 2 weeks, and that means shorter punts
-We can end our season with a lot of different possibilities and combinations. The easiest: handle our business, and at least we'll be 6th seed.

For sure, I missed a bunch of things here. Who helps me?
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All good points.

I'd like to add:

-I was at the game and the amount of Steelers fans in attendance was astounding. People often exaggerate about how many Steelers fans were at a road game, but this crowd was literally 50/50. And it was mostly divided families. There were tons of couples walking around sporting a jersey from each team. There were dozens of families with about half Steelers and half Cowboys gear. The amount of Terrible Towels twirling was crazy. And, at one point, the huge "De-Fense!" chant erupted while we were on D. Great atmoshpere.
-You'd have thought the Cowboys had won the Super Bowl judging by the crowd reaction after the game. I thought they were going to burn the city down. I don't think you'll find a store in the metropolitan area that still has ticket tape in stock.
-I honestly was impartial about the outcome. Somebody else mentioned the same thing and was reprimanded for it but, win or lose, our post-season has recently only been about beating Cincinnati. That's our first playoff game right there. Our playoffs start on Sunday.
-As big as Antonio Brown's fumble was, his decision to let a punt drop and roll twenty yards was also huge. It looked like we were going to have the ball around our own forty with a little over two minutes left and, instead, he let the ball roll to the twenty. That was big. Not sure why he is returning punts and not Rainey.
-Antonio Brown also ran out of bounds late to stop the clock and save a timeout for Dallas. Awful game for #84.
-You can't really complain about our D not getting turnovers. Can't remember the last season in which we actually produced takeaways. The current model of the LeBau D features no pass rush or turnovers.
-I think Ben was nervous about throwing those screen passes that resulted in bounce passes. There were defenders coming up on our receivers quickly. It didn't look like the plays were going to go anywhere even if they had been completed. And this only being one week removed from the San Diego lateral. It's just bad playcalling. Obviously the execution wasn't there, but if you're in charge of calling plays and you're asking your qb to do something he's not comfortable doing, that's bad playcalling. Haley sucks. Not sure why he's asking ben to make half of his throws horizontally rather than vertically. This isn't college ball.
-I've got a confession to make. I don't know who Victorian is. Not sure where he even came from. We're in deep trouble against the Bengals if Victorian and Golden are our starting corners.
-I would bring Plax back and let him attend Latrobe. In the Cleveland game, you could tell his legs weren't right. He wasn't in game shape. He hasn't played much since. But, yes, I would give him a look for next season for sure. Ben loves him. Whoops. Forgot that nobody on this board cares what Ben wants to feel comfortable operating this offense.
-Mendy is dead to this team (and that's a good thing). Tag him and bag him.
-Yes, you're right. Rainey can't run between the tackles. He goes down instantly upon the first hint of contact. That's why it's curious why Haley would use him on a delayed draw on third-and-five.
-Wallace sucks. He's gone as well. No way they pay him the contract he seeks. I've never in my life heard one of our own booed so loudly at our own stadium as Wallace was after failing to haul in a deep post pattern last Sunday against San Diego. He is hated in the Burgh. The Sunday nighter against Baltimore too when he failed to make an effort on a low throw.
-Polamalu is done. He has given us nothing in two years. Worse: he has been a liability on defense and a killer to our cap situation. Still, he's Troy Polamalu. I would give him next year to right his ship or set sail.
-Same goes for #92.
-You're right. Ike Taylor has become the least expendable player on our roster. We have approximately zero shut-down corners on our roster behind Ike. It seems we can trust Keenan to cover a team's #2, but we desperately need Ike back. We're in trouble against Cincinnati and A.J. Green.
-Suisham rocks.
-It's probably blasphemous, but I think Pouncey has kinda stunk this season.
-We're in trouble in the years to come. Polamalu, Harrison, Hampton, Keisel, Foote . . . all gone within the next year or two. And nobody to step in. Our recent drafts of Ziggy, Mendenhall, and Heyward are killing us. Who will replace Foote? Sylvester? Yikes. Can Worilds or Carter replace Harrison? Yikes. This feels like the 70s transitioning into the 80s. Woodley is Mike Merriweather and Timmons is David Little. Farrior was Lambert but he retired. Other than that, a bunch of mediocre defenders.
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Just want to add, we should run some plays that are good for Rainey, and get him in the open field, instead of running him up the middle, definitely not his strong suite.

Steelcop · Dec 19, 2012

Thigpen82 said: ↑

lovembig said: ↑

VA_Black&Gold said: ↑

lovembig said: ↑

VA_Black&Gold said: ↑

pjgruden said: ↑

As for Polomalu, as much as I love him as a player, I think the defense played better with Will Allen back there. I'm still (somewhat patiently) waiting for a big impact play from Troy that he is known for.
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I agree, and still argue that if we had to carve out salary money, it should have been Troy to go and not Hines (as someone who wears a Polamalu jersey). All I've really seen him do this season (and honestly, a whole lot of the last one) is go flying airborne past the camera at the very end of plays. Would I like him to recover fully and play like the Troy of old? Absolutely. Do I believe that will happen? Nope.
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Hines was done. i dont think it was ever a matter of keeping one or the other.
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This could definitely be true, but my gut (and the evidence) make me inclined to believe the same is true of Troy, and at least Ward was a motivating factor for the team in general.
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the problem with Troy is i think he lost a step. he was never a great cover guy or tackler. he was all about insticts and knowing where the play was going and beating the other team with those insticts.

he just seems a step slow now. im not sure what he was trying to do with some of his tackles yesterday. he looked like a guy that didnt really know how to play football.

hopefully he gets that step back. if not he is probably done.
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Ironically, Troy's play last night reminded me of how he was in his rookie season.
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I'll start off by saying I'm a 43 Homer. That said do you think he is trying to cover the loss of our DB's. He and Clark are the only ones in the backfield with any experience. Plus I saw him make some plays that were vintage Troy. Hopefully he's just a little rusty and imprves to the old Troy but Im not readu to cut him. Im not Im not im not! Thats my tantrum

Thigpen82 · Dec 19, 2012

Steelcop said: ↑

Thigpen82 said: ↑

lovembig said: ↑

the problem with Troy is i think he lost a step. he was never a great cover guy or tackler. he was all about insticts and knowing where the play was going and beating the other team with those insticts.

he just seems a step slow now. im not sure what he was trying to do with some of his tackles yesterday. he looked like a guy that didnt really know how to play football.

hopefully he gets that step back. if not he is probably done.
Click to expand...

Ironically, Troy's play last night reminded me of how he was in his rookie season.
Click to expand...

I'll start off by saying I'm a 43 Homer. That said do you think he is trying to cover the loss of our DB's. He and Clark are the only ones in the backfield with any experience. Plus I saw him make some plays that were vintage Troy. Hopefully he's just a little rusty and imprves to the old Troy but Im not readu to cut him. Im not Im not im not! Thats my tantrum
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I think rust is an issue, but the concern is that he doesn't have time to return to old form. I'm still not ready to say that we would be better off starting Will Allen, though.

And on the DBs - I think, as much as the team performance was miserable, and we can rage at how awful our DBs were, we were basically scraping the bottom of the depth chart. So I think you're right that Troy may have been trying a little too hard when wasn't up to form (hence the similarity to his rookie season). That said, if anything I think some of our DBs needed a lot more Safety help. Come the Bengals, we need to have that fixed for AJ Green.

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Random thoughts after L @DAL

Bleedsteel TSF Supporter

JAD Well-Known Member

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Thigpen82 Bitter optimist TSF Supporter

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