Questions I want the answers to, but will never get

In no particular order:


Does Ben run the plays Haley sends in? If given options, does he choose wisely?


Does the offense look as discombobulated in practice as it does in games?


What does Tomlin do all week in preparation for the game on Sunday? What do the coordinators do? What do all the assistants do?


What happened to dink and dunk the last part of the season?


Why so many injuries? Lots of broken bones, which conditioning I don't think would prevent. Should all our QBs wear flack jackets all the time? Knee braces for everyone?


Does Ben's reliance on improvisation undermine the flow and consistency of the offense?


Is Ben more hurt than was indicated?


Did all of Ben's protective gear affect his ability to throw accurately?


How could our players (and coaches) be so stupid about situational football when they have been playing the same game since their early teens?


Does the apparent lack of conditioning and poor play on some Sundays reflect laziness on the part of our players? Cockiness? Aversity to the weight room?


Does Wallace's reliance on his speed undermine other areas of his game?


Just what did Mendy do or not do to land him so deep in the doghouse?


How much do we miss Hines and his effort, leadership, and smile?


What questions do others have? Answers appreciated also.

 

Ben isn't 100% and you can see it. They run the plays Haley sends in but without any consistant blocking on the oline the plays get blown up...Consistantly. Haley trys to run a type of west coast offense but you have to have the right players in plce to do it and that is a good oline with small quick recievers who catch over the middle like Hines. We don't have the players to run his offense.

 

A little newsflash for you our receivers are of the small quick variety.

 

Some Answers:

No, I think it actually makes things better. Keeps defense off-balance

Obviously

See above

Well, he did not show up for the San Diego game to support his team. That's the external reason. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. (Translation - we will probably never know the real answer)

A lot. As far as we can tell, no one has stepped up in a leadership role. We used to see articles about players that stood up and called for the team to step up. The do-or-die type speeches. Do you think that happened before yesterday's game? If it did, it wasn't obvious to me.

 

yep never thought we would miss ward as much as we did.............how silly was I

 

i dont thnk they missed Ward. he was done. Wallace, Ab and Sanders are all very capable wrs they just fell short of living up to their ability.

 

I agree, actually I was thinking that one of the things I haven't seen so much since Ben got back are his famous "fake pumps". That helped him to baffle Defensives while helping his receivers get some additional time. Looking at the number, he threw almost no interceptions before his lesion, after his lesion he has been intercepted in critical moments. Why is he not pump-faking? I think it is a combination of him not being totally healthy and the O-Line not giving him time.

 

Yeah...why so many injuries?

At first I thought blaming the strength and conditioning coach was an overreaction, but now I am not so sure. But I believe it seems Tomlin did not retain the strength and conditioning coach under Cowher's tenure, who had been regarded as one of the best in the league.

Am I right on this?

 

* Does Ben run the plays Haley sends in? If given options, does he choose wisely?
* What happened to dink and dunk the last part of the season?
* Does Ben's reliance on improvisation undermine the flow and consistency of the offense?
* Is Ben more hurt than was indicated?
* Did all of Ben's protective gear affect his ability to throw accurately?

I think that we can talk of "2 Bens". The one that played the first half of the season, and the one that came back against San Diego. The first Ben followed Haley's system and combined his resourcefulness to make things happen when Haleys' plays didn't work. The second Ben came back in pain, clearly out of tune and more worried about running for his life than usual. I will dare to say that this second Ben was missing some "boldness" and "courage" that used to characterize him. Maybe he was told by the doctors that he was putting his life on the line by returning so soon to the field, and hey after all... now he has a new born baby to take care for. I guess we will never know for sure, but with the type of injury that Ben was diagnosed, it thought he was going to be out for at least 6 weeks.

* Does the offense look as discombobulated in practice as it does in games?
* What does Tomlin do all week in preparation for the game on Sunday? What do the coordinators do? What do all the assistants do?
* Why so many injuries? Lots of broken bones, which conditioning I don't think would prevent. Should all our QBs wear flack jackets all the time? Knee braces for everyone?
* How could our players (and coaches) be so stupid about situational football when they have been playing the same game since their early teens?
* Does the apparent lack of conditioning and poor play on some Sundays reflect laziness on the part of our players? Cockiness? Aversity to the weight room?
* Does Wallace's reliance on his speed undermine other areas of his game?
* Just what did Mendy do or not do to land him so deep in the doghouse?
* How much do we miss Hines and his effort, leadership, and smile?

I am not a Tomlin hater. But I am not also his fan. Even after the Steelers won the Super Bowl against the Cardinals I remained skeptic of coach T, mainly because I was sure that we were still seeing Cowher's team. Not only in the players that integrated the team, but in their attitude and commitment. In my personal opinion, the team finally showed this season a lot of what has been building up over the last 3 seasons: general apathy, chaos and mismanagement. Many of the issues that plagued the team this season are not new: injuries, weak offensive line, poor secondary coverage (1st half of the season). How is it possible that 3 years passed and the same issues kept growing? Adding to that a lack of leadership. Leadership that must start with the Head Coach. Over the years Bettis, Ward, Harrison and Polamalu and even Ben (on certain moments) injected their own style of leadership to the team. But when players cannot bring that leadership, it is the job of the HC to do it. Cowher and Knoll had horrible seasons too, but they always showed passion and character. I don't see Tomlin doing it. This team is in disarray, 8 turnovers against a team like the Browns was surreal.

 

I agree and disagree with this . . .

Yes, I don't think we missed Hines in particular because, yes, he was done.

I do, however, think we missed what Hines gave us (but there was NO WAY we could afford to give him $950k or whatever the league miminum was for a player with his tenure -- not for "leadership" and a "smile"). With that said . . .

I don't think Wallace, Brown, and Sanders are "very capable" wr's -- not as far as being chain-moving, possession receivers. I think we've found Wallace to be very UNdependable, AB had way too many third-down drops, and Sanders was fairly inconsistent as well. I think our receiving corps regressed this season.

 

I think the point that was being made is that we miss Hines when he was in his prime, not at the end of his career. When Hines was thrown to, you knew he was going to catch it if at all possible and if not, he would make sure the defender didn't catch it. He always beat the defender to the ball, no matter how tight the coverage. You can't say that about any of our current group. They don't fight for the ball like Hines did. They don't have his killer instinct.

 

I think many of these questions will be answered shortly after the Cleveland game...will Todd Haley be retained for next year? The reason I say that is, I think many of those questions come down to coaching. How do coaches watch film and not seek to make corrections. Same can be said for the players, but isn't that what the coaches job is? Haley had a system, with Kurt Warner, Fitz, and Boldin (bastard) it worked well. Other than that, not so sure. Frankly, whether he got a fair shake or not, I think Haley is going to be gone.

 

My question to anyone who answered whther or not Ben ran the plays Haley called is, How do you know? Can you tell us what was called vs. what was run? From observation I noticed the plays being run changed from the early season when things were working, to the late sason when nothing was. Was it Ben or Haley? I have no way of knowing, nor do any of us, unless you were in the huddle or one of the coaches. The one thing I noticed that was also said to me by a fan of another team, is that they, Ben or Haley, were trying to force the ball to Wallace too much.

 

I watched the Steelers v Bengals game with my dad who is not a Steelers fan. At one point he said who is that number 17? He sure doesn't put forth much effort.

 

Yep, totally agree with this. I think, and have said, the Ben was rushed back too soon. Would results have been ny different with Charlie? The world will never know!

 

Didn't this happen last year, too, and Lefty playing hurt this year was a mystery. The injured nature of our QBs and having them continue to play is puzzling. A health backup should be better than a banged up starter.