Muth got greedy

All the penalties that were called on the Steelers and you want to gamble that they can score without anything bad happening? No way. False start, fumble, holding, earthquake, hurricane or tornado, too many bad things can happen. Take the touchdown. However, I thought the same thing as everyone else here, they left them too much damn time. I guess you just hope that a defense with that many playmakers could make a play at some point in the game. They didn't.

 

I don't think it would have been bad for Muth to get down to the 1 or the 1/2 yard line.

But down a TD, I don't blame him for just scoring.

There was 2:45 left in the game at that point. We need the TD, so we have to score (can't just kneel and kick a FG...which is what you want in "don't score to kill clock" situations).

I think they call TOs before the 2 min warning. So best case is we score on 3rd and goal from the 1/2. That means they called a time out after failed runs on 1st and 2nd down (so they only have 1 timeout left). Each play probably runs ~ 7 seconds (~2:30).

Maybe we score on 4th and they let it run down to the 2:00 so they have 2 minutes and 1 time out?

The thing I'd want us to do if the roles were flipped is just to let the other team walk in on 1st (I assume they aren't kneeling down down by 6). Then it's the same situation, but they get the ball with 7 fewer seconds on the clock.

I think it would be bad strategy, but if they don't call any timeouts, if we score on 3rd we get it down to 1:15 or something. Then they get it back with 1:15 and 3 time outs. Does anyone think we would have stopped them?

Look at the drive they had at the end of the half.

Bengals get it with 40 seconds left at their own 30.

• Incompletion
• 13 yard pass (to 43)
• 8 yard pass (to our 49)
• incomplete (PI)
• incomplete
• 6 yard pass to our 37
• FG

Also worth noting that their kicker apparently hit what would have been the longest FG in NFL history last week, but it got called back. So it's not like he sucks / can't hit longer FGs.

If you can't stop them, being up by 1 doesn't help much. Especially with the new kicking ball rules which seem to make long kicks easier.

 

This isn't on Muth, this is on coaching and on the D. They Bengals pretty much moved the ball and scored at will during the 2nd half.

 

It also helps that the officials flagged any Steelers corner who breathed on a Bengals receiver in the first half but let Chase shove off to get his touchdown. The Steelers eliminated that problem in the second half by not getting anywhere near Chase and Higgins most of the time.

 

I don't think the clock would get below 2:00 if PF goes down at the 1.

This strategy works amazingly well if you're winning or you just need a FG.

Because then you can just kneel down.

But when you're down by more than a FG, you have to score a TD.

We weren't going to kneel down for the first 3 downs and only try on 4th.

And if I'm the Bengals, I just let us walk in on our 1st down run.

I talked about the other cases in the post above. But I think our "best case" (we only score on 3rd down) is them getting the ball back with 1 timeout and about 2:30 on the clock.

Being up by 1 in that situation isn't great as kickers are setting personal bests for distance every week because they are now allowed to get the ball just the way they like it. I hope they get rid of that rule so there's more tension in situations like this because the miss% is higher on FGs. Although it almost certainly doesn't matter for the 36 yarder they won with.

 

And if the Bengals are in any way smart (debatable), they just let us walk in on 1st and goal from the 1 and the get the ball back with 7 fewer seconds on the clock.

 

The Bengals looked very smart last night, especially Higgins on their last drive.

 

I called out Jones for the late hold right when they called it. But when they showed the replay I was like "that happens to TJ every play and we've been told for years that it's OK to do that to edge rushers because otherwise the dip/bend around the edge is impossible to block".

Bottom line re: Chase is that big name WRs are almost never going to be called for OPI. Even no name guys rarely get that flag thrown.

We lost this game because of 5 insanely bad minutes at the end of the 1st half (and the opening drive of the 2nd half). If the D can get some incompletions there or the O doesn't turn it over quickly on back to back possessions, we probably win the game.

I don't blame the O as much because of how they fought back. Probably because I'm so used to Steelers teams that struggles to score 15 points.

 

Yep. Heads up play.

 

Agreed. Losing the turnover battle cost them the game, but so did many other things.

 

Now watch the Jets beat the Bengals next week

 

Yep.

Can't lose the turnover battle, be unable to cover Chase, and suck against the run. Chase Brown had 11 carries for 108 yards! And his long was "only" 37. Even though we almost did somehow.

It wasn't my immediate reaction to this game because I focused more on not stopping the other Chase and those 5 terrible minutes. But the run D was atrocious. 142 yards on 23 attempts. I get why we weren't ready for it, but the 12 yard run by Flacco was painful to watch.

 

I would extend that thinking to the offense. I think our offense actually played decently well. Nothing that I can point at and say that was terrible for the entire game. Individual things here and there, but no glaring game long problems imo.

 

It was 2:21 when he scored. Yes, it would have gone below 2 minute.

And no I'm not saying don't try until 4th down. You try for all 4 downs.

And yes, the strategy works, when you have a defense than cannot make a stop. *specially when you have Austin/Tomlin wanting to play more safe at the end of games of saying "let's just keep them in bounds and not run the clock out"

 

It was evident that Ramsey nor Porter could guard Chase man to man, and they never changed the scheme to double him and left our DB's on an island all night. Just bad coaching and schemes to me when it was obvious and older Ramsey (maybe hurt with his hamstring) could not cover the elite receivers like Chase. I blame the coaches for being hard headed and not changing things up.

 

Thanks for the correction on the time of the score! I was going through the play by play quickly and took the start time of the drive.

I think they still likely get it back before the two minute drive.

I think the most likely result is they let us walk in for the score on 1st because then they only need a FG when they have a good long range kicker and most drives start at the 30 or so.

If we don't score on 1st, I think they call a time out (2:14). Same on 2nd (2:07). If I were them, I wouldn't burn the 3rd TO (to the 2:00 warning, but might be slightly under 2 minutes). So if I were them and didn't just let us score on 1st, we need to fail on 1st and 2nd from the 1. Then we run 3rd down at or just under 2 minutes.

If we failed on 3rd down, it would be interesting to see if the Bengals would call their last time out.

Would the Bengals rather get the ball back at 1:15 with a timeout or 1:50 with no timeouts? I think they hold the timeout in this case.

We need to go for it on 4th down because we're down by 6. Hopefully we make it if it comes to that. Otherwise, game over unless we get a safety (hard to kneel on the 1, so they might have to run...averaging 6+ YPC though) and then a TD.

The game was lost at the end of Q2. Not the end of the Q4.

 

The infuriating thing is that I could understand single covering Chase if it the idea was the Billy B strategy as a DC against the Bills. Let T Thomas dominate, but stop everything else.

We had Chase open on what seemed to be every play AND we couldn't stop the run AND Higgins also had 94 yards.

Instead of "picking our poison", we just said "give me a lot of everything"!

 

Everything that happened prior would not have mattered if this excuse of a defense had stopped the last drive.

 

No, I am no Muth fan, but you can't hang this on him. The defense sucked, especially on the last drive. They would have had a better chance trying a non-surprise on-side kick.

 

That strategy only works when you need a FG to win like the Bengals did when Higgins slid down.

 

Maybe those penalties caused the Steelers to play zone.

 

They did try to play zone and man they also tried to blitz it just didn't work, Flacco was getting rid of the ball too quick.

 

They couldn't stop them, giving them enough time on the clock gauranteed a a loss.

 

MUTH score with 2:21 left in the game. Cincinnati still had two timeouts and the two minute warning. If he would have went out at the one, Steelers would have to intentionally not score for a few plays to try to burn time off the clock. Cincinnati would have called timeout after first and second down. That leaves third down to score the touchdown. Even if they don't score that third down touchdown, the clock still stops at the 2-minute warning with the Steelers sitting on 4th down. The most time the Steelers could have burned off is 21 seconds, and that's with taking an extremely risky path of putting all your eggs in one basket on a fourth down play.