Flummoxed by offense

I am truly perplexed at the lack of productivity of our offense. We have a franchise quarterback, a great speedster of a receiver, a newly found running back, and a great tight end. Even with an average to below average O-line, they should be able to generate something.

I think I get Haley's offensive philosophy - create lots of movement, and quickly get the ball in the hands of your playmakers - screens, reverses, short crossing patterns. Some standard up-the-gut running plays (that often don't work well). This approach has the advantage of getting the ball in the hands of speed, and is keeping Ben from holding on to the ball and getting sacked. All good things.

The bad things are that to score, this approach takes long, sustained, mistake-free drives. In the red zone, the defense is more concentrated and these short, quick hit plays get stopped, and we settle for field goals. And our players, as yet, aren't consistent enough to sustain these long drives - the drives seem to stall eventually. The plays also seem really complicated, with lots of moving parts, and all it takes is for 1 out of 11 to not get the job done, and the play is a bust. And this really isn't playing to Ben's strength, which, like it or not, is scrambling out of disaster and making a great, usually long gaining play. We haven't seen those for a while.

So while I understand the strength of this approach (getting the ball into playmakers' hands), I think it is actually limiting the best playmaker on the field - Ben - to a short-gaining philosophy. It may be lengthening his career by limiting sacks, but i fear it is also limiting our scoring.

Probably oversimplified analysis, but I need to do something to deal with my depression.

9 points in 6 quarters - we need a new approach.

 

The red zone issue is definitely one I can't figure out, and it seems like we've been battling it for the last few years. We'll have a stellar drive only to fizzle and settle for three or cough up the ball in the red zone. I'm starting to wonder if it's been going on so long the players are psyching themselves out a bit.

 

It seems to me that the Steelers have had trouble in the red zone for going on 4 years now. And it doesn't seem to be getting addressed or getting better.

 

We are easily the most predictable offensive team in the league.

 

Almost everytime they lined up last nite I could tell what was about to happen. If my untrianed eye could see it from the couch, dont they think a top NFL defense could tell what was happening and audible for it?

 

It is about the O-Line that Haley's scheme doesn't work plain and simple. The short passing game requires timing and precision and if one guy messes up the whole thing turns into a disaster and that is what happens a lot. The screen passes that worked against the Browns all were completed in traffic, too close for comfort and we were lucky but it was due to the lineman not being able to hold a block or make a lane. The timing is valuable and when you see a guy come through the middle of the line as soon as the ball is snapped, well there you have it, no time to even dump a pass because the QB has to move and the quick play is out the window, we don't have the right people in place to pull that off. The same thing on defense, please M.r LeBeau, retire already, you can't come up with a scheme that fits with the player you have, and I honestly think the scheme no longer works with the new rules, you need better CBs and 4 down linemen to at least take up blocks and allow a pass rush of some sort. We can't do that because our secondary is so bad that they need LB help underneath as they have to play 15 yards off in order not to get beat deep and it still happens while teams continue to run without problem, this is a train wreck and it is more than just players.

 

Agree 100%.

 

Why were we running those worthless draws with Bell all night? The point is to move the ball forward, not dance around the LOS without a plan.

 

Give credit to the Ravens they watched the tape and realized we need to run up the middle . Our best run blockers are in the middle so the Rats plowed the middle.At 1 point I was like run a sweep , run a pitch , run a zone stretch and then I looked at our Tackles getting knocked 10 yards off the ball and realized why Haley had to throw half the play book in the trash.

 

Decastro seemed to be the only one who could create a hole for Bell. The middle was a dog pile all night and Gilbert was getting driven back all night too. I'm amazed Bell had such an impressive ypc, because he had little to work with all night. I said it during the 1st half of the Browns game (when things were going right) that we aren't creating holes up the middle and if we don't start Bell is going to have a tough time. Bell broke off a few big runs, which is great for my fantasy team, but in terms of Steelers football, he needs to be able to consistently gain yards and he was unable to do so because of the terrible blocking of the Oline. Our Oline didn't block well against the Browns and it was that much worse yesterday. We can't take every running play outside, that won't work. We need to be able to effectively run up the gut. Haley recognizes the need, it just seems like he has no answer for how to accomplish it. But then again, nobody in our organization seems to have answers these days

 

Our franchise QB missed 2 easy 3rd down throws, threw a pick and tends to hold on the ball too long in high pressure situations. Our great Tight End fumbled and was off balance in trying to catch a 3rd down throw...

 

Another issue on both sides of the ball is the lack of splash plays, and I think that goes back to philosophy, too. Defensively, the mantra sees to be "don't give up the big play", but to me that is playing scared. Blitzburg often gave up a big play, but they made big plays, too. Defense is too conservative. Offensively, getting the ball in the hands of playmakers in the backfield through sweeps, screens, reverses, etc. is not a recipe for big plays, and also is too conservative. I believe Ben is more of a gunslinger, and even in the hurry up it is often short stuff.

Sure, given the talent, maybe these conservative approaches are the best option, but then, that is sad, too. And not effective.

 

We've been pretty poor in the red zone for Ben's entire career.