I agree with Haley

Not really a complaint thread because we won , but why can't this Offense score more points .....We are loaded with talent at the skill positions and we have more talent and speed we barely even use in Archer and DHB....

When I look at this roster I see 1 of the best skilled position rosters in the NFL yet we don't sustain drives or finish drives ....I just thought this would be a good thread for us to speculate on and what possible solutions the Team could approach ...

 

The team is poorly coached and lacks discipline and intelligence (i.e. football awareness, down-and-distance awareness, field position awareness).

Instead of getting the most out of situations, this team finds ways to get the least.

Over the course of games and seasons, it adds up. Which is why Tomlin's teams (amazingly) rank lower in scoring offense than Cowher's even with a supposed better, hall-of-fame quarterback.

 

Ben played really poorly yesterday and we didn't utilize the running game enough. That's why we didn't score more

 

We are our own worst enemy. Hales offense is is largely short high percentage passes that can work as long as you don't make mistakes. It's not setup to consistently overcome 3rd and long. We keep missing blocks, false starts, holding calls etc and our drives stall.

 

One thing that I see is we do change the plan of Attack from week to week but it seems not to match the opponent...So that would support the statement of lack of Football IQ . Also with Bell and Blount both running so well where did the pony backfield go ?

Where did all our bunch tight WR sets go ? I am just puzzled as the Spread offense seems to move the ball ,but our 3rd. down conversion is down and our scoring is way down ...So the point is does the lack of these packages make it harder to convert ?

 

You are mostly correct. The problem I see however is their horrible starting field position game in and game out. When you have to drive the field 80+ yards each game due to kickoffs thru the endzone or being backed up by iditotic penalties then it lessens the chances of putting points on the board. Haleys offense can put up more points but the field position needs to be shorter to do so. JMHO.

 

I personally think we are just poorly coached.

Instead of creating an identity and group of plays to work on and get better as the season goes on, we have become a "copy-cat" coaching staff.

We look around the league at what worked against a certain opponent or we look at what worked for us (against a completely different defense/circumstance) and create game plans that are half-assed and poor.

We lack identity and discipline because we are constantly trying completely different game plans.

Years ago, Tomlin became enamored with Tom Brady and New England's offense and their ability to morph and change and beat people with completely different game plans. But he failed to realize you need Tom Brady and Bill Belichick and SMART teams to do it. And he also failed to realize even then, it FAILED in the playoffs due to the exact reasons we talk about now - lack of identity and lack of being comfortable/being good at ONE thing.

Tomlin has basically barked up the wrong tree, doesn't have the personnel or intelligence to pull it off and is now stuck with an inconsistent system that has numerous flaws.

 

But we're poorly coached.

 

Well we put up a lot yards ,but very few points so there must be a connection of why we can't score when we get in the Redzone ...Tha'ts the problem I hope the Coaching staff is working on right now....

Do we need more play action on 1st down ? Different sets in Redzone ? More practice time on Redzone Football ? Speaking of which where can I look up the CBA rules ...At this point it seems we need more practice time i would like to see what the punishment would be for extra padded practice or extra practice in general..

 

Over the years a lack point production at times has been a result of poor and inconsistent Oline and QB play.

Funny but people used to attribute poor point production as a result of Arians. Now the team appears to have a better Oline. The one common factor between all the years is the QB. Personally, I believe the QB is the player mostly responsible for the success of an offense. Number one on my list would be Ben.

 

definetely this team is not poorly coached is simple not coached .

 

The most notable thing that stood out in yesterday's game was once again the lack of the quick passing game. Yes they did throw numerous bubble screens and short throws to the line of scrimmage but you saw very little of the 5-7 yard crossing routes, quick slants to the middle or slants to the outside from the slot. Someone started a thread about how the Jags DL looked and how they got pressure without blitzing but if you look at how the Steelers tried to counter it, they were using the wrong scheme everytime. They would go spread offense no RB, the Jags countered by having the LB's drop almost ten yards off the LOS and rush the front four. The coaching staff didn't counter this by having anyone in the gap between the DL and LB's, Ben would get pressured as he waited for guys to find the holes in the coverage between the LB's in zone and the DB's. They could have made a killing off 3-4 yard dumpoffs to RB's coming out of the backfield or Heath just running a five yard route and turning to catch the ball. Force them to bring all seven into the box or even eight and then start the 15-20 yard stuff to Brown or Wheaton on slants or go routes, play action with throws to Heath after he looks like he is blocking and releases past the LB's. Lots of little adjustments that could have and should have been made.

 

This. We have one of the best backs in the league who had 5 carries in the first half... I don't condone running him "til the wheels fall off", but get him the dang ball! We really need to run more in the red zone too, and our lack of running play calls is a big reason why we score more FG's than we should. Blount is a capable runner too, I just don't see why we get down in the scoring zone then go 5 wide?

 

Very well said. I honestly have no clue what our game plan was yesterday. I just can't figure yesterday out. There were things we could have done to move the ball, yet we didn't do them. We just kept doing the same thing over and over with little to no success. We weren't running at all on 1st down, we had hardly any designed passes to the RB's and once again we don't use play action. I just don't get what we're doing. I'm just so tired of watching such a poorly coached team. We have too much talent on offence to be shut down by the Jags.

 

I think modern football has become too stat oriented. For example, I think that the team thinks that since Bell and Blount had monster rushing yards against the Panthers, that it will work against everyone else. However, those yards came at the end of the game (81 of them in one run), when they were wearing the Panthers out and closing out the game.

That does not mean that running up the middle on every 1st and 10 in the first half of other games is going to yield similar results.

Intermediate passing and playaction is missing from our gameplan and we need it. When Ben calls the plays, we move the ball noticeably better and score more points, and he is usually throwing intermediate passes, as well as more uptempo.

We should let Ben run the offense more in my opinion. And for those who think Ben is the problem, go rewatch the Broncos/Cardinals game. Manning had many very bad throws, but they also passed down the field, moved the ball, and scored a ton of points.

 

I agree. We are always beating ourselves or making games closer than they should be because of foolish mistakes. Been going on for years now.

And while I agree with some that coaching can be a part of it, these are grown men playing at the highest level, the NFL, and know better. It's on them.

 

Agree completely.

As far as the redzone goes... Not counting the kneel downs at the end, we had 11 plays inside the redzone, and threw on all of them. That seems pretty ridiculous given the backs we have an how well they've run this season.

 

I'd love to know who made those calls, Ben, Haley or Tomlin. We can't be doing this stuff. I have no doubt Ben wants to throw 50 times per game, but we will not win games like that. Someone needs to step in and have us play smart football

 

Going to make this easy for all to understand. I met my wife in 2010. She has been watching Steelers football with me since then. Her first Steelers game she watched with me was the Superbowl loss to GB.

Me: "We're moving it down the field great. We're already on their 15 yard line."
Her: Doesn't matter. They won't go to the red zone. It will be 3 points if they don't penalize themselves out of FG range first.

She's 90% dead on correct every time. She can see it. The coaches don't I guess.

 

The coaches either don't see it, although I don't know how that's even possible, they see it but whatever they're doing is the reason it's happening, or they don't know how to fix it. I think it's a combination of the latter two. Ben has issues in the red zone, always has, and that's not an easy thing to fix at this point in his career. That's why the coaches need to utilize more slants, more RB screens, more runs and more play action. That will help Ben with the compressed field. Enough with the 5 wide nonsense

 

Given how well the quick slant works to ABs strengths, we don't use it anywhere near enough. And it has about the same risk as the bubble screen, surely.

We also don't seem to be hammering the run like we did against Carolina. It's bizarre really.

 

willj used in the passing game would be nice, and not as the bubble screen receiver. I think the guy could be quite the extra weapon if used properly.