Why we lost, and other observations.

I was honestly not surprised that the Browns were able to move the ball well and score 31 points. I was a bit surprised that our offense effectively was useless.

-I will start out this like normal by reiterating that our defense will continue to suck until we replace our defensive linemen (sans Hayward), with competent players. Our defensive line is the worst position group I have seen from the Steelers, ever. They might be able to stop an occasional run, but they simply cannot provide ANY pass rush or take up blockers for linebackers to rush. They are bad and have to be replaced if we want to see improvement from the defense.

But even knowing that we would be giving up points to the Browns because we know already that our defense sucks, our offense should have been able to score to keep the game at hand. That did not happen.

Why?

The receiver group as a whole was not good today. Wheaton, J.Brown, Miller, Moore, Bell all had bad drops (and lack of toe dragging in Bell's case). There were more drop today than needed, but I could live with them in themselves. The killer is that they almost nearly all happened on third down.

We ran the ball too much. I know, it is cliche to say that since we have good runners and I guess people think we didn't run enough last week. But out of our first 20 offensive plays, we ran 17 times verse 3 pass plays. That is simply inept play calling. There is nothing more to analyze or say beyond that. It is simply inept play calling. Whether Haley or Ben was making those play calls in the beginning of the game (likely Haley), it simply doesn't matter. It was inept play calling. We cannot afford to call plays like that and expect to put up enough points to make up for a lacking defense. We can no longer afford to play these cute little games to "establish our identity" or to "impose our will". **** all of that ****. Use your weapons and do what it takes to score points.

If you can't call a quick pass play 10-15 yards down the field before falling behind by three touchdowns, then get out of the way and allow someone else to do it. For God sakes, this is literally sinking this team and wasting the final years of Ben and our remaining good players.

Joe Banner mentioned on his Twitter that Haley used those last plays at the end of the first half to pad the stats to make it seem that the offense was doing good. I agree with Banner, as that is what seemed like the case, especially when they kept the starters out there at the end of the game when there was not a chance that they could win the game. Haley knows that his time is running out, and he is simply trying to make it look like he is a good coordinator, when reality is, his offense cannot score points.

BA threw down the field and exposed Ben to big hits. We also were competitive and always had a chance to score a touchdown on any drive under BA. Find a coordinator that does what it takes to score points, and let's see how quickly the team rebounds.

(Notes)

This is the first time this season that I have said anything negative about Haley. I have kept my opinion on him reserved because I truly thought that after 6 games, his offense would be clicking. It is not, and now I am not afraid to say that he has to go.

 

I'm not defending Haley at all, but I will say that we weren't any better under BA, we just sucked in a different way. We still struggled to score points.

I'm all for firing Haley if that's what appears to be the problem, but I just don't think that's going to solve anything. For all we know between Tomlin's interference and Ben's greater involvement in the playcalling, that's what's sinking the offence.

 

Committing to the running game was ok, for me, as was putting in Archer as a standard RB every so often. These were all good plans. The problem seemed to always be the 2nd down run call. They never seemed to work. There seemed to be little imagination in where they ran it, or how they presented to the defense. The playaction seemed non-existent in the first half.

 

No, we had a much greater chance of moving the ball and score a touchdown under BA. We had many more 4th quarter comebacks with BA calling the plays.

BA obviously was not a Godsend, and we complained mightily when he was here. But we were complaining as a competitive playoff team, instead of now where we are complaining as a noncompetitive nonplayoff team.

I said this when BA was "retired"....they should have at least gotten someone better to replace him. They didn't, and it is now apparent that their replacement is worse.

 

When they go no huddle and turn everything over to Ben, they do well.

 

I agree - this team has a great offense between the 20s. We zip down the field and unless we score from outside the 20 it's a pretty good bet that Suisham's going to get a chance at a chip shot. We lost this game when we got 3 points out of two trips to the redzone early on.

We didn't run the ball too much today. We dropped too many passes, had too many bad throws, and didn't take advantage of early success. This team needs someone that can teach it proper play calling and execution inside the opponent's 20 and half its problems will go away.

 

After the first pass play, the ripped of 13 straight runs.

IMO the plan was to grind them to death on the ground and keep the porous defense off of the field and control the clock. It worked. But after the botched FG and the following quick TD by the Stains, this team got spooked, started playing scared and tight, stopped moving the ball and putting the defense out of the field and letting them get exposed for what they are. It spiraled out of control from there.

 

And IMO why they are playing scared and tight is because they know that the D is terrible and that its on them to carry the team and their margin for error is razor thin.

 

Well the stats indicate that for the most part, we were always in the bottom half of the league in point scored under BA. More 4th quarter comebacks? That could be a product of Ben being a better QB back then, and our defence was able to keep us in games back then as well. Comebacks aren't necessarily an OC thing

 

Pulling the starters at the end of the game is not what you want to do. Let them stay in and suffer to the end. don't let them off the hook.

 

Then a Brown rolls into the leg of Ben, tearing his ACL and ending his, and our, season.

 

I'm sick of the excuses for this offense. Playing scared and tight ,please ,go out there and do your job and let the D do theirs. It doesn't take much to throw this O off track. It's the same O as under BA ,20 to the 20 world beaters,inside the 20 hapless and pathetic. The entire league is set up for offensive football but instead all we play is " offensively". There is too much talent to be putting up the piss poor number of points that we are. I don't know what it is but the psyche of this team is so fragile one little thing goes wrong and it's over. There is no resolve or fight.