Ben's bombs

The Steelers' offense recently seems based on the big play, and it works sometimes in exciting fashion (Wheaton today was the guy). But many of the passes are scary. It sure doesn't look like Ben evaluates if someone is open, but decides to fling it based on the formation and hope for the best. And then some of his passes seem short, and the receiver (and the one, two, or three people covering him) all congregate on where the ball is headed. Ben was tearing it up early throwing the short stuff, hitting people in stride, but they have gone away from that, maybe by design; maybe because Bryant is off suspension and Bell is out. Bryant had some chances today, but often the catches were contested by the defender by the time the ball got there.

The disappointing thing is that is how Flacco and the Ravens seem to play, and I hated it when they did it.

 

It was effective today, so i didn't mind the strategy. You put 30 pts on the board, you should win. Two INTs were from Landry Jones, one was from Ben having the ball slip out on a short route, one was when Brown tripped (or was pushed down).

 

30 points should win if you do not turn the ball over. Interceptions are killers, and many of the long passes have INT written all over them. And it seems to be a preferred option on third and short, which makes for either a spectacular play or a drive killer.

 

Those bombs looked like desperation and we were winning. Only 8 rushes for DW.

I think the Seaturds were shocked by some of the passing as i saw them stack the box on 1st down late in the game and we came out passing.

Pretty sure being one dimensional is not this teams strong suit.
DW was breaking tackles and could have had an impact IMHO.
Reminded me of the Packers Super Bowl loss and the BA ball of chuck it up and hope Ben dosen't get killed...

 

I feel like the game plan was well executed. Ben played well despite two fluke interceptions where the ball slipped out of his hand and the other where Sherman mugged AB!

I feel like the execution gets a B+. Huge yards through the air and 30 points but with 4 INTs.

I feel like the game plan itself gets a C-. Yet another game where the Steelers come out in shotgun slinging and go 3 and out. The plan that resulted in Roethlisberger throwing 55 times against the best secondary in the NFL was flawed. I am amazed the game was so close.

The "trick play" which saw the backup QB throw to the LT while many starting Seahawks defenders were on the field made zero sense and was a huge swing on the road early.

Why do the Steelers dress TWO fullbacks, THREE giant tight ends, and run the ball just EIGHT times??? Hahaha it is hilarious to me.

 

the stupidest thing i have ever seen. well except for the other stupid stuff they do.

why when you are driving the ball on a team, (and they can't stop you) do you decide on 3rd and 2 to end your drive with a long bomb? they do this constantly. get the damn first down and then launch one if you must, but don't kill a good drive doing it.

 

The early bombs were ok with me . Tomlin and company were trying to start out fast and put points on the board in hopes of taking crowd out of game.. I always wince now when Ben throws it up. I like the success with the long throws even though sometimes it does not work out. The risk is worth it IMHO

 

I understand what you're saying, and that's a correct analysis. However, as someone else pointed out - 2 of his INTs had nothing to do with the 'long bomb' and were just lousy luck (AB's trip, ball slipping from Ben's hand). But we did seem to go away from the short game which was working...

 

I'm also noticing no one on the board is mentioning Bryant's bad hands of late. What's up with him? The team has 9 dropped passes all year (5 of which are him) and he gets 3 more yesterday. SMH

 

Cmon man you know you can't consistently put up points with that silly dunk and dunk approach......oh wait I do seem to recall a certain team in the top 5 offensively every year using that approach (pats)??

 

I didn't see the first half, but Bryant caught one of those bombs in the 2nd half and nearly caught another at the 1 yard line. Ben is confident that Bryant is able to go up for a jump ball and win 50% or more of the time. It seems well worth the risk/reward. The failed long passes weren't the reason we lost this game either.

 

I like throwing deep here and there because we have the QB and receivers and we should, HOWEVER I HATE IT on 3rd down. It is a low percentage play. We lose too many possessions doing that.

Throw it on first down. If you don`t get it, you still have two downs to get 1st down.

 

Agree, it's good to keep the defense honest with throwing long bomb, but more than not they were drive killers because of they were third and short. Once in awhile okay but we threw too many long bombs in my opinion. Seems like we don't have the patience to go with what is working and we then try to make up time with risky long bombs or trick plays. Most of the time yesterday there was little separation on the long bombs but we kept throwing them.

 

I don't mind the deep balls, but in the second half we seemed to get fairly one-dimensional before the game was over. We were in the lead and still going for 10-20 yard passes on all three downs. The short screens were working well precisely because of this.

 

Bryant needs to learn when to jump. For being so tall, he is getting out jumped by the DBs because he jumps too early or not as high as he should be able to.

 

How many freaking times do we throw deep on 3rd and 2?!?!? It is the most ridiculous thing you cd possibly do. GET THE FIRST DOWN HALEY!!!!! Simple math. Good Lord.

 

You have to throw it deep. Not all the time BA-style, but you have to push the field. Good thing for us is that Ben happens to be the most successful QB in the league at it (according to # of plays over 40 yards). Unless you have a brutally efficient passer (Tom Brady?) dink-and-dunk is a losing NFL strategy.

 

Problem is for some reason we are the only team that doesn't get PI especially wasn't going to get it with those refs yesterday. It's high risk and low % of catching then factor in your not going to get a call. Tomlin is all about the numbers now with a combination of his gut so I wonder where that leaves those plays.

 

I don't mind the bombs *once in awhile* but when I see too many, I remember what my dad used to tell me when I was a kid. Just focus most on getting the first down.

 

Move the chains,eat up the clock and keep your porous secondary off the field. Looking like BA ball all over again....awesome between the 20s....sorry in the red zone. How can we be so successful on 2 point tries but terrible when it means 6? Shouldn't the plays be similar? Smh.

 

Passing was fine until he tr

 

This. Our running game was working, short stuff was working, need to mix it up. I love taking PA shot on second down, but what happened to running on 3rd and 2, or at least PA - not five wide and heave it long.