Forcing the ball

Realistically, Ben could have been picked 5 times yesterday. Throwing into dbl coverage all day long, especially to AB. I know AB is the best player on the field, but if the Browns had half a QB, we lose that game on TO scores. MUST clean that up. Unfortunately, seems to be the theme for the last 4 weeks now. Might be too late. Need Bryant to do something to get Ben to look away from 84 once in a while. 11 is also out there and is at least avg. And for God's sake, focus on the first freaking down Haley rather than throwing bombs on 3 and 1-3. Move the chains first and foremost!!!!

 

Ben has been forcing it to AB all season. They lost the Seattle game because of it. I think Ben and Steelers feel like they need get him his stats so he will take some kind of discount when his contract is up. I'm hoping since it's playoffs that stops and should up a lot up for others.

 

Yeah, I wonder if Bryant ran the wrong route. Didn't Wheaton go the wrong way in the end zone? That may have a lot to do with Ben's confidence in the WRs. Maybe, Haley needs to shorten the playbook up a bit.

 

#83 is a good target - get him involved more..some of those third downs can be picked up with shorter passes to #83

 

I kind of thought that to, just posing a question, perhaps he was to curl in.

 

Yep, Ben has to be smarter about where and when he throws. I understand we are a passing team and are now essentially one dimensional. That is who we are and we have to make it work. Ben has been off the last couple games and he has to snap out of it.

We can be (I hate to say it) the Patsies offense except our receivers are better than Brady ever had. We need to curb the low percentage throws a bit and concentrate on getting first downs on 1st or 2nd down and avoid even getting to 3rd down.

If we get a team where we match up well at the line and it looks like we are opening holes, then go ahead and run some, but during the Browns game for example it seemed to me they were working on stopping the run, so we should go ahead and burn them and any other team that does that with constant passing and not wasting possessions trying to establish the run.

 

It seems to me that Ben has become enamored again with the big play, over anything else, at any cost. They need to hit the quick reads and underneath stuff, because it's open quite often.
He needs to remember he doesn't have to hit the big play, just the right play.

 

another thing I think would help at times - we often go no huddle but that is far from hurry up. even no huddle we snap with 1 second left.

try a few no huddle and hurry up drives - defenses would be so winded trying to cover our guys and get set for the next play.

 

Yeah but they lost the Ravens game in part because Wheaton and Bryant had key drops that AB probably makes.

 

They also lost that game because of interceptions trying to force it to AB. Drops happen so what? Is Ben scared of throwing incompletions now? I can live with losing a game over a drop but throwing it into triple coverage? They have way too many talented receivers. Just throw it to the open guy, screw stats.

 

The TDs to Health and AB were in to double coverage too.

The 3rd and 1 comment is interesting... there seems to be quite the contradiction here. First, you complain about throwing in to double coverage, but when they bring the safeties up, and max cover the slot/middle/seam, you complain that Ben throws to the guy getting singled up outside/deep.

Which is it? Or do we just complain about every play that doesn't work?

Ben needs to clean up the turnovers. But he needs to remain confident in throwing to his main guys. He's an elite QB with an elite WR. Together, they can beat double coverage. BUT, he also has to be smart... and take what's given. Sometimes that means going deep in single coverage when the opponent doubles elsewhere, even if it's 3rd and 1 (for the record, it was a good playcall, and Ben made the right read on that play).

 

It was a read route against a Quarters zone . Bryant and Ben both thought it was a Cover 3 . More Bryant's fault as he should have pressed the Quarter coverage .He made a fatal flaw and set down right in front of the coverage leaving the DB a 2 way go for the pick...

 

What's worse is that the Browns were jumping his reads all day long. If they had DBs that could actually catch the ball or an offense that could actually score anything but FGs we would have been routed yesterday.

Hope DW is back next week to give Ben some underneath options.

 

remember all those times we were routed this year...

 

I agree.

Ben's accuracy has also been off the last two weeks - I think someone said in another thread about the ball coming out a bit wobbly, but there have been a few throws where the ball hasn't gone where it was intended. We know that this can be fixed, because before that he was dropping them on pinheads - it's just a question of what needs fixing, some kind of minor injury, or mental focus.

 

THIS x10!
Get Heath the ball at least 8-10 times a game ,especially on 3rd downs..
We constantly get shredded by TE's ,why not flip the script every now and then ,our guy is pretty good too..
I bet Brady would utilize him to his fullest potential ..

 

strange that you see games where Heath has 7-10 receptions and others 0-1 when he is open. we certainly have enough weapons where someone should be open on every play.

 

I think Ben looks for splash plays. I agree sometimes it may not be the right play to pick every time. However, I wonder if this offense is built to drive the field based off of one big splash play. This offense doesn't seem to do so well when it has to employ many methodical plays to march up the field to a TD. They seem to lack the discipline to do that. So, a splash play of 30-40 yards may take some of that pressure off. I'm just speculating. I'd need to review film to either verify or disprove this hypothesis.

 

I think this goes for the other receivers as well. Which leads me to this fact - when we spread the ball around to more than 2-3 receivers, we usually do pretty well. Not sure if it's a mental focus thing, his knee is bothering him more than he's letting on, or whatever... but he's got to get back to where he was a few weeks ago if we're to make a deep run at this thing.

 

Can't be forcing it from here on out.Ben has to play this game like the playoff game that it is....which means not taking sacks,not forcing the ball on early downs and taking the underneath stuff which will help to make sure the first two don't happen. We will not win this game with a -2 or more TO ratio.

 

Steelers /Ben need to take advantage of what is available to them, until #7 realizes
this we will continue to see what we have been seeing. MB needs to step up big time and Todd Haley
needs to watch more film to see where MISMATCHES can be exploited.