Dust has settled... Great win but very lucky and horrible offensive gameplan.

They weren't always dropping. Sometimes it was one or the other mostly to the weak side. Even Romo was pointing out that Ben was rightfully throwing the ball to the side with no safety. They were using their other safety to help against the run. The Jaguars are a rare team in this league that can line up 2 shutdown corners and use everyone else at their disposal. They also have 2 of the most athletic LBs in the league who are able to use that to cover a lot of ground. When you have that luxury you can sell out to stop the run,which is what they did and based on their personnel what they should do.
Now going into the game JAX was supposed to be bad at containing the TEs why we weren't able to expose that weakness I'm not sure. I believe it was a combination of a few things on why we didn't run the ball.
We couldn't sustain drives,we were trailing and they were giving us looks that said pass but were then using their players unique talents to muddle everything up....but that's just my opinion.

 

That's been the case in all 3 games with similar offensive gameplan. I'm just saying.

 

Yeah but we won this time enjoy it....

 

So you want our QB — and his broken finger — taking snaps under center?

 

I believe the writing was on the wall early yesterday: the Steeler's running game was not going to be a factor in yesterday's game not unlike the normal history facing the Ravens. What exacerbated the passing game was BB's wildness, otherwise I think the success would have kicked in way earlier than with 2 minutes remaining in the 3rd qtr. What's ironic about this whole topic is if you want to see what a stubborn running attack looks like, just re-watch the Jags 4th qtr plays and results - the Steeler's D finally figured it out and crushed them and their attempts to stubbornly replicate the first 3 qtrs. What also helped was Bortles as their QB and the fact the Jags were trying their best to run the clock out down the stretch. All in all I still like the outcome no matter how agonizing and ugly it was.

 

I agree with the original poster. No effort was made to establish the run in this game. First off, I give a TON of credit to the Jaguars defense. Their pass coverage was almost super human. They left only tight windows for Ben to try and fit balls into, and it seemed like they had their hands on every single pass attempt. Honestly Ben is fortunate to only have 3 picks in this game.

I give credit where credit is due, but that leads me to the OP's point. To say the passing game was struggling is an understatement. Why not pound the rock for a couple of series and see if it changes the game flow? I have not re-watched the game. But I cannot remember a single possession where Conner ran the ball more than 1 time. We were 3 and out on almost every 1st half drive. I can not understand why you would'nt run the ball on 1st and 2nd down to put yourself in a 3rd and short. This team is a capable rushing team. Clearly what they were doing was not working. If you run the ball, and find some success doing so, you force the defensive backs to assist in stopping the run and you potentially open up play action for Ben.

Jacksonville was trying to save their season and they played their asses off. It boggles my mind why our game plan is to throw the ball every down against these guys when we play them. It hasn't worked yet.

 

I believe he had 5 with the fortunate part being that 2 were nullified by Jag penalties. I really don't think the running game was there at all and like I said in the post above, what really screwed up the whole game plan or reshuffled game plan was BB's wildness when receivers were open. If he hits several of those for gains and first downs perhaps magically the running game opens up. No matter how long we all debate this, scoreboard is the only thing that counts and that worked out just fine in my book.

 

I thought like the first couple drives they were trying to establish the run. Maybe I’m imagining that, but I do remember early during the game telling one of my buddies that look like they were trying to establish the run.

 

I agree with this. Ben was erratic for a considerable portion of this game. That is part of the reason I am surprised they did not try to run more. Take a couple of possessions out of Ben's hands, if anything just to allow him to settle down. It is all hindsight at this point. I'm glad we had a chance to get the monkey off of our back. Hopefully we can continue the revenge tour and do the same to the Patriots.

 

how the hell did an anemic offense like Dallas score 40 on them? lol

 

How do you explain anything happening around the league this year?

 

true. Only thing constant is saints blowing everyone out

 

I originally read this as the Saints are blowing everyone... Wife's been gone for a week and a half my bad I'm getting hungry hahahahahaha

 

week and a half? amateur hour haha.

 

Hey I appreciate her for her brains too HAHAHAHAHA

 

Participating in no nut november?

 

Bottom line is... Steelers play like they did yesterday in January, it'll be one and done again. Steelers will get either Luck, Watson or Mariota....all better than Bortles.

 

And none of those teams have All Pro CBs like Jacksonville, or fast athletic LBs they also have.

 

Yes the line was putrid. The whole offense was stinking up the joint. Until the 4th quarter.

 

Apparently by default!

 

Other than Ben having a bad 3 quarters, I am happy with the way the Steelers have been playing.

 

You’re not.

 

We were almost beaten by the legend of Bill Cowher. You can have half the talent and beat anyone in the NFL if you can run the ball. We could not stop the run so they kept us off the field the first half. end of story. It's tough to question the offensive game plan when they never really had the ball the entire first half.

For what ever reason our offense always takes a lot of snaps to get into sync. IMO it points to poor preparation (game planning and repetition). It also points to a clear lack of respect to bad teams. We always show up unprepared against inferior opponents. My guess is Tomlin's tendency is to go ultra conservative against bad teams... he tries to do something we're not prepared to do. This always keeps bad teams in the game, it gives them hope and an enormous amount of motivation when they realize they can beat us. How we did not come into that game planning to stuff their run is beyond me.

 

Was it a horrible offensive game plan or a horrible execution of the game plan? Pretty sure a poor performance by the O-Line was not part of the game plan. Nor was Connor looking like last year's Connor. Has AB gotten older and a step slow with less quickness? Play this way against the Patriots, Saints, Chiefs, ect. and the Steeler lose and not necessarily because of the game plan.