I don't know what to make of Rudolph

and it's nice to have a QB who can scramble when he has too, Ben is a sitting duck. Nice to have a QB who is trainable and uses common sense instead of trying to force things and taking sacks for losts. I love the kid so far

 

Rudolph doesn't have the same guys to bomb to like Ben did. The receivers are in the making they don't know who the bomb guy will be, Washington was Rudolph's man in college maybe they can build that up again at the pro level.

 

Rudolph obviously did what he was suppose to do, or was told to do he will get better as the season progresses. One thing I can say at least he's a good looking dude should be a female Steeler Nation heart throb. Go Steelers

 

The gameplan was a game-changer, honestly. Rudolph was utilized almost perfectly, and Vannett's inclusion was a much bigger deal than most think. The Bengals eliminated the majority of the deep game, and yes Mason missed a few open guys down field, but he did a great job of accurately getting the ball to our open players to let them eat. Conner, especially, was a monster.

We should be able to do the same against the Ravens but we'll need a few more attempts at airing it out as they surely won't score 3.

Mason will never be Ben, but he's better than people give him credit for. It was encouraging nonetheless.

 

Fully agree. Add a guy with AB's talent to the mix and I bet you the offense is a force.

That all said, this defense has been freaking nails with Fitzpatrick added into the mix. The rush defense is still worrisome but there are nearly no holes.

 

I think you're completely right. Last week the game plan was "BE BEN ROETHLISBERGER!" This week it was, let's get your feet wet and let you sling it a few times.

 

already my boy toy but I still like me some Ben... mmmm

I mean what. go Steelers!!!!

 

stone you are a lot like ben. Got to have it all right now. Instead of moving the chains downfield and keeping the drive alive you want to go to the EZ on 3rd and short. Patience. Brady makes a living at it. NO backup Bridgewater does it and just beat Dallas. I'm going to say he is our future but give it time and keep Ben away from him.

 

Tom Brady and the Patriots have been playing this way for nearly 2 decades and proven it works. Check down to the RB, limit your turnovers and take a few shots down field. What's there to complain about?

 

I am amazed at how many people underestimate what Ben has brought to this team.....unbelievable! You're complaining about a first ballot HOF'r? Unbelievable! I'm pretty sure Fichtners seat would have burned his ass a long time ago if not for Ben.

Brady takes whatever the opponent gives him and trust me, he is NOT a game manager.

 

The Steelers offense has been pretty much basic this season. Except for last night. With the Steelers running a good amount of the Wildcat offense against the Bengals. Mason Rudolph have been conservative with his throwing. I believe against better defensive teams, he will need to take more shots downfield and be accurate against tight coverage. But the Benals defense was awful against the Steelers Wildcat offense, I can see why the Steelers stuck with that gameplan. So far this season Mason has a 67.6 completion percentage. 515 yards passing. 6 touchdowns. And 2 interceptions in 3 games. That is pretty solid. Even tho I will like to see the passing yards increase.

 

i read on Bengals forums that their side to side speed is terrible and that san fran exposed them. This is great, it means we had a gameplan.

 

First off - obviously the QB is following the game plan. I don't think Mason is calling his own plays. lol.

Secondly - All QB's miss wide open WR's. Ben did it every game as well. They can't possibly see the entire field. They have progressions they are suppose to follow - and due to human eye sight and brain limitations we HAVE to follow those progressions. More experienced Qb's do it quicker and have a feel of the defense so they know were to look 1st, 2nd, 3rd, maybe 4th reads. When the play breaks down they know exactly what to do.

Mason seems to be handling 2 reads - occasionally 3. So if his primary is covered , he's got a check down. Last week if his primary was covered he hit the dump off guy behind the LOS. This is done to prevent turnovers and sacks. This week his 2nd reads were actually past the LOS. We saw improvement in his passing yards. Occasionally he had 2 reads to make before dumping it off. Several times saw him look deep but found the WR about 10yards downfield..and also had a RB in the flat but didn't dump it. This is the coaching staff slowly taking the reigns off Mason. IMO Mason is focused on not turning the ball over and has often been afraid to take a chance downfield. Which I'm sure he was coached to play conservative - no INT's!. I'm guessing it will take about 8 starts before we start seeing really how good of a QB Mason is.

As of right now, I like his arm. He's got happy feet and needs to work on his pocket awareness - he often had more time then he thought. He also needs to work on his quick reads so he can hit WR's on quick slants. When he starts hitting WR's in stride then our offense will go to the next level. Right now we look like a college team. Notice we are not running many plays that offer the DB a chance to make a play on the ball. Ben and AB were masterful at timing plays and back shoulder passes with DB's on the target. This skill takes years.

 

John Steigerwald said that Brady has won 6 Super Bowls by throwing passes that travel no further than the length of your living room.

 

you exaggerating? lol

 

What's wrong with short passes? I mean it gives you time of possession keeps your defense off the field and move the chains. if you ever watch the patriots, Brady makes his living with the dink and dunk passes he gives it to his playmakers and lets them do all the work.. Mason did what we needed end of story..

 

What I heard was mason wanted to go downfield more often and the coaches specifically asked him not to.....
All I know is that it worked....
The offense controlled the t.o.p. and kept the defense fresh which resulted in a dominating performance for a full 60 min

 

I thought the same thing.. They showed those open recievers on that other camera view and was a little concerned.. This check down dink and dunk stuff might have worked against a horrible Bengals team but it won't against good teams.. None the less the TD pass to conner where he sees him last second then the scramble to find the tight end early in the 3rd quarter got me excited.. I love his poise more then anything. He has the poise of a 10 year vet.. All in all I was happy with his performance

 

The whole Brady makes a living throwing short is a myth. For example, this year he's thrown 38 attempts over ten yds downfield, completed 20 of them. That's 22% of his completions are thrown down the field. Even after his total crap day in Buffalo Sunday. He doesn't throw it deep as much as others, such as Mahomes, but that's a far cry from the 14% of MR's completions going more than 10 yds downfield. In addition, 39% of MR's completions to date have been behind the LOS. Brady is at 13%.

There's more than one way to win in this league, but stop it with the whole Brady lives short so MR can too. The Patriots mix it up pretty good and right now the Steelers do not.

And that statement by Steigerwald just proves how little he actually studies and takes his craft seriously.

 

When the QB takes an easy gimme checkdown for a first down while eschewing a more risky open guy deeper, I don't consider that missing the deep guy. It's playing smart. There was no reason to go downfield when you can get 7 or 8 yards a pop on easy completions and you aren't behind the chains. If Mason starts dumping it off to Switzer for 1 yard when JuJu is wide open 15 yards down the field I might start to be concerned, but that wasn't what we saw last night.

Also, I didn't think the throw to Vannett was underthrown really. Mason was buying time scrambling in the pocket and saw the defender with his back turned so he made a safe pass where only his guy could make the catch.

 

I would also add he needs to work on taking what is in front of him if he means running himself. There was at least one play where he threw it and could have easily gotten the yardage himself. Nobody near him for 15 plus yards

 

We need him to become a gangbuster. Right now he is okay for where he is. He needs to get a full season with ones to get fully immersed, and then we can see whether he can be a gang buster. But some of the bombs so far are a good sign.

 

That depends on the length of your living room.

 

Granted, these are Saturday stats, not Sunday. But MR balled in college. He knows how to throw the deep ball and he is capable of going through his progressions, finding open receivers, and hitting them in stride. He competed at a high level in college and was successful at it. He's a smart kid with a strong pedigree. His whole family are athletes. I know that guarantees nothing, but Ben wasn't anything special coming out of college. His success was the product of good coaching and a very good supporting cast. He eased into the role of being the franchise qb. Nothing says MR can't do the same.

Next, I have to give Randy and Co. major props for a creative, INTELLIGENT gameplan. That most definitely isn't the style of offense we're accustomed to, but damned if it wasn't exactly what needed to be done. That was some Belichick-esque planning right there. They actually gameplanned around the strengths/weaknesses of the Bungles and made the most of what we could do efficiently against what they would have trouble defending.

That was the most fun I've had in a long time watching the Steelers. I really enjoyed that game. Defense made splash plays, special teams were solid, and the offense was creative and effective. And it was on Monday night. It was a beautiful thing.

 

Toss up between my favorite throws.... 1) big time throw to Vannett 2) big time broken pocket throw to Samuels to setup the last TD, if I remember correctly. He's did just fine yesterday, he's still learning