juju mvp

I'm sure JuJu will be out partying tonight, then post videos on his social media, promoting his brand and all

 

Yeah agreed. People that think coaching will help in Jujus case are wrong. Juju was holding ball high and tight while stiff arming .. How do you coach him to be any better

 

Enough of the sticking up for JUJU.... He should know better that someone in desperation mode would have been punching at the ball.... hines ward would have turned the other way and slammed that clown to the ground with a stiff arm... AB would not have fumbled.... JUJU better put his big boy pants on...........

 

Ha! AB has fumbled in those situations. He's also stepped out of bounds on what would have been a winning hook and ladder drill....

 

When the defender is that close, wrap it up with two hands rather than try to stiff arm a guy who is too close for you to get the arm extended.

 

He wasn't even the best receiver on the team last season and he certainly hasn't been close to Watt's level so far this year.

 

I would say it’s hard to compare O and D. IMO I think Watt is the better football player but it’s a fair debate. I wouldn’t say either is separated by a wide margin though.

 

All of you that seem to know how JuJu should have been carrying the ball or know what he should have done differently in that situation, please post your NFL season stats on here, so I have something to compare JuJu's with. Defender made a good play. Same exact thing happened in the Monday night game. Any time you have two NFL caliber players going against each other, one is going to win. You can not expect the same guy to win every single battle. This isn't a complicated concept. (not defending the fumble because it was costly, just defending the player)

 

Why are we still talking about Mr. Irrelevant? AB isn't even a pro anymore and may never play again. He put up great numbers here and made some amazing catches. But he didn't help us win a championship. (On the team for one, yes.) Let him go.

The topic now is JuJu.

I love the kid. He makes me smile (most of the time). But some of you are giving him a pass just because he is loveable. That's okay if you just want warm fuzzy feelings on Sunday afternoons. And don't get me wrong, I would much rather win with good character guys. But I still want to win.

My problem with JuJu is that he isn't being coached on how to be a pro. He is too childish and goofy when it's time to be all business. It's time for him to decide if he wants to be remembered as a goofy, talented kid who was better in a supporting role, or a bad-ass #1 receiver who could be counted on when the game was on the line.

Right now, he's in between the two. He isn't clutch and that's a problem. That's been a problem, is a problem now, and will continue to be a problem moving forward.

Last week, after Washington or Johnson or one of our younger receivers fumbled away the ball, he went to him on the sideline to "mentor" the young buck. JuJu told him how defenders were going to punch down at the ball and to squeeze it tight with both hands. I immediately shook my head and wondered where his head is at. What a stupid, asinine thing to say to another professional footbal player on the sideline.

Did he not know this? Did JuJu actually think he was teaching him something? Did the receiver have an epiphany right there on the bench as he realized that defenders would actually try to punch the ball out of his grasp? Did he immediately become a better receiver because JJSS imparted his ultimate wisdom regarding securing a football?

JuJu demonstated that he isn't comfortable, or effective, as a leader. He is a very good supporting #2 and is very beneficial to this team in that role. But he needs a bonafide #1 to show him how to be a leader and how to conduct himself on Sundays. He hasn't had that yet.

And I bring this up because not only was the sideline message strange, but consider the source. The guy who fumbled away his opportunity to be a hero last year was telling someone else how not to fumble away opportunities. And you could take issue with me saying that if he didn't go right out the next week and not practice what he preached. The exact thing that coach JuJu tried to teach his young teammate was the thing he didn't do himself.

He's a great talent with a good upside. And he might become a legit #1 bad-ass receiver some day. But he needs to decide what is more important first, being a loveable goofball who can't be counted on in the clutch or being a supremely focused, dedicated #1 receiver who dares any defender to take the spotlight from him when his number is called.

 

That's what he gets paid to do. That's what being a professional athlete is all about. That's why he cried last year and this past Sunday. He expects, and is expected, to make those plays.

And you are severely misunderstanding what constitutes a win. A win is a completed pass for a first down. That is HIS JOB. He failed. He was given a catchable ball in stride. He secured it. Win. Then he made a decision to try and stiff arm Humphries to gain more yardage. Why? He had already done exactly what was needed. Last year he did the exact same thing.

It is situational football. He needs to be coached better.

 

My computer doesn't let me do the different color fonts anymore.

 

Juju protected the ball the best he could running across the field at full speed. It wasn't like Juju caught the ball and simply fumbled. The Ravens DB made a great play to punch it out. Give the man some credit. Fans would rather blame Juju than to give Humphrey credit.

 

Maybe it's just not our year based on the way this season is going? The football gods can be cruel. We had good runs in the Ben era. No team can stay on top forever.

That being said this team is fighting every game (outside of the Pats debacle). They had opportunities to win every game except one. I'm still excited to watch this team every week. It will be interesting to watch how much the QB position can improve in the coming weeks.

 

If you actually believe the start of your post, you should just leave the board. You don't have NFL statistics, so you clearly have nothing worthwhile to say about the NFL. Why post here at all in that case?

Of course, I don't believe that at all. I think most of us have something of value to say. We've played football at some level and/or followed it for years. Some of us have learned from people who know more in other jobs, such as reporting on sports, as I did. Of course, players are going to mess up sometimes, but let's call it that. Smith-Schuster failed in his job and it cost his team the game. It is magnified because it was a game that could end up deciding the team's fate this year and they overcame such adversity to be in that position. One of the best players on the team has to come through it that spot and Smith-Schuster didn't.

 

I don't believe I am severely misunderstanding anything. What I said is that you have two opposing players, each trying to win a battle, and you can not expect the same person to win every single battle he is engaged in. There was a winner in that exchange, and that time, it happened to be the defender who was doing HIS JOB that he is paid to do. The defender succeeded. Isn't the defender a paid professional who is supposed to make plays also? We are sitting her arguing a fumble but forgetting to talk about the great move JuJu made when he scored the touchdown earlier in the game. Had JuJu simple went down with contact, there would have not been a touchdown, and the game would have been in the Bengals favor. That time, JuJu won the battle.

 

I realize you were trying to be clever by twisting what I typed into what you posted above. You either read way too much into it, or you really stretched to find something to pick at. I'm going with option two. My point, which I am sure you actually understood, is that there are people on this message board who I'm pretty sure aren't currently on any NFL roster who claim to know what JuJu should have done in that situation better than he did. Those same people in that situation probably would have dropped the ball and ran the opposite direction before letting a professional athlete knock the stuffing out of them, but hey, in the split second JuJu had to make a choice, they know better.
As with all of your posts, you believe what you do and you believe it as fact because you posted it. I admire your conviction even if I believe it is twisted. You see it as JuJu messing up, and I could maybe agree if a fumble was a rare occasion in the game of football. I see it as the defender making a great play on the ball knocking it free, so let's call it that. The defender succeeded in his job and secured a win. JuJu messed up lol. No, messing up would be skipping practice, showing up on Sunday, and believing you should play because you are so invaluable.

 

he never fumbled with game on line. And stepped out of bounds on in improbable unbelievable play by him where it was impossible to stay in bounds...... get your eyes checked.........

 

We were actually playing the Ravens. Let's at least get that straight.

And if you think that fumbling is okay, and just part of being a pro, then you are further off than I thought to begin with. Fumbling is not EVER acceptable. Ever. Fumbling gets you less time on the field and eventually less time as a member of your team.

And fumbling is one of the occurrences that can get in a player's head. Once you start thinking about it, you're in trouble.

So yeah, you're entitled to your opinion as much as I am. But please change your opinion to something else before you try to convince anyone here that fumbling is something that just happens and that it's okay since a defender wants you to do it.

It's not okay. It's preached and practiced and a MAJOR point of emphasis to make sure you don't do it.

I'll go one step further. When a defender breaks up a pass, he won the battle. THAT is what your point should be. Sometimes you catch it. Sometimes the defense does a better job and keeps you from catching it. I would agree that there is a pro on the other side of the ball getting paid to stop you from catching the pass. You won't catch every pass because the defense is getting paid to do their job as well. And the best receivers win most of those battles (ie., catch far more than they don't). JuJu catches most everything thrown his way. He's one of the best receivers because of it.

But he also is beginning to have a problem securing the football. That needs to get fixed. His situational awareness needs worked on as well.

 

Mine either...…………….?

 

One other thing for you JuJu apologists to mull over. Do you think any other team has seen JuJu fumble away a game at this point? Can you honestly say that no other defensive coach hasn't made a point to his players that JuJu is susceptible to fumbling?

Trust me, they know.

 

I only recall two times Juju fumbled out of 193 receptions. I wouldn't call that susceptible to fumbling. The last fumble was a great play by Ravens DB. The timing of those fumbles wasnt good. He isn't susceptible to fumbling regardless of how you want to paint the picture.

 

Simple really ,we just have to "deflate" his balls

 

A late "horrible" roughing the passer call would have ended the game before Ju Ju had a chance to fumble.

Typical bad clock management by Tomlin robbed us of a chance to put it away before Ju Ju had a chance to fumble.

We benefited from a couple of ridiculously bad official calls which could have ended the game before Ju Ju had a chance to fumble.

Ju Ju is a talented player and has class. I'll take him!

 

I'm not stretching at all. Your post absolutely suggested that people who haven't played in the NFL don't have the knowledge or right to say that a player or coach in the league did something wrong. That simply isn't true. I believe you and I and most others here do have something valid to say about the game. There is literally no reason for this board to exist if you are going to dismiss any opinion you don't like because the guy isn't on an NFL roster.

Smith-Schuster fumbled. He messed up. There is no question about that. It is possible that both the defender did his job well and Smith-Schuster did his poorly. In reality, that is exactly what happened. It's Smith-Schuster's job to catch and secure the ball. He did the first part and failed in the second. It is a different type of mistake from the one you mentioned, but both are significant errors. Smith-Schuster's cost his team a game. In fact, it cost them a piece of first place and put them three games out.

To be clear, I'm not saying Smith-Schuster is a bad player or he needs to be benched. The Steelers need him. That he is a key part of the team is exactly why such blunders are so devastating. They need to be able to rely on him with the game on the line and that is twice now that he has failed in such moments.