What happened to Archer?

That's my biggest issue also. If you telegraph his plays by only putting him in when he will be targeted it kind of defeats the point.
Put him in when you're not going to use him and the defense will stop keying on him

 

They should've took a chance on Dennard then, ILB wasn't that much of a priority. If Colbert was smart he could've traded down and drafted Bradley Roby he's getting playing time with the Broncos, Green Bay and Dallas wanted Shazier the Steelers could've got some extra picks for him.

 

Would have been nice to trade picks with Dallas, get extra pick in the 3rd, let them draft Shazier, and take Zach Martin as a LG. An interior of Martin-Pouncey-Decastro would make me very happy.

 

As for Archer, I thought then (and still do) that he was a luxury pick. I hope he changes some games for us eventually, but right now he's just a guy.

 

I think the feeling on Dennard is he was a good cover guy but not a good zone guy, that is why he was never high on their list. As for Roby I really don't know. Fuller was considered the type of corner they would have liked because he had some size and he could also play the run. Shazier was attractive because of the way he could fit into multiple packages on defense and he gave the Steelers someone who could cover a TE which has been a glaring problem for them over the years.

 

coulda, woulda, shoulda. if you don't touch the ball your not going to make impact plays often.

I was a fuller guy from the start, but I like the shazier pick for us. I also liked archer, where we got him late 3rd. he did a lot of things at kent, and he still could here.

I'm not giving up hope on Richardson yet either.

shamarko, I'm starting to worry about though, so safety could become an issue too.

munch's Johnson may become our next tackle too if they let him.

who knows what next year will bring? it is what it is, so I hope they all improve.

 

Mac - why are you worried about Shamarko?, I thought he had a good pre-season and if anything I thought a lot of folks actually want him seeing more snaps. Is it the injuries?

 

How much input do you think Tomlin has on the draft, Glenn? People are hyper-critical of Colbert but he seemed to do quite well when Cowher was his draft partner.

 

I figured that out after my post. Where's the green ink???

On the other hand, I was being deadly serious.

 

Richardson should be getting some snaps in my opinion he's got good size and speed and is a good tackler. I wanted fuller but honestly don't believe he'd be making an impact here like he is in chi town. We simply don't let the youngsters play in the secondary and I was hoping with the new trend of getting the babies some time on the field that it would translate across the whole D. Who knows, maybe Shaq ain't ready mentally?

 

yes. he just got back again. his time since early last year has been decreasing for some reason. sure troy is in there but we used a lot of will allen last year after having to go pick him back up. something is amiss with him I fear.

 

shaq missed a lot of time in preseason but then to just PS him and pick up webb seemed odd to me because webb hasn't seen the field either. they must have seen something in shaq to keep him around or KC was just getting heat for all the draft pick cb's he's been missing on. get the kid on the squad and at least let him play some specials if he's going to be kept around and get a feel for the speed and some hitting of the game.

 

At the least!

 

Do you think the browns coaching staff isn't going to look at that first half tape and not make adjustments to prevent it from happening again; Pittine is a defensive coach and he will make defensive scheme changes to counter what worked for the steelers in the first game, and I doubt if Tomlin and staff will change their game plan for this game......

 

Tomlin and Haley will change, but it's unclear if it will be a good change or not.

We probably should think less about game plans and practice more. Eliminate the stupid mistakes and missed assignments and you probably get more success than trying to act like you're some silly hot-shot offensive genius or Chip Kelly wannabe.

 

There is merit to this. Most of football is situational. If a team, no matter who they are, loads up against the pass, you should be running. Same goes for the opposite. I think the Steelers, and teams in general, worry too much about executing a game plan rather than focusing on what is going to work best in each situation. You can script the first few plays of a game and see what the defense is going to throw at you, but no gameplan should script the second drive, third drive, and beyond. That should all be conducted in real time. And if the playcallers arent smart enough to call correct plays for the imminent situation, then they should not be calling plays.

That all said, I like when Ben calls the plays much better than when Haley calls the plays.

 

So agree.

 

what happened to Dri?
friendly fire?

 

There really isn't anything magical about a "game plan". Sometimes fans/media/pundits make it sound like some high-tech, secret meeting.

All a game plan does is decide which plays out of the playbook to use that week. Period.

Remember how plays work for NFL teams:

1. The coaching staff and/or offensive coordinator has his "BIBLE" of offensive plays that is a huge (sometimes multiple) three-ring binders (now it's probably on a computer). Some coordinators and coaches literally put into their bible any new play they see. These are often organized by run/pass, personnel groups, formations, motion/no motion, etc.

2. During March/April the coaches meet and "edit" last year's playbook and decide on a new playbook moving forward. This is a bit "copycat" as many coaches will study what is working around the league and decide as a staff whether they want to try the new stuff.

3. The playbook handed out before OTA's is about 200 plays. A lot of this stuff is just "try it and see what happens. They try things with their new shiny hood ornament rookies or FA acquisitions.

4. After OTA's the coaches study the practice film and decide if they can/should add the new stuff to the playbook. They finalize the "2014 Steelers Playbook".

5. Once players report to camp and get their playbook, the plays you see during the season are pretty much 99% written in stone. The playbook is only about 120-150 plays depending if you double count some plays that are just mirrors of each other (R vs. L) or very similar.

6. During training camp, the idea is the team will run EACH PLAY at least one time in practice. This might sound easy, but time is so limited it's very, very hard. Some plays might only be run as a 7-on-7. Some plays might be run one time and not used again until week 15 (and the players are expected to remember them).

7. Once the master playbook is decided upon, the week to week game plan is just basically a decision on which 40-50 plays in the playbook they want to use THIS WEEK. That's all you see in a game (some multiple times) and some plays are in every week's game plan (like a simple run or the WR screen). Some teams script their first series, others do not. The purpose of the script is really to study what the defense will do to different personnel groupings and different formations so that maybe a later play in the game can exploit that same matchup.

This isn't rocket science. It isn't brain surgery. This isn't working at a nuclear plant.

It's football and you're dealing with many players that have 85-95 IQ's. You line up, know the play and execute. Period.

 

Have him line up outside and run a few fly patterns if nothing else. The DB'd can hardly touch him with the current rules and he is faster than Wallace.

 

This.

 

Which is why when we evaluate Tomlin's ability to game plan, what we are really asking is (of all the plays we know are in the big playbook), did they run the best 30-40 this week?

Was the offensive game plan vs. Jacksonville missing a play that should have been obvious to use? Why did we pass on all 11 plays in the red zone? Were we not prepared or didn't have the correct run plays installed for this week to run in the red zone vs. the defenses we saw?

Are we wasting game plan "space" by having 4-5 plays for Archer that should be used in other ways? Can Archer be used in place of Bell in our normal plays and still show some success (I've seen Bell lined up in the slot, I've seen Bell used on wheel routes).

I think part of my critique of Tomlin's so-called offensive game plans is TOO MUCH over-thinking. It happened during Arians and it's continuing to happen with Haley. To me, that's on Tomlin trying to get too greedy in his involvement. I think the "extra plays" he seems to want to install are causing more issues than they are worth and sometimes during the game he is pushing Haley to use the tricks he wants to try out.

I also wonder how much of the limited practice we get on game weeks is used to install these gimmickie plays instead of trying to master the base playbook or just practicing stuff at a faster pace and under stress (which might be worth a lot more in the long season).

This stuff is rote to me now. The Tampa Bay game was the final straw to me and I'm conclusively of the opinion Tomlin is overrated and should be let go after this season (including the staff). All this hypothetical stuff is not hypothetical to me. Tomlin is not helping, he's hurting. The specifics behind HOW's he's hurting can be guessed about all we want.