This is why the offense was bad today...

We aren't a running football team.

Bell might have a good amount of rushing yards and Blount at times might play like the hammer that most Steeler's fans yit over, but it doesn't make up for the fact that we simply cannot use the running the ball to drive the ball down the field and score touchdowns. Bell, who many consider to be one of the top running backs in the league, has one rushing touchdown this season. One rushing touchdown.

We just got done dismantling two good defenses, scoring 12 TDs through the air and passing down their throats. So what do we do against a terrible Jets secondary? We attack the line of scrimmage by pounding the ball. At least out of the gate in the first half. As always, that gameplan doesn't score points, so we are down early and have to start throwing later in the game to play catchup.

I simply don't understand what the Steelers are tryign to do by running the football. Is there a clause in Bell's contract that they will give him so many touches? Is there a directive from Rooney that they need to "establish the run" (many people think that this is partially the case, and quite honestly if it is true, the owners need to remove themselves from football operations and let the coaches do what's right, and that's throwing the football). If it is Tomlin with this desire to try to "establish the run", then he needs to defer to whoever decided to pass against the Colts and Ravens.

Now I am not calling for a compete halt in the running game, rather, it should be a situational tool. I don't mind a run on first and 10. I cannot stand a run on 2nd and 10 that gets stuffed, especially those shotgun draws. A complete waste of a down and time. The little dink and dunk passes that net nothing, like the line of scrimmage screens (which ironically the acronym is LOSS), are also a complete waste of a down and need to be abolished from the playbook.

Running should be used on 2nd and short, 3rd and 1 or 2, a few 1st and 10s, and later in the game to eat time. Other than those situations, we should aggressively be passing. We have a QB who can clearly throw and score and good WRs and Bell/Heath. We also only score when we throw. So throw.

Also, it seemed that the WRs were pretty much all off today. There have been other games like this as well. It is not just Wheaton, but Bryant had a bad drop and ran some wrong routes, DHB had a bad drop and ran bad routes, and obviously Brown had the fumbles today. The other times that they looked like this, the Steelers came out trying to "Establish the run". This was the case against the Browns and Jaguars and Bucs, prior to the Colts game turnaround where they clearly gameplanned to pass the ball. I think the team is focusing too much on trying to establish the run, that they are neglecting to prepare the vertical passing game for these games where the WRs look out of sync. Because it was night and day between the last two weeks and today, and they just simply didn't get bad over the course of a week.

I also want to see more deep passes to Wheaton where he can run past his defender, like we saw against the Ravens. He has really good speed and can be a deep threat, along with Bryant, with Brown cleaning up the middle.

Ugh bad game, but we will continue to lose as long as we favore the running game over the vertical passing game. Plain and simple.

(shout out to the D for only giving up 20 on a day where the O have up 4 turnovers)

 

Can't argue with much of what you say but, as far as today goes, it may be salient to note that the Jets (yes the lowly jets) stand as the NUMBER TWO rushing defense in the AFC (and that's not just because of today) while their secondary is ranked number 8. From where I stand, this is less an issue of us focusing on where our own strengths and weakness are but rather what our opponents strengths and weaknesses are. I'm sure those kinds of conversations happen on the coaching staff but whether the seeds of that show on the field is beyond my "football IQ".