Why does Ben always swing for the fence ?

Don't get me wrong, Ben Rothlisberger is a great franchise QB, but why is it, he has to go for a bomb on 3rd and 1, and most recently 4th and 1?

I understand there is plenty of blame to go around and all does not rest on the Qb, the coach, RB, WR, etc.

Also don't get me wrong I hate Tom Brady's guts and wish him nothing but ill will.

However in the first quarter on the Steelers deep drive, they went for it on 4th and 1, same decision they made in the ratbirds game.

They decided to run a slow forming run play against the rats, this time Ben goes for broke and it's bombs away, both came to the same outcome.

I wish I understood why,?Ben had Heath so wide open, no one was within 10 yards of him and he was well beyond the sticks, why didn't Ben take that simple pass and catch and move the chains?

It would have at minimal set up an easy Field goal .

What makes me puke is I know Brady would have hit the tight end and kept moving the chains moving, why does Ben have no patience?

Is it Haley ? is it Tomlin ? or is it Ben ? I mean it is the 1st quarter of a divisional playoff game, is it time to play close the the vest, or is it time to go for broke ?

 

I think at this point it's fairly obvious it's all Ben. He's a good if not great qb that has a tendency to make really stupid decisions from time to time. The thing that drives me nuts is he's learned that moving the chains can be quite effective. In the last few years he was very good at not forcing throws and using his check downs. For whatever reason that seems to have fallen out of favor this year and the team suffered because of it. Ce la vie. Here's to an outstanding 2016 draft and another run.

 

I think its all on ben. he even says if he gets a one on one on the outside he is taking his shot. that bothered me most out of the game yesterday. I almost wish they had not showed the replay cause I didn't realize heath was that open. I also think ben might learn from that when he sees it. or I hope he does.lol

 

He hit the guy in the shoulder pads
What more do u want
It was an easy 6
If your going to be mad at someone b mad at the wr
He dropped an easy td

 

I didn't like the long passes to Wheaton. Especially that 4th-and-1 IIRC????

Sometimes, especially on 3rd down and in the redzone I wish he would just play smart and take the easy throw to move the chains.

 

That wasn't an easy catch, certainly not easier than what Heath would have had.

 

Ben was working his arm and wincing after the previous play.
He threw to Wheaton in double coverage.
Wheaton had a step on Talib, but Ben under-threw him and let the defenders collapse on Wheaton before the ball arrived.
But mostly ... it's just a really low-percentage play.

 

I really thought he had changed, but I was wrong, he still has the gunslinger
mentality(FAVRE like) and of course we know the consequences.

 

I think it's probably Ben also. I wonder if there's a way to fix that though? Can it even be fixed? Maybe fix the route tree so they don't have soo many deep passes? But I guess doing that puts more defenders underneath, which isn't a good thing.
Maybe they need to give Ben a medicine ball shaped football so he can't throw it that far.

 

Ben just does not have the patient to take what the defense gives and settle for a short gain. I would rather see him fail throwing short enough for the first down than throwing it deep and failing.

 

Quit harping about Ben, he was the one who got us in the playoffs to begin with, without him we would have been 5-11 and you all would be screaming for Colbert to get us a quarterback: Ben was playing with an injured wing and here you are blaming him for this loss when it was a team effort, or lack of, that cost us this win....

 

Exactly. I understand the frustration with bombs away on 3rd and 2 or 4th and 1, but the great receives make that catch. Wheaton is not a great receiver.

 

The thing is, he wins more games for us in 'gun-slinger' mode than he loses (someone prove me wrong with actual stats on that one)... so that alone tells me we should just let Ben be Ben. We didn't lose this game because of Ben being Ben, just FYI.

 

no one is blaming Ben, just a question, why does he swing for the fence everytime ?

 

Haley calls the plays, maybe you should ask him why????

 

Simple - because, as I stated, Ben is Ben. He will never change, it's too late in his career. Sit back and enjoy and try not to throw things at the TV when he tosses a 50-yard bomb on 3rd and 1.

 

I saw in an interview they said they like their odds of going deep on short. They don't get much single coverage and most teams aren't expecting it. Ben also said he likes his chances of his guy making the play. Wheaton didn't make the play, it hit him right in the chest. It happens. They could have ran it and not got it.

My only complaint would be I like the aggressiveness but I don't understand why they don't keep at it all game. How do you take that chance then run 3 straight times and concede possession and field position later in the game? Something tells me that was Tomlins gut.

 

That's just being conservative, in the playoffs you play aggressive, not conservative, like Arians said yesterday, going conservative all most cost his team the game against the packers, so he isnt going to make that mistake again, so against the panthers he is going to empty out the playbook......

 

2015 regular season - about 16th in third down conversions. 30th for 4th down conversions. swinging for the fences or not swinging those stats are not good.

on the final drive at Cincy when Ben came back in hurt - it was nice to see shorter yardage plays picking up the 3rd and 4th downs - if Ben was not hurt maybe they would have went for the fences and the drive ended with no points.

 

I completely agree with your sentiment. I believe that the reason the Steelers' offense struggled so much against teams such as Cincy and Baltimore this year is because Ben and/or Haley is simply not willing enough to play the underneath game. Both Cincy and Baltimore are very disciplined defensive teams who committed to take away the deep throws. The Steelers didn't take advantage of what was available to them--the short game. It remains a complete mystery to me why they can't seem to recognize this or make the necessary adjustments to be successful against such defensive scheming. Furthermore, Ben has shown over his career that he is not overly comfortable or accurate when throwing the ball into small windows (Dave and Dave of the Terrible Podcast like to say that Ben likes his receivers "college open"). This results in a high interception rate versus teams that are dropping their linebackers deep to take away the throwing lanes (Ben threw 6 combined interceptions in the four games he played against Cincy and Baltimore this year).

On Sunday, the throw to Wheaton on 4th and 1 was very frustrating to me. Yes, though contested, it was on target. Yes, Wheaton had a good chance of catching it and perhaps should have. But why not pass to the open Miller underneath? That type of pass has a much higher chance of completion...and it was 4th down. I don't mind taking shots to the endzone, but not on 4th down and 1...not when you're already in field goal range...not in a playoff game.

To me, this is the single element of the Steelers' offense that is keeping it from becoming elite. It's good now, but I think it could be so much better with a greater use of the short game. Montana did it for years with the 49ers. Brady has done it for years with the Patriots (with less talent than the Steelers currently have). Why can't Ben?

Go Steelers!

 

He had somewhat gotten away from it and started doing a better job of checking down. I wonder if the loss of Leveon caused it to fall off the map.

 

This post is right on, Ben can do wonders in the last few years of his career, if he will use all his weapons, I would love to see him to be more Montana than Favre.

With a good offensive line, hopefully a healthier supporting cast, Ben doesnt have to be a gunslinger

he was methodical in 2005 AFCC vs. the Broncos, he was methodical on the final drive against the Cardinals in the 2008 superbowl.

if he wants 1 or 2 more rings at this point in his career with all the talent he has and hopefully a supporting defense coming on.

I hope he becomes more like the Ben I described in 05 and 08 as opposed to the Ben in 2015

 

Ben probably is the most physically talented qb playing,he is a very good qb but he will never be truly great unless he works on the mental part of his game.Mamming didnot out play Ben,he played smarter than Ben.Nothing is more frustrating than watching Ben make dumb mistakes cause Ben is not dumb.Great coaching might help but I do not see that as possible with our current coaching staff.

 

I think fans focus too much on the few times he may have gone deep (and not completed) in a 3rd/4th and short situation and ignore the 90 times he completed the short route for a 1st down.

Fans magnify every missed opportunity and ignore the other 90% of the game. Same with Tomlin haters.

If you see a perfect football game played, you probably missed something