Our Evaluation - 2nd Quarter of the season

Here are my thoughts of this quarter of the season.
(To see 1st quarter evaluation, go to: http://mboard.steelers.com/fanzone/mboard/news/94957 )

We won our 4 games this qtr of the season. But don’t get too excited: We’re still midway of where we want to go.

Brief recap of the main changes we’ve seen last 4 games:
OL improved: well, we all knew this even without being coaching gurus. We needed help at OL, FO signed Starks and we suddenly improved this unit.
New Offensive Playmakers: Brown & Sanders getting more touches each.
Young guys getting playtime due to injuries: Dwyer, Redman, Gilbert, Hood, Heyward, McLendon, Sylvester, Carter, Lewis and C. Allen. Also Sanders & Brown have benefitted on taking playing time & catches from Ward’s injury.
Offensive play calling: Maybe the best improvement made this quarter. Not insisting on forcing the run, and spreading the ball on short routes has paid big to the offense…. And suddenly, our pass O has become a big threat to most defenses!

OFFENSE
-Starks: We did needed this guy. Has proved to be a difference, even though he’s still not at his best yet, he’s been an improvement from what we had at the start of the season.
-O-line has gotten better. The only way this unit could be headed is improvement: Sunday vs Pats was the 1st time that our 5 o-liners played together back to back games this year. A lot of injuries that are still happening game in & game out. If I remember well, only @ARI we got no o-liner hurt.
-WRs: Brown & Sanders are getting more and more into games, also earlier than usual. Both have been great additions to Ben’s arsenal, and proved they are pretty reliable on 3rd down. Still need to get involved on a consistent basis. J Cotchery hasn’t had many throws his way, one drop and one 3rd down conversion is not enough to evaluate him. Wallace… still thinking he must be our priority #1 as offseason approaches. Ward might be getting less time & throws, but his experience and guidance to the young ones will be very valuable coming December.
-RBs: This group needs to be divided in 2: Mendenhall, with up & downs, and the rest, trying to get more involved. Mendenhall is still this team’s #1 RB, even if he doesn’t play lights out each week. Has had trouble finding lanes, and it’s been smart from our OC to mix the backfield when he isn’t delivering. Redman is a tough guy, who fights on short yardage situations and reads very well LB run blitzes, so he seems to always find a lane. We’ll see more of him on short yardage situations. Moore is pretty underrated: he’s a situational RB who can find a gap and solve critical situations. Dwyer still needs some reps, and should be getting them as the season goes by. So far so good for him.
-TEs Miller has been consistent all his career, but seen a little bit more this past couple weeks. He’s been reading pretty well the defensive schemes and become a reliable hot target against blitzes. Saunders hasn’t gotten many opportunities to be properly evaluated.
QB: Taking away that dumb interception vs Tenn, he’s been at the best level of his career the last 4 games. Doesn’t matter if it’s a long throw, a 3rd and a mile (faced much of them past weeks) or a 3rd and goal: almost always has something under the hat to make a nice trick.
As a unit: Still need playing time together. Haven’t seen the stats yet, but I’m pretty sure we haven’t started the same 11 guys on offense since last year. They will get a little better, with health being the top issue in the next games. We’re suddenly become a Passing Offense, with many weapons.

Offense gameball this quarter: Ben, Wallace

Defense:
DL: Aaron Smith made this defense along with James Farrior, having been the icons of our 3-4 nearly the past decade. It seems that we are not going to see A Smith anymore (guess he’s retiring sometime soon). Hood has stepped in decently, but still needs to get better, has a lot of room for improvement and will be a stud on years to come. Heyward needs more reps, but hasn’t been an issue when playing, so that is a good sign. McLendon filled in for Hampton / Hoke pretty well, and will need to be watched carefully. If he can carry the load, we’ll be at no immediate need of drafting a NT next year. Remember both (Hampton/ Hoke) have been injured a lot last 3 years, and both seem to have no more than 1 year left at a competitive level.
LBs: With Harrison out, we all expected to see what Worilds could bring to the table. A shame he’s been injured too, ‘cause this could have been his opportunity to get a lot of reps. Woodley has improved since game 5, and looks as if he’s still upgrading week in and week out. Timmons is a great MLB, but hasn’t shined as OLB. Needs to get back to ILB as soon as Worilds / Harrison can come back (Will look better: Worilds/Farrior/Timmons/Woodley than Timmons/Foote/Farrior/Wodley). Farrior has been playing less than past years, and been slow on coverage and misdirections. Foote is not the answer, although he’s a reliable backup and situational pass rusher. Carter & Sylvester finally got some real playing time vs NE, and both played a good game (Carter was nervous on that offside, but will be ok). This guys need to step up each opportunity they have, since we’ve been pretty thin at LB due to injuries.
Foote is aging, and has not been at the rest of this unit’s level, even though I like the guy and he gives his best.
CBs: Ike Taylor has regained his level of 06-07, being a shutdown corner. A stud, and probably the reason we are among the best pass-D in football. If he had hands, he’d be headed to the probowl. Gay has improved his game a little bit, and seems to have the support of the coaching staff. Lewis is a decent coverage guy, with good awareness of the ball. They both (Gay/Lewis) have made nice coverages and saving tackles (negating 1st downs). McFadden probably will be out at the end of the season.
FS/SS: Clark is a good tackler, but lacks of speed to cover deep. Polamalu has had his flashes, but still not playing as expected. Mundy finally got some playing time, and will be a nice backup, but not sure he has the mindset and skills to compete for a starter job. Still has room to improve
Defensive gameballs this quarter: Woodley, Ike Taylor

STs:
Suisham has been an OK kicker, but missed some easy ones that could have cost us on close games. He’s not the answer for years to come, and probably the weakest link right now.
Sepulveda: Nice read and pass against Tenn. He’s pretty consistent when not hurt (but seems injury prone).
Return teams: Excellent job, but still need to work on fair catches (taking them with room to run, not taking them with defenders very close to the catch). Still missing one TD return.
-Even our coverage units have played very well, we’ve got a FG blocked and a punt blocked.
ST gameballs this quarter: Brown, Sepulveda

Coaching / FO:
They went very slow recognizing a need at OL, but made the right choice bringing back Starks.
Offensive Playcalling: We’ve been throwing short passes and running the ball on a smarter way. The biggest improvement on offense is the way our team has spread the ball and taken advantage of each players abilities. Not forcing the run has also been smart. There have been some dumb calls on goal line situations (insisting on the run) and not killing the clock properly when protecting a lead.
Defensive Playcalling: More blitzes from inside, young blood on front 7 & man coverage vs Pats are the new things this quarter of the season. So far, have proved well. Biggest challenges so far have been health issues, and adjusting to different offenses playing with 2nd stringers, but Coach LeBeau has been great filling in substitutes for them and assigning tasks they can perform at the right level.

Random Thoughts:
-Young guys gaining playtime due to starters injuries: it’s tough to with so many injuries, but on the bright side it has allowed rookies and young talent to prove if they deserve to be on the team.
-Defensive improvement: Many of us (and so do analysts) thought our D ranking was due to facing weak offensive units, but against the Pats our D showed they are ready for challenges.
-Lack of turnovers: Our D has not created them like years before, and we do need them. Still an issue.
-Protection of the football: Besides some miscommunication on 2 ints (Ten, NE), we’ve done a better job protecting the football.
-Running game: It’s now used as a complementary weapon to our Pass Oriented Offense, not insisting on the run has made room to our young weapons to step up.
-FG unit has had missed & blocked kicks. Even with a good protection, our kicker seems to be only an ok guy, but not a solution for long term on the position.
-Every team in the league is getting more injuries than years before (probably for missing training camps), but we seem to have gotten the worst part: each week we have a new starter injured. It has to stop somehow.
-In order to compete, we do need to take more TDs and less FGs when in red zone. That involves better playcalling, execution and protection.
-Ironically, our biggest threat in the remainder of the schedule are not the Ravens, Pats, Bengals or 49ers, it’s the injuries we’re suffering. Backups must step up for us to keep competing at a high level.

Ahead on schedule next quarter:
BAL, @ CIN, BYE, @KC vs CIN
Vs BAL will be a huge game. Baltimore has lowered its level compared to the team we faced on week 1, and we have improved drastically since then. Expect a well fought game, but I think we have the edge on this one.
VS and @ CIN must be Ws both. Rookie QBs generally struggle vs our D, and we seem to have the weapons to open up their D.
@ KC will depend on which Chiefs team shows up for the game. On both cases we must be able to handle them.
4-0 will send us right away to win the division
3-1 with a loss to the Ravens will send us to a wild card spot
3-1 with a loss to CIN or KC will keep us fighting for the division
2-2 or worse will mean a great letdown and playoffs in jeopardy

What are your thoughts on this?

 

great analysis. I see us going either 3-1 or 2-2 over the next quarter. This week is huge, we win, then I think we beat KC and split with the bungles.

 

We need to do better in the redzone and put teams away instead of letting them hang around.

 

Agree. It's mentioned on the O playcalling, and added it as random thought at the end.