My observations from the bears escape

You saw he led the team down the field for the winning drive right? 1:52 on the clock, regardless of his "sub-par-performance" I still believed he could get it done. So did his teammates. Don't tell me you thought they didn't have a chance. When it was needed, he did what had to be done.

 

Has there been any feedback from the team regarding our secondary playing totally confused? It was like watching a pre season game and they hadn’t learned the new defense. Were we running a new defense? Were the bears doing something we were totally surprised by? Did we have so many injuries they were using Boz at safety? No defense should be that unprepared half way through the season.

IMO Ben should be given a week off. Either Mason is so terrible Tomlin cant do it or he’s worried he’ll be so good we will have a QB controversy. Im not saying that to bash Ben . I just think he’s playing so hurt he’s risking serious injury. His hesitation puts him at risk.

Serious question… could a QB have it written in a contact that they alone get to decide if they start or not on game day?

 

Ben just led the team to 4 consecutive wins, why would Tomlin give him the week off? That makes no sense. Ben is 16-7 as a starting QB since returning from injury. No coach is benching a QB with that record.

 

Yeah let's play Mason when Ben has the team on a four game winning streak .

 

He’s clearly injured. No other reason than that. His attempt to hit a wide open wr deep clearly showed he is hurting big time. He under threw that by 10-20 yards. It was an easy TD. He’s not able to throw the ball quickly and with authority. He needs to get healthier if we want to win a playoff game. If this continues we will be lucky to win 7 or 8 games this season .

You don’t get asking an injured player that is unable to perform because of it to sit? Lol

 

What really bugs me about the offense is if it's 3rd and 7 or more, it's almost as if the play calls are concessions. A hand off to Benny Snell? A four yard pass to McCloud? I get that the line is young, inexperienced and lacking in pedigree. However, no one can convince me that they can't pass protect long enough on at least 25% of third and long attempts for Ben to look for open receivers beyond the sticks. Is he that afraid of getting hit? Is it the play calling or are his receivers having that much trouble getting open? I kind of believe that most of the time, no one is open. DJ is their best receiver but how many times does Ben look his way on third and long? Claypool is inconsistent. JW is a disappointment. I've been wondering why they don't go to a more conventional look, with two WR's, and two TE's, keeping Rader in to help block and sending Freiermuth out beyond the sticks? Or, is it Ben's preference, like being in shotgun, to constantly run a single back, 4 WR spread? No matter, you have what appears to be a premium receiving TE in Freiermuth. Use a different TE to block, and get Freiermuth more involved in the passing game, especially in 3rd and long situations.

 

"The car is still on the road, why should we replace the unconscious driver?"

 

They played with 10 but Ben just took the snap and spiked it to try and catch the Bears with too many men. Ben didn't count them either or he would have run a play against 10 men.

 

The Bears blew that coverage badly. Johnson was college open.

 

The fact Maulet was playing, who is 3rd string, isn't good. Someone must have been hurt.

Crazy we brought in Witherspoon, a vet, and he can't give us anything.

They have have been playing all their DB's this year, which is interesting. I don't remember the second or third tier guys, rookies no less, playing much under Lebeau.

 

Hey Da Stellars to your quote: "Crazy we brought in Witherspoon, a vet, and he can't give us anything."

My head is spinning over this. I have been thinking about this ever since Steve Nelson left us. We should have made every concerted effort to retain Nelson (and Hilton as well). Some here let their personal feelings get hurt when a player leaves on his terms. Nelson is good. Our Secondary has taken a major blow with his departure. Let's look at what we have to work with in the Secondary since Nelson and Hilton are gone:

• Tre Norewood: Still too early to tell since he is a rookie. However, not lighting up the World either.
  
  
• Arthur Maulet: This is his sixth team. Came from the Jets. Always chasing people from behind.
  
  
• Miles Killebrew: Has done “zilch” in his time in the league. Colbert > Detroit > Cast-off
  
  
• James Pierre: Two years in, Jury still out. Again, though where is the “Impact” factor?
  
  
• Justin Layne: Why?
  
  
• Cameron Sutton: Maybe second best out of this list but no Steve Nelson. Not even close. Now to your comment concerning Witherspoon in which I absolutely agree.
  
  
• Ahkello Witherspoon: Probably the best on this list IMO. Free-Agent, of course. Does he even play? At least he was on the same team for over five years which tells me there was some proven consistency there.

Final Thought: TRY Witherspoon!



STEELWINDS The East Side Kid

 

Hey bigbenhotness.

Your Quote: "Our defense sucks."

I will be a bit nicer and say that they are almost a shell of what they were last season. When we had Bush and Dupree in there, this Defense was fast. They were constantly in the opposing teams' backfields. Injuries decimated them last season, like now. The departures of Nelson and Hilton are sorely missed as well.

From what I read, the Bears' passing game plain stinks and there we are, again, letting a rookie quarterback look like a solid veteran. Again now, time and time again, this administration cannot draft and/or develop Secondary personnel to save their lives. This has been going on for over a decade now. I am at a lost for words as I keep repeating myself as a way of venting. It is totally ridiculous; all of the Secondary "flops" that have come through here over the past decade plus.

This is just an average Defense now. It was being touted, prior to the beginning of the season, as one of the best in the league and I believe it was. However, the loss of Alualu, no Tuitt, Bush underperforming IMO, flop signings of LBs Ingram and Schobert? We have zilch as far as depth and it shows. I keep hope that First Round "misfires" like Taco Charlton will turn it around here like Alualu.

I think that the Bills' game was our best complete game with all three phases doing their thing. However, once Alualu went down for the count that really took a lot of wind out of our sails. It disturbed what "balance" we were achieving with all three aspects of the Team.

I stated earlier in pre-season that the Defense and the Special teams are really going to have to "pitch-in" while Ben develops chemistry with the Offensive Line. With an Offense that is growing with a totally renovated Five-Man O-Line Wall, Ben, IMO, is not comfortable back there and that is the MAJOR reason why this Offense struggles.

He has little to no confidence in them as seen by the continued short, fast released passes. He is not being given the protection time for longer pass plays to develop. Whether it is real or not (it is real) he feels uncomfortable back there right now (psychological issues). We have the skill players on Offense but the brand new Offensive Line is holding us back IMO.



STEELWINDS The East Side Kid

 

The loss of Hilton Nelson and Tyson is too much

 

And the loss of Tuitt, Dupree also hurts, most people expected the defense to drop off.

 

That ship has sailed. No way he gets benched now unless he totally collapses or gets injured. Steelers don’t really rebuild so I guess we were never going to test out a Mason-1 Haskins-2 lineup. I guess we just have to live with a 15 yard route tree.

 

Yes, in fact the Bears were penalized earlier in the game for exactly that.

 

That punt return fumble killed the Steeler momentum. One more score on that possession would have pretty much put the game away.

 

This is as good as the D will be for years, too. Edmunds and Bush will be gone soon, so will Heyward, Alualu, Tuitt, Haden...gonna need an almost complete rebuild. Not to mention needs at OT, QB, WR...

Gonna take multiple off-seasons, IMO, to build a championship roster again, which is why I was so disappointed in the Steelers approach this past off-season.

 

Najee, Freiermuth, TJ, Heyward, and Boz were beasts.

Bush, Schobert, Minkah, and Highsmith need to step it up and make more plays in defense.

They were picking on Mallet pretty good.

The offense in general has to put better drives together without so much dependence on Najee imo.

 

Well for me, I expect him to do what he's paid to do. JMO>

 

Claypool in the slot would be a beast.

 

Ben said yesterday that the defender hit his hand on that deep under throw to Washington. I don’t think he was great all game, but he was 4 for 4 on the game winning drive and the first TD was a great play scrambling left.

 

Then how was it right to get rid of our OC last year? Seems like nothing really has made that big of a difference. RF=Scapegoat?

 

Also a team good for 3/4 of a season, give or take?

 

Probably, offense has the exact same limitations because it's built around Ben's limitations.