Why call the time outs if you are not going to allow Mason to throw downfield?

I was at this game and starter looking for an exit when Tomlin started calling timeouts.

I told my brother who is a huge KC fan. That maybe Tomlin was trying to make up for last weeks game where he forgot to use his time outs at the end of the half.

And then out came Mason and I was like we got to stay for this to see Mason push the ball down the field. But no. It was the same dink and dunk offense Ben was trying to run all night!

No excuses for this. Mat Canada has got to go. I thought he was going to bring something different to the table. Between the Detroit game and the end of this game Canada is doing nothing to help Mason.

 

Hell, I'd even go for Randy Fichtner's 26 ppg offense from last season.

 

Agreed and I questioned that in the game day thread. They took the timeouts but they took them for no reason. They didn't even attempt to push the ball down the field. They still gave up, they just took more time to give up then if they hadn't taken the timeouts. Made no sense

 

He did the same thing in Cincinnati. Down by 38 points with about 3 minutes left in the game and calls a timeout. I mean, did he have some 40 point play in mind that was going to save our season? They did actually score a TD on the drive but one would think too little too late in that situation. No?

 

Because our HC is a belligerent moron

 

Not trying 2 start anything, but isn't it funny no matter who the Qb is in there ...people complain that they are not pushing the ball down the field.
Hell even in preseason the same was said for Haskins.
Could it be nobody is getting open on the majority of time down the field????
Let's all put it on Ben. That will fix the issues.

 

Good point(s) STD because that leaves only two other very unpopular options - forcing passes into coverage or throwing the ball away (a la Brady and Manning).

 

Exactly

 

Maybe Mason sees what the line does and thinks better of it. Then again, I remember one of his first games vs SF where the D came up with 5 turnovers. Mason didn’t throw the ball more than 3 yards. He could do nothing to drive the ball and get points. So, that might just be who Mason is.

 

Who has put it all on Ben? In case you haven't noticed, the coaches have received a ton of negative press on here. I've been a huge critic of our coaches. Nobody is putting everything on Ben, literally nobody. But Ben is part of the problem. He makes a lot of bad throws.

 

I agreed with your post the other day about the unrealistic view we have of Ben as fans. But do you think Tomlin shared this unrealistic view?

It seems to me that Tomlin's offensive game plan in big games is to have Ben throw 45 times when we know if he throws 45 times he is going to turn it over at least once.

Ben had 42 attempts vs. Jax in 2007. He threw a pick 6 and 2 other picks and lost a fumble. Immediately Tomlin should have realized like almost all QBs Ben needs a run game and an OL. But no. It's been the same thing year after year.

If Ben had been a "game manager" where the OC carefully picked some big shots downfield during the game I feel like the risk Ben presents would be minimal. Instead we get a high volume passing attack whether better suited to a Peyton Manning style under Haley or a Drew Brees style under Fichtner. Even with Bell and a top OL we never had a running game even though Bell ran wild in the playoffs.

Looking back the only coach who could keep Ben in check was Arians. The only receivers that had great chemistry with Ben were Santonio and AB.

So while I acknowledge that Ben is a pain in the ass to deal with it seems that Tomlin fed right into Ben's desire for a pass happy offense. Ben presented less reward (TD%) and higher risk (INT%) than other QBs running passing attack offenses; but he is one of the best QBs to choose for "keep it close win it late."

 

A lot of Randy Fichtner's offense was Matt Canada's offense which is why Matt Canada was inexplicably promoted. Why you would promote Matt Canada to OC knowing his offensive requires a mobile QB is beyond me. Even if the Steelers did have a mobile QB I'm not sure it would be much better, but I am curious. Not curious enough to keep him around though.

 

maybe right now it is. i think it is because of ben . you can find some game footage youtube videos of canadas time with different colleges and with the exception of a few plays we see it doesnt look the same. your offense and scheme has to be tailored to the the players you have to work with. canada college QB's rolled out a lot. cant really do that with slow ass ben and linemen that cant hold a block for 2 seconds. you can probably count the number of times ben has rolled out on one hand. the fullback played a much bigger roll in canadas college days. usually lined up as an H back and actually used in the passing game. i remember seeing watt at hback maybe two or three times line shifts and motion was much more prevalent with his college teams. his quarterbacks also spent a lot more time under center. we all know ben doesnt like that and hates play action.

 

Ahh....The ole worse offense in LSU offense. LoL. Fire Canada, change Your OC, and win a National Championship.

 

What do you mean? Canada joined the Steelers 2 years after Fichtner was OC. Do you mean Canada is using Fichtner's offense.

 

im not debating the quality of his coaching, im just pointing out what we have seen this year from a canada offense isnt exactly the same as i have seen from his stints with 4 college teams.whether that is by design or necessity is what i am debating. i lean towards necessity because of personnel. the same reason for fichtners dink and dunk offense. i would have thought common sense would have prevailed in the off season and they would have aggressively tried to fix the thing that held the play calling back, but hey we got the best running back and second best TE in the draft. plus scored some cap friendly second rate bargain olinemen in free agency

 

That dink and dunk offense you saw didnt happen til last year...its the same offense this year....maybe I'm wrong....does anybody else remember seeing dink and dunk prior to last year?? Maybe it is the opposite....either way it sucks and both lack creativity

 

Dink, and Dunk basically started after Ab was gone.

 

Some truth to this.

It's unclear to me what happened, but probably some combination of lack of receivers who want to/capable of running a deep post or a skinny post, a 37 year old QB coming off elbow surgery, and an ineffective OL. That means we don't run patterns in the deep middle, don't have a QB who can consistently deliver the deep ball to the sidelines, and don't have the time needed to run those routes.

Besides that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?

 

the deeper the route the more time the QB has to hold the ball so the longer the oline has to hold their blocks. when your oline sucks you dont wanna roll those dice to often ...