BA- playcalling vs. Cincy

After the first 2 series, the 3 and out and the 4 and out I looked at my wife and started to laugh, she didn't ask why but I was thinking to my self about what I just saw. What I watched was a really nice WR screen set up and Heath Miller completely missed his block, a block that he makes most of the time and one that would have resulted in a good gain. Then I see a power run to the right and David Johnson gets blown up and it goes nowhere and then I see a quick slant that has big gain written all over it. Next series looks the same but with a first down and on 3rd down a pass gets completed for 15 yards and the WR gets hit and drops the pass which gets called incomplete. All I could think of is how in the world can the masses turn this into a "BAD playcalling as usual...Fire BA now" thread on the message board. To tell you the truth, the situational playcalling wasn't bad, in those series the plays called had a ton of upside and little to no risk but the player execution was absolutely horrendous. Dropped passes and missed blocks are more damaging to us than BA and his play calling, and if anyone can't see that this line is not capable at run blocking please go to the doctor and get your eyes checked because there is no way we can power run until we get at least 4 new linemen that can actually block as the group now is inconsistant at best, even though Legursky played pretty well today.

 

I agree BA did an excellent job today

 

The offense is god awful. And the sooner Arians is gone, the better. It's just a poorly-designed pass offense in which the routes rarely bring anyone open.

 

Did you watch the rest of the game and see it proved yourself wrong. We can definitely run when we really want to...both Mendy and Redman had good games. Also, I am pretty sure that slant where Brown and Sanders were in the same area was not thae called play, but an audible by Ben.

 

Poor player execution is usually the issue.

 

Perhaps. Perhaps not. None of us know whether or not the WRs are running routes correctly. What I do know, when I watch Steeler tape from the EZ view, is that DBs have no problem covering the Steelers' WRs. The past two games were played against depleted, poor secondaries, and STILL the Steelers' receivers have difficulty shaking coverage.

 

Yes, I saw that as well... seemed he was not happy with the plat call on those occasions.

 

I would still like to see BA get fired. Sorry, calling the odd good game isn't sufficient for a professional coach. He calls a good game this week, but like we've seen in the past, next week he'll go back to the same crap we're used to. We've already seen this twice this year. He called good games against Tennessee and NE, yet the very next week he went back to his usual garbage. Short passes and a good running game is how this offence will win us games. We are not a quick strike offence like NO and GB are, so lets stop pretending we are one. We get the odd quick strike to Wallace, but more times than that, those bombs fall incomplete.

The fact remains, he very rarely calls running plays that are successful, he refuses to use a FB despite his RB begging for one, he dials up too many deep passes that are rarely successful, we go empty backfield far too often, and he doesn't correct Ben's numerous problems like refusing to check down to the wide open RB when hurried. Ben is greedy at times, and it's on the coaches to make sure that changes, yet it hasn't. The coaches seem to let Ben do whatever the hell he wants.

 

Shaner82, you got it all right. I don't know what these people are talking about when they say it's the players and execution problems. BA is not a good OC. First things is that he has no knowledge on how to develop a running game. He got rid of all the full backs and started using TE's to block, which has not worked very well. All he knows is that one back set and the empty backfield set. Thats his whole game plan. As long as he is the OC, the running game will never work again. He thinks that the Steelers are like Green Bay or New Orleans, at least he is trying to make it like that. The Steelers will never be like that. The teams was never built to be like those teams. Thats all they talked about in the pre-season, how explosive the offense would be. They had everybody fulled. As you can see, it hasn't worked. I swear, if they concentrate on more running and less passing, the offense would be better. They can run the ball if they want. They just don't have the right system and personnel to be able to run the ball successfully. If they get a true full back and line up in formations that are design to run the ball, they would be successful, but they will never be successful because BA wants to line up in his favorit formations, one back and empty backfield.

So lets call it like it really is: FIRE BRUCE ARIEANS IMMEDITELY!!!!

 

So lets call it like it really is: FIRE BRUCE ARIEANS IMMEDITELY!!!!
Good Lord I missed this

 

I saw some real good play calling watching the Packers and Giants in the last 3 min. of the game. How fast Manning got the ball down field to score and then a 2 pt. conversion to tie it up. Rodgers comes in with 58 secs. left and brings them down field to win with a field goal. My point is that is what we need to learn to do and it has to start with BA. We looked good today but look at who we were playing and after playing the way we did last wk.even though it was a win, it was still ugly. So we played this week to prove a point to a lot of people and that was we are still the Steelers. I hope we show up with the same team for the rest of the season and thru the playoffs.

 

i 2 was fulled by this offense highly offensive

 

I really cannot complain about today's playcalling at all. I felt all day that we could basically do whatever we wanted against the Bengals. It appeared as stated already in this thread that the only time we were stopped was when we stopped ourselves. Sometimes BA really seems to really call a good game... Then again, how much of the plays does Ben call himself during the game? Then again, I did not remember seeing any hurry up/ no huddle plays. If I had, I would have known that was more Ben calling the plays...

 

What was that again? 7 points in the second half? Uh, yes execution was good today, but our "stud" RB didn't break 65 yards rushing and we only scored once in the second half. 3rd downs we were 2/10. Yes Arians did ok play calling today, but there's much much more room for improvement.

 

I was forced to watch the Redskins game today, and I swore their OC was channeling BA. Their running game was getting good gains the first drive, then they go to throwing the ball every down and they lose. Felt just like I was watching the Steelers game.

 

All plays are called for positive yardage or TDs. For every Offense, that's the goal.
It's the situational play calling that irritates people I guess.

Why can't we have some of the Saints/Packers offense? I want lots of points too.

 

I think that when you strip everything else away that it all comes down to the QB; Rodgers and Brees seem to know that their WR's will break open and will unload the ball before that happens. Ben, for the most part, waits until he sees his WR's open before he throws, which is why (I think) we miss on so many deep passes and our offense looks inconsistent. Not happy with our OC, but I think Ben can do a better job of reading the defense and trusting his WR's, especially Wallace, to get open. Would love to sit in on meetings and practice for a week to see what goes on.

 

It's the same damn plays week after week. It's either:

1. Run up middle
2. WR screen
3.quick WR slant
4. Long ball

 

I think the heavy reliance on the same old WR screen every week is our biggest problem. It's predictable, and unless the defensive coverage is just right or the players do an insanely good job at blocking or breaking tackles the play gets either one or two yards or is incomplete because the receiver is getting drilled. For some reason BA is in love with this play and I'll never really figure it out.

 

I agree that Ben's style plays a key factor. I saw Rodgers tonight fake a handoff, so his back was to the field, and he quickly turned around and fired a completion to his tight end who was streaking on a slant pattern. There seemed no way Rodgers could have seen that his tight end was open - he threw too quickly after spinning around from the fake handoff - he just knew, or that was the play as drawn up and it was a good play and well executed. Except for those blind-read screen passes that never work, that hardly ever happens with Ben. He waits and waits, and then the play as called breaks down and he scrambles and wings it often successfully. Oh, one more - bombs to Wallace - doesn't matter what the coverage is, those are thrown.

 

Watch this week against the Brownies, MT backfield I bet, just like a couple
of years ago up in Cleveland when we needed to win and lost to a horrible Browns team.
BA called alot of 5 WR sets for that game, thats when I lost all confidence in his playcalling ability.

 

Until i don't see a draw play to Mewelde Moore on 3rd and long, I won't say Bruce Arians is turning things around...

 

Or how about that WR screen that every defense in the world knows we run 6-10 times a game... the first one I saw to Wallace was nearly a pick 6 the wrong way.