Drunken Ramblings

If anyone is looking for a scapegoat for tonights debacle, to me that scapegoat is Ben Roethlisberger. Ben has become Brett Favre to me. All the terrific things he does are completely over-shadowed by the one or two horrible balls he throws per game. That INT is so typical of Ben that I am no longer shocked when it happens. I actually expect it. What makes it even worse is that it is always at the most inopportune time. Hey Ben, next time you want to call out some teammates, DONT!!! Your complete lack of ball security is far more detrimental than a drop here or there by a wideout.

Next up is Tomlin. I have always been on the fence with Tomlin. Its hard to pin this loss on him. But to me the general lack of discipline amongst both his players and assistant coaches is evident. How about a team that goes offsides on 3 straight field goal plays. The challenge was silly and unnecessary. Even the use of the timeout at the end was troubling to me. I figured he was saving it to ice the kicker. It was called at a time where there was no benefit to its usage. His blame in this particular game is minimal. But when was the last time you can say, "Hey coaching won us that game"?

Hey Boswell!!!! How about you make your extra points!!!

I know Conner is hurt, and we did run more this game. But why are we not running more often? I feel like we were running effectively all night. This is not a pound the rock league anymore. But on the INT drive, the Steelers played Samuels and threw on nearly every down. No need! We were in complete control. Just keep doing what was working.

I am not blaming the refs. But man did these refs blow.

Life sucks right now.

 

Ben looked like he was throwing short a bunch of times? Ben was off.

 

Ben had one terrible throw and is cost us three points. Other than that he was reasonably decent. The defense covering Allen I can’t say the same

 

Can't disagree with any of that. Except the part about life sucking. It's just a game that millionaires play to entertain us. Doesn't really mean squat in the grand scheme.

 

Yeah, but that one terrible throw a game, is costing us wins.

 

Looked like he was throwing a baseball or lame shot put second half.

 

Thats why I said right now. LOL. I hate when the Steelers lose.

 

My contribution: why can they challenge penalties after the fact like too many men on the field, but the obvious false start can not be changed after the fact?

 

Because they hate you.

 

Oh, don't go there, you'll just drive yourself nuts I'm still trying to wrap my head around illegal formation rules. Seriously, who gives a crap who stands where on the line?

 

Because they hate you too.

 

Well in that case I'm right there with them about now. I'm the idiot that allows this stuff to make me so mad, when in reality it doesn't matter.

 

@Lizard72 posted a tweet from another team saying the long snapper twitches the ball to make them jump offside, but the refs don't call it.

The first offside was the killer, though. The other two were less discipline, for me, and more about desperation at that point in the game.

The challenge was made strange by the fact we then went for it on 4th down. To me, in real time, it looked like a bad spot, but Tomlin should know the refs rarely overturn a spot of the ball. But given how close it was, and the need for the timeout later, you may as well resign yourself to going for it on 4th and short.

 

I agree 100%, I have been a big fan of Ben but these last few weeks he has worn on me. I am not sure how to put the blame on MT yet. I mean we looked so good in the first half so he is doing things right but the 2nd half was nuts.

Boswell......wtf?????? This is getting old man he was so good and now it is the norm for him to miss.

This is a passing league the days of pounding the rock is gone. With that said just like last week why are we trying to run up the gut, it isn't there. We go off tackle or outside and we are so much better but I don't know.

I am not blaming the Refs as we still had this game and if we kept the pedal down them calls would be an after thought.

One more thing I will touch on is this why is our coverage so far off. We give up way to much yardage on third and long these past few games an area I thought we were getting better at.

As far as life sucking, nope losing sucks and the day after a loss sucks!!!!!!!

 

One terrible throw?????? What game are you watching?
Ben in this game alone throw over the head of Justin Hunter on a short pass, overthrew him again on what would have been 7 pts, three high to a Tight End who was 15 yards away (it was caught)
Threw a lame duck pass to McDonald that was underthrown but had no business being thrown. Oh how about the late throw and overthrow to DHB in the endzone?

You know what the problem is with Ben? Ball security and poor throws which have cost you games. It was Ben who cost you roughly 10 points yesterday and 14 against the Broncos and another 14 against the Browns but let me expand on that. We're so enamored with Ben's deep ball connection to AB and occasionally we forgive Ben's inaccuracy.
Have you ever watch Tom Brady passes, specifically his short passing game. I watched the Patriots dunk and dunk to death but those passes are at a trajectory which allows the receiver or RB to attain yards after the catch. He puts the ball ON YOU in stride. If not he typically puts it where only his guy can get it, it makes a HUGE difference. Ben only has the repoire with AB no one else, other QB's (even Rivers work well with what they have.
The 1 or 2 seconds that Ben hesitates to get the ball out to an open receiver or one that's coming open combined with his inaccuracy (mostly high throws) allows the defender to get back into and make a play. Those turnovers by Ben are drive and momentum killers and have cost you many games.

I will take you back a few years ago to the playoff game against the Bengals. We were playing them in the rain, they had their backup in the game and had done nothing all game. We were faced with 3rd and 19 or some ridiculous amount of yards to get a 1st down. Instead of Ben getting rid of the ball he takes a Burflict sack and losses like 8 yards, he also got hurt and leaves the game Now the crowd goes crazy cause they get the ball in good field position and score. Our backup goes 3 and out pretty much and we are looking doomed. Ben comes back in the game and wins it for us BUT people don't remember the pass he sailed high to AB throwing off his back leg in which Burflict absolutely levels him causing him to be concussed AND miss the next game in which we lost. People will point to AB not being in the game as the reason without giving fault to Ben for the I'll advised sack he took which caused him to get hurt which in turn was part of the reason for the terrible pass to AB which got him killed and it was so unnecessary.

 

Don't look now but there are a $hitload of 6-6 teams licking their chops for that 6 seed.

 

Because we play too much zone - this squad is absolutely horrid in zone. If they do this against the Pats, Gronk will murder us.

 

Does Ben get blamed for the Sean Davis hit on Haden? That ball either gets picked or falls incomplete without that hit by Davis. We beat ourselves last night.

 

Ben definitely wasn't blameless last night, but I don't think you can point to him as the main reason we lost (he did march us right down the field to score the tying TD - and I will have to re-watch the tape, but I don't recall him playing D on that final LAC drive). Yet every week someone comes out and does precisely that.

 

See. This is where Ben tricks you. He does so many amazing things that you forget about all the stupid stuff he does.

 

That interception he threw was honestly the worst interception I've ever seen. Seriously, to lob the ball like that in the red zone is inexcusable. Not to mention, I think it was on first down. No pressure of needing to score on that one play, no pressure of the clock against you, no pressure of being late in the down. You just can't throw that ball like that.

 

Definitely not saying Ben is perfect, he does some head-scratching things sometimes. I was just pointing out he wasn't the primary reason for the loss last night.

 

Agreed.

Still not the primary reason we lost.