forcing the run

did anyone else get the feeling that they were going to try and run the ball no matter what.

they seemed to call a run play on 1st and 2nd down on pretty much every drive in the 1st half.

Redman was obviously not a full strength and the oline couldnt open a hole to save their life. im not gonna say Dwyer is a much better back than Redman or Mendy, but if the oline isnt going to open holes than they need to put the guy in thats not hurt and thats Dwyer.

i dont mind seeing them run the ball and trying to have some balance, but if the run isnt there and you have arguably the best recieving group in the game than throw the ball. the no huddle seems to be their best way of attacking. i dont see why they dont use it all game.

i know if you use it and go 3 and out that puts a lot of pressure on the defense, but as i see it they usually move the ball pretty well in the no hudle and Ben is at his best when hes calling the plays.

if they want to run the ball than they need to use the short pass like a run. Ben seemed to use his backs and te's much more last night. the oline is struggling and by using short passes that will also help take some pressure of the oline.

i saw some good things from the offense last night. they just need to put it all together and play to their strength.

 

i have no problem with them wanting to run the ball, but if they dont have the personel to do it than they need to adjust. right now the oline is capable of being a consistant run blocking group. lets face it, they arent capable of being a consistant pass blocking group either.

Dwyer's runs last night were all on him. he broke everything to the outside when the middle closed up.

Miller is a nightmare matchup for most teams. he needs to used like Gronkowski. there is no reason why Miller should have 70 plus catches and 10 plus tds this year. they need to work the middle of the field with Miller and the rbs and that will open up the run and the deep passes. again they need to play to their strength.

 

The runs were more about clock management than anything else. Through 3 quarters Ben was 10/11 throwing on 3rd down and the 1 incomplete was the short ball that got tipped in the endzone falling incomplete. The gameplan was working great, until we gave up the quick TD in the 3rd quarter. Had that not happened....I think we see a different game.

 

Re:

Agreed. If Ben gets that ball up it's 17-7. Oh well, can't do anything about it now, just time to move on to the next one.

 

I think they want to run to open up the passing game but I think in this era we should pass to open up the running game

 

I made the comment earlier that Haley might have over adjusted. In trying to keep the Broncos off balance he might have shot himself in the foot. That being said the point was made numerous times that the Broncos were selling out to stuff the middle on running plays and the cut backs to the outside were there so they should have been faking it inside and then bouncing it outside. I think more well disguised screen plays could have opened up the running game a bit more.

 

I don't see our problems offensively as a result of our game plan, scheme or the number of times we ran the ball verses the number of times we passed it.

I believe we got dominated physically at the line of scrimmage. We still had a chance to win before the pick 6 at the end of the game - but even if we won the game, our inability to run the ball consistently where the plays are designed to go might be a recurring theme until our line solidifies (which takes some time).

 

I agree. Both offensive and defensive lines were dominated by Denver. If you can't run successfully (we were under 3ypc) and you can't stop the run successfully (Denver was at 3.9ypc), you aren't going to win many games. Perhaps against the average teams of the league, you can get away with this type of play--but not against the good teams.

This game proved that my concerns about this year's team were valid. I certainly hope they can somehow turn the rushing offense and defense around, or it's going to be a disappointing season.

 

Re: Re:

You do know what that phrase means, right?

 

I don't mind running to set up other plays later in the game, and to eventually wear an opponent down by the 4th quarter.

It did suck that the line made zero holes for the runners though. Dwyer's yards all came from having to bounce to the outside. Looks like not much has changed with this offensive line.

 

Re: Re:

Yup, do you? Keep in mind, not knowing where you live but here in America, I know what it means [/quote:3gv6tj22]

Yep, I live in America and know what it means. Tis why I asked.

 

I noticed that they didn't do a bad job early of protecting. It was when Gilbert and Foster went down that they looked absolutely horrible. I really think they need to change that snap count/timing thing some. It really kills you in these types of games where the Defense just knows when to tee off on the O-line. Noticed the false starts as well. You can't keep those big guys down in the stance that long in a noisy environment and not expect that!

 

11 of 19 on 3rd down. 5/9 for denver.

71 offensive plays ran by the steelers. 55 ran by denver.

20% of the time we had to make a 1st down on 3rd down. only 10% of the time denver had to. both teams were over 50% doing it on 3rd down.


this stat to me has been concerning me all through preseason as well. i thought it would change in the regular season and it was haley just trying to not show to much in preseason. not after watching this game though. this must change.

do yo realize that 20% of the time we are giving ourselves one play to keep the ball. that's what all these 3rd down attempts mean. we have gone to much to a run first O if this keeps up. remember rooney wanted to run the ball more efficiently not just more. we are putting ourselves in a hole by the way we have run the offense thus far.

it's fixable. our playmakers are our receivers. i still think we are doing it backwards. this team is set up to pass to set up the run. we are not a strong enough run blocking team to try and out muscle teams in the run game. we have to take some of the people out of the box and make them have to watch rainey out of the backfield. heath getting open in the medium range and our wr's at different spots on the field. once we spread them out a little we can use these very good rb's we have to break off 8-15 yd. runs with regularity.

i don't think rainey was used properly at all in this game. when we did use johnson as a blocking fb he made good blocks at the point but there were to many defenders to block. when we swung him out of the backfield it worked well and we never did it again.

we can't keep living and dying on 3rd and long. it will be a long season if we do.

 

i agree that running the ball is an attitude. i kept thinking that as frustrating as diving the ball up the middle was that we would see something established to throw off of, set up a long ball that caught everyone by suprise, something, anything but it never developed. maybe it just takes a couple of games to gain momentum and pull teams defensive game plans around. i am willing to let running game develop another week or two but, i hope better balance and play call develop because it's awful hard watching two yards up the middle all night.

 

Re:

You made the best quote that has been made about the game. You are spot on with everything you said. It was the clock management that kept the game close with Manning on the bench watching the game. I said as much before the game that they needed to contol the clock. The Steelers knew that was they only way to keep Manning out out of it and win the game. The only other thing that they did not do was to score TD's instead of those FG's. If they had accomplished that, they would have won the game easily!

 

when i watched them in the preseason they seemed to run a very vanilla offense which most teams do, but on sunday it seemed like no one told them that the preseason was over. they seemed determined to run the ball which is fine, but when your running the ball on almost every 1st and 2nd down and leaving yourself with 3rd and long it puts a lot of pressure on the passing game and makes your offense very predictable.

most people loved to complain that when Arians was the OC they threw the ball deep too much. i believe on sunday they only tried 1 deep pass and it was perfect, but the defense was also perfect. i dont want to see them just start throwing deep pass after deep pass, but i also dont want to them run on 1st and 2nd down and leave themselves with 3rd and long all game.

i love the fact that they are using a full back now, but when your oline is getting pushed off the ball the full back cant get to the line to open up holes which gives the rb almost zero chance of picking up much yardage. the only success they had was when the rb's bounced it outside. i remember 1 run where Pouncey acted like he was going to block in and then pulled. it was a thing of beauty. i wonder if Haley saw that the oline couldnt open up holes in the middle and threw that play in.

if you look at the Packers, Pats and some of the other high powered offenses, they run the ball just to keep the defense honest, but their olines are much better. its hard to keep the defense honest when they are licking their chops knowing they can push the oline around.

 

i didn't think they were getting pushed around as bad before the injuries and i do think they will get better as we go, if they stay healthy. i wouldn't mind seeing willj and pouncey leading rainey around the outside a time or two. they are the most mobile blockers we have besides heath and he usually has to block down on that type of run.