I don't know what to make of Rudolph

I wasn't complaining about Rudolph. That game plan won't work long term and there was no question that his eyes were not downfield until late in the game and that concerns me. Maybe it's what he was told to do......I don't know.

It's one of the things that made Ben elite......his eyes are ALWAYS downfield.

So, dumping it off short is somehow not going to work in the long run? Tell that to Brady. Tell that to Montana when he played for the 49'ers.

This is exactly the type of offense both of these guys ran and continue to run. No doubt Brady and Montana throw and have thrown the ball downfield but please stop with the Ben always had his eyes downfield crap.

I could care less if he looks downfield. The issue is and has been with this west coast type of offense that you dump it off short and let your playmaker do the rest. Very high percentage passes. It worked for them, long term and it will still work today.

As I said, there are only a couple of Marino's and Mason is certainly not Marino, yet.

Let's see, 10 quarters in and he has 6 TD's. He was 24-28 on Monday. That is a good night. Only the pointy heads on TV will pooh-poo that type of output since they merely want the TV show. Yea, throw it downfield. Those are the highlight plays that are made for Sportscenter. Truth be told, it is about moving the chains, period. Bomb for show, move the chains for dough.

So, after 2, count 'em 2 full games, Mason has played very well for someone asking to just jump in who previously had not played a down in the NFL.

Ben had and has plenty of flaws. We've had 15 years with him and replacing him will not be easy. You are talking about a HOF QB here and usually when they retire, their backup is plagued by comparison. Simply not fair.

I like Mason. I like that they are NOT asking him to throw it deep or even downfield for the 25 yarder. I'd much rather see them work him into the NFL game letting him throw the high percentage routes. Again, it works for Brady so what is the big deal with Mason?

Remember, lest anyone forget, Mason IS the backup. Very few backups come in and just light it up like the starter they are replacing. If they could, they would be starting. This is Mason's second year. First year he did not play. Now in his second year, he is expected to just jump in and "play like Ben". Well, that is not going to happen, yet.

I am keeping my fingers crossed here that he will continue to develop and at some point in the future, become better than Ben. I can live with the dink and dunk if it builds his confidence and most of all, if it translates into wins. I could care less if he throws a 5 or 50 yard TD pass.

As I have said many times, this is a building year for Mason. The key is for him to keep progressing and not become mired in worrying about throwing the ball downfield.

Lastly, those that have doubts about his dink and dunk routine need to watch some of his tapes at OSU. He threw the ball downfield a lot while there. In fact I would say he threw it downfield more than just doing dropoffs. Clearly, the Steelers have a plan to bring him along and so far it is working IMO. A guy goes 24-28 and folks are crying about not looking downfield or throw it downfield? Please, give me a break and I will take 24-28 with 2 TD's and NO INT's every week.

rutan

 

I thought they are doing a great job with MR. Yes, I want him to be that journeyman QB right now but, you just can't put that load on him yet. No sense squashing his confidence with trying to do too much. I believe they are having him dink and dunk and grow into looking more down field. I think if he continues to improve, we have our Steelers quarterback for the future.

 

When you run the wildcat. I think it says all u need to say abt the QB/ offence. Which is not much

 

I was never a fan of the wildcat

 

He's quick and very athletic. Ben can still move okay, but not like he used to. Ben was always a good athlete, but a big guy and sort of lumbering. MR is also a good athlete, but he's quicker and moves around smoothly. It appears as if he senses well where pressure is coming from and, shifts accordingly. Nice, quick "pro" release. Ball leaves his hand with plenty of zip.

He's a work in progress, folks. I see a confident young man that wants to go to war and win with and for his team. So far, what's not to like?

 

It says more about the current state of the running game. Our OL isn’t run blocking very well currently and instead of banging our head against a wall they decided to take a different approach to running the ball. I suppose it would be better to be sitting here today lamenting the fact that we stubbornly tried to just line up and run it and failed and consistently put our young QB in 3rd and long.?

Right now with a young QB it’s about winning games , which they did. They attacked a weakness for a change by outflanking the Bengals defensive line and put their LBs in a position where they had to make plays. Their LBs are weak and having them have to cheat to the outside opened up the middle of the field for the check downs that some are complaining about.

I for one am very critical on the game planning on a week to week basis. This week they hatched a plan that worked. Hopefully next week we build on the philosophy of actually attacking a opponents weaknesses.

 

think the wildcat has as much to do with the lack of a run game, as compared to MR inexperience. What we essentially saw last night was our running game remanufactured through short passes. It worked because Cincy sucks, the they executed it well enough to get the first downs. I like the win and game plan, but if the line and backs do not get something going, the long ball will be much harder to achieve.

 

I remember sex

 

Ya know all of us long term Steelers Fan sat thru the days of Bubby Brister and Neil O'Donnell. We have been very fortunate to have future Hall of Fame quarterback Ben Roeslisberger. Today's NFL is quarterback driven and I can't image how difficult it is to learn the playbook and everything else Mason must learn. Our team looks like we might have to rebuild. So let's get behind Mason and the rest of our beloved team. It's always fun win of lose. I get worked up just like everyone else and I can't wait until out next game.

 

Pennington threw for almost 4000 yards and 20 TDs back in '08 when the Dolphins ran the wildcat. It can compliment an effective offense.

 

This dink and dunk game plan wont work forever? Seemed to work pretty well Monday night unless I was dreaming that game. If so, please don't wake me up because, man I had fun watching that game! Dink and dunk will work until it doesn't work then you have to adjust. This was and is my concern with our current coaches. I loved the game plan and it worked to perfection, I don't care who were playing. I don't think the Bengals tried to take away the dink and dunk, the Ravens probably will. Can we adjust, man I hope so!

 

It was definitely an odd offense, but I think it served not only to help compensate for our subpar run blocking but also our subpar TE situation. Vance got knocked out of the SF game early, leaving Grimble and Gentry - not exactly offensive juggernauts - for the remainder of that game. Vannett looks like he could be a solid Jesse James +, but not when he's only been on the team for about 15 minutes, leaving Rudolph with not much in the way of a TE threat last night, either. Pair Vance with a Vannett who actually knows the playbook, and Rudolph will have more intermediate options. Hopefully, that will also give Diontae and Juju a little more breathing space, since Mason isn't going to be throwing into a three-inch window between four defenders like Ben does.

 

This right here many forget Bill only let Ben pass like 15 times a game when he first came in. I am by far a Tomlin fan or a Fitchner fan but the game plan was great the other night and the did a great job building Mason's confidence going forward.

One other thing I will throw out there is think about what this game plan did. We have the Rats this week and they have a whole lot of different stuff to game plan for. Now I would not be surprised if the deep ball got used a lot more while the Rats will be expecting the dink and dunk and the wild cat.

 

Ben did not throw the ball often his rookie year, but when he did they threw it down the field. Ben was second in the league in 2004 in yards/attempt (8.9 yds) with only Peyton Manning higher (9.2 yds/attempt). MR right now is 22nd in the league in that category.

Now I would assume that reflects the fact that the running game was a lot better in '04 and therefore play action from under center was really effective. Not the case this year.

Basically, imo, any conclusions or speculations based on Ben-MR comparisons are useless. Different team, different league, different game than 15 years ago.

 

The more I think about this, the more I think it's Fuchtner. We know MR threw the ball downfield at O State so he knows how to keep his eyes downfield and find open guys. And I understand bringing the guy along slowly but I just can't get the 9ers game out of my mind when the win was there for the taking but for some reason (probably Fuchtner) he just never tried to get it downfield to keep the D honest.

 

Whomever was talking about Marino earlier in this thread and the dink and dunks seem to forget Marino also dinked and dunked a lot. He would throw short to the marks (duper and clayton)and let them run. They made Marino with their YAC in his early years.

as for vannett, if people didn't notice he was blocking all over the place including downfield leading plays. He seemed to know the offense well enough to be a big factor in that game.

Another guy that was a factor was James washington. We have some pretty good blocking wrs. James didn't catch passes but played quite a bit and his usage was quite masterful by fichtner. He was used almost as an h-back a lot of the game if people didn't notice.

Cleveland ran on baltimore. Exploiting their lbs will be key. Giving them this look we used against cinci will make the game plan harder to get a handle on for them. Well done randy. I also don't think we are done with these two back sets. I believe there are some other wrinkles that can come from this. Safeties will have to commit closer and then it will open our shots downfield.

This is not the same offense we ran with Ben so we have to quit expecting it to be. Give this offense time under the kid. It's very hard to make wholesale changes during the week in game prep during the season, so baby steps. They are creating an offense around what we have now not what we had with ben.

 

is that where you lay on your partner and start having a seizure 10 seconds in and then snore?

 

that's like that girl that ask me, who you gonna satisfy with that? I said me.

 

I notice you said "partner". But yes, that is it

 

I strongly disagree, while I respect what you are saying I don't agree. I am not talking about how far MR or BR threw the ball I am talking on how the team is bring them along slowly. The distance I agree with you when you say you can't compare these two since we are talking 2 different teams, coaches, coordinators.

What I am saying is Ben was brought along slowly under BC and now Mason is being brought along slowly. Both QB's are on successful teams (not sure if it has been said but Tomlin hasn't had a losing season.....) with a lot of veteran leadership so they have to ease into it. jmo

 

I guess the burning question for me is this:

We know that MR was a gun slinger at O State so when you watch him for the entire 9ers game never even look downfield, you have to ask why? Is he all of a sudden scared now that he is in the NFL or is Fuchtner telling him to keep it short and simple. My money is on Fuchtner! And I hope MR has enough moxy to to start doing what he knows he can do rather than being hampered by Fuchtner.

 

The college game is very different from the pro game. Let's face it, besides Mahomes, and maybe Mayfield eventually, the track record of Big 12 QBs in the pros has been pretty lousy. That includes names like Bradford, Freeman, Weeden, Gabbert, McCoy, Chris Simms, Ryan Tannehill, etc. All these guys put up big gaudy numbers in that conference where defense often seems optional, but weren't really able to take it to the next level.


Edit: Forgot to mention Landry Jones!

 

Let's say the Bengals draft Tua next year, the AFC north teams will all have young QB'S for the future. The Browns with Mayfield, the Ravens with Jackson and the Steelers with Rudolph.
Looking long term I think the Steelers will come out better in the long run. Jackson's style of play means he will be battered and broken by the end of his rookie contract and Tua doesn't have great size and he is going to a lousy organization that won't build around him. I think Rudolph will be the best of the four because although Mayfield has great talent, I don't think he is a student of the game like Mason nor does he have the maturity of Rudolph.

 

We have seen Mason do it in preseaon yeah I get it is different but he has throw deep then. My opinion has to be he is being told to check down, let's not forget he came into the Seachicken game cause an injury. Then really had a week to prepare for the 9ers who by the way is a good D. Add to that could have pulled out the win if it weren't for a turnover. Being 0-3 has a lot to do with it as well imo, many knew we were the better team and with no mistakes we win easy....which is what happened. I think give it time and he will open it up, we just got a win with our back up QB let's enjoy it instead of complain about how far he is throw right?