Our Reveivers

First of all I would like to say hey to all of you guys. I came here from the message boards on the Steelers website and finally decided to join so I could share some of my thoughts.

Now to my point.

Our receivers are pretty good right? Wallace is a super speed threat that can beat any defender, Brown is a playmaker who has picked up some nice 3rd downs for us, Sanders is a great route runner but very similar in skillset to Brown, Cotchery is similar to Ward, and Ward...well everyone thinks he isn't important.

The talkign heads on ESPN pen our receivers to be one of the best corps in the league. But compare our receivers to Green Bay's and there is a noticable difference this year (outside of competant playcalling which I will discuss later, I am not ready to give my opinion on BA yet). Green Bay has possession receivers and they use them when they should be using them in the areas where they are most effective.

I am not ready to say that Wallace, Brown, or Sanders are possession receivers and this scares me going forward. We have always had the safty blanket of being able to count on Hines Ward to pick up the tough yards whenw e need them. Now, unless Wallace, Brown, and Sanders are able to beat their man and get open, we won't be picking up the first down when we need it. Our biggest flaw as a team resides in our redzone offense. It's simply terrible. We can't score insite the 10. Why? I blame it on a lack of experience of our young receivers getting open in the endzone as well as the fact that they are all smaller targets who aren't physical at all.

Many of us want to see Wallace, Brown, and Sanders just come out and dominate games for us, but I am not sure that we will attain dominance with three receivers with similar build and skillsets. There are no physical possession receivers amoung them.

Thus, I am rendered speechless when I constantly hear about us going away from HInes Ward. To me, he is the second most effective redzone player that we have next to Heath (who BA constantly decides to disregard in the passing game), and should be in on every redzone passing play, as well as third downs. Let the young guns run the deep routs and pick up the splash plays on 1st and 10, but it is essential for us to use Hines in the area in which he excells and will continue to excell.

Looking forward, I think it is vital for us to find a possession receiver who has a more physical build like Ward, so he can mentor him to take Hine's role down the road. I don't see any of our current receivers being able to do what Hines has done for us over the years, and it scares me that his role seems to be overlooked by the current coaching staff.

-Cal

 

Welcome to the board!

I couldn't agree more with your comments. I am not sure what our 3rd down percentage was against KC, but it seemed atrocious. Those are the situation where Hines and Heath shine. Outlet passes to the backs don't do what a good 7-10 yard possession receiver can do. And I think, from this novices' perspective, that they run routes that Ben can see and fire to quickly, rather than having to improvise and scramble a spectacular play. Ben has great skill at scrambling, but I am not sure he is gifted in reading things quickly.

 

3rd down conversions was 3 for 11

 

welcome aboard TTH.....there is one less visitor to the OLD board

 

Another interesting note from last night is that we used a lot of three tigh-tend sets on first down with Wallace spread wide. I would safely bet without rewatching the game that 80% of these formations resulted in runs up the middle. Is it really effective to have Wallace in there instead of a better blocker when the opposing team knows it is going to be a pass?

The on exception was that long pass to Wallace (the one he dropped). This came out of a three tight-end set. I see this as being an effective formation but it is obvious to everyone watching what they are going to do. They are not fooling the defense, even though they might like to think that they are.

I'm not sure that our set of Wallace, Brown, and Sanders is going to be as effective down the road as we all might like to think. Once defenses catch on the the speed by playing zone 2 or 3, with safties back to prevent the big play, do we really have the players that can pick up the yards underneath? We clearly do with Hines, but we won't have him forever and the coaching staff seems to be turning away from him and Heath. Cotchery perhaps? Well if it is him then he needs to be playing more other than on downs where his skillset are clearly needed.

There is nothing wrong with throwing to you physical guys and possession guys on first down rather than bombing it deep to the "young money". Are we going to use our tight ends to pick up the though yards? Well then they need to use them other than on token plays. Plus, with all the wide-receiver weapons that we appear to have, do we really have the opportunity to get our tight ends involved consistently?

I would like to see us keep two fo the three "young money" receivers and get a Hines Ward type physical possession receiver to play slot for us. Depending on how Hines feels, we may or may not have him after this season (his cap hit is $4 million, not $10 million like I have seen on other threads), but he is worth every penny.

Bottom line, we still have work to do at the wide-out position, whether we want to believe it or not.

-Cal

 

Our Team is built like a small ball BBall Team......We have like 4 Guards and a couple of small forwards......The design of BA is for all the Guards to take the shots.......This has the same effect on us as it does a BB Team.....The D just mans up and whover is playing our Forwards attacks the passer or helps double the Guards......Exactly why the closer we get to the paint /endzone the less effective the O is.....

We need to get the Forwards involed....That means our TE'S and RB'S they should be the primary focus in the paint.....You can't score the ball effectively without flexing some muscle......

Is also why we need a power forward and a center.....The PF being a true FB who can just knock guys around......The Center being a Big Strong WR who can just push his way off the line and who can just post up at the Basket/goal line and receive the pass.....

The Redzone is the half court set and to be effective in a half court set you must have a Balanced Team on the Court and share the ball......Work the ball inside out....Run the ball and use PA...

I think you see my point we have the wrong plan and the wrong guys to execute such a plan......We are just looking to shoot 3's, but if our shooters are off or can't get open we really can't score because of the scheme and talant and how they work together....

So yes we need a Big strong WR and a FB and a new OC.....Esp a new OC.....I am stil in favor of phone-a-fan playcalling compared to BA........Even though most fans have never Coached,watched film ,or designed playbooks or plays they have enough common sense to call a better and more timely play than BA.......

We are so predictable we might as well let the DC or OC for the other Team scpipt our plays,,,,,,we would surely have more surprise as the other Team would simply not believe we would run the play they called for us.......If it was a pass play it would end up the same anyway as it would be the Scramble drill and I am sure the other Team would call more than the same running play just to keep the whole D active.......Therefore we would be better off than we are now....

 

We have a power forward and his name is Heath Miller. We just seem to be content having him block instead of being a redzone target.

You don't see the Patriots keeping Gronkowski in to block when they are inside the redzone, but they are scoring lots and lots of points, which we simply cannot with our current system.

I like Ward inside the redzone too. He makes that catch that Wallace dropped last night.

-Cal

 

Wallace is not a possession reciever, take last seasons Super Bowl and compare it with the one over Arizona. How many times did Ben go to Wallace on that last drive that went 4 and out. Now compare it to the Arizona game Ben went to Holmes virtually for the whole drive and TD. Thats why they should have kept Holmes. I could never understand why Ben didn't go for Hines or Heath on that last drive instead of Wallace. As for the red zone you can keep blaming personal etc all you like but how long has this been going on for. My favourite is first and goal at the goal line, it's become quite humorous now. That has to be play calling, same old rubbish that is served up all the time that fools nobody. Wont see any change until BA goes. :roll: