Steelers Football Set To Return

It's all about staying healthy, which in turn keeps the o-line as consistent as possible, and Haley being imaginative and mixing up the running game. We have speed and size now, and Bell's versatility is an absolute gift when used well.

 

This part of the article concerns me:
Might it all start with some Blount force trauma?
The Steelers have become more of a passive run team in recent years, whether it's because of personnel or game situations.
That was most notable in short-yardage situations last year where they ranked 21st in power ranking (percentage of runs on third or fourth down with 2 yards or less to go, that achieved a first down or touchdown), according to Football Outsiders. They were only successful on 60 percent of such plays.
Blount could take care of that.

I'll just give a shout out to our old friend, BFT. Come out, come out wherever you are! As this article states, the Steelers running game success is dependent on you, my friend! Time to come out of hiding. :mod:

 

cant argue with the first half of that post... solid run game improves the passing game.. the second part time will tell

HINES

 

blount isn't a run over people type back for one thing. so I'd advise don't look for the bus type of running game from him. http://www.steelersdepot.com/2014/05/steelers-film-room-breakdown-new-rb-legarrette-blount/

I will say however , and a lot of you guys may not remember, how the steelers of the 70's could play it any way you want. by run or by pass. both parts of the offense were good at what they did.

we may not quite be there this year but we are getting to or have the personnel in place to be closer to that type of offense then I remember for a long time. that keeps defenses off balance because it's hard to cover everything. deep speed from the wr's, nice size by the wr's, nice quickness by other receivers underneath, a solid run game with an added speedster, and the ability of the backs in the passing game too. all this creates mismatches and gets defenders out of position. now with a veteran staff it should help, but we still have to put the total package together. we are young everywhere.

add the speed to the defense and if they can play some solid ball, we have a real good chance to be much improved.

one thing that will help tremendously is heath and spaeth being healthy. I read that before speath got back we ran for 3.54 yards per carry, when spaeth came back we averaged 4.08 yards per carry. we also saw heath getting healthier at that stage too. those two are key parts of an upswing for the offense in passing and rushing. make no mistake, we have to stay healthy at key spots this year.

 

The Seahawks are very young as well and look at what they were able to accomplish. I expect big things out of the Steelers this year.. We have put together a good bunch of guys that are ready to get the needed job done. 10 - 6 here we come

Bman

 

it didn't happen overnight with the seabirds. their coach also knew what he wanted and went and got it. he built a winner for them.

we have a lot of new parts, player wise and coach wise, so getting everything to mesh takes some time. I do think we will improve because of the offense this year and if that defense can mesh we could really do well. that's if we put it together early. the growing pains could take longer than this year though. wr's,rb's and rb's coach, o-line coach, d-line, lb'ers,safety. those are a lot of new parts to mesh with the coaches and offense we have and the unknown on defense. it will, if nothing else be a fun season to watch I think. the parts and coaches are there but it has to work as one.

 

My concern in this is Tomlin laying blame on the Oline which they somewhat deserve but he should hold himself and his staff accountable as well. Part of the reason I don't like zone blocking is that it relies too much on the Oline shedding blocks and moving to the next level. It involves identifying the LB threat and having the skill and athleticism to move off a double team and seal off the LB. When that doesn't happen quick enough the defender gets into the gap and blows up the play and you get minimal gain or a loss. If they saw this was happening then they should have worked to compensate for it. Zone blocking allows you more formation freedom with multiple WR sets and TE sets with a single back but it also has drawbacks. Utilizing offensive linemen for second level blocking means they absolutely have to slide off the dbl team and pick up that blitzing LB. Having a lead blocker that can clear the hole or seal a lane in the second level takes the pressure off those linemen. Yes as the article points out he did address the problem after the season but what about during? If you saw a problem why not try to fix it?

So very excited that they are rededicating themselves to Steeler football, the Oline included however do it right and teach them to work at it as a team, get everyone enthused about run blocking like Hines was. Re-establish their identity.

 

I am trying to believe that, but I was so optimistic last year about our running game and our Oline, and both failed again. I know Pouncey was injured and there were some other problems that weren't resolved (why weren't they resolved earlier Tomlin???), but I'm just guarded now because of how many years our Oline has been a complete joke. I want to believe, but I'm nervous.

 

we had a pretty good ground game last year.

 

They weren't running zone or outside zone? I could very well be confused. This why I am really not a fan of zone blocking lol, It was my understanding that outside zone was different than zone and that they did abandon it after Pouncey went down. Either way ever since they have implemented zone blocking the offensive line has looked more and more confused about their responsibilities and the games where they did look good were ones when they did just grab the guy lined up in front of them and drove them back. Am I looking at the concepts and scheme wrong?

 

I think we all equate Steeler football and a powerful run game with soul crushing 8 min plus drives in the fourth quarter or at least I do to a certain extent. Maybe we need to re evaluate the definition

 

We need to crush our opponents and make them suck again thorn lol. In all seriousness though we need to stop letting teams hang around and worse letting inferior teams exploit us. Too many times this team just squeaks by with a win or a loss instead of just down right kicking some ass.. Brings me back to the days of Cowher ball when you play to not lose instead of playing to win.

Miss the dominating defenses and heavy running game. When the defense knew we were running the ball but could not stop it

Bman

 

A couple thoughts:

LevBell has the potential to have an excellent career here, we can't underutilize him.

Blount runs hard, but that Patriots offensive line has been so good for so long. Not sure he should be anything other than a guy who comes in to give LevBell a breather.

We might as well run the ball, we didn't get a speedster like Mike Wallace, or a tall target like Plaxico Burress. We need to do other things to free up Antonio Brown on the outside.

 

I'd say there were some pretty significant problems. Messing around with the run game in the preseason (trying to shop Dwyer so he took loads of snaps, then releasing him... only to pick him up again out of necessity) seemed to be plans that didn't work. Other things were forced upon us. Decastro's loss of confidence, for example.

Like you, I've been pumped before and then let down by the same old o-line. But I think the second half of the season was more promising. Things settled down. Decastro got some swagger. We seemed to stay with the same players at Tackle. Bell has a ton of talent.

So I remain fervently cautiously optimistic.

 

Nah, we just got Heyward-Bey and Archer...

 

Heyward can't catch, and I doubt he makes the team... Archer, I doubt he is anything but a return man.

And even if Archer does become a deep threat, it won't happen Game 1 in his rookie year, it will take time.

 

Why does Archer have to be a deep threat. In OTAs they are saying he has extremely soft hands and we already know he is fast. Could be an awesome option for Ben with short passes.

Bman

 

archer will be used like mcluster in kc

 

Foresee bubble screens - quick outs all day long with Archer blended with KR's. Thinking will see an early impact right out the gate with this kid!

 

Hopefully his college coach turns out to be wrong .. I believe he will be used much like how we used Mewelde Moore

BMan