Lessons from Week 4: WWW’s Thoughts

Outgaining the opponent 391 to 350 yards and 27 to 21 on 1st downs will boost your chances of winning a football game. But how many games are you supposed to win when giving up 5 sacks, committing 13 penalties and holding the opposing offense to only one 3 & out for the entire game?

Steelers offense was held to only two 3 & outs, and those were: a) on the second offensive series (which was followed by a TB FG to put up the score 10-0), and b) our last series, which gave TB enough time to get 46 yards and score the game-winning TD. Meanwhile, TB’s offense was allowed to gain 245 passing yards on the 2nd half, making a substitute QB from a previously winless team (playing without one of his top targets for most of the 2nd half) look like Joe Montana while playing from behind.

Are we pushing the safe button too early, part II? Playing with no sense of urgency, producing no pressure, creating no turnovers and giving up a bunch of completions to 7 different receivers (6 TB players had receptions of 15 yards or longer) while our offense produced only 1 second half score (a TD) and 8 first downs, failing to convert a critical 1^st down are not variables helpful to closing a game.

Offense

Is this our Oline for years to come?

Column A: Gilbert, DeCastro, Pouncey, Wallace and Beachum.

Column B: Penalties, lack of concentration, being abused.

Match both columns at will.

• Sacks just costed us at least 10 points. Giving up 5 sacks puts the season total at 12 so far. All 5 sacks occurred in the first half, with the first two of them on consecutive snaps during the first Steelers series. Roethlisberger fumbled on the second sack deep into Steelers territory, which led Tampa Bay to its 1st TD of the game. During the last drive of the first half, Roethlisberger was sacked again on 3rd and 6 at the Tampa Bay 26 with 30 seconds remaining, converting what appeared to be a 43 yard FG attempt into a 50 yarder, which Suisham missed.

• Suddenly, our league-leading running game disappeared. Establishing a running game was never possible, while 30% of the Steelers runs resulted in no gain or negative yardage. Our longest run was a 16 yarder by Bell (which netted a total 1 yard gain after a taunting penalty by himself). It didn’t help that Beachum and Wallace were abused frequently, both in passing and running situations.

• Almost a complete game from the passing unit. Antonio Brown, Wheaton and Miller combined for 273 yards on 21 receptions and 3 TDs, being the most solid unit of the game (along with Ben Roethlisberger).

• While A. Brown had another outstanding performance, with 2 of his signature TD receptions and clutch catches, they were somehow shadowed by a bizarre drop after a perfectly executed flea-fleaker during the 4th quarter that could have helped put the game away. A couple of plays later, Roethlisberger returned the favor by overthrowing Brown, who was three steps ahead of his coverage. Wheaton delivered grabbing everything thrown his way, and Heath Miller had his best game of the still young season, rebounding after an early drop.

• 3rd WR: What has J. Brown done to keep Moore on the sidelines? Justin Brown was in for most of the game as #3 receiver (1 reception for 5 yards), while Lance Moore got his first reception as a Steeler (12 yards). Hard to justify why J. Brown is getting most of the snaps as 3rd receiver. His blocking ability and Moore coming back from an injury were simple explanations last week, but this week’s matchup provided a clearer path to get Moore involved and into the offense’s rhythm, particularly after a dropped TD pass in this game. Are our coaches seeing big upside on J. Brown, or hasn’t Moore developed into a reliable target in practice for Ben?

• Last offensive series: 2 runs for 0 yards. Really? On a day in which our running game never got going, Ben Roethlisberger was able to complete 72.5% of his passes for 314 yards and 3 TDs (6.6 yards per pass play, including sacks), while we ran for 85 total yards (3.1 yards / running play). During the last offensive drive, while looking for a first down, Coach Haley played it safe (or whatever he understands as “safe”), running two times up the middle, on 1st & 10 and 3 & 5. Were we just trying to beat the odds? Wouldn’t it have been smarter to use what had worked so far?

• Move the ball, but not getting TDs is not enough. Getting 390 yards on offense should have you scoring more than 24 points. 143 of those yards meant only 3 points on 3 drives: A 73 yard drive ending with a FG. And two 35 yard drives, one ending with a sack and a missed FG, and the other one with a punt. Sacks and incompletions proved costly on these 3 promising drives.

Defense

Where’s the pressure on the opposing QB, part III

1 sack, 4 QB hurries & losing a late lead. That lack of pressure is to blame.

• The Steelers got their first interception of the season. It came on a play where the receiver (M Evans) got hurt, and let Cortez Allen go alone for the ball. Besides that single play, Cortez Allen was lost in coverage.

• No pressure = make opposite no-name QBs look like Montana. While sitting in the pocket, Glennon was able to shred the Steelers D for 302 yards, including 245 on the 2nd half. His most reliable receiver was Murphy, who one week ago was unemployed. Giving him all day to throw the football, while trying to create pressure mostly with only 4 rushers (occasionally 5), didn’t help, while it generated only 1 sack and allowed his receivers to get open.

• Has our DL improved? Hard to tell, since Tampa Bay just didn’t really test our run defense. Their 20 rushes for 63 yards (3.2 avg) were not their biggest threat, while our D was letting Glennon throw at will. Our only sack came from a defensive lineman (Heyward), but for the rest of the game this unit remained a non-factor, either way (didn’t allow big runs, but failed to create pressure or making Glennon feel uncomfortable). Cam Thomas hasn’t been a factor, and is probably delaying the maturing process of Tuitt, who should be seeing playing time soon.

• Stats on our OLBs: two tackles and two QB hurries. While sitting in the pocket, Glennon was able to shred the Steelers D for 302 yards, including 245 on the 2nd half. Giving him all day to throw the football, while trying to create pressure mostly with only 4 rushers (occasionally 5), didn’t help. I really expect James Harrison to be much more involved within the next 2 weeks on passing downs, only used on blitz packages (trying to cover a WR, TE or RB with him would be a costly error).

• Is Ike’s absence being felt? Gay, Allen  and McCain were chasing after their receivers all game and got little help from our safeties (do we have safeties, by the way?). Our CBs looked lost on long passes (either through the middle of the field or to the sidelines), we had no one to shadow their bigger threats (Jackson, Evans). While Gay and McCain made some plays (particularly, with Gay playing as Nickel CB) and Allen grabbed an interception, the three of them had their dark moments too:  Cortez Allen was responsible for the 1st td. William Gay was lost, particularly on 2 plays: the last td, a 31 yard pass to Evans (a perfectly thrown pass to the sidelines), which is no news since he struggles to cover big receivers. McCain looked to have closer coverage and better understanding of their route-running than both of our starting CBs on some plays, but got lost on a 41 yard pass to Murphy that set up the game-winning TD. We’ll need help at 3rd CB, and it might come from Webb, Richardson or S. Thomas (playing hybrid defense as 5^th DB).

• Where are our Safeties? Polamalu and Mitchell were not helpful to their ailing CBs. They look each week more like center fielders trying to keep the ball in front of them, rather than making plays. So far this season, both have combined for 0 interceptions and 1 pass deflection, and none of them has arrived early on critical long passes all year long. While Polamalu is clearly aging and far from being his old-self (he tried to make a cameo of his younger version, trying to predict the snap-count and being called for an offside), Mitchell is nowhere close to being a successor of what Clark brought to the table in 2006.

Special Teams

• Suisham missed for the first time on his last 25 attempts (a 50 yarder that seemed to have the distance but went wide right). For his career, Suisham has attempted 15 Field goals from 50 yards or longer (converting 5 of them).
• Brad Wing had 2 punts travel inside the opposite 20 yard line, but his worst punt of the season came on a critical moment: while punting for 29 yards while trying to close the game, giving TB excellent field position.
• 3 of the Steelers penalties were called on special teams and this unit allowed a 25 yard punt return (prior to TB’s second score of the game).

Penalties are still an issue, part IV…..:

Most of the penalties were committed by veterans: 80 of the 125 penalty yards came from A Brown, Bell and Heyward, who were called for personal fouls, Cam Thomas (15 yd facemask) and Polamalu (5 yd Offside, 15 yd facemask). Holding penalties and facemask while attempting a tackle will occur every now and then. But mental mistakes, with penalties after the whistle point to discipline, and that’s on the coaching staff.

Just wondering:

Lance Moore, Marcus Gilbert, Mike Mitchell, Jason Worilds, Cortez Allen. Which of these offseason Front Office moves makes them look smart so far?

Over / Under 45 sacks given up through the season? (a discussion about this is ongoing here: http://thesteelersfans.com/forums/showthread.php?9749-Big-Ben-Sacks-45-over-under)

Over / Under 30 sacks from our D? We’ve got 7 so far.

Looking for one particular play to blame for the loss? You’ll have a difficult time trying pick one, on a game featuring: a strip-sack to give TB the ball inside our 10 yardline, a missed holding call by the refs during Martin’s TD (which drew a penalty to Heyward), drops by J. Brown and A. Brown on what seemed to be TD passess, an overthrow by Ben to Brown while he had a couple of steps ahead of his coverage, giving up a sack while approaching a half-ending FG (getting Suisham out of range), the 41-yd completion to Murphy near the end of the game, failing to convert a 1st down to ice the game… Yes, and a bad punt from Wing (which should not be used as a scapegoat).

Pick one single issue that could boost our team if fixed:

A)    Less Penalties

B)    Improve Pass Protection

C)    Create Pressure

D)    Get FA help at DB

I’d go with create pressure. We can drop 7 men into coverage, but we’ve seen that without pressure, someone’s going to get open. And that’s gonna hurt our D more than penalties. Grabbing a FA is not an option, and trading offensive talent to get a DB help wouldn’t be a sustainable manner to get out of trouble right now. While penalties have hurt our field position and resuscitated opposing drives, they’ve not been the single cause of a lost game (don’t get fooled, yesterday we let Glennon shred our Defense and that’s the main reason they scored 27 points). Pass protection will improve itself when we’re able to understand that short, quick passes are the answer when you’re getting enough pressure from opposing D’s.

Is there enough reason to panic? Not so fast. Still 7 games until the bye week, and our next 7 opponents are 11-16 combined: @JAX (0-4), @CLE (1-2), HOU (3-1), IND (2-2), BAL (3-1), @NYJ (1-3), @TEN (1-3), facing the thougher ones at home (Texans, Colts and Ravens). Sure, after a loss to TB it doesn’t seem promising, but I guess we’ll see a more similar team to the one that won @CAR than the one who lost yesterday. Improving on pass pressure and commiting less penalties would help our chances, and here’s hoping to seeing such improvement as early as next week @JAX.

Getting out of that 7 game stretch 5-2 or 4-3 will leave us at 7-4 or 6-5, with 5 games still to go: NO, @CIN, @ATL, KC, CIN, where grabbing 3 of them will lead to a 9 or 10 win season with an outside chance of getting into the playoffs.

Methinks we’ll stack at 7-4 at the bye week, and can make a late run for playoffs and probably the division.

By the Numbers

1 three & out forced by the Steelers Defense against TB.

1 Interception by our Defense so far.

8 Consecutive opening drive scores from our opponents (all starting possesions so far, both halves of all 4 games).

12 sacks given up so far (projecting 48 for the season).

20 Antonio Brown consecutive games with at least 5 receptions and 50 receiving yards, NFL Record.

24 consecutive FGs from Suisham, Steelers record. Streak ended.

30 % of rushing plays either for no gain or negative yardage for the Steelers.

44 penalties for the Steelers, (2^nd in NFL, behind SF).

72.5% completion rate for Ben Roethlisberger.

245 yards passing by Glennon during the 2^nd half.