Commentary: Steelers offense is a chaotic mess with no real plan

Commentary: Steelers offense is a chaotic mess with no real plan

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
DEC 16, 2019

The commentary below contains opinion. The author’s name has been withheld at the writer’s request.

The happiest people on the planet Sunday night after the Bills beat the Steelers weren’t Bills fans. It was the very bizarre group I call the “Ben Roethlisberger Fan Boy Club” (BRFBC). That’s because it took a few weeks but the legend of the Duck, just like Mason Rudolph, finally got exposed and now Roethlisberger’s legacy and future as Steelers quarterback is apparently now secure.

It’s hard to imagine anyone of Roethlisberger’s stature feeling threatened by an undrafted rookie from an FCS school, and we’re not sure why his fan club is, either.

Nevertheless, Devlin Hodges was indeed awful Sunday night and was one of the top three reasons the Steelers lost. The discussion now is about whether the Steelers should go back to Rudolph and see if a few weeks on the bench has helped him. Maybe the game slowed down a little bit more for him while he observed Hodges running the offense.

Mike Tomlin can change quarterbacks again, but at this point it is clear that it’s like rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic. A change might be comfort food for some, but just like comfort food, it isn’t going to solve anything and will likely make things worse.

The Steelers have a quarterback problem, but that isn’t the biggest problem for this offense. The BRFBC, which seemingly has as many media members in it as fans, has convinced themselves that if Roethsliberger were playing, the Steelers would be averaging 40 points per game and be the second coming of the Greatest show on Turf.

Obviously Roethlisberger would solve a lot of issues, but even he wouldn’t be successful under this current model of the Steelers offense. It is a disaster and it is only getting worse. And it is a disaster because Tomlin and Randy Fichtner have lost their minds and forgotten some of the most fundamental things about successful offensive football.

And it starts with personnel decisions, many of which make absolutely no sense.

The Steelers dressed five running backs on Sunday and apparently decided to run their backfield as if this were Pop Warner football, where every player is guaranteed at least 10 snaps. It was dizzying trying to figure out who was in the backfield from series to series — sometimes play to play — and there was seemingly no rhyme or reason as to who got to play and when.

The same can be said about the receiver position, and it is absolutely silly that the team’s best receivers aren’t on the field for every play. For instance, that interception Hodges threw in the end zone just after the two-minute warning? The intended target was Deon Cain, who is not to be confused with Dean Cain, a.k.a Superman.

Don’t blame Hodges for that. Blame the coaching staff. Once Roethlisberger went down in the second game, the focus of the coaching staff should have been to use the KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid) method when devising game plans and personnel packages.

Instead, they have made it so complicated you need a roster card to figure out who is in the game and video game knowledge to figure out what they are trying to accomplish on some plays.

The Steelers should pick their best personnel packages and stick with them. That would give these quarterbacks a chance to be successful, as they would be able to find a comfort zone with their teammates and gain confidence in what they are doing. How in the world is a quarterback supposed to be successful when he has no idea who is out there with him, and no idea what the range of play calls are going to be?

The wildcat stuff wastes downs and is confusing. The run game makes little sense when no one running back has an opportunity to settle in and get rolling. The receiving corps in every package should always start with Diontae Johnson and James Washington, and when JuJu Smith-Schuster is back, those three should take every snap. There is no reason to throw to Johnny Holton, Cain or any of these other guys who are not good enough to help a young quarterback find his way.

The quarterbacks have to play better than they have, but by the same token, they have not been put in many positions to succeed. The Steelers offense can be effective despite the quarterback, but it won’t if Tomlin and Fichtner treat it like a pet project that needs to constantly be tinkered.

https://www.post-gazette.com/sports...olph-juju-smith-schuster/stories/201912160090

 

Well I couldn’t have said it better myself besides the fact I actually did say the exact same things, as did many others here. Yet if you listen to some the coaches are infallible and beyond reproach. K.I.S.S......

 

Good Lord. Is this what passes for professional writing nowdays? No wonder no one buys newspapers anymore.

 

Cliff notes.

 

Yeah I’m kind of surprised....those Pitt sports reporters were always kind of like a fraternity that never really would rail on players or coaches. And if one did they would be reprimanded by their peers.

That said, I don’t think they’re wrong. You can say that the player execution was poor, but how do you suit up all those RBs not have at least 2 of them picking up any Not one?

 

Why did the author withhold his name? He deserves a beer.

This article is spot on.

 

Start by dropping the wildcat.

don’t run vs stacked boxes and target opponents weakness. That’s all I got

 

I wouldn't say drop it but don't run it with a player that is just coming back from injury and hasn't run it since week three. Then hand it off to an inexperience wr who has ball issues. Where was Jaylen Samuels?

 

If we remember Bradshaw we sure the hell won't forget Ben.

 

and how many yards has Jaylen Samuels runs gotten him......very, very little. Snell and no. 40 better option. The main problem with our run designed plays they don't work on stacked fronts. Teams will continue to do this unless we can show them that we can pass.. Play calling and design is the main problem.

 

Watch the Saints last night, was in total awe of the their offense, coaching, situational football play calling, execution...

Of course it helps to have a Brees running it.

 

prime Ben laughs at stacked boxes/blitzes. our guys just turtle and die lol

 

it also helps to have a coach that is willing to waste the first series running 15 different player packages just to see how the defense will react and then go with a plan based on that. SP is crazy good at game planning

 

Most good QB smile when they see this, we keep running into a brick wall.

 

Now that's what I'm taking talking about. The announcers mention that last night, and you can bet when they are running those 15 different player packages they got a few coaches just watching to see what's going to work latter on in the game.

 

General thrust of that article is spot on. I don’t rate Fichtner at all but I do recognise he is working with the weakest QB room in the NFL and it limits what he can do enormously.

Some of the plays are so stupid it’s infuriating though. That wildcat fumble on Sunday is a case in point, why call that with Conner who is only coming back from injury and Johnson who has had ball security issues throughout the season. It was an absolute momentum killer to get nothing there after Nelson made a huge play to put them in position. There are several mind boggling calls like that each game

 

If there were 5 RB's all guaranteed 10 snaps each then how did we only run the ball 15 times? Is this Fuzzy Math or just the Common Core type?

 

I'll just leave this here.....

Steelers had 17 drop backs, 15 pass attempts, 1 run after Bills took 7-point lead with 8:00 left in 4th quarter.

 

What do you mean we have the wildcat

 

Be tough to forget Bradshaw when he's part of Fox Sunday and is in very bad movies.

 

Maybe Ben was last year and still is the OC

 

TLDR

 

This is the kind of BS that bothers me. Why does he try to sell this garbage when the numbers clearly indicate he’s full of it....https://steelersdepot.com/2019/12/tomlin-blames-run-pass-ratio-on-game-circumstance/

 

It really makes no damn sense... Dress 5 RB's and run the ball 14 times, in a tight game? Get behind by one score and start chucking it all over the field, with your 4th string undrafted rookie QB? A QB you were so concerned with sheltering, you kept forcing the wildcat, when it clearly wasn't working? Maybe Ben is calling the plays, because it sure doesn't look like the work of a professional OC.

 

Read my link above....