It was Fichtner not Ben who gave up on the running game

I included Brees not for the bad throws or bad throws the more he did but because for a shorter QB the guy could drop that ball on the outside shoulder of his receiver in stride with near perfect coverage like you wouldn't believe. Ben had accurate games and not so accurate games. I've mentioned it a few months ago but if you get the chance youtuber that goes by the name Yinzburgh has a video of every game Ben played his rookie year and it's amazing the plays he made on just talent alone and similar to plays he attempted last season and wasn't successful. Also have Ward, Bettis and Burress at his peak really helped too.

 

Cool .
I just think Brees gets far 2 much credit.
1. They Drafted a new Qb with him on his 1st team.(thats what they thought of him)
2. He plays 80% of his game indoors (Did you know there have been years where he only played 2 games all year outside?)
3. Most of his Passing Yards came in Losing seasons.
4. Most of his winning seasons came the least he threw the ball( only bringing it up because people do about Ben)
Matter of fact his only SB came on one of his least throwing years.
None of this is against You friend.
Just think Brees is Very Good ,but not as Great as some make him out. IMO

 

Shame Brees never had any talent to work with.

Bettis and Burress were gone by Ben's 3rd year. This is a really weak argument. Ben won his 2nd SB with Willie Parker and Mewelde Moore sharing the load, the worst OL in football, and a 5-deep WR group of Ward, Holmes, Nate Washington, Carey Davis, and Limas Sweed.

FOH.

 

It's a fair assessment and I dont hold the dumpster fire that is the Chargers against Brees coming off an injury. I think I will often wonder about had he played for a northern team what would his numbers be? Personally I think the Saints title run that year seemed about as scripted as the Patriots win after 911. I don't want to say it was Aliens but......

 

Didn't Brees have a serious neck injury he was dealing with in his last year with the Chargers? That was why they drafted Rivers, IIRC. The injury and his big contract.

 

The part you highlighted was about Ben's rookie year. This video.



In watching what Ben accomplished that year on a lot of guts and talent was something special. In some of the tough situations that year having Bettis, Ward, and Buress helping was tremendous. Let's face it as much as I love Dan Krieder as a Steeler he wasn't striking fear with his ball catching skills nor was Tuman the second coming of Mike Dikta. Everyone kind of made that season magical. Now after watching those highlights and comparing them to 2020 highlights you can see where Ben's talent is there but the body is breaking down.

 

The offense designed to abandon the run from the start. So I'd say it's 100% on Tomlin. After all he's the head coach and he was well aware of the offense they were going to run before the season ever started.

You run most of your pass plays within 5 yards of the LOS or less than any NFL coach will be well aware of the fact that this will eventually bring the opponents safeties up and opponents will crowd the LOS. Which obviously will eliminate any chance of running the ball with success. But Ben didn't get sacked...think he lead the league in getting rid of the ball quickly. Our pass game was essentially our running game. That was the plan from the beginning. I find it interesting that Fichner was the only one to take the fall on that disastrous offense, the HC was equally if not more so responsible for agreeing to it.

Tomlin ignored the offense because the defense was winning games for us. It was inevitable that good offenses would figure out our defense. It was likely we would have injuries and the defense would slide some. Everyone on earth knew the offense would have to start winning games come playoff time. Everyone but the steelers coaching staff. It was suborn and lazy. It was clear the offense needed to abandon the moronic style of football they were playing. Hopefully the new coaches have some common sense and ability to adjust to what the opponents are doing.

 

No they drafted Rivers then Brees got the shoulder injury.
It's cool. A lot of people think, and say this.

 

Rivers...lol

 

They ran the ball well early in the season, so the offense wasn't designed to abandon the run.

 

They ran the ball because they had Defenses fooled.. Our WR'S kept Defenses scared so they ran a lot of man/zone Cover 2 deep..In week 6 the Titans started running Cover 1 a lot and as a result held the Steelers to 94 yards rushing..The following week the Rats ran Cover 1 or Cover zero press the entire game this allowed 1 or 2 extra guys in the box which stopped the run game cold and clouded up all the short throws as well.Teams followed that recipe the rest of the year and the running game was toast.

This season Teams will start out with the press Cover Zero and Cover 1 we will need better play design and we will need to establish some sort of deep threat..The ability to hit the deep ball is the key to the running game .If a team is only dink and dunk this gives the Defense a huge advantage in stopping the run game..

 

We've been one of the most talented teams in the league for the majority of his time in Pittsburgh. Drafting well and having a future HoF QB are the main reasons. Can't keep Tomlin from some of the credit for drafting well... but we have really gone as far as the players could take us. We've had top flight rosters and had above average results. Its hard to argue against the fact that it appears that the team performed mostly in spite of the HC. Again, some credit is due for assembling the rosters... But its hard deny that Tomlin has been one of the biggest reasons why our team has seemingly underachieved its talent.

 

I wouldn't call it "well" but like I said, once defenses made the obvious adjustments to what we were doing it completely made it impossible to run. It was designed to make the run game fail.

 

Yep we need much better play design as I stated above. I hope the OC starts with the screen game and not just the WR screens , but RB screens and swing passes as well. We should also employ a double pass from a WR screen and a HB pass from the swing pass as well.. I would also employ a Reverse from the RB swing pass. Things like this are needed to help the OL out and spread the Defense out, you can't run if you allow Defenses to stack the box play calling can help a lot.

 

Tom Brady would like to speak with you.

 

Ben & Fitchner were in cahoots in how the offense was run. I'm sticking to my hunch.

 

Several things happened to derail the Steelers run game in 2020.

 

it’s not just the Steelers that script plays. It’s pretty much every college and pro team. Your scripted plays are not set stone. It’s 3rd and inches, but the script calls for empty set and go routes. Lol They script plays to learn how the defense is going to respond versus formations, personnel, run, pass. Is the defense going to play man to man? Cover 2?.... yes. Teams can learn some information from watching film, but not everything. There’s a reason why it’s done, because it’s a valuable tool.

The lengths y’all will go to criticize the Steelers cracks me up.

 

Nail on the head here. They have receivers that can get down the field and go up and get the ball, if Ben can start hitting them the opposing DC’s will have to respond, making everyone’s life easier.

Better play calling, more play action etc. There is a chance this offence could be good but the OLine has to hold up and Ben has to be all in. I’m concerned that he will revert to type as the season goes on however, I still kinda wish he had retired if I’m honest. Ideally hope I am wrong.

 

About what ? https://www.playerprofiler.com/nfl/tom-brady/

Brady ranked #1 last year in Deep Ball attempts and when he was at NE he threw a bunch as well and Brady uses the TE down the seam and the TE Flag route in that 15 to 25 yard range a lot..This forces Defenses to respect the back end which helps him with his dink and dunk plus he is light years ahead of Ben in film study and presnap reads..

 

One of the issues I had with some of the motion they used in the first part of the season last year was the inconsistency of the play calls. A lot of the motion was to get McCloud going in space with a jet sweep and that's was the only play. Why not use a gadget play and try a flea flicker with Ben getting the ball back or PA off that motion? Similar with the up tempo muddle huddle and then not snapping the ball for 20 seconds. Throw in some motion some shifts see how they are playing you but it just never happened.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I was so hoping someone politer than me would give a sound accurate response to this. My response would have gotten me spanked.

There is a lot of just really dumb stuff posted here by people that apparently know nothing about football. Then a bunch more agree with it.

 

There was a time when every Tom , Dick , and Harry called for Bruce Arians head because they said he sucked as a OC. Yet that Year we lead the league in scoring on the 1st drive ...which was scoring on his scripted plays.
Yet everyone repeated over and over ... you know exactly what plays hes going 2 run, or the dumb ....he only runs about 4 plays. LoL.
It was about then I realized that a lot of people just repeat what they hear without fact checking.
Just like there are about 3 things that are totally incorrect being repeated, and repeated here .
Yet nobody fact checks, or they don't because it doesn't fit their agenda.

I would have said something about scripted plays earlier, but I just thought everyone knew that all football does this.

Hell I was blown away when I heard people didn't know there was a difference in the placing of the hash mark from High school - College - NFL.
If you're one of those people.
Sorry.
I'm not trying 2 be a D!<k.
I just thought it was obvious.
I actually know a guy that coached youth football that argue with me about it, and tried telling me there was no difference.
LoL.

 

Yep is why it's hard to evaluate some CB'S coming out of College because they are boundary Corners and only play the tight side og the field.. Is also why Jet sweeps and such work better in College because there is also more wide side in HS and College..

 

What is this BS? Number 1 in deep ball attempts? What does that even mean? Are you honestly trying to say that Tom Brady throws more deep passes than the other 31 starting QBs in the league? I tried to look at the link but it doesn't provide any data behind the ranking. I'm calling on this.