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

I'm good with the Steelers draft, they got the best RB, and the second best TE. I think Green is going to surprise some people at center.

 

It's just how Lolley twists himself in contradictory circles to defend the team that has me rolling my eyes back into my head.

"You're not going to fix the OL with the 24th pick", later followed by "they fixed the OL with a 3rd round guard and 4th round tackle".

Another gem in that podcast - "you simply can't run this offense with Snell, Ballage, McFarland, and Samuels", never once discussing the backup plan if Harris is hurt is exactly those guys.

 

I don't know who abandoned the run game but I can't blame them LOL. The o-line was getting no push at all. Some of those short yardage attempts to get a first down were downright humiliating.

I do know the playcalling by RF or the checkdowns by Ben were very predictable and seemed to only vary between a handful of plays. Checking down to the inside runs were an absolute drive killer. A change at OC was warranted and badly needed.

 

Have no fear, it will be returning. Now we have to get the Ol
on board to WANT to run block. Najee will handle the rest.

 

Popcorn was working on which pom poms he was going to go with. Black N Gold, Gold and White, Black N Yellow. Yellow and White, All Black, All Gold, All White? Being the Steelers HC provides him with lots of options. Having to fashion it with his mask in 2020 was more challenging than previous years.

Fitchner to MT. I think we'll throw the ball 52 times against the #32 run defense.

MT. No Problem. Just let me know if I should challenge a 30 foot hike from Pouncy over Bens head.

 

Ben wanted to run more and Fichner didn’t?

Don’t. Believe. That. For. One. Second.

Next thing I’ll hear is how much Ben wishes Coach Todd was back.

 

Lolley and Williamson both write for Steelers.com and are not going to criticise anything the team do for that reason. I used to listen to their show on SNR but it was useless in terms of any sort of proper analysis, and I also got tired of Lolleys arrogant sneering at fans. Guy is a clown

 

90% of Pittsburgh sports media are fan boys and suck ups. Never is heard a discouraging word. If this was the Soviet Union they’d be Tass or Pravda. Thou shalt not question the team management. But tell them that the national media scoops their lazy backsides? Boy, do they get mad about that. Even though it happens all the time. Fat, dumb, happy reporters ready to parrot the teams line, so they can protect their status and perks.

 

Unless we were all blind, the running game was bad because the running backs were bad. Both Snell and Conner were terrible at ball security. They both with hit the holes with both arms on the ball, you can't run full speed doing that. Half a second is enough for a team in the NFL to neutralize any play. Especially the run game.

We can blame Randy or Ben all we want. Reality of those two playing is they were just not good enough to be trusted when it mattered.

Harris on the other hand, looks like the next Alvin Kamara. If he is, the Steelers have a chance to do some damage next year if Ben doesnt run out of gas. However, we also have to see how well Tomlin prepares the team.

 

Please keep this stat in your back pocket. When #7 throws less than 38 times a game
the Steelers winning percentage goes WAY up.

 

Not sure, but doesn't the offense run 10-15 scripted plays to start a game to see what the defense is going to do? I thought I read that some time ago. If true, this is truly a lazy way to develop a game plan. I would think if they did some actual coaching and game planning, they'd know what the opponents defense is going to do before we start the game and not start game planning after the game starts. New OC so this may not even be the case but I thought I'd bring it us to see if anyone knows.

 

So...just out of curiosity....when Ben goes under center for a short yardage scenario...is it a sellout to the D that its a QB sneak? He stated that its not up to him to make that call but would ownership have a clause somewhere in the contract that Ben is not allowed to be exposed to take a risk of a direct hit?

I subscribe to Jim Wexell who seems to have a very good relationship with the players and coaches. I like his writing style but you will never get TMZ type stuff out of him.

 

I've heard that as well. I wonder, are those scripted plays based on film study and tendencies or is it the same ones they start with weekly? What's the plan after that? I hope Matt Canada is able to coach the group up, utilize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses, otherwise it could be a long year.

 

I think in a roundabout way Ficthner was to blame in a scapegoat kind of way. I'm pretty sure Randy got the job cause its who Ben wanted. WE can all agree that Randy really wasn't qualified for the job (especially on any other NFL team). We all know that Ben does not like being coached. That has been an short coming of his for a long time. ITs why he fought with some OC's. When it wasn't what he wanted or liked he threw a tantrum. You can especially see this in how he throws people under the bus when the "game plan" doesn't work. Now the kicker to all this is that while Randy abandoned the Run it was most with Ben's endorsement. We all know Ben checks out of plays and calls plays. I dont have the actual stats but i'd bet my life on it if we go thru every play Ben has called or checked out of i would bet less than 15% of them were to a Run play. Now the caveat to all this is that this wasn't a 1 or 2 game problem it was an all ear problem. So now this falls on Tomlin! IF it happened and then continued to happen and then happened some more then this falls on him. Its all fine and dandy that Art, Colbert and Tomlin stood there and said they needed to fix the run game. But all three of these yahoo's allowed this to happen all season long and from what i can tell did nothing to change it. If they did try to change it and Randy ignored them then thats even worse. I am not sure what goes on behind closed doors but all of this when you piece it together is a very damning report on Tomlin and the higher ups as they allowed this to happen for a full season and either did nothing or were unable to do anything to change it.

 

I believe it to be institutionalized/ self inflicted failure by the organization. Seems they have a way to run things and damn if they'll change. When you let a OC coach another year suspecting that he was most likely not going to have his contact renewed due to incompetency after the next season, because of some organizational policy regarding not firing coaches, then I can see why there is so much confusion of who the hell is running the show and accountability. Me, looking outside in, know nothing as fact, but the optics point in this direction. Their organizational chart must look like an atlas roadmap.

 

I also wonder how much of this is placating to Ben. Randy was clearly "his" guy and while i understand the NFL and its franchises tend to bend over backwards for their franchise QB's i just wonder how much of this is incompetence of the Steelers coaches and brass or how much are they really just letting Ben do what he wants? I mean they did a whole lot to Placate AB at the expense of the club and he was just WR not even close to a Franchise QB? We may have bad QB play when Ben hangs them up and we may find ourselves wishing for the days of Big Ben again but i am very curious to see what changes (if anything) once he is gone. I really do suspect he has been hampering alot more than we know about. I 1000% without a doubt believe that he never reached his full potential due to his not wanting to be coached and his passive aggressive prima donna behaviour about getting his way.

 

The running game was awful, but whoever it was that decided to give up on it went way too far. I can see relying less on the running game because it's bad, but just throwing non-stop doesn't do anything to disarm a defense since they just expect it. If Fichtner did do this, Tomlin should have reigned it in and corrected it instead of letting it go on all season.

 

Not 2 Argue. So do most Qbs.

 

That's basically the same for every QB not named Tom Brady, and it's a dumb stat. When you're losing a football game, you throw more and run less.

 

Amazing in this day and age that fans still fall for this trope. I suppose if we're down 10 in the 4th quarter and Ben has 37 attempts, we should just run the ball the rest of the game to win.

 

Why did the Titans lose this game? If they had just fed the ball to Derrick Henry down by 20 in the 4th, would they have won if he cracked 100 yards?

Of course not. That's why these "they win when they throw less" or "they win when they run for 100" stats are bollocks. If your run game gets stuffed early and the other team races to a lead, a pass-heavy stat line will follow, not lead.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/202012060oti.htm

 

Yes but just because it is a trope that can be applied to almost every QB on every team it doesn't necessarily mean that it is any less true about Ben. The more he throws the riskier it becomes because he isn't a Brady or Rodgers or Brees that throw a lot of high percentage low risk throws or excel at tight window, back shoulder deep passes. Ben throws some ugly throws that are ill advised and sometimes they are great and sometimes they are really really dumb, not NOD in SB30 dumb but you're in a dog fight with a SB berth on the line maybe you shouldn't throw to your star receiver in triple coverage in the endzone and get him hurt for the rest of the game type dumb.

 

I think you have a good point and I think Tomlin and Ben having been together for so long has really kind of blinded Tomlin to what is best for his team vs what his opinion of how tough Ben is. The Niners game really show that several years ago, the attitude when he went down 2019 and the perhaps letting him shoulder the load last season in the last hurrah type thing. He is just so convinced that 50% Ben is still his best shot to win when maybe at this point it really isn't.

 

Not 2 argue, but You can take Brees out of that.
He has 9 games I know of with multiple ints, and No TDs. One was 5 ints and No Tds. Just Like Ben.
Also Ben has only 4 games where he threw ints and no Tds.
So ....