Bouchette Article... Finally

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12015/12 ... eelers.xml

Finally one of the local media guys puts together a spot-on article about the steelers. I think Ed must be reading one of the message boards. The title is misleading, since he is basically saying there are significant problems with the offense, but I'd say the headline is more of a humor thing for Ed.

 

Spot on article. I love the "However, wouldn't it be nice if he could just complete the pass without all the drama? You know, with a quick release to one of those quick and speedy young receivers who can then do their thing after the catch?"quote.

 

Good article, but it ended kind of abruptly. I was looking for more and perhaps a better conclusion but the crux of his argument was spot on: our offense sucks. But isn't it amazing that many, if not all, the Steelers sports writers (Bouchette & Smizik are but two) as well as many "professional" bloggers can see the flaws with our coaching, our offense, and to a slightly lesser effect, our defense, but there are a few holdouts on this board that think we have the greatest coaching staff ever assembled and are constantly make excuses for them (we've won two Super Bowls with BA!) ? The fact is we've won two Super Bowls in spite of BA and we'd still be in the running for another if we had someone who knew how to game plan and call effective plays.

 

Ed keeps mentioning getting another TE. does he feel Saunders is not good enough?

 

What he said is get another blocking TE to free up Heath in the passing game. How well does Saunders block? I'm also not sure what the point is, Heath can be running wide open in the flat but Ben will throw it deep to Wallace despite him being in triple coverage. It's just ridiculous. We need a coach at OC, not Ben's father. Even if he's incompetent, if he would just act like a coach, maybe Ben would improve and stop getting himself killed.

 

This is his mistake: "They have the quarterback."

Roethlisberger won't or can't consistently throw the "complete the pass without all the drama? You know, with a quick release to one of those quick and speedy young receivers who can then do their thing after the catch?" He can do it for the initial drive of the game after that its run around praying that someone is open deep. We need a leader at QB, like Brady or Tebow. I think we lost to Denver because of the lack of leadership on the field.

 

I agree that he won't, but we don't know if he can or can't yet because he hasn't had a coach that will make him do it. Lets face facts here, a 30 year old QB who appears to be badly out of shape just can't run around and extend plays like he used to. How many times was Ben successful at extending plays this past year? Very few.

BA and MT need to spend the entire off season having him run 3 second drills. Either you get the ball out in 3 seconds or it's an incomplete pass and we try it again. Do that all off season. If Ben is truly devoted to winning, he won't mind giving up his off season in order to improve his play.

Then once pre-season rolls around, the coaches need to tell Ben that he is not allowed to scramble or extend the play, not even one time. He must either throw the ball from the pocket (unless it's a scripted play to roll out) or throw it away. Pre-season is a perfect time to practice that.

If it appears Ben cannot pass effectively from the pocket (I think he can with a lot of practice and coaching), then draft his replacement and get rid of him, because the older he gets, the less effective he will be at extending the play, and if that's the only way he can play the position, he's useless as he ages.

 

This is where we are at now thanks to the NFL power brokers.

Arena ball, plain and simple.

It is all about selling tickets. Forget football, it is the ticket sale that counts. Football just the vehicle to sell the tickets. This is what I have said for quite some time.

But when you whore out to the ticket sales, you tear your business apart slowly but surely. Doubt it? I have three letters for you, N-B-A. Does anyone watch that any longer? Does anyone care? And take it from me, who is a basketball referee, it is garbage totally geared to selling tickets.

Leave it to the WWE formarly known as the WWF to sell the premise that wrestling is real....yea right. But it is the ticket sales that count.

Moving on to the Steelers, the owners know that they have all of us hooked on NFL-crack. We're addicted. They know they can put out a substandard or average team and still the fans will come and fill their pockets with greenbacks.

Funny how many of us lose our jobs for substandard results, yet the Steelers can be mediocre, and we will all jump for joy and proclaim, "wait till next yerar" while failure is an accepted norm.

The Steelers will still lead the pack with merchandise sales and folks will still wait in line for tickets all the while the Rooney's and the rest of the league are laughing all the way to the bank. Again, with the lone exception of the government, any other business that continues to put out sub-standard products will in the end fail, that is except for the NFL.

The Steelers have glaring problems that will not be solved with one pick in the draft. The league has turned into arena ball only on a much bigger scale and now the Steelers have been left at the gate.

For sure, if either Green Bay or god forbid the Patriots win the SB, all those great defensive players from the Steel Curtain, the 85 Bears, the Giants of the 80's will be rolling over exclaiming when did the league turn into the WWE?

One think is for sure, Vince McMahon would be proud.

rutan

 

I don't think he will do it. As I understand, he doesn't, can't or won't study the game and film enough to be able to do this. He is a ad lib QB forever. If you want a different style QB, we will have to trade for it.

It is ridiculous that people say, "Ben hasn't improved under BA." The guy makes millions and isn't disciplined or interested enough to improve. Roethlisberger is on a plateau of his highly successful career.

 

THat was a great article as he focused on the offense as should be the case. He mentioned Bruce Arians name one time but he made it known that he is responsible for the way the offense plays as BA is directly responsible for this:

Roethlisberger won't like this, but he also needs to change his approach. He has been the best quarterback at extending plays and making plays when he does. However, wouldn't it be nice if he could just complete the pass without all the drama? You know, with a quick release to one of those quick and speedy young receivers who can then do their thing after the catch?

It's not asking much. Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers do it. It is understandable that Roethlisberger resists it when the media mentions it because he has been largely successful doing it his way. He and Bruce Arians love to go deep, but with Antonio Brown, Emmanuel Sanders and, if they use him more, Heath Miller, the Steelers have the kind of skill that can torture defenses with shorter passes, along with the deep threat that is Mike Wallace.

With those receivers, there is no excuse for only 10 teams scoring fewer points than the Steelers did last season. Another reason for that was their so-so play inside the 20, where quick decisions are mandated. The Steelers ranked 18th with a touchdown rate of 50.9 percent once they cracked the red zone, coming away with 27 touchdowns on 53 trips.

The New York Jets somehow were No. 1 at that (perhaps, they would have been 4-12 had they been in the middle of the pack), but No. 2 was New England, 3 Green Bay, 6 New Orleans and 8 the New York Giants.

So, some changes are definitely in order, staring with BA not being brought back. He was in charge of that pathic offense.

 

Whaaaat?

No where in that article does he mention changing OCs.

In fact, he only mentions BA once saying that he AND BEN like to go deep too often.

He spends the most time talking about upgrading the O line. He also addresses Bens play.

The article pretty much says what I said in the "Keep BA" thread.

:hello:

 

Ben is capable of doing it, see Pats game and Titans game this year. Ben had 5 TDs in that titans game, I'm sure if the coach made him run those plays he wouldn't be complaining at the end of the day.

 

Well I Twitted to Ed about the article and the TE but of course he hasn't responded.

 

I agree with some of the article pertaining to our problems on offense but disagree completely that defense is no longer relavent. Did anyone watch the 49ers/Saints game yesterday? A defensive orriented team that focused on pressuring the QB, disrupting the offense, and generating turnovers won the day. They pressured Brees and made him very uncomfortable all day back there. Brees still got his, but the 49ers got the W by relying on the D and a few key plays out of the offense.

Our offense if offensive and needs to be addressed but lets not forget what put us on the map.

 

Really? I seen a crapload of TDs that last 3 mins of the game.

 

The 49ers defense couldn't hold the Saints down once they got in rhythm. The Niners won simply because the Saints' defense was even more atrocious.

 

I didn't say that there wasn't a lot of scoring. Any time the saints play there is a lot of scoring. They have the best offense, record breaking offense, in the league and a weak D. They score fast and get scored on. But...the 49ers got 5 turnovers, 3 sacks, and a ton of hurries. No one is going to confuse the 49ers offense with the Saints. The 9ers won because of their defense.

 

See the other 14 games he played this year. The Pats game is why I said "consistently." He had 5 TDs in the Titans game and only 21 on the year. He has great games and poor games and many in between - his inconsistency and lack of discipline is what slows the offense. How do you suppose a coach makes him run those plays?

 

While Bouchette is keeping it real, we also have to hear this for the millionth time:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbu ... 76719.html

 

With a non-porous OL, BB is fully capable of being an excellent pocket passer. As previously mentioned, he proved just that in the NE game, the one game his year I didn't attempt to choke Bruce Arians through the TV screen. I agree with Bouchette. I'm tired of the drama. And BB's legs will soon lose some horsepower. Poor guy can only run for his life for so long. An improved OL and a new OC could turn our mediocre offense into one of the best in the league in my opinion.

 

I agree. We've seen what Ben can do in this offense. The QB is the one player that has the most impact on an offense for good or bad. IMO, the biggest issue remains from the inconsistent play at the QB position. I can care less if BA goes or stays. I don't believe another OC will change the way Ben plays the game. He's played his way his entire career. It's laughable when people suggest a coach make Ben, a grown man, do something. What if Ben doesn't do what that coaches want? Should the team bench or trade Ben? I don't believe benching or trading Ben will go over to well with fans.

I remember how much flack fans gave the coaches when Kordell was starting. Those fans believed that the coaches were attempting to change Kordell into a player he was not. Now that the current coaching staff doesn't want to change the way Ben plays the game, those fans suggest that Ben needs to be ordered to change.

Ben needs to do whatever it takes to become a more consistent QB for those fans that want more scoring. Until that happens, the offense will continue to struggle putting points on the board.

 

I don't agree with you about the NBA.They have a huge fan base.I love the NBA,watch as much as i can.Totally agree about the main topic..Steelers and where the NFL is going.

 

Yeah it did. Here's the last line of the article: "The Steelers also need to find a second tight end, one who primarily blocks, to free Heath Miller to showcase his receiving ability for when Roethlisberger alters his style in 2012 with that new quick release he always has had in his arsenal but has been reluctant to use."

The End

That's is? No summary? No conclusion? No final words of wisdom? I agree with everything he said, but he basically just quite writing. Thinking about "BA ball" was probably giving him a headache or something.