Great post from Post Game Heroes. These two paragraphs pretty much sum up how I am feeling today. Give the whole thing a read. Lots of great points.
19. Steelers wasted an amazing opportunity this year. Super Bowl champs get handed the easiest schedule in the NFL. Most top players are back with the team. This is a wasted year as our defense got even OLDER and even more guys will leave via free agency. This team was built for a repeat and screwed it up big time. This time next season Farrior is even older, Ward is older/slower, Parker is gone, Clark is gone, Hampton may be gone, Townsend is done, Harrison is a year older, etc…… What a waste of a talented group of guys.
If the Steelers hadn’t won the SB last year I would be crushed right now. I’m surprisingly calm and “OK” with this debacle. These past 5 weeks I found myself smiling and laughing and shaking my head in amazement….but not really getting angry, frustrated, or pissed off. This doesn’t hurt anywhere nearly as badly as a playoff loss or an AFC Championship disappointment. I guess the season was “lost” before I really got to get emotionally involved enough to get devastatingly upset.
-We gave up 175 yards rushing last night to the Browns. They also scored their first rushing TD of THE SEASON.
-Bruce Arians continually going empty set on third and short resulting in sacks was idiotic. At least line up in normal formation and do play action if you want to throw. Arians takes any thought of rushing away and lets the D know exactly what we are doing.
-Ben needs to throw it away sometimes. Good lord. Browns had at least 7 sacks. They are one of the worst defenses in the league.
-Horrendous time management at the end of the game. We could have had two drives to try to tie it but for some reason we attempted one 5 minute drive for all the marbles.
-This was one of the worst coached games I have seen in a while in every aspect. Read the article I linked to but why in the hell was Santonio returning kicks. At least this showed that it is our blocking that is the issue on special teams. I would not be surprised if Arians and our special teams coach get canned.
-Probably one of the darkest days in the burgh in recent memory. I just pray that Troy doesn't play the rest of the year and that rookies get a ton of PT to prepare for next season. Let some positive come from this awfulness.
-Feel free to vent in the comments. I will respond if needed. We all need to be there for each other in these trying times.
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3 comments:
I agree with pretty much everything you said! My beef over the last couple of years has been the offense. I mean, our defense had to bail them out sooooo many times last year to win close games. It was a miracle they won the super bowl last year. During the season, the offense either played just good enough to win (like they did in the super bowl) or the defense bailed them out (Troy's interception against the Ravens in the AFC championship). This years defense obviously has not played very well (Awful against the Raiders and a few other of the losses), and not well enough to bail out a sputtering offense. Any given team may not necessarily have the best defense, but they must have an offense capable of scoring 30 plus points if they have to. The Steelers are incapable of winning in a shootout at this point. Just like Clint Eastwood said in "HeartBreak Ridge", "You have to overcome, improvise, and adapt."
The offense, up until the last 4 weeks has been able to move the ball, but then stall when approaching the Red Zone. It seems it's been that way year after year. They haven't done much lately because they mailed it in after losing to the Ravens. There's no other way to describe losing to the Raiders and the Browns!
Ben needs to get rid of the ball sooner so he doesn't take as many sacks, definitly. However, some of those sacks came because protection broke down too soon. Other's, he should've gotten rid of it. But Ben's style of "extending the play" and taking sacks yesterday exposed the fact that our receivers were covered most of the night! Coverage sacks. Some people are saying the Steelers need to run it more, and I would agree if they could. They kept getting stuffed when they tried last night and have in other games this season.
I don't believe our O-line is that bad on the run or pass, and Ben and our receiver are not the Big problem. Every defensive coordinator must share a headset with BRUCE ARIANS. It's like watcing a bad game of Tecmo Bowl watching other teams call his plays. His playing calling and formations are predictable. They got lucky last year that teams didn't figure them out sooner, that talent on offense put up just enought to win, and the Defense played great.
The Jig is up with their offense. If they ever want another shot at the Super Bowl. They are going to have to fire Bruce Arians. Forget about getting someone from "within." Get Charlie Weiss he's good at keeping a defense on their toes. They will need to fill some player voids also and step it up on defense, but that doesn't concern me. Historically, the Steelers have had good defenses and bounce back from a bad defensive year quickly. It's offenses that often times have been a struggle. I see the same predictabiltiy in their offense since Ben has been their. They have got to start making adjustments on offense.
Oh, and I almost forot Special Teams. They need to revamp that as well.
I didn't mean to make it sound like the defense got lucky last year because they played great. Great defenses are ranked #1 because they had a talented crew last year. Even though forcing turnovers is expected from a great defense, there is a little luck involved when the Steez were on the ropes at times and come up with an intereception at the end of the game like against the Ravens. All I was saying was that the ball seemed to "bounce their way" in every possible situation last year, and I can not expect that to happen every year regardless of how great the defense is. That's why the O-fense must step up.
It is a shame that they now must rebuild the defense because they now stink, and should've played much better even without Troy. Troy may be the best Safety ever, but these corners couldn't cover anybody against the Raiders, and have been suspect against other teams. These corners have got to step it up, and media needs to stop blaming everything on the fact that Troy's not there. I agree with Mark Schlereth on the "Mike and Mike" show who said, "these corners are professional athletes and they need to get the job done, and they're not doing that."
If Troy was in yesterdays game, the Steez still would've given up close to 170 yards on the ground. The D-line and our Defensive player of the years colleauges are responsible for that. I think Harrison had a great year last year and is still a great player, but I think we all see who the real MVP is on that defense. It's definitly Troy P. I digress.
Anyways, I agree the Steelers Defense is not as good without Troy, but maybe they should've lost 3 of those 7 games because he wasn't there. Analysts are making the assumption these corners are decent corners, and there's just a big gap between them and Troy because he's so good. I would argue that the gap is much wider than they think. Troy is Awesome, and these corners are well below average.
Why else does Dick Lebeu have them playing 7 or 8 yards off the receivers all the time. Sometimes they play tight, but they should always play tight when they blitz. If they get to the quarterback soon, they won't have time for any deep stuff anyways. I see other teams do that to us all the time.
At first I was blaming Lebeau, but then I changed my mind. He has been great at putting together innovative blitz schemes etc. over the years. I do not beleive he's not a smart coach because he is. He knows that his guys are not good enough to cover receivers tight. He can only do so much with what he's got to deal with.
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