Week 4 Ups/Downs

[Dcash4]

Ben messed up. Seemed like he was seeing ghosts on the play. He felt the pressure and took the quick out. . That wasnt a scramble play, that was a set call. Ben missed both the first two reads. Its a great call against Man.

- Bryant has vertical -- Goal is to win deep or pull the safety. He just flat out wins. Tony Jefferson is going to get smoked in film this week. 

- JuJu has the deep out. Layers route against man/zone. Bryant takes top, JuJu is one layer under. Webb wins the route though.

- James is running a mesh with Brown. Nothing to see here.

- Le'Veon is another layer in the flat. 

- Brown is meshing against James. What I am guessing is that he has an option to take it across the field (his depth lines up perfectly to the vacated layer on the right side), but can turn it up if the double team jumps it. Weddle bits hard on the crosser to Brown and he uses James as a screen to turn it up. 

My guess is Ben was expecting the Brown Cross. He talked all week about playing it safe and taking the right pass...unfortunately that wasnt the right play here. He holds the play to the right off the snap looking at Bryant. I just cant believe he didnt pull the trigger there. Jefferson was so far gone. Bryant walks (if ben can connect deep). If you pause Warfelg video at 00:11, you can see a wide open section on the right side of the field that Brown is probably set to fill -- it *looks* wide open. Ben doesnt see Weddle crashing that party. Brown does. He turns it upfield and is wide open. 

I think Ben felt the pressure and caved safe. He thought he had Brown on a cross and when he didnt, he played it safe.

If this is a set option that Brown has or this was a set play design -- AB has every right to be pissed. He read it perfectly, it was a great play call and Ben just didnt deliver a sure TD. If Brown took it upon himself to undercut it and push upfield, its completely understandable for Ben to miss him. I wouldnt expect that either and it seems like Ben felt pressure and took the easy out. 

...still want to know what Ben didnt see with Bryant though...

[CKSteeler]

I honestly don't even know if Brown was angry at Roethlisberger on that play. No one knows the dynamics between coaches/players behind closed doors. Roethlisberger coming out and saying that he needs to use his backs and TE's more, find other guys besides Brown. Who he was angry at isn't really relevant to me, anyway. My own hunch is that it wasn't directed at his QB, but perhaps more about the fact that the blame for the offensive struggles were pinned on force feeding him.

Brown can come out and say the right thing all he wants in post-games, but there have been enough reports over time to indicate that at least a few of his teammates think he crosses the line into selfishness at times. None of it really matters because, frankly, this offense should be having its ways with people and that should be done by design. The sandlot type plays, which this would have been, are icing on the cake. They haven't been there much in the first few games, either. The offense needs to establish some things and figure out what it wants to be. I think this game was a positive step in that direction myself. The OL looked much improved despite the penalties. They need to worry more about doing the little things right rather than hitting the big plays. This is a big picture thing to me.

My hope is that the offense gets in sync and everyone becomes more comfortable. That means they have to be good on a play by play basis, and then from there I think those Ben being Ben type plays will come back. Because this was a broken play where hitting Brown would have meant Ben scrambling.

Final final note - also think there's a conscious effort on Ben's part to avoid hits and stay healthy for the late season while still winning games. He's getting rid of passes in an attempt to shelter himself from hits at times. More than typical. Or he's doing what the coaches are demanding from him. The physical ability is all still there, though. I'm pretty damn certain of that.

[CKSteeler]

I've also never seen anything quite like this offense. It goes shotgun most of the time with a pretty damn effective offensive line and great RB. It has almost no respectable play action despite the talent on the field and the playcalling. This is a team now that can line up with the QB under center and destroy teams straight up. Nothing about the offensive design makes much of any sense to me. I mean, you want to be a running team? I'm ok with that, but how the hell are you going to do that without plays designed to exploit defenses in play action? Just once I'd like to see someone in the media ask some pointed questions about where the hell that is. They were running on obvious passing downs yesterday.

This is not a team led by people to ever be a 30 point a game juggernaut. Tomlin-Haley will never allow it. I'll take another Super Bowl, but I'm not sure the defense is on the level they think it is even if healthy. Not quite yet.

[August4th]

 

[MOSteelers56]

22 minutes ago, August4th said:

 

Saying something about it only adds fuel to the fire. Ben has always had a problem with saying too much.

[warfelg]

13 minutes ago, MOSteelers56 said:

Saying something about it only adds fuel to the fire. Ben has always had a problem with saying too much.

What’s funny is in the post game he joked and said the “thats AB being AB.”

[jebrick]

20 hours ago, CKSteeler said:

I've also never seen anything quite like this offense. It goes shotgun most of the time with a pretty damn effective offensive line and great RB. It has almost no respectable play action despite the talent on the field and the playcalling. This is a team now that can line up with the QB under center and destroy teams straight up. Nothing about the offensive design makes much of any sense to me. I mean, you want to be a running team? I'm ok with that, but how the hell are you going to do that without plays designed to exploit defenses in play action? Just once I'd like to see someone in the media ask some pointed questions about where the hell that is. They were running on obvious passing downs yesterday.

This is not a team led by people to ever be a 30 point a game juggernaut. Tomlin-Haley will never allow it. I'll take another Super Bowl, but I'm not sure the defense is on the level they think it is even if healthy. Not quite yet.

I think Ben can't move very well.  when they do PA they are kind of half arseing it.  Ben kind of moves the ball towards Bell.  No selling it.  To sell it well a QB must be able to move.

[MOSteelers56]

1 minute ago, jebrick said:

I think Ben can't move very well.  when they do PA they are kind of half arseing it.  Ben kind of moves the ball towards Bell.  No selling it.  To sell it well a QB must be able to move.

The PA pass didn't look good last year either. I'm not really sure why we're so poor at it.

[warfelg]

36 minutes ago, MOSteelers56 said:

The PA pass didn't look good last year either. I'm not really sure why we're so poor at it.

I think it has more to do with Bells running style than anything. 

[Livewire]

2 hours ago, August4th said:

 

There's a lot of distractions that the Steelers don't need Ben. AB could have handled it much better instead of acting like TO or Odell.

[Bobikus]

Brown's the only skill position guy who has been consistently playing at a high level so far this season.  It's an offense that is 18th in points scored despite being loaded with talent.  I don't blame him at all for losing his cool.  I'd rather seen the occasional temper tantrum than see this team constantly under perform.

[CKSteeler]

Clark is the closest thing to an insider perspective as we are going to get on Brown. And what he said about him isn't pretty. It was also kind of obvious, frankly, even if some try and deny it.

http://www.steelersdepot.com/2017/10/ryan-clark-says-antonio-brown-tricking-people-hes-like-receivers-hes-selfish/

Great player. Great worker. But, no, not a team first guy. He's not Terrell Owens, but the drastic difference in perception stems from one guy having enough control to say the right things publicly whereas the other couldn't. Strangely, I'd also wager that Owens was quite a bit smarter than Brown in his own weird way, but far more insecure.

Brown is worth tolerating because of the talent and work ethic. But people shouldn't kid themselves on who that guy is.

[43M]

1 hour ago, CKSteeler said:

Brown is worth tolerating because of the talent and work ethic. But people shouldn't kid themselves on who that guy is.

This.

Shouldnt really change anyone's feelings about him though.   Anyone who thought he was ever a complete team first guy are just naive.   He does more good than harm, so we put up with it.   The moment that changes, thats when you stop putting up with it.   That was the problem with a guy like TO.   Amazing talent, but it got to the point where his "me first" attitude overshadowed his talent.     I dont see that happening with Brown....but incidents like Sunday's are like glimpses at TO.   As long as it doesnt become too common, I dont really care.

As far as what Ben said....who cares?   He didnt throw AB under the bus or anything.   Just said it was an unneeded distraction, which it is.    Ben does have a habit of saying things he shouldnt, but in this case, its not a big deal.  Him and AB will be fine.

[Dcash4]

9 hours ago, FourThreeMafia said:

As far as what Ben said....who cares?   He didnt throw AB under the bus or anything.   Just said it was an unneeded distraction, which it is.    Ben does have a habit of saying things he shouldnt, but in this case, its not a big deal.  Him and AB will be fine.

I don't know, I agree that he may not have thrown AB under the bus completely....but I think he is standing on the sidewalk nudging him. 

Ben has always been awful in the media naming names. There is a way to go about things and circle back to saying nothing, and he has never been good at it. It was one thing when Ben was a major reason we won games at all...but until he performs better he seems to just be making excuses. 

Ben explaining the play was pretty bad. I really hated that he said he was just going through his progressions because he couldnt have been. He missed Bryant that should have been off his first look reading the right safety. Ben messed this play up by missing Bryant, missing ABs read, and then even missing Bell on the throw. He needs to own some of the problems, not just say he doesn't need the distraction. He needs to step up his game. 

[jebrick]

Until the Steelers went into turtle mode on both offense and defense, they looked very good.

 

do we need a bet for how many targets McDonald gets before he catches a ball?