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2020 GDT Week #16 Steelers vs. Colts


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Blitzburgh Sparkles
@RenegadeBlitz
Steelers gave Randy Fichtner the day off after the first half. Face with tears of joy #Steelers

From Ben's press conference, He was calling the plays in the 2nd half

Here's the press conference on FB.

https://fb.watch/2EMbHAPzDf/

 

@RenegadeBlitz
5m
Ben Roethlisberger on calling plays: “If I'm calling it I can see what's going on." #Steelers

Ben Roethlisberger-“I don’t know we need to sit here and say hey we need to go no huddle every game and every play, we just need to execute the plays that are called”

Edited by jebrick
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3 hours ago, 43M said:

Watt should have won it last year over Gilmore IMO.

Watt should also either have at least 20 sacks, or have drawn the most holding penalties in the league. 

Also...starters probably wont rest unless Buffalo loses tomorrow night.    Still, Id rather rest and maybe lose out on a potential home game vs Buffalo...which is the only thing at stake.

good points about the holding on Watt and should be near 20 sacks

if we end up 3 seed, then perhaps the bills will play the ravens  and we play the dolphins?  Home field doesn't mean anything this year  compared to others, and only 1 seed gets the week off. 

Is the team better off as a 3 seed with an actual week off than not?

Edited by 3rivers
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2 hours ago, turtle28 said:

I’m checking in for the fire Tomlin & Fincher party and the force Ben to retire party, am I in the right place?

stay tuned, hopes are you aren't but lets all agree fichner is a problem.  Maybe ben has been injured to the point it has affected his throwing and the result was all those games of short passes. Don't tell us loyal fans about the severity, lets us call for firingsxD

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1 hour ago, jebrick said:

I would let Fitchner carry Ben's golf clubs but he should have zero input for game plans and play calling.

nope, part of the firing is a clause where he can't be near the facility or players on the team. If ben was calling the plays, then fichner really is the reason for the losing streak more than anyone. The OL run blocking too, we will see how that improves. 

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One half doesn’t make me forget the prior 3 1/2 games. Our OC needs to go, that’s a definite. Our HC needs to feel the heat, because if our whole slump was the playcalling it’s his job to spot it and stop it. If all of us realized the OC sucked and was losing us games, how could Tomlin not see it and do something. Ben is a shadow of himself, we need to have a better plan than Mason going forward. I’m surprised how many people were ready to blow us up in the first half of this game, and now feeling all rosy from our second half. This team has issues and one half of a game doesn’t change that. 

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3 hours ago, SteelersFan2333 said:

One half doesn’t make me forget the prior 3 1/2 games. Our OC needs to go, that’s a definite. Our HC needs to feel the heat, because if our whole slump was the playcalling it’s his job to spot it and stop it. If all of us realized the OC sucked and was losing us games, how could Tomlin not see it and do something. Ben is a shadow of himself, we need to have a better plan than Mason going forward. I’m surprised how many people were ready to blow us up in the first half of this game, and now feeling all rosy from our second half. This team has issues and one half of a game doesn’t change that. 

as fans we really don't know the inner details of how the organization is operated and that also goes for how much blame goes to who. I agree with most of what you say.  Ben might not be as mobile as he used to be, but he also could be injured and we don't know about it which is what I am leaning towards now.  As for tomlin, he's the HC and it all starts there when it comes to schemes and game plans.  It wouldn't surprise me if ben was hurting and that's why the short passes were so prominent. However, it doesn't mean that the terrible run game is acceptable, it should be the other way around if the QB is hurting - get the run game going. 

I'm not feeling rosy at all either, I think a loss might have been a more severe wake up call. Right now, if the coaches are happy with the win, then they might go back to the previous ways and get the same results.  It's week to week with this team right now, no idea what team or scheme will arrive.  As it is, I will be shocked if the OL suddenly remembers how to run block, but at least they did a bit in the colts game. That wasn't the case for the last month  was it?

we will watch and see how this all goes. I still think the defence is good enough to keep a tolerable offence in games. 

in case I forgot , FIRE FICHNER! It won't happen, but that's where I ( and everyone here) stands on what has to be the worst OC we have had since who knows when. If ben was calling plays in the 2nd half, then let him call entire games. The opening to the game was pathetic and that was fichner, who should be in jail for robbing the steelers weekly.  

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Only watching some TV copy replay, but I wanted to see if I could get a sense of if Fichtner was less involved in the second half. Hey, I get it, Ben called the plays in the no huddle -- but he is ALSO the guy that is heavily involved in the pre-planning. It's why they dumped a guy like Haley that had the say and went with a buddy like Fichtner. The offense is Bens, regardless of how much I hate Fichtner. He is awful at what he does, but him and ben together...woof.

Moral of my watching story: No, it doesn't really look like we change a lot of what we do. Tons of Smash concepts though, that even dating back to the Ravens game were there for us. Really liked seeing JuJu lined up outside of DJ and Claypool in some two man bunches. It's free yards having DJ or Chase push up field and sending JuJu on the out. Had it a couple different times to different receivers. They tried a couple times to run the smash with JuJu as the inside man and it does not register the same. Claypool and DJ have to be the guys to push....not JuJu. 

But the biggest story is just what the effect of deep success can have for you, and the commitment we showed to it in the second half. There was a pretty comical completion to Washington on a --- well, you would call it a come back but the route was more of a "are they stupid? Ill just stop here" 7 yard gain. They were so concerned with Claypool in the slot that Rock Ya played 8 yards off Washington (James, not Nate) and bailed. 

They also finally helped the run game by deciding that maybe running bunch with Ebron as our tightened isn't a great idea because it invites more people to the line? That spread stack -- something we havent done all year -- let us go 5 on 5 blocking, Pouncey climbs and Connor is off. 

Two successful screens, two times Villy stays connected in his pass blocking. I would have to go back, but that feels like a change. The screen game also gets helped by clearing out defenders when they are actually afraid of getting beat deep. 

Our run game just profoundly confuses me still. I just think its conceptually broken from a design standpoint, but I need someone with more line experience than me to help me understand what is or what should be happening. 1st and 10 2:40 some left in the game with a lead. Love the pistol, love the spread 3 wide (would rather Vance than Ebron, but eh). To me, this looks like we should be blocking this one up and popping a big run, but because Connor has someone to meet him in the backfield, we barely get 2 (with Snell, this does go for -2). Chuks shuffles his feet outside and the DE crashes in -- in my mind, he is in perfect position to push the DE down and straight outta the play and the way Chuks fired off it seemed like he was reaching to get the outside leverage. But instead, he like, passes him off to a pulling pouncey. So here is where I get confused. Connor immediately starts outside, but when you consider that when the ball hits his guy his RT is outside of a crashing DE, I would imagine that's the call. IMO, this is a huge gain if pulling Pouncey gets outside and leads Connor up, but Pouncey takes a really shallow angle, like he is meant to kick out the DE and the RB go inside with Chuks going to the next level. But Connor is already pot committed to an outside run and that leads the DE to be in perfect position now to make a play with outside leverage on the pulling Pouncey. So in essence, I have no clue what's the plan here. Was this a G to the inside or out? Should Chuks have just down blocked and gone with the end? Did Pouncey need more depth to the outside? Was Connor wrong and needed to stick with the inside hole? I have no clue. But this has been our running game all year. "Hey we got someth-- never mind."

We also ran a Whip screen to the RB....love it. 

Dcash4's quick fix to redzone issues: Throw the Ball to Diontae Johnson, and ONLY to Diontae Johnson. That's all. Its fixed. You are welcome. He is the only guy that wins routes in short space. Had 3 TD's on the goaline stand and didnt have 1 target. You can sell me on using Claypools physicality, but the problem with contact catchers is that they invite defenders to make plays. DJ wins routes. He is the AB styled Redzone buster. 

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For the most part @Dcash4 well said but a few things I do disagree with about the play calling and running game that I’ll elaborate on when I’m in front of my computer. 


Long story short of what I’m going to say is Fitchner isn’t seeing the game well from his spot and we need someone in the booth relying what Ben is seeing to Fitchner. 

 

EDIT:

Okso I'm with you on the game plan not being much different.  The concepts don't change from when Fitchner is calling plays and when Ben is calling the plays.  The difference is in how the plays get used.

Lets take your smash concept for example.  When Fitchner runs it we're in a more traditional 11 set with the TE in tight, Juju in the slot, and Johnson/Claypool/Washington outside on the numbers.  From a defenses perspective it's a very easy to read and diagnose play.  There's no confusion as to who has which man.  You line up across and the backend talks to you on responsibility.

When Ben runs the smash concept he will do a duo with the TE somewhat split to the wide-9 gap on the opposite side, putting Juju in front and Claypool/Washington behind.  This now creates confusion and a mismatch on the back end.  Who takes Juju and who gets the other guy?  Plus for Washington and Claypool, it gets them a cleaner release by having Juju be the guy at the POA to engage with the closest corner.  When Washington/Claypool have 5-10 yards to work with before their cut or 2nd gear, there's not many that can keep up.  On the other side, he can send Ebron down the seam, which gets Johnson single coverage on the outside.

Then as the wrinkle, in 11 personnel, Ben will do a single and trips, putting Juju and Johnson behind Ebron with Washington/Claypool single side.  To me the two best things about this is it gets your two best YAC guys clean releases, tilts the defense to the single side because of the downfield threat, and at times if you put it wide enough, it creates running lanes because defenses are worried about the width and the depth of the field. 

Basically long story short there, is I think Ben knowns how to create mismatches, which to me means he knows how to operate really well without Brown.  I think that Fitchner was spoiled by AB and Bell in his first years as a play caller who were mismatches without trying and made it easy.  Fitchner still looks at and talks about WR's as "positioned" WR's (meaning X, Y, Z and that's all they do) while I think Ben looks at them as assets that can create certain outcomes.

Take my earlier 11 with a stack to one side with Juju in front.  Well from a defensive perspective you would have to commit a SAM/WILL to the inside leverage of Juju, but he can't go out with Ebron on that side because he needs to be the outside leverage on Ebron.  With Ebron not attached, the MIKE needs to be off the LOS to respect the ability to come off the line and climb the seam.  The outside corner and and nickel corner need to have perfect communication to pick up the Juju/Claypool/Washington duo.  From a safety perspective because Johnson is as clean of a route runner as they come, you need to roll one onto his side.  So on the duo side if Claypool runs a 7-8-9 route, Ebron on a deep hook/slant/in, now that safety is stuck in no mans land of which do you commit to?  So now you got RB out of the backfield and Juju single covered.  And boom big play.  

How do your wrinkle that?  Juju runs the deep slant/in and Ebron runs a shallow out.  Now the defense really has no clue and you throw a run with Conner in.  Pouncey can punch and climb to the MIKE on the second level, Ebron can crack block in on the SAM, and Conner theoretically only has the SS to worry about.

I think Fitchner can't see those things happening on the sideline at all; and the reason Ben liked him in the first place was he was in the booth communicating Haley's playcalls so Ben knew he saw the same things.  I would be willing to bet if Fitchner were on the sideline and Haley in the booth all those years, Haley would still be the OC....and easily.  I think if they could go back to that system, where Fitchner is on the sidelines calling the plays, but Canada were in the booth relaying the plays to Ben, or Fitchner in the booth calling plays and Canada relaying them to Ben then the offense would look more like the second half last week.

Edited by warfelg
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1 hour ago, warfelg said:

F

Okso I'm with you on the game plan not being much different.  The concepts don't change from when Fitchner is calling plays and when Ben is calling the plays.  The difference is in how the plays get used.

 

I would slightly amend your answer in that Ben is telling the Wr what routes to run.  I think what he calls in the huddle is the formations and protection and he tells WR what routes he wants them to run.   You will see the huddle break and the receivers stay to get extra instructions.

 

Fitchner has no concept of play calling.  I am not sure he is decent at designing plays so why is he there?

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