Week 9...Bye Week Mid Season Recap

[ATL96Steeler]

The 6-2 Steelers get the bye week smack in the middle of the season for a change. They should get some guys back on the other side of this bye. Gilbert, and Tuitt have been nicked all season so hopefully they are back to playing health. Hubbard, with a concussion should have enough time to heal. I think McDonald could've played last week if really needed so he should be good to go vs IND.

Finally...Rookie CB, Cameron Sutton, has been cleared to practice, and he's been practicing. With Hilton playing so well and seemingly plenty of depth with Sensabaugh behind Gay, I thought they might keeping him on the shelf all season.

There is some speculation they want to look at him as the punt returner...if so, somebody will have to go and it could be Brian Allen, but I still don't like exposing big CBs when they don't have many on the roster. Tomlin rarely cuts vet FAs mid season so Sensabaugh is probably safe even though he's not really played much.

OFC

• 167 pts, 20th ranked
  
• 2910 total yds 11th ranked
• 2039 passing yds, 7th ranked
• 10 passing TD, 23rd ranked
• 871 yds rushing, ranked 16th
• 5 rushing TD, ranked 16th

Summary...the long and short of it, need to score the ball better.

Bell and AB are enroute to great seasons, but the overall OFC has been somewhat stagnant. Yeah Juju Smith-Schuster is having a nice rookie yr, but 25% of his yardage production came in 1 game. I think they will need more contribution further down the totem pole...Jessie James, McD, Grimble, Rogers, Connor...imo all need to factor more in the second half to get the OFC really going in the right direction.

DEF

• 131 pts against, 2nd ranked
• 2293 yds, 4th ranked
• 1440 passing yds, 2nd ranked
• 853 rushing yds, 16th ranked

Summary...better than expected to be honest. The pass DEF stats are a by-product of the QBs they've played so you can't trust that ranking to hold up vs better QBs...hopefully Stafford was just an off day, but more than anything it showed me...zone defense w/o pressure = great day for a good QB on the stat sheet. They have shown more man DEF this yr, but still for the most part a zone based team. QB pressure is better this year and that's amazing considering Harrsion has been almost a non factor thru 8 games.

If the OFC can punch the ball in the endzone more, I don't see why this team can't finish out at 12-4 or better.

 

[Bridgeburner]

Excellent post. Which is as expected. I have nothing much to add.

Except maybe that I think I've been sexually harassed by Spinnerbait.

#MeToo

 

[Bridgeburner]

If the OFC can punch the ball in the endzone more, I don't see why this team can't finish out at 12-4 or better.

What do you attribute this to, mostly? Haley? Tomlin? Ben?

 

[Bridgeburner]

Excellent post. Which is as expected. I have nothing much to add.

Except maybe that I think I've been sexually harassed by Spinnerbait.

#MeToo

Wow. I messed up his name. @Superbelt

Who's Spinnerbait?

 

[Superbelt]

Wow. I messed up his name. @Superbelt

Who's Spinnerbait?

It was just a couple back massages. I never even showed you my spinnerbait.

 

[Superbelt]

... I'm saving that for the playoffs.

 

[Bridgeburner]

HAHAHAHAHA

 

[ATL96Steeler]

What do you attribute this to, mostly? Haley? Tomlin? Ben?

It's game to game I think. Last week I would say mostly Ben...DHB was wide open...made him work way too hard on that one.

My general thoughts on Haley in the RZ...not enough imagination, simply not using enough of the roster.

 

[Bridgeburner]

It's game to game I think. Last week I would say mostly Ben...DHB was wide open...made him work way too hard on that one.

My general thoughts on Haley in the RZ...not enough imagination, simply not using enough of the roster.

They've gone from being that entertaining team who would go for 2 instead of kicking to just settling for field goals most of the time. It's frustrating with this roster.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

They've gone from being that entertaining team who would go for 2 instead of kicking to just settling for field goals most of the time. It's frustrating with this roster.

A total 180...hard to blame Tomlin there with the results lately...I'd probably only go for 2 if I had to with this OFC.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Great midseason recap ATL!

Not really much else to add... Maybe just to drive a few of those points further home!? lol

Offense... Gotta find a way to get everyone clicking. We've seen flashes from everyone at different times but not at the same time. Roethlisberger typically plays better in November/December so I'm hopeful that trend continues. But none of that really matters if they cannot finish drives. Let's pummel that dead horse shall we?

• RZ efficiency: 41.38% (30th ranked)
• 3rd Down efficiency: 37.9% (18th ranked)
• Penalties: 54 (9th most)
• Penalty yards: 451 (10th most)

Although they are tied for 4th in most 1st downs, its nothing to be proud of when they are 20th in points per game. I consider them to be very fortunate to be at 6-2 right now with how lackluster the offense has been. Come December the schedule is going to get a lot tougher. Thankfully they will be playing 3/5 of those games at home. Another thing to be thankful for is they have 4 primetime games in a row starting Nov 16th. Steelers typically play well in those!

Nov 16: TEN @ PIT ... TNF
Nov 26: GB @ PIT ... SNF
Dec 4: PIT @ CIN ... MNF
Dec 10: BAL @ PIT ... SNF

Defense... Nothing to add. Exceeding expectations! The additions of Joe Haden & Mike Hilton really made a big difference in the 2nd level, but as ATL said... Hard to really gauge it when they have only played 1-2 good QBs (Smith & Stafford). But the bigger takeaways from this unit is the pass rush has been stellar. Butler is dialing up blitzes likes its 2015 all over again.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Great midseason recap ATL!

Not really much else to add... Maybe just to drive a few of those points further home!? lol

Offense... Gotta find a way to get everyone clicking. We've seen flashes from everyone at different times but not at the same time. Roethlisberger typically plays better in November/December so I'm hopeful that trend continues. But none of that really matters if they cannot finish drives. Let's pummel that dead horse shall we?

• RZ efficiency: 41.38% (30th ranked)
• 3rd Down efficiency: 37.9% (18th ranked)
• Penalties: 54 (9th most)
• Penalty yards: 451 (10th most)

Although they are tied for 4th in most 1st downs, its nothing to be proud of when they are 20th in points per game. I consider them to be very fortunate to be at 6-2 right now with how lackluster the offense has been. Come December the schedule is going to get a lot tougher. Thankfully they will be playing 3/5 of those games at home. Another thing to be thankful for is they have 4 primetime games in a row starting Nov 16th. Steelers typically play well in those!

Nov 16: TEN @ PIT ... TNF
Nov 26: GB @ PIT ... SNF
Dec 4: PIT @ CIN ... MNF
Dec 10: BAL @ PIT ... SNF

Defense... Nothing to add. Exceeding expectations! The additions of Joe Haden & Mike Hilton really made a big difference in the 2nd level, but as ATL said... Hard to really gauge it when they have only played 1-2 good QBs (Smith & Stafford). But the bigger takeaways from this unit is the pass rush has been stellar. Butler is dialing up blitzes likes its 2015 all over again.

OFC...what's interesting is it seems that possessing the ball and playing decent DEF (great in some instances such as DET RZ) is really why they are 6-2. There were 3 games they did not have more 1st downs than the opponent...CHI, JAX, and DET...lo and behold they lost 2 of the 3.

If we can see some of the fixes. I hold out hope that Haley and staff will be able to self scout the 1st 8 games and also see what they have not used. I don't think they will get the same results over the next 8 unless they get more innovative, and use more of the roster.

National TV...Nice! I've been lucky...we've gotten 5 of the 8 on local TV...who knows about the IND game, but the next 5..4 national and NE is likely to be on here...and HOU is Xmas day. Hopefully CLE2.0 won't mean anything.

DEF...Yeah, the numbers look good and the DEF looks promising and they've probably had the starting 11 for only maybe 2 games. Didn't like being gouged like that in CHI on the ground, but this unit will only get better. Butler has to be more confident in letting them play more aggressive.