Game Thread: Week 14... @BUF ***SNF***

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Alligator cowboy boots on gameday... Ben's throwin 5 TDs tonight

 

[Bridgeburner]

Ugh. This team isn't going anywhere in the post season.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Coaching... Abysmal. Starts with Tomlin. I know it can be hard to blame someone for not being more aggressive given the product we were seeing on offense, but Tomlin stuck with his field-position-battle mentality. Not going for it on 4th & short deep in Bills' territory was a sobering wakeup call, and even moreso was sitting on the ball at the end of the half with 50sec remaining & 2 timeouts after Ben's momentum-swinging pick-6. Just WTF Mike??? That was a bush-league move but he has zero faith in his offense anymore. Offense is completely broken. The playcalling is shit and the players are shit. The OL is a mess, Ben can't throw deep outside the numbers, his receivers are dropping the ball & failing to get open consistently, for some reason Samuels is getting more snaps & targets over Claypool when the team is down 2 possessions, Juju's route tree continues to revolve around 5-yd routes, and the offense calls the exact same 10-15 plays every single game... That final drive they called the same plays over & over again. Just terrible all around. Offense finished 1-10 on 3rd downs last night. Let that sink in. Defense did a great job on Josh Allen in the 1st half, but Keith Butler went uber-aggressive in the 2nd half and left his ILBs in zones... The result, not a damn soul to be found on every single crossing route for Stefon Diggs. Failing to adjust to that was just plain stupid. F

Offense... Well... Where to start... The OL I guess. Both Feiler & Dotson went down to pectoral injuries. But that doesn't spare them the excuse of how awful they looked before, during & after the fact. Ben played like complete garbage last night. His accuracy was very Rudolph-esque. Throwing the ball behind his receivers routinely. His deep ball is basically shot. I don't know if its mechanics or simply his repaired elbow, but his noodle arm isn't helping anyone. His knee is clearly bothering him. He's immobile, and his throwing motion looks like shit. I'll be damned if it didn't look like Jaylen Samuels was the only RB touching the ball with some sort of enthusiasm last night. Maybe the other RBs can learn something from him. D-

Defense... Can they get through a single game without suffering an injury to a LB? Luckily Highsmith was able to finish the game, but damn. Williamson performed admirably, but Marcus Allen & UG3 were pretty much shit. The injuries are taking their toll, and the next man up attitude didn't work very well last night. 1st half was decent, but Keith Butler doomed them in the 2nd. ILBs were lost & the DBs weren't covering their assignments very well. Once Buffalo figured out moving Diggs off of Nelson, their offense sprung to life. Sutton & Hilton are good, but they certainly have their downfalls in coverage. And don't look now, but it appears tackling has become an issue with this unit. C

ST... Kickoff coverage was nothing short of embarrassing. Andre Roberts was averaging at least 35yds... Which tells you that he was routinely getting through the 1st & 2nd waves of tacklers. I saw 1 punt return (IIRC) that had 2 steelers defenders running at him untouched and he just ran right through the center of them, perfectly splitting them without being touched. How does that happen? I'm just surprised that they didn't allow any return TDs. C-

Overall... Well if this is the best they can muster up in a primetime game against an AFC contender... Then I think I'm going to go stick my head in the sand for the rest of the year. Confidence is just non-existent. Almost makes it worse that they clinched a playoff spot. I'd rather spare myself the pain of getting crushed in the playoffs if this is the best they can do. D

Outlook... I find it very hard to believe that they'll be able to fix this offense this year. They may find better consistency with Ben, but the rest of the personnel is a mess & the playcalling isn't fooling anyone anymore. I wouldn't be surprised to see them lose the rest of their games this year and freefall all the way to an early postseason exit. Its that bad. Steelers stay on the road heading into Cincy. Steelers will be wrongly favored in that game lol.

 

[Superbelt]

Short version:

Ben might be done. If he can't move, and if he can't throw more than 5 yards consistently... He's done. I'd like to see them try to open it up. This short game plan is dead. Completely dead. They can't run the ball because the OL can't runblock, and they can't pass the ball because even on short passes the WR's can't consistently catch it. It's punishment to watch this offense.

OL is putrid. Doesn't matter if they are a brick wall in pass blocking if the WR's can't catch balls. The team needs Diontae, he's electric. But he's also death. JuJu needs to be played like he used to be played. They are ruining, and wasting him. Claypool must have fucked Tomlin's wife. I don't know what else they need to get him on the field.

Defense is a pale image of what it was earlier this year. Injuries just killed it, they piled up and the remaining depth just can't cut it.

I want to slap Randy in the nuts with a sock full of quarters for every 2-yard pass or less and screen he called this year.

 

[DJ]

Rough L, guys....think they still recovering from 3 games in 12 days.

I wouldn't be too worried but Ben is a senior citizen....he can't be chucking it 45-50 times a game.

 

[thedddd]

Thanks Mike for stating the obvious.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Thanks Mike for stating the obvious.

Well I guess that's better than directly calling his players soft lol.

 

[Bridgeburner]

What does Tomlin always say about not living in their fears?

they are absolutely living in their fears.