Game Thread: Week 9... @DAL

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Other than the obvious knee issue, my main concern is that EVERY pass over 20 yards seems to be way overthrown.

Every one of those passes the DBs are holding or mugging the WRs... Honestly we haven't seen a fair shake of the deep ball in a long time.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

 

[thedddd]

Typical Steeler win. Tomlin with more questionable calls and just god awful special teams.

With that said Tomlin is officially guaranteed another non-losing season. Amazing a coach with such poor play calling judgement is so good. Proves what having great players does for certain coaches, if not this would be the Dan Quinn version of the Falcons.

 

[Superbelt]

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Coaching... You take the field goal Tomlin. TAKE THE F-ING FIELD GOAL TOMLIN!!! He made that decision based solely on his distrust for his kickoff coverage team, which I disagree with. Alright now that I've got that off my chest... Yet another ugly one for this staff. And to make matters worse, the ST unit decided to join in on the fun. I don't understand what the coaching staff does every week. Because it sure as hell doesn't appear that they are watching film & scheming against their opponents. Rather, they are simply sticking to the same gameplans and hoping for better results while other teams are evolving & scheming like they should be. Everything the Steelers did yesterday on both sides of the ball schematically was directly against the Cowboy's only strengths. They were doing the opposite of what has worked all year. How does that make any sense? Offense dug itself such a bad hole that Ben took the reins before the half was over just to get things moving. Fichtner is utter garbage, but we've known that already. Rushing for 46yds against the league's worst rushing defense. Unacceptable. And the confusing choice to make MacFarland the go-to guy in the 1st quarter was bizarre. Butler decided to abandon his usual blitz packages and play zones for the majority of the game. The results were pathetic. A UDFA, 4th or 5th string QB that just got called up from the PS and had 1 week of practice to prep, was dismantling this defense. I said this last week & I'll continue to beat this dead horse, but this coaching staff does NOT understand zone philosophies. Never has, never F-ing will. Why they keep trying to do it is beyond me. Then throw in a potent mix of OLBs guarding slot CBs... WTF Butler. Has the previous 4 years not taught you that this sort of defense does not work? They finally roll out the blitz & play man late in the game and they start shutting them down. Playing aggressive is the only way this defense works. You've proven that you can have all the all-pro talent in the world and it doesn't cover up shitty schemes. I'm too upset with this game to give them anything better than a F grade. Time to get back to the drawing board and what worked best.

Offense... 2nd week in a row where Ben took the entire game into his own hands. 2nd half he went 15/23 for 195yds & 2 TDs alone. And those 9 pts they scored just before the half proved critical! Other than a bunch of stalled drives, he was an efficient passer all day according to his 113.8 rating. Juju proved yet again how valuable he is. While the other receivers are struggling to find open grass, and their hands no less, Juju is grinding out each & every yard like a young Hines Ward. This offense just doesn't have much of a pulse without him. Down game for Claypool with some drops and not finishing the go routes. Also the poorly timed slide on 3rd & 5 with just over 1min remaining to close out the game. Get that 1st down & its game over. This was easily one of Okorafor's worst games as a young pro. Which is strange because he has faced better competition before this and held his ground. Both OTs for that matter were getting dominated on the outside. Randy Gregory & Aldon Smith are talented pieces, but they are hardly world-beaters. The O-line in general was just not playing well inside & out. C-

Defense... LBs were put in some rough spots and the Cowboys coaches were routinely exploiting it. If you're going to make it that easy then hey, why not? Dupree on Cooper, Watt on Lamb in the slot is just not going to work. They can get away with that against inferior slot guys, but this was not the team to do that to. Cowboys realized that Butler wasn't going to shy away from this so they continued to spread out the defense to put them in bad mismatches. I couldn't for the life of me understand why they didn't try Williamson in that role if they were going to keep trying it. Williamson didn't log a single snap yesterday. Heyward & Tuitt were a 2-man wrecking crew that deserve some praise. Watt was largely schemed against, but he did give up some edge containment that ended up being huge gains for the 'Boys. He took some calculated risks that didn't end up in his favor. I don't fault him for making those decisions because he's incredibly smart and it is rare when he makes a bad choice. Those 2 takeaways from the Defense were a saving grace for this unit. C

ST... 2 misses from Boz (not entirely his fault because people don't know how to block), and multiple busted coverage teams. Oh and don't forget the consistent failures to block a man leaping the A gap on FGs. Fool me once, but fool them what, 3-4 times with the same damn guy? WTF man? I wanted to kick Danny Smith in the testicles so badly. This unit was all around atrocious except for maybe Berry... go figure. That 59yd FG that Boz nuked was impressive. But the missed 54 yarder before that wasn't so impressive. Thank you Dallas for giving him another shot. D

Overall... 2 weeks in a row where the Steelers have rallied from a 2nd half deficits of 10 or more points, on the road no less. Steelers will be heavily criticized for this win against Dallas, but they'll readily dismiss KC squeaking by the Panthers or the Bucs & Seahawks choking their games. But that is life in the NFL. Success comes with hate. But this much is true, they simply cannot keep relying on Ben to carry this lifeless team to victory. And even then they needed some favorable calls late in the game to get there. This team is sleepwalking through success and they are going to run out of luck in short order if they continue this charades brand of football. Not to mention they keep dodging injury bullets to Roethlisberger. The fact that these were typically the types of games they used to lose in seasons past tells us a lot about the way this roster has been constructed. Relying on talent vs good coaching will only get you so far though. Every week is going to be a dogfight with that sort of mentality. Oh and have to say that this was the first time that I was very annoyed with Tony Romo's color commentary. He was very biased all game long. C-

Outlook... Finally draw a home game since about a month's time. And right on time with a AFCN clash that the Steelers need to focus on. These Bengals are coming off bye week so they'll be rested & focused. Sound familiar? Same thing happened to the Steelers when they played the Ravens. Joe Burrow has already made a name for himself, but if he can knock off the last remaining undefeated team? He'll become a household name. Expect the Bengals to come out hair on fire this week. They are riding high after a great upset against the Titans. They are averaging over 30pts per game in their last 5 relying heavily on Burrow's arm. Secondary better be up to the task next week.

 

[Superbelt]

Ben needs to take over the offensive playcalling entirely. That, or give Canada a shot. Randy should be an assistant to Ben only, not his shotcaller.

I understand what they did on Defense more. They kept the LB's on the field because of Zeke. Just like with the Ravens. If they sub in DB's the running game will go wild, so they went all in for Run D, and challenged Dallas to win the game in the air. Considering how shallow the DL is right now, they had extra ground to make up to keep the Run D tight.

 

[Bridgeburner]

What a shit show.

8-0 for the first time in franchise history.

Doesn't fuckin feel like it.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Ben needs to take over the offensive playcalling entirely. That, or give Canada a shot. Randy should be an assistant to Ben only, not his shotcaller.

I understand what they did on Defense more. They kept the LB's on the field because of Zeke. Just like with the Ravens. If they sub in DB's the running game will go wild, so they went all in for Run D, and challenged Dallas to win the game in the air. Considering how shallow the DL is right now, they had extra ground to make up to keep the Run D tight.

I think Tomlin sorely misses Hilton, and obviously Alualu. But Tomlin has often referred to Hilton as his mini-LB. Hilton's ability to crash the box from the slot is huge. Nelson has been getting moved inside more with Layne coming in on the outside because they trust Nelson's tackling.

Once Hilton is back I don't think we'll see the OLBs manning up in the slot much.

 

[Superbelt]

What a shit show.

8-0 for the first time in franchise history.

Doesn't fuckin feel like it.

Anyone who didnt think we would struggle against a pure garbage team needs to get off the drugs.

The Jets would keep a game within a score with Pitt just as easily as the Chiefs would on any given sunday.

Steelers play to competition, always.

 

[Superbelt]

I think Tomlin sorely misses Hilton, and obviously Alualu. But Tomlin has often referred to Hilton as his mini-LB. Hilton's ability to crash the box from the slot is huge. Nelson has been getting moved inside more with Layne coming in on the outside because they trust Nelson's tackling.

Once Hilton is back I don't think we'll see the OLBs manning up in the slot much.

Yup, Hilton is a special hybrid DB that can do it all.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Every one of those passes the DBs are holding or mugging the WRs... Honestly we haven't seen a fair shake of the deep ball in a long time.