Week 9...OAK

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

HUGE game by DeAngelo Williams & Antonio Brown....HUGE!

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Wow... what a game! That is the type of game that makes every fan an NFL addict. Whether it was going in our favor or not, you have to admit that it was pure excitement from start to finish.

Coaching... A couple questionable 4th down calls but Tomlin stuck to his word of staying aggressive. Only once did it bite them in the ass by giving OAK great field position, so I can't complain too much. That draw play on 4th & 1 was a thing of beauty from Haley. Spread the D out and run that bastard up the gut for a TD. Even when going heavy set he still rolled out play action. That was a great thing to see! Not too often will you hear me praising Haley, but this game he was rock solid. Butler stuck to his guns and dialed up the blitz no matter how ineffective it appeared the pass rush was. 0 sacks, but plenty of QB hurries. It may not look great on the stat sheet, but against a quick release QB that's about all you can ask. I'm going with a rock solid A grade.

O... Ben really got dialed in after the first couple drives. When Ben & AB are on point there's not a defense in this league that can stop them. Too bad for the injury, but I'm not going to pout about this injury plague we seem to be surviving through. More on that later. O-line played well with the assistance of Heath, W-Johnson & Nix. DeCastro was an animal in the pull game. The run game was more than effective. A couple costly illegal snap penalties on Wallace really had my blood boiling. Not to mention the horrible call on Wheaton that negated the first down play. They couldn't have come at worse times in the game. After Ben went down it seemed like everything started falling apart due to penalties. Not sure if this is exactly accurate, but the Steelers didn't have a single penalty on them in the first half. That was nice to see. 3rd & 4th qtrs were a different story. Landry was the savior yet again. Also good to see "the outlaw" Jesse James get his first TD under his first gameday helmet. He also made a huge block on that Marty B TD. But the boatload of credit goes to AB, D-Will & Ben. B+

D... What a rollercoaster ride that game was! Secondary showed up big when they were needed, but the botched assignments need to be cleaned up. Carr didn't have much of a problem picking them apart between the 20's. Thankfully the secondary made big TO's at big time moments. Hats off to all of them. I'm becoming more of a believer in Mitchell as the season marches on. D-line was gashed early but they settled in. LBers weren't at their best. Overall this unit deserves a lot of credit, they put the ball into the Offense's hands when they needed it the most. But with the way they were picked apart I can't go much higher than a B- though.

ST... The Boz is mortal! lol. Thankfully that missed 41-yd FG didn't necessarily haunt them. Definitely made them sweat though! What happened to Berry's "big leg"? He's been consistently punting lower 40's. Jacoby Jones' arrival was as expected. One terrible decision, but you can't fault the guy for trying to create a spark. At least he wasn't deep within the EZ like Archer did. Kickoff coverage is piss poor, so it doesn't matter who they have back there. Getting past the 20 is the ceiling. Big blocked punt by Dupree, but AB's fumble later on negated that success for this unit. Loved Shamarko's tackle that pinned them deep. I'll go with a C+.

Overall... Tough AFC game against a very worthy opponent. The Raiders franchise has definitely turned the corner and has a bright future ahead of them. Today's battle was epic. I'm proud of the way the group stuck together through everything. I'll go with a solid B.

Outlook... Losing Ben hurts, and its hard not to feel down on this season overall with all the injuries, but that was a big AFC win. This team is still very much in this son B! Having the bye week after the Browns will lessen the blow of Ben's 2nd absence. They will need to claw their way to another W against Cleveland. Thankfully its another home game. Landry seems to have a better chemistry with AB now, so hopefully he'll stay in psych. Still, don't expect fireworks next week. They will need to lean on D-Will & the defense again. If they can get Ben back before heading to C-Link they will have a great shot at a WC slot. But as mentioned previously, every AFC W is damn near a necessity. Not necessary to risk Ben during that game, but he will be needed against IND.

I think we all need to pledge to burn our lucky underwear, or sacrifice a chicken to appease the NFL gods and get this injury monkey off our backs!

Go Stillers!

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Wow... what a game! That is the type of game that makes every fan an NFL addict. Whether it was going in our favor or not, you have to admit that it was pure excitement from start to finish.

Coaching... A couple questionable 4th down calls but Tomlin stuck to his word of staying aggressive. Only once did it bite them in the ass by giving OAK great field position, so I can't complain too much. That draw play on 4th & 1 was a thing of beauty from Haley. Spread the D out and run that bastard up the gut for a TD. Even when going heavy set he still rolled out play action. That was a great thing to see! Not too often will you hear me praising Haley, but this game he was rock solid. Butler stuck to his guns and dialed up the blitz no matter how ineffective it appeared the pass rush was. 0 sacks, but plenty of QB hurries. It may not look great on the stat sheet, but against a quick release QB that's about all you can ask. I'm going with a rock solid A grade.

O... Ben really got dialed in after the first couple drives. When Ben & AB are on point there's not a defense in this league that can stop them. Too bad for the injury, but I'm not going to pout about this injury plague we seem to be surviving through. More on that later. O-line played well with the assistance of Heath, W-Johnson & Nix. DeCastro was an animal in the pull game. The run game was more than effective. A couple costly illegal snap penalties on Wallace really had my blood boiling. Not to mention the horrible call on Wheaton that negated the first down play. They couldn't have come at worse times in the game. After Ben went down it seemed like everything started falling apart due to penalties. Not sure if this is exactly accurate, but the Steelers didn't have a single penalty on them in the first half. That was nice to see. 3rd & 4th qtrs were a different story. Landry was the savior yet again. Also good to see "the outlaw" Jesse James get his first TD under his first gameday helmet. He also made a huge block on that Marty B TD. But the boatload of credit goes to AB, D-Will & Ben. B+

D... What a rollercoaster ride that game was! Secondary showed up big when they were needed, but the botched assignments need to be cleaned up. Carr didn't have much of a problem picking them apart between the 20's. Thankfully the secondary made big TO's at big time moments. Hats off to all of them. I'm becoming more of a believer in Mitchell as the season marches on. D-line was gashed early but they settled in. LBers weren't at their best. Overall this unit deserves a lot of credit, they put the ball into the Offense's hands when they needed it the most. But with the way they were picked apart I can't go much higher than a B- though.

ST... The Boz is mortal! lol. Thankfully that missed 41-yd FG didn't necessarily haunt them. Definitely made them sweat though! What happened to Berry's "big leg"? He's been consistently punting lower 40's. Jacoby Jones' arrival was as expected. One terrible decision, but you can't fault the guy for trying to create a spark. At least he wasn't deep within the EZ like Archer did. Kickoff coverage is piss poor, so it doesn't matter who they have back there. Getting past the 20 is the ceiling. Big blocked punt by Dupree, but AB's fumble later on negated that success for this unit. Loved Shamarko's tackle that pinned them deep. I'll go with a C+.

Overall... Tough AFC game against a very worthy opponent. The Raiders franchise has definitely turned the corner and has a bright future ahead of them. Today's battle was epic. I'm proud of the way the group stuck together through everything. I'll go with a solid B.

Outlook... Losing Ben hurts, and its hard not to feel down on this season overall with all the injuries, but that was a big AFC win. This team is still very much in this son B! Having the bye week after the Browns will lessen the blow of Ben's 2nd absence. They will need to claw their way to another W against Cleveland. Thankfully its another home game. Landry seems to have a better chemistry with AB now, so hopefully he'll stay in psych. Still, don't expect fireworks next week. They will need to lean on D-Will & the defense again. If they can get Ben back before heading to C-Link they will have a great shot at a WC slot. But as mentioned previously, every AFC W is damn near a necessity. Not necessary to risk Ben during that game, but he will be needed against IND.

I think we all need to pledge to burn our lucky underwear, or sacrifice a chicken to appease the NFL gods and get this injury monkey off our backs!

Go Stillers!
View attachment 49875

Great summary...did not expect a shootout...the penalties late hurt, but survived...clearly we were wrong about Landry. He can execute the plays...Ben should be ready by 11/29...Haley needs to call a good game and not put LAndry in too many bad 3rd down spots. I'll focus on the big picture.

This was a big game...CLE next week is just a big...AFC wildcard outlook...NYJ & BUF, Fins lost to BUF, but only a game back in the loss. CIN put a two nails in CLE's coffin...BAL was off but they are only 2 back. KC off...one back in the loss with h-t-h tie breaker. Of course we take the h-t-h against OAK....IND won to keep a lock on the DIV, but HOU (off) is only 1 back in the loss.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Great summary...did not expect a shootout...the penalties late hurt, but survived...clearly we were wrong about Landry. He can execute the plays...Ben should be ready by 11/29...Haley needs to call a good game and not put LAndry in too many bad 3rd down spots. I'll focus on the big picture.

This was a big game...CLE next week is just a big...AFC wildcard outlook...NYJ & BUF, Fins lost to BUF, but only a game back in the loss. CIN put a two nails in CLE's coffin...BAL was off but they are only 2 back. KC off...one back in the loss with h-t-h tie breaker. Of course we take the h-t-h against OAK....IND won to keep a lock on the DIV, but HOU (off) is only 1 back in the loss.

I have a feeling that we are going to see a better showing from Landry against CLE. He's better prepared and he won't be in a hostile environment. Like I said though, not expecting fireworks. Just a more rounded game with less mistakes.

 

[Delphic1]

It is high time Ben should stop looking for heroics all the time. That sack could easily have been avoided if he would have just thrown the ball away or looked for some easy dump off.

That injury is all on Ben. He has started to get back to hit a HR all the time, and that has gotten frustrating.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

It is high time Ben should stop looking for heroics all the time. That sack could easily have been avoided if he would have just thrown the ball away or looked for some easy dump off.

That injury is all on Ben. He has started to get back to hit a HR all the time, and that has gotten frustrating.

Guess he forgot a 1st yr starter is playing LT...I thought Smith made a good bull rush and beat AVill on the outside shoulder. Ben chose to scramble left...into the tackle...if he slides right, he at least get that ball away, but may have taken a hit anyway.

 

[SteelerKing]

It is high time Ben should stop looking for heroics all the time. That sack could easily have been avoided if he would have just thrown the ball away or looked for some easy dump off.

That injury is all on Ben. He has started to get back to hit a HR all the time, and that has gotten frustrating.

This is wrong on every level. That sack occurred in just under 3 seconds after the snap, which is hardly holding onto the ball too long. According to PFF, the fastest average release times in the NFL are typically around 2.4 seconds - and that's from the aggregate of all throws, meaning that for every dropback from the league leader in this category that has a time to throw of 2 seconds, there's one close to 3. Russell Wilson's career average time to throw exceeds the amount of time Ben had on that one play and that is his career average. Furthermore, blaming any injury that a player sustains on the player is nonsensical. It was, once again, a fluke injury like all injuries. They're bad luck and nothing more.

I realize there's always been a faction of our own fan base that likes to put completely unfounded criticism on our quarterback unless he's completing 100% of his passes and getting rid of the ball in under 2 seconds on every snap, but the criticisms are baseless and unrealistic. There was another site I posted on for awhile where a representative of this faction said that Ben had a bad game and that he "expected more from our $100 million quarterback" against Tampa Bay in 2014. Ben completed almost 73% of his passes for 314 yards, 3 touchdowns, 0 INTs, and a 120.2 passer rating in that game. The criticism was that he "missed some throws that cost us the game". These same guys would mindlessly throw up similar criticism of Ben pretty much each and every week and it got to the point that it was so annoying to read that it was one of the reasons I left that site.

So please think before you offer baseless criticism that isn't supported by facts or reality. There is not one single criticism of Ben holding onto the ball too long on that play pretty much anywhere on the internet except in your post. Ben has been doing a fine job of getting rid of the ball quickly under Haley, was never any worse than about average with his time to throw at any point in his career, and even kept us in field goal range yesterday by doing so. Ben getting his foot awkwardly folded up underneath him on a sack is as much his fault as Bell's knee injury last week or any of Pouncey's injuries.

 

[Psych-Ward]

This is wrong on every level. That sack occurred in just under 3 seconds after the snap, which is hardly holding onto the ball too long. According to PFF, the fastest average release times in the NFL are typically around 2.4 seconds - and that's from the aggregate of all throws, meaning that for every dropback from the league leader in this category that has a time to throw of 2 seconds, there's one close to 3. Russell Wilson's career average time to throw exceeds the amount of time Ben had on that one play and that is his career average. Furthermore, blaming any injury that a player sustains on the player is nonsensical. It was, once again, a fluke injury like all injuries. They're bad luck and nothing more.

I realize there's always been a faction of our own fan base that likes to put completely unfounded criticism on our quarterback unless he's completing 100% of his passes and getting rid of the ball in under 2 seconds on every snap, but the criticisms are baseless and unrealistic. There was another site I posted on for awhile where a representative of this faction said that Ben had a bad game and that he "expected more from our $100 million quarterback" against Tampa Bay in 2014. Ben completed almost 73% of his passes for 314 yards, 3 touchdowns, 0 INTs, and a 120.2 passer rating in that game. The criticism was that he "missed some throws that cost us the game". These same guys would mindlessly throw up similar criticism of Ben pretty much each and every week and it got to the point that it was so annoying to read that it was one of the reasons I left that site.

So please think before you offer baseless criticism that isn't supported by facts or reality. There is not one single criticism of Ben holding onto the ball too long on that play pretty much anywhere on the internet except in your post. Ben has been doing a fine job of getting rid of the ball quickly under Haley, was never any worse than about average with his time to throw at any point in his career, and even kept us in field goal range yesterday by doing so. Ben getting his foot awkwardly folded up underneath him on a sack is as much his fault as Bell's knee injury last week or any of Pouncey's injuries.

What's up King???

I wouldn't waist my breath.... he has already said in another thread he has pretty much given up on the Steelers this year..... SMFH, what Steelers fans says such shit???

 

[Psych-Ward]

What are Patriots fans most obsessed with? | Page 4 | SportsHoopla Sports Forums

 

[ATL96Steeler]

I have a feeling that we are going to see a better showing from Landry against CLE. He's better prepared and he won't be in a hostile environment. Like I said though, not expecting fireworks. Just a more rounded game with less mistakes.

Agreed. Browns are not going to make it easy on him, but QB play in CLE is still bad.

I know they got a short field on AB's muffed punt, but I was a little stunned at OAK's OFC production late. The turnovers obviously contributed to the 35, so I can't kill the DEF...Cockrell is learning on the fly, but they may have found at least one CB to move forward with.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

This is wrong on every level. That sack occurred in just under 3 seconds after the snap, which is hardly holding onto the ball too long. According to PFF, the fastest average release times in the NFL are typically around 2.4 seconds - and that's from the aggregate of all throws, meaning that for every dropback from the league leader in this category that has a time to throw of 2 seconds, there's one close to 3. Russell Wilson's career average time to throw exceeds the amount of time Ben had on that one play and that is his career average. Furthermore, blaming any injury that a player sustains on the player is nonsensical. It was, once again, a fluke injury like all injuries. They're bad luck and nothing more.

I realize there's always been a faction of our own fan base that likes to put completely unfounded criticism on our quarterback unless he's completing 100% of his passes and getting rid of the ball in under 2 seconds on every snap, but the criticisms are baseless and unrealistic. There was another site I posted on for awhile where a representative of this faction said that Ben had a bad game and that he "expected more from our $100 million quarterback" against Tampa Bay in 2014. Ben completed almost 73% of his passes for 314 yards, 3 touchdowns, 0 INTs, and a 120.2 passer rating in that game. The criticism was that he "missed some throws that cost us the game". These same guys would mindlessly throw up similar criticism of Ben pretty much each and every week and it got to the point that it was so annoying to read that it was one of the reasons I left that site.

So please think before you offer baseless criticism that isn't supported by facts or reality. There is not one single criticism of Ben holding onto the ball too long on that play pretty much anywhere on the internet except in your post. Ben has been doing a fine job of getting rid of the ball quickly under Haley, was never any worse than about average with his time to throw at any point in his career, and even kept us in field goal range yesterday by doing so. Ben getting his foot awkwardly folded up underneath him on a sack is as much his fault as Bell's knee injury last week or any of Pouncey's injuries.

Every fan base that's had much success has what I call the lunatic fringe...ready to pounce on anything negative. Colbert, Tomlin, Haley, and Ben are the normal targets.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Every fan base that's had much success has what I call the lunatic fringe...ready to pounce on anything negative. Colbert, Tomlin, Haley, and Ben are the normal targets.

You see it on every forum or fan site. SBnation is the worst of them all. One bad game and the place goes up in flames. Even some of the writers will post slander every now and again.

I choose to ignore knee-jerk reactions unless someone is trying to have a real conversation about it.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Agreed. Browns are not going to make it easy on him, but QB play in CLE is still bad.

I know they got a short field on AB's muffed punt, but I was a little stunned at OAK's OFC production late. The turnovers obviously contributed to the 35, so I can't kill the DEF...Cockrell is learning on the fly, but they may have found at least one CB to move forward with.

Cockrell is exactly what I thought he would be when I was mocking him. Tall, good speed & awareness, plays physical, but raw. I'd love for the kid to stick around and continue to develop.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

This is wrong on every level. That sack occurred in just under 3 seconds after the snap, which is hardly holding onto the ball too long. According to PFF, the fastest average release times in the NFL are typically around 2.4 seconds - and that's from the aggregate of all throws, meaning that for every dropback from the league leader in this category that has a time to throw of 2 seconds, there's one close to 3. Russell Wilson's career average time to throw exceeds the amount of time Ben had on that one play and that is his career average. Furthermore, blaming any injury that a player sustains on the player is nonsensical. It was, once again, a fluke injury like all injuries. They're bad luck and nothing more.

I realize there's always been a faction of our own fan base that likes to put completely unfounded criticism on our quarterback unless he's completing 100% of his passes and getting rid of the ball in under 2 seconds on every snap, but the criticisms are baseless and unrealistic. There was another site I posted on for awhile where a representative of this faction said that Ben had a bad game and that he "expected more from our $100 million quarterback" against Tampa Bay in 2014. Ben completed almost 73% of his passes for 314 yards, 3 touchdowns, 0 INTs, and a 120.2 passer rating in that game. The criticism was that he "missed some throws that cost us the game". These same guys would mindlessly throw up similar criticism of Ben pretty much each and every week and it got to the point that it was so annoying to read that it was one of the reasons I left that site.

So please think before you offer baseless criticism that isn't supported by facts or reality. There is not one single criticism of Ben holding onto the ball too long on that play pretty much anywhere on the internet except in your post. Ben has been doing a fine job of getting rid of the ball quickly under Haley, was never any worse than about average with his time to throw at any point in his career, and even kept us in field goal range yesterday by doing so. Ben getting his foot awkwardly folded up underneath him on a sack is as much his fault as Bell's knee injury last week or any of Pouncey's injuries.

Love this post... SteelerKing straight droppin knowledge!