Steelers notebook: Wallace ready to move on

[stillers4me]

Mike Wallace has put together some impressive numbers during his career. But his career-high four drops against the Bengals nearly got into his head.

Wallace is convinced he remedied the situation in preparing to face the Washington Redskins on Sunday at Heinz Field.

“I’m upset it happened, but you can’t dwell on it too much because it’ll roll over to the next game,” Wallace said. “I’m good about it now because I caught everything in practice this week to get it off my back.”

Wallace has gone back to the basics. He spent the week polishing his routes and using his eyes to the watch the ball in before tucking it away. He challenged cornerbacks Ike Taylor and Keenan Lewis to help sharpen his focus.
Still, he’s perplexed about his uninspired performance against the Bengals...........
.......

Read more: http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/2819997-85/redskins-wallace-steelers-clark-washington-team-bengals-moss-receiver-week#ixzz2AWvudBPt

[ALLD]

Wallace was thinking about a contract instead of the ball. It's his own fault for holding out. He could be a fast version of Nate Washington, never really a #1 on this team.

[GBMelBlount]

Wallace was thinking about a contract instead of the ball. It's his own fault for holding out. He could be a fast version of Nate Washington, never really a #1 on this team.

I don't completely agree ALLD.

Well, maybe in the context of OUR team with us having Brown you are right....

However when he is playing to his potential I feel he would be a legitimate # 1 receiver on at least half the teams in the NFL and is arguably top 15.

There is no question he is having a rough patch but I feel when he is focused and his head is in the game he is #1 material.

Brown is still my favorite though. In fact Brown is my favorite player in the NFL. I love this guy.

[ALLD]

Wallace isn't fitting in because he is way too inconsistent. He is not the go to clutch guy anymore. It is debateable if he can recover enough to warrant keeping him on the team at the contract rate he wants. I doubt he takes the same contract he was offered in the off-season and right now he is not even worth that.

[Moose]

Thanks for the post 'stillers4me', a good read. I'm glad for Wallace for a couple reason, first that Wallace recognized a problem, and secondly that he's trying to correct it. I hope that him working with Ike and crew show's great progress in the Washington game. I figured him trying to make a play before catching the ball was a problem in at least a couple drops.

[GBMelBlount]

Thanks for the post 'stillers4me', a good read. I'm glad for Wallace for a couple reason, first that Wallace recognized a problem, and secondly that he's trying to correct it. I hope that him working with Ike and crew show's great progress in the Washington game. I figured him trying to make a play before catching the ball was a problem in at least a couple drops.

I think this may be the case as well....At least I am hoping it is. That is a mental error that is correctable.

[zulater]

“I don’t know what happened,” he said. “It was kind of a snowball effect. I took my eyes off the first one, and I had hard time shaking it off.”

Read more: http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/2819997-85/redskins-wallace-steelers-clark-washington-team-bengals-moss-receiver-week#ixzz2AYjXkI6M
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This is something I've noticed with Wallace over the years. If something gets in his head early he has a hard time shaking it the rest of the game. Uncalled penalties, irritant db's who purposely take a cheap shot, a dropped pass, more than once I've seen all these things get Wallace off his game. You can't do that if you want to be thought of as elite. Bad call's, punk db's, drops, all got to roll of you like water off a duck's back.

[GBMelBlount]

absolutely agree.

[steelreserve]

Wait ... he's having problems catching the ball, so he's working with Ike Taylor? Wouldn't that be the opposite of who you'd normally go to for that?

[Steeldude]

His problem isn't his excuse of trying to run before catching the pass. His problem is catching passes with his hands. He should have learned this skill when he was 6 years old or younger. What has he been doing this entire time?

[tube517]

Wait ... he's having problems catching the ball, so he's working with Ike Taylor? Wouldn't that be the opposite of who you'd normally go to for that?

Didn't Nate Washington work out with Stone Hands Swaggin Ike, too?

[Seven]

I don't speculate on things like this very often, because I don't pretend to be a psychology expert or anything, but from what I've seen of Wallace I think a lot of his struggles start above the neck. He doesn't like pressure or attention, no matter how he acts to the contrary. He has disappeared in big games more-so than any other recent Steeler that comes to mind. I think the whole contract year thing might just be a little too much for him to handle up top. Because this is a receiver who doesn't have a track record of drops, in fact, he has had some of the better hands in the league over the few couple of seasons.

Or, perhaps last weeks game was simply an anomaly and he's fine. :eyebrows: