Ed: Not a Bad Way to Start

[stillers4me]

Sunday, 17 October 2010 18:16
Written by Ed Bouchette http://plus.sites.post-gazette.com/templates/pg_twn/images/emailButton.png (http://plus.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/component/mailto/?tmpl=component&link=aHR0cDovL3BsdXMuc2l0ZXMucG9zdC1nYXpldHRlLmNvb S9pbmRleC5waHAvc3BvcnRzLXRvd24vc3RlZWxlcnMvMTA1NzM 3LWVkLW5vdC1hLWJhZC13YXktdG8tc3RhcnQ%3D)


Not bad, after all, for Ben Roethlisberger. He looked a tad anxious/rusty/out of sync – “you can characterize it the way you want to characterize it,’’ Mike Tomlin said – but Roethlisberger settled in and played a typical game for him. He had three touchdowns, one interception, completed some deep passes and had a 9.51-yards per attempt, a nice, fat number for a quarterback who has a career 8.0.
One area that was not normal for the quarterback – he had no sacks. The last time that happened for him came in the 2008 finale against . . . Cleveland. They got close to him a few times today but he had the wherewithal to throw the ball away or at a receiver.

Some other observations from today:
--- Lawrence Timmons had another monster game. Two sacks and an interception and a chew-out by Dick LeBeau and Mike Tomlin. He took a bad path to the quarterback and put himself in a bad position on one play.........................

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[Count Steeler]

A good game for the O Line. A good game for the running game. We still need work in the secondary.

How about benching Randle El and letting both young bucks Sanders and Brown play a bigger role. Sanders is looking like he can be Ward's replacement when he finally retires.

[ALLD]

A good game for the O Line. A good game for the running game. We still need work in the secondary.

How about benching Randle El and letting both young bucks Sanders and Brown play a bigger role. Sanders is looking like he can be Ward's replacement when he finally retires.


You are really making a leap of faith with that statement. Ward is not as active as he has been in the past, possibly saving it for post-season. But, did you see the extra effort he put in to get the TD? That spelled prime-time all over it. He may not be as good as he once was, but he can be good once as he ever was.

[Butch]

A good game for the O Line. A good game for the running game. We still need work in the secondary.

How about benching Randle El and letting both young bucks Sanders and Brown play a bigger role. Sanders is looking like he can be Ward's replacement when he finally retires.

Couldn't disagree with you more. The oline was good, but the 2ndary didn't look as bad as you make it sound.

ARE is trusted to make the right decisions, in pre-season the rookies made rookie mistakes, probably the reason ARE is back there.

WARDS REPLACEMENT??? Are you suggesting that Hines is going to retire next week??? Hines has more games to go and I don't see him retiring as soon as many do. He's a gamer and he will not be so easily replaced.

[Count Steeler]

Wow. Please don't misunderstand. Ward is not retiring next week. However, he is getting closer to retirement and who better to groom his replacement than Ward himself. I could see him taking Sanders under his wing and teaching him the ins and outs of his position. He is getting to that age where you can see a big drop off, suddenly. I hope that won't happen to him, but there are not many 35+ in the NFL at wide receiver.

[Butch]

Sorry Carnoj I'm very adiment about Ward and what he brings to the team. Did you see the way he fought for that Touchdown??? I am glad you are not ready for Hines to retire cause I know I'm not, I don't even want to think about it. I am sure he is grooming every receiver on this team, wouldn't be surprised to see him as a coach some day in the way distant future, because he's playin' through this contract and maybe even the next one as well.

[The Duke]

A good game for the O Line. A good game for the running game. We still need work in the secondary.

How about benching Randle El and letting both young bucks Sanders and Brown play a bigger role. Sanders is looking like he can be Ward's replacement when he finally retires.

I know what you mean with sanders being ward's replacement

both of his catches came on 3rd down, just when we needed him. And he did it so smoothly, for a rookie. Just like ward!

Im excited to see what else he can bring to the table

[Steeltreal]

Good depth we have at all positions. I expected a blowout against teams like the Browns. Id like to see some backups get more playing time in the 4th quarter.

Sylvester , Worilds , Hood , Sanders

I noticed they are using 'Moore' less. Id say cut him loose now and dress Dwyer.

[pepsyman1]

Couldn't disagree with you more. The oline was good, but the 2ndary didn't look as bad as you make it sound.


I gotta disagree on that one. I thought generally the secondary looked pretty weak. We made McCoy look like a high price veteran hitting 70% of his passes for over 280 yards. What happened to making the rookie look like a rookie? We blitzed very little in the 4th quarter (again!) which didn't help. McFadden looked too far away from the receiver continually and was basically getting beat most of the day. Ike had a nice play breaking up that slant and otherwise his name was basically unheard most of the day (a good thing) I don't understand why Mcfadden is playing as far off as he is if Ike is playing closer.

[ALLD]

Moore is good insurance, even if we never use him again. At most I see Ward finishing this season and one more. Remember, they get paid to train and go to camp, but Ward is slowly becoming invisible in games where most would (do theoretically) play for free. Even Jerry Rice was not Jerry Rice his last season.

[RushHard34]

I gotta disagree on that one. I thought generally the secondary looked pretty weak. We made McCoy look like a high price veteran hitting 70% of his passes for over 280 yards. What happened to making the rookie look like a rookie? We blitzed very little in the 4th quarter (again!) which didn't help. McFadden looked too far away from the receiver continually and was basically getting beat most of the day. Ike had a nice play breaking up that slant and otherwise his name was basically unheard most of the day (a good thing) I don't understand why Mcfadden is playing as far off as he is if Ike is playing closer.

But was the secondary bad, or was the scheme bad? When put 1v1, our secondary played good (ex. Ike on that 3rd down break up)

[Butch]

Ward is slowly becoming invisible in games where most would (do theoretically) play for free. Even Jerry Rice was not Jerry Rice his last season.

Seriously??? You are calling out Hines??? You really think Hines is over paid or am I reading it wrong when you say most would play for free??? BTW who in the NFL is playing for free??? I also don't remember Hines as a major hold out to squeeze the organization of every last dime he could get.

As for his play I guess that Touchdown he made was a fluke, guess he just waltzed into the endzone right???

Who was our QB last few weeks when Hines wasn't showing up as you say??? How many times did we throw it??? Tell me again where Hines game is slacking because I really don't see it. Remember as good as he is he isn't throwing the ball to himself, at least not yet.

Hines is a man amongst men!!!

[The Duke]

I love it when people doubt ward

Never seen someone prove people wrong over and over again

[pepsyman1]

But was the secondary bad, or was the scheme bad? When put 1v1, our secondary played good (ex. Ike on that 3rd down break up)

A very good question RushHard. In theory it's the same scheme that was number one in the league in pass defense when we won the Super Bowl, but week in and week out, even when we win, we're watching QB's putting up some pretty good numbers and completing most of their passes. Right now we're the number 5 defense, but 22nd against the pass. We don't challenge the pass plays that much, we tend to rely on the blitz to force mistakes and bad throws out of QB's, but we are rarely blitzing in the 4th quarter. To be honest, we've only looked slightly better in the 4th quarter this year than we did last year. I was happy today with Ike's play...he played off on some plays and close on others, but he usually doesn't play as far off as McFadden. I can't tell how much is the scheme and how much the player but whichever WR McFadden is covering each week is getting plenty of catches. What's really frustrating is that there are times we do blitz and ALMOST get to the QB, but the wide receivers are open for short passes because we play so far off. If we occasionally played some bump and run when we blitzed it would throw off the timing for those hot routes and the QB would be on his ass.

[Butch]

I love it when people doubt ward

Never seen someone prove people wrong over and over again

:tt03::tt03::tt03:

[Galax Steeler]

I say Ward has a few more years left in the tank. He still plays at a high level and I don't see him slowing up Hines is the man.