Chidi29
12-15-2010, 08:26 PM
Thank goodness the team gave my heart a bit of a week off. I would've needed a paramedic if we had another ulta-close game. It was rough sledding early, but after the Bengals first drive, the defense literally defended "every blade of grass".
First Half
- Suisham's times: 3.6 (11), 3.36 (13 - out of bounds, had a holder), 3.92 (16 - pooch kick), 3.86 (3), 3.7 (4), 4 (13, had a holder). Pretty bad day time wise though the wind was whipping pretty fierce. Hope to see better next week.
- Battle is the team's wedgebuster. That's why he's been active over guys like Brown and Sanders (At least early in the year). That wedgebuster role is very crucial to solid kick coverage. Give Battle credit.
- The Woodley offsides penalty was perhaps the biggest defensive mistake we had all day long.
- Flea Flicker attempt failed. Tried to use the toss instead of a regular dive. Mauluage was able to watch it the whole way and snuffed it out. Ben was still able to get the ball out of his hands and dump it back off to Mendnehall for a nine yard gain.
- We're usually pretty good at snuffing out end arounds. Didn't happen once as Harrison bites on a dive play and Scott is able to get the corner and scoot for a first down although the play was brought back on an illegal formation.
- Obviously, Gay replaced Ike at right corner when Taylor got dinged.
- Late in the first quarter. 3rd and 3. Empty set versus a similar blitz as you'll see in Sack #1 listed below. Ben gets the ball out by the end of his drop and Sanders runs a shorter route while getting his head around. Unfortuantely, the pass was tipped at the line. But it shows blitz recognition and I'll show examples of that throughout the post. Very impressed and encouraged by that.
- Is there anything better than watching James Harrison play the run? He gets a ton of credit for rushing the passer and is a monster tackler, but the best asset of his game may be his ability to play the run. On one play, he slipped to the inside of the TE and forced Scott to dance as soon as he got the handoff. Harrison didn't make the tackle, Clark did at the line, but Harrison should get 95% of the credit for making that play.
- Kapinos with solid punting in the 1st half. Good day overall.
- Troy INT: Reading the eyes of Palmer the whole way. Owens also got bumped and couldn't get out of his break clean. Troy jumped the route and took it back to the house.
- The INT definitely got us going. Troy is a true catalyst for the defense.
- How about tthe QB run with Ben after the fake handoff and pull by Kemoeatu? Sure fooled me. And the Bengals.
- Play Sanders got hurt. Gets pushed down and his leg bends backward. Looked very ugly. Don't know how he didn't break something.
- Another blitz read: Empty set, blitz, Wallace on slant. Hall had a good play on the ball and broke up the pass but a good job from Ben to seeing the blitz and get the ball out of his hand.
- Like the Buffalo game, Ward was able to sit down in the middle of the field for big chunks of yards all game.
Second Half
- Surgeon who did surgery on Ben's nosee: Bone was in so many pieces it reminded him of "cornflakes". Who knew surgeons could be so poetic?
- Blitz read: 3rd and 5, first drive of the 3rd quarter. 4 wide, heavy blitz look. In route to Brown for the first down.
- Same drive. Can't have holding penalties in "goal to go" and put us quite a ways back as David Johnson did with his holding call.
- Crezdon Butler saw action on special teams. 2nd time he's been active this year.
- Blitz read: 3rd and 7, 3:50 left in 3rd: Shotgun, 4 WR. Bengals bring blitz, including the safety. Slant to Wallace, he makes a move and picks up the first down.
- Sanders lined up wide in some 3 WR sets, moving Ward to the slot.
- Another big play at the end of the 3rd quarter. 20+ yard gain with a screen to Wallace. I said it once before. We always come up with a big play at the end of the 3rd quarter or beginning of 4th.
- Wilcat with El. Fake handoff and then option pitch to Wallace.
- Kemoeatu gave Keith Rivers "jello legs" after nailing him on a pull play.
- Happy that Woodley got his pick six dropping back into his hook zone. Had chances against Tampa and Cleveland but couldn't haul it in.
- Not to be the Grim Reaper but one of Woodley's sacks did occur after Palmer slipped and fell.
- Dumb decision by Brown to try and pick up the rolling ball on the punt. After one bounce, just let it go. Definitely a "teach tool" moment as Tomlin put it. Madison suffered a knee bruise because of it.
- Eason's MCL sprain has really been limiting his playing time but I give him credit for playing through such an injury.
- Foster looked bad at RG. He doesn't fire off the snap, meaning he can't get his arms extended before the DT can which causes him to lose leverage and get pushed back in pass protection or let the tackle slip off of him in the run game.
- Speath's run blocking looked fine.
- Our running game has looked good watching it in-game lately but the stats haven't meshed with it. Any guesses as to why?
- Classic LeBeau. No matter if you're Anthony Smith or Troy, if you showboat/do something dumb with the ball in your hands, you're going to hear about it. Of course, LeBeau couldn't stay mad at Troy. Who could?
- We were pulling Pouncey to try and counter safety blitzes. Hadn't seen that since the Cleveland game last year. Not sure if it was something scheme based or if it's Pouncey continuing to grow at the position. I'd guess the former.
Sacks
1. 3rd and 4, 5:49 left in 1st: Shotgun, 4 WR, 1 RB to the left. Bengals heavy blitz look, bring five. End drops back in coverage. That seemed to throw us out of whack as Kemoeatu ended up not having anyone to block. Moore had a great blitz pickup. Pouncey tries to pull to the outside to stop the safety blitz but can't get there in time because with the heavy blitz look pre-snap, there were two ILBs acting like they were going to rush. Pouncey had to wait and make sure both didn't come so he wouldn't allow a free rusher up the middle. Only one ILB came. Anyway, Pouncey can only throw a shoulder into Nduwke and just throw him slightly off course. He ends up chasing Ben down.
2. 1st and 10, 1:54 left in 2nd: Shotgun, 3 WR, 1 TE left, 1 RB right. Scott gets bullrushed by Johnson and gets to Ben. Lucky Ben still had his shield on. Took a shot to the face.
3. 2nd and 7, 13:35 left in 4th: Singleback, 2 TE (1 to each side) 2 WR. Foster gets bullrushed by Sims. Hands were too far outside. You can clearly see Foster's right arm on the outside shoulder of Sims. Sims gets his hands inside and underneath Foster and drove him into the backfield. He disengaged and got the sack.
4. 3rd and 12, 12:57 left in 4th: Shotgun, 3 WR, 1 TE (2 WR, 1 TE bunch right), 1 RB. Looks like the classic issue of calling the snap with no time left on the playclock. Let's take a look at two pictures.
The first is with the Bengals' defensive set with five seconds left on the playclock.
http://i56.tinypic.com/wa2cli.jpg
Not that bunched. Looks pretty clean.
Now let's look at it with just one second left on the playclock.
http://i54.tinypic.com/2zxqkyf.jpg
All three linebackers are right up on the line of scrimmage. There was no time for Ben or the line to be able to yell out the call and make proper adjustments. Because of that, assignments were missed. Pouncey blocks down to his right and Moore takes an outside blitzer. Jones is able to came through the "A" gap as free and unignored as you can get. It's a product of miscommunication because of a lack of time.
Sack Counter (Week)
Jonathan Scott: 1
Ramon Foster: 1
Ben Roethlisberger: 1
Maurkice Pouncey: .5
Defensive Scheme: .5
I'm putting the blame on Ben on that last sack. It's his job to get guys on the same page. It's his job to get everyone up to the line and ready for the snap as soon and quickly as possible. A guy like Peyton Manning fakes the count multiple times in a single play to get the defense to show their coverage. When you don't give yourself time, you obviously can't do that.
Sack Counter (Year)
Maurkice Pouncey: 4.5
Ben Roethlisberger: 4.5
Ramon Foster: 3.5
Jonathan Scott: 3
Flozell Adams: 2.5
Coverage: 2
Chris Kemoeatu: 1.5
Wide Receivers: 1.5
Dennis Dixon: 1
Tony Hills: 1
Max Starks: 1
Rashard Mendenhall: 1
Heath Miller: .5
Mewelde Moore: .5
Trai Essex: .5
Defensive Scheme: .5
Documentation
Empty: 6
Pony: 6
FB: 15
Injuries
Anthony Madison has a knee contusion.
Ben Roethlisberger got his leg rolled into and was in obvious pain. It went away and he'll be fine, relatively speaking.
Emmanuel Sanders and Ike Taylor returned to the game after ankle and head injuries respectively.
Troy is pretty dinged up. Likely will be quite limited in practice but he'll play Sunday. That's all that matters.
Heath Miller is expected to return this week.
Aaron Smith was cleared to start lifting last week in case you hadn't heard.
Annual "Hines Ward lights up a Bengal" Section
For your enjoyment, here's Hines Ward destroying Reggie Nelson.
http://i51.tinypic.com/ek3kuq.jpg
First Half
- Suisham's times: 3.6 (11), 3.36 (13 - out of bounds, had a holder), 3.92 (16 - pooch kick), 3.86 (3), 3.7 (4), 4 (13, had a holder). Pretty bad day time wise though the wind was whipping pretty fierce. Hope to see better next week.
- Battle is the team's wedgebuster. That's why he's been active over guys like Brown and Sanders (At least early in the year). That wedgebuster role is very crucial to solid kick coverage. Give Battle credit.
- The Woodley offsides penalty was perhaps the biggest defensive mistake we had all day long.
- Flea Flicker attempt failed. Tried to use the toss instead of a regular dive. Mauluage was able to watch it the whole way and snuffed it out. Ben was still able to get the ball out of his hands and dump it back off to Mendnehall for a nine yard gain.
- We're usually pretty good at snuffing out end arounds. Didn't happen once as Harrison bites on a dive play and Scott is able to get the corner and scoot for a first down although the play was brought back on an illegal formation.
- Obviously, Gay replaced Ike at right corner when Taylor got dinged.
- Late in the first quarter. 3rd and 3. Empty set versus a similar blitz as you'll see in Sack #1 listed below. Ben gets the ball out by the end of his drop and Sanders runs a shorter route while getting his head around. Unfortuantely, the pass was tipped at the line. But it shows blitz recognition and I'll show examples of that throughout the post. Very impressed and encouraged by that.
- Is there anything better than watching James Harrison play the run? He gets a ton of credit for rushing the passer and is a monster tackler, but the best asset of his game may be his ability to play the run. On one play, he slipped to the inside of the TE and forced Scott to dance as soon as he got the handoff. Harrison didn't make the tackle, Clark did at the line, but Harrison should get 95% of the credit for making that play.
- Kapinos with solid punting in the 1st half. Good day overall.
- Troy INT: Reading the eyes of Palmer the whole way. Owens also got bumped and couldn't get out of his break clean. Troy jumped the route and took it back to the house.
- The INT definitely got us going. Troy is a true catalyst for the defense.
- How about tthe QB run with Ben after the fake handoff and pull by Kemoeatu? Sure fooled me. And the Bengals.
- Play Sanders got hurt. Gets pushed down and his leg bends backward. Looked very ugly. Don't know how he didn't break something.
- Another blitz read: Empty set, blitz, Wallace on slant. Hall had a good play on the ball and broke up the pass but a good job from Ben to seeing the blitz and get the ball out of his hand.
- Like the Buffalo game, Ward was able to sit down in the middle of the field for big chunks of yards all game.
Second Half
- Surgeon who did surgery on Ben's nosee: Bone was in so many pieces it reminded him of "cornflakes". Who knew surgeons could be so poetic?
- Blitz read: 3rd and 5, first drive of the 3rd quarter. 4 wide, heavy blitz look. In route to Brown for the first down.
- Same drive. Can't have holding penalties in "goal to go" and put us quite a ways back as David Johnson did with his holding call.
- Crezdon Butler saw action on special teams. 2nd time he's been active this year.
- Blitz read: 3rd and 7, 3:50 left in 3rd: Shotgun, 4 WR. Bengals bring blitz, including the safety. Slant to Wallace, he makes a move and picks up the first down.
- Sanders lined up wide in some 3 WR sets, moving Ward to the slot.
- Another big play at the end of the 3rd quarter. 20+ yard gain with a screen to Wallace. I said it once before. We always come up with a big play at the end of the 3rd quarter or beginning of 4th.
- Wilcat with El. Fake handoff and then option pitch to Wallace.
- Kemoeatu gave Keith Rivers "jello legs" after nailing him on a pull play.
- Happy that Woodley got his pick six dropping back into his hook zone. Had chances against Tampa and Cleveland but couldn't haul it in.
- Not to be the Grim Reaper but one of Woodley's sacks did occur after Palmer slipped and fell.
- Dumb decision by Brown to try and pick up the rolling ball on the punt. After one bounce, just let it go. Definitely a "teach tool" moment as Tomlin put it. Madison suffered a knee bruise because of it.
- Eason's MCL sprain has really been limiting his playing time but I give him credit for playing through such an injury.
- Foster looked bad at RG. He doesn't fire off the snap, meaning he can't get his arms extended before the DT can which causes him to lose leverage and get pushed back in pass protection or let the tackle slip off of him in the run game.
- Speath's run blocking looked fine.
- Our running game has looked good watching it in-game lately but the stats haven't meshed with it. Any guesses as to why?
- Classic LeBeau. No matter if you're Anthony Smith or Troy, if you showboat/do something dumb with the ball in your hands, you're going to hear about it. Of course, LeBeau couldn't stay mad at Troy. Who could?
- We were pulling Pouncey to try and counter safety blitzes. Hadn't seen that since the Cleveland game last year. Not sure if it was something scheme based or if it's Pouncey continuing to grow at the position. I'd guess the former.
Sacks
1. 3rd and 4, 5:49 left in 1st: Shotgun, 4 WR, 1 RB to the left. Bengals heavy blitz look, bring five. End drops back in coverage. That seemed to throw us out of whack as Kemoeatu ended up not having anyone to block. Moore had a great blitz pickup. Pouncey tries to pull to the outside to stop the safety blitz but can't get there in time because with the heavy blitz look pre-snap, there were two ILBs acting like they were going to rush. Pouncey had to wait and make sure both didn't come so he wouldn't allow a free rusher up the middle. Only one ILB came. Anyway, Pouncey can only throw a shoulder into Nduwke and just throw him slightly off course. He ends up chasing Ben down.
2. 1st and 10, 1:54 left in 2nd: Shotgun, 3 WR, 1 TE left, 1 RB right. Scott gets bullrushed by Johnson and gets to Ben. Lucky Ben still had his shield on. Took a shot to the face.
3. 2nd and 7, 13:35 left in 4th: Singleback, 2 TE (1 to each side) 2 WR. Foster gets bullrushed by Sims. Hands were too far outside. You can clearly see Foster's right arm on the outside shoulder of Sims. Sims gets his hands inside and underneath Foster and drove him into the backfield. He disengaged and got the sack.
4. 3rd and 12, 12:57 left in 4th: Shotgun, 3 WR, 1 TE (2 WR, 1 TE bunch right), 1 RB. Looks like the classic issue of calling the snap with no time left on the playclock. Let's take a look at two pictures.
The first is with the Bengals' defensive set with five seconds left on the playclock.
http://i56.tinypic.com/wa2cli.jpg
Not that bunched. Looks pretty clean.
Now let's look at it with just one second left on the playclock.
http://i54.tinypic.com/2zxqkyf.jpg
All three linebackers are right up on the line of scrimmage. There was no time for Ben or the line to be able to yell out the call and make proper adjustments. Because of that, assignments were missed. Pouncey blocks down to his right and Moore takes an outside blitzer. Jones is able to came through the "A" gap as free and unignored as you can get. It's a product of miscommunication because of a lack of time.
Sack Counter (Week)
Jonathan Scott: 1
Ramon Foster: 1
Ben Roethlisberger: 1
Maurkice Pouncey: .5
Defensive Scheme: .5
I'm putting the blame on Ben on that last sack. It's his job to get guys on the same page. It's his job to get everyone up to the line and ready for the snap as soon and quickly as possible. A guy like Peyton Manning fakes the count multiple times in a single play to get the defense to show their coverage. When you don't give yourself time, you obviously can't do that.
Sack Counter (Year)
Maurkice Pouncey: 4.5
Ben Roethlisberger: 4.5
Ramon Foster: 3.5
Jonathan Scott: 3
Flozell Adams: 2.5
Coverage: 2
Chris Kemoeatu: 1.5
Wide Receivers: 1.5
Dennis Dixon: 1
Tony Hills: 1
Max Starks: 1
Rashard Mendenhall: 1
Heath Miller: .5
Mewelde Moore: .5
Trai Essex: .5
Defensive Scheme: .5
Documentation
Empty: 6
Pony: 6
FB: 15
Injuries
Anthony Madison has a knee contusion.
Ben Roethlisberger got his leg rolled into and was in obvious pain. It went away and he'll be fine, relatively speaking.
Emmanuel Sanders and Ike Taylor returned to the game after ankle and head injuries respectively.
Troy is pretty dinged up. Likely will be quite limited in practice but he'll play Sunday. That's all that matters.
Heath Miller is expected to return this week.
Aaron Smith was cleared to start lifting last week in case you hadn't heard.
Annual "Hines Ward lights up a Bengal" Section
For your enjoyment, here's Hines Ward destroying Reggie Nelson.
http://i51.tinypic.com/ek3kuq.jpg