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View Full Version : Dale Lolley: Be careful who you blame



stillers4me
02-11-2011, 06:18 AM
Like Neil O'Donnell before him, Ben Roethlisberger is taking a lot of heat for his play in the Super Bowl.

But, like O'Donnell, there were some key plays during the game when the Steelers' young receivers did not run their routes as expected, resulting in some incompletions.

For example, on the Steelers' first offensive series, Roethlisberger made a throw to Antonio Brown's back shoulder that the receiver didn't read correctly, continuing his route down the field. The back shoulder throw was open had Brown adjusted, but the ball sailed out of bounds, looking like a horrible throw by Roethlisberger.............

Read more @ http://nflfromthesidelines.blogspot.com/

HometownGal
02-11-2011, 07:22 AM
Personally, I don't blame any one player or unit for the SB loss. Other than a couple of players who stood out to me (Legursky, Hines, Randle El), the entire team had a hand in their defeat. You win as a team and you lose as a team. Period.

SteelerEmpire
02-11-2011, 08:18 AM
They should have had these issues worked out already. Why would you call a play that you knew your receiver didn't know ? They should have known these guys had problems with certain plays...

tube517
02-11-2011, 10:08 AM
Mentioning Ben and NOD in the same sentence is a joke. NOD has ZERO SB rings and abandoned ship to suck even further w/the Jets. People who make this comparison need to see their therapist.

Edman
02-11-2011, 10:17 AM
Let's look at the circumstances going into criticism of Ben's performance in XLV...

This is his third time getting there. His opponent, is getting there for the first time.
Ben played like the dude with first time jitters, Rodgers is the one who is playing his third Super Bowl.
It's true that you lose as a team, but Ben(with Mendenhall) played a really big hand in the loss.
Rodgers took command of the field, Ben did not. The Packers D didn't respect him, and he didn't make them pay.

It's probably not entirely fair to blame Ben, but he's played a hand in the loss.

zulater
02-11-2011, 03:47 PM
Let's look at the circumstances going into criticism of Ben's performance in XLV...

This is his third time getting there. His opponent, is getting there for the first time.
Ben played like the dude with first time jitters, Rodgers is the one who is playing his third Super Bowl.
It's true that you lose as a team, but Ben(with Mendenhall) played a really big hand in the loss.
Rodgers took command of the field, Ben did not. The Packers D didn't respect him, and he didn't make them pay.

It's probably not entirely fair to blame Ben, but he's played a hand in the loss.


Ben also had a huge hand in us getting back in that game too. Go watch those scoring drives, none of them them were tap in putts, the Steelers had to put together long drives to score. Granted the second td was on a drive that was strictly on the ground, ( though Ben did have one of those rushes), but the other 3 scoring series Ben was mostly putting the ball on the dime.

Craic
02-11-2011, 05:37 PM
They should have had these issues worked out already. Why would you call a play that you knew your receiver didn't know ? They should have known these guys had problems with certain plays...

Read the article again, that is not exactly what happened. Brown and Wallace knew the play, but didn't cut the route off, or did cut it off. Again, there are route trees that are run, and in a given situation, you run a particular route. The problem is, the receivers have to be able to read the defense well enough to know exactly part of that route tree to run. THAT is what is meant by the QB and receiver on the same page. Notice how few times Ben throws a ball to Ward, and Ward is 5, 10, 15 yards away looking away from the pass? That's because they both know the route trees, and when the particular route should be ran in the particular way. Remember Santonio Holmes first year and second year? He kept blowing routes, and Ben was looking quite erratic. Then, it clicked for Santonio, and all of a sudden, Ben was looking like a great QB. It wasn't Ben, it was Santo.

Same thing here. The fact of the matter is, we have a second year player that has played like a 3rd year player this year, knowing almost ALL the route tree. We have had 2 first years that have completely bent the learning curve backwards. Sure, mistakes will happen, and it is a shame it happened to both receivers in the same game, which happened to be the SB. But the only thing you can really blame, is their parents, for not giving birth to them a bit sooner so they could be in the league another couple years.


Let's look at the circumstances going into criticism of Ben's performance in XLV...

This is his third time getting there. His opponent, is getting there for the first time.
Ben played like the dude with first time jitters, Rodgers is the one who is playing his third Super Bowl.
It's true that you lose as a team, but Ben(with Mendenhall) played a really big hand in the loss.
Rodgers took command of the field, Ben did not. The Packers D didn't respect him, and he didn't make them pay.

It's probably not entirely fair to blame Ben, but he's played a hand in the loss.
How do you say that?

Been had an open wallace and was about to hit him for what may have been the longest pass play in NFL history. Kemo let his guy through and hit Ben as he was throwing the ball. That is Kemo's fault, not Bens. As the author said, there were 2 or 3 other plays at least that was ALL receivers. When they run the wrong routes, it makes Ben's passes look way off. But what you see with your eyes is not the reality of the game. Receivers were failing to break off or run the right routes.

Yes, I do blame Ben for the 1 INT. I also wonder why he didn't pull the ball down and run in that last series. But IMO, Ben is a lot less responsible for the loss than the receivers are. As rookies, you can't lay a lot of blame on them. So, by my count,

1 turnover, Ben
1 Turnover O line
1 Turnover, Mendy
probably a total of 3-5 blown plays, recievers (rookies and second year).

AND, they still put up 25 points, which should have been enough-of course, take away the pic-6, and the Steelers are up by 1. So in short, it was 6-8 bad plays that last the game for the Steelers. 1 of which, was on Ben.

steelreserve
02-11-2011, 05:43 PM
Personally, I blame Bush.

Craic
02-11-2011, 05:49 PM
Personally, I blame Bush.

Why? We all know who to really blame:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAYMJnO9LBQ

tube517
02-11-2011, 05:50 PM
That is Randy Fictner's fault


But the only thing you can really blame, is their parents, for not giving birth to them a bit sooner so they could be in the league another couple years.