Next 7 games total record = 13-27-1. We got this!

[AtlantaDan]

Is it just me or does it seem like forever since the Steelers played??

And this is after a win.

If the stomping by the Chargers I anticipated had happened the 2 week wait would have been worse.

[AtlantaDan]

You have to. You are not getting in to the playoffs lining up in the I formation with two TEs and slamming Conner/Samuels/Snell into 8-9 man boxes. There are just not enough ways to "clever" that up so you confuse an NFL defense. That 3rd down option run they did with Hodges against the Chargers was cool and fooled several defenders. It ain't working again.

I agree the steady ration of de facto running plays that go into the stats as dump passes needs to end and more actual down the field passes need to be called (or thrown if Rudolph has been hesitant to pull the trigger)

But Bouchette in The Athletic had an interesting data point (paywalled) that indicates maybe the OL became so tuned in to pass blocking that it simply is no longer very good at blocking for the run

They have produced just 459 yards rushing through six games, an average of 76.5 per game, to rank 26th...

A popular theory is that defenses are clogging players around the line of scrimmage to stop the run because of the young quarterbacks, — a tactic commonly known as putting eight men in the box. However, statistics don’t back that theory, at least not those kept by the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. Of players with at least 40 carries, Conner is in the bottom half of running against eight men (or more) in the box. He has done so 16.22 percent of the time. That compares to Buffalo’s Frank Gore at 38.37 percent and Jacksonville’s Leonard Fournette at 34.72 percent.

The problems with the running game go back to at least November of last year and I do not recall teams putting 8 in the box against Ben, AB and JuJu.

So it may may go back to running most everything out of the shotgun. This from Fichtner on trying to run consistently out of that formation

Offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner was asked what the benefits might be of running the ball out of the shotgun formation.

“I don’t know that there is,’’ Fichtner said. “It might make you a little different team because you’re playing in up-point stances by offensive linemen. Then when you get into other situational kinds of football, you’re in down stances. So, if you’re spending most of your time up, you’re not doing as much down. When you put them down, maybe it’s not as comfortable for them.

https://theathletic.com/1319095/2019...hits-new-lows/

Steelers have been given 2 weeks to figure it out with the bye and Dolphins are 31st in rushing defense (which could be skewed by Miami consistently being out of games early and teams trying to run clock with the lead in the second half).

With those stats not certain Monday night is the game Fichtner will open it up although waiting to do it against the Colts and Rams defense seems dubious to me.

[Born2Steel]

Just get the win. QB sneaks and bubble screens if that gets the job done. I really don’t care if the final score is 3-0. Put this game in the ‘W’ column.

There! Now what I think the Steelers should be capable of doing offensively vs just win the damn game. I think the Steelers should be able to run effectively behind our OL as well as get deep and move the chains through the air with the Dolphins secondary down to 2nd/3rd string guys. So...first get the win.

[Dissolv]

I figure that they get one more game ('fins) to sort themselves out. So expect a lot of fairly safe play calling, but with maybe a glimmer or two of an idea that there is further down the field than 3 yards. But they need to have success with their opportunities for medium or even (gasp!) long passes, but the coaches are only going to give the new QB and the anemic WR core just so many chances. After this week, it becomes tougher to "experiment", and people have to start executing. Or at least trusting the players to execute.

That's where it could all prove to be a pipe dream. As good as our defense is looking like it might be, the offense has regressed to well below par. Some ginger handling by the coaches is probably very appropriate if they aren't tanking the season, which they clearly are not.

[Mojouw]

I agree the steady ration of de facto running plays that go into the stats as dump passes needs to end and more actual down the field passes need to be called (or thrown if Rudolph has been hesitant to pull the trigger)

But Bouchette in The Athletic had an interesting data point (paywalled) that indicates maybe the OL became so tuned in to pass blocking that it simply is no longer very good at blocking for the run

They have produced just 459 yards rushing through six games, an average of 76.5 per game, to rank 26th...

A popular theory is that defenses are clogging players around the line of scrimmage to stop the run because of the young quarterbacks, — a tactic commonly known as putting eight men in the box. However, statistics don’t back that theory, at least not those kept by the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. Of players with at least 40 carries, Conner is in the bottom half of running against eight men (or more) in the box. He has done so 16.22 percent of the time. That compares to Buffalo’s Frank Gore at 38.37 percent and Jacksonville’s Leonard Fournette at 34.72 percent.

The problems with the running game go back to at least November of last year and I do not recall teams putting 8 in the box against Ben, AB and JuJu.

So it may may go back to running most everything out of the shotgun. This from Fichtner on trying to run consistently out of that formation

Offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner was asked what the benefits might be of running the ball out of the shotgun formation.

“I don’t know that there is,’’ Fichtner said. “It might make you a little different team because you’re playing in up-point stances by offensive linemen. Then when you get into other situational kinds of football, you’re in down stances. So, if you’re spending most of your time up, you’re not doing as much down. When you put them down, maybe it’s not as comfortable for them.

https://theathletic.com/1319095/2019...hits-new-lows/

Steelers have been given 2 weeks to figure it out with the bye and Dolphins are 31st in rushing defense (which could be skewed by Miami consistently being out of games early and teams trying to run clock with the lead in the second half).

With those stats not certain Monday night is the game Fichtner will open it up although waiting to do it against the Colts and Rams defense seems dubious to me.

I totally agree on the offensive line stuff. I don't know the cause, but I am certain that this line is and has been a far far better pass blocking line than a run blocking line for years now. Just look at the struggles in short yardage the last handful of years.

I didn't know the stuff about low % of runs into a loaded box. Interesting...what are defenses guarding against?

I think they have to slowly open things up. Find things that Rudolph is comfortable doing. And then add like one more thing per week. The team basically did this in Ben's rookie year. I am by no means saying throw it downfield with reckless abandon, but they are going to have to eventually move plays beyond 0-3 yards of the line of scrimmage. If not, defenses are going to just compress down into that area and it is going to get really difficult really quickly.

Also, Rudolph has to make quicker decisions. He misses openings that are there for the taking because he is either not working through progressions quick enough, or not recognizing that the receiver is "NFL Open" and just letting it rip.

[PalmerSteel]

After the ratbirds lose to the Cheatriots and we beat the colts because we will have the home crowd fired up, we are still in the thick of things!

[NCSteeler]

I totally agree on the offensive line stuff. I don't know the cause, but I am certain that this line is and has been a far far better pass blocking line than a run blocking line for years now. Just look at the struggles in short yardage the last handful of years.

I didn't know the stuff about low % of runs into a loaded box. Interesting...what are defenses guarding against?

I think they have to slowly open things up. Find things that Rudolph is comfortable doing. And then add like one more thing per week. The team basically did this in Ben's rookie year. I am by no means saying throw it downfield with reckless abandon, but they are going to have to eventually move plays beyond 0-3 yards of the line of scrimmage. If not, defenses are going to just compress down into that area and it is going to get really difficult really quickly.

Also, Rudolph has to make quicker decisions. He misses openings that are there for the taking because he is either not working through progressions quick enough, or not recognizing that the receiver is "NFL Open" and just letting it rip.

According to football insiders we are #1 pass blocking name #22 run blocking line.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

[AtlantaDan]

According to football insiders we are #1 pass blocking name #22 run blocking line.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk

Monday night was encouraging but Dolphins were ranked 31st against the run going into the game.

Indy currently ranked 20th and Rams ranked 14th in defensive rushing yards per game, so depending on injuries Steelers hopefully will have some success running against the Colts

http://www.nfl.com/stats/categorysta...S_PER_GAME_AVG

[pczach]

I agree the steady ration of de facto running plays that go into the stats as dump passes needs to end and more actual down the field passes need to be called (or thrown if Rudolph has been hesitant to pull the trigger)

But Bouchette in The Athletic had an interesting data point (paywalled) that indicates maybe the OL became so tuned in to pass blocking that it simply is no longer very good at blocking for the run

They have produced just 459 yards rushing through six games, an average of 76.5 per game, to rank 26th...

A popular theory is that defenses are clogging players around the line of scrimmage to stop the run because of the young quarterbacks, — a tactic commonly known as putting eight men in the box. However, statistics don’t back that theory, at least not those kept by the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. Of players with at least 40 carries, Conner is in the bottom half of running against eight men (or more) in the box. He has done so 16.22 percent of the time. That compares to Buffalo’s Frank Gore at 38.37 percent and Jacksonville’s Leonard Fournette at 34.72 percent.

The problems with the running game go back to at least November of last year and I do not recall teams putting 8 in the box against Ben, AB and JuJu.

So it may may go back to running most everything out of the shotgun. This from Fichtner on trying to run consistently out of that formation

Offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner was asked what the benefits might be of running the ball out of the shotgun formation.

“I don’t know that there is,’’ Fichtner said. “It might make you a little different team because you’re playing in up-point stances by offensive linemen. Then when you get into other situational kinds of football, you’re in down stances. So, if you’re spending most of your time up, you’re not doing as much down. When you put them down, maybe it’s not as comfortable for them.

https://theathletic.com/1319095/2019...hits-new-lows/

Steelers have been given 2 weeks to figure it out with the bye and Dolphins are 31st in rushing defense (which could be skewed by Miami consistently being out of games early and teams trying to run clock with the lead in the second half).

With those stats not certain Monday night is the game Fichtner will open it up although waiting to do it against the Colts and Rams defense seems dubious to me.

The only problem with Bouchette's logic is that LeVeon Bell wanted out or outrageous money because he was used too much. I don't buy it.

Also, the run blocking looked much better when Foster left the game. It certainly isn't a definitive answer to anything, but it got my attention how much better the OL played...particularly in the second half.

Also, it was Miami, so I don't want to overreact to one game.

It's a chicken/egg thing. It seems to me that the running game became less and less effective, particularly in short yardage situations. This team could not drive block to gain a yard to save their lives. This goes back several years. The passing game needed to be successful to set up the running game more and more often. They never seemed to be able to just line up and punch the ball into the endzone either.

I don't have all the answers. I'm sure it was a combination of a lot of factors that contributed to the difficulties running the ball in important situations. I just don't subscribe to the notion that the offensive line forgot how to run block because they didn't run block enough. I believe the team was forced to pass the ball more because the offensive line became less effective at lining up and imposing their will on defenses in the running game.

[HollywoodSteel]

The only problem with Bouchette's logic is that LeVeon Bell wanted out or outrageous money because he was used too much. I don't buy it.

Also, the run blocking looked much better when Foster left the game. It certainly isn't a definitive answer to anything, but it got my attention how much better the OL played...particularly in the second half.

Also, it was Miami, so I don't want to overreact to one game.

It's a chicken/egg thing. It seems to me that the running game became less and less effective, particularly in short yardage situations. This team could not drive block to gain a yard to save their lives. This goes back several years. The passing game needed to be successful to set up the running game more and more often. They never seemed to be able to just line up and punch the ball into the endzone either.

I don't have all the answers. I'm sure it was a combination of a lot of factors that contributed to the difficulties running the ball in important situations. I just don't subscribe to the notion that the offensive line forgot how to run block because they didn't run block enough. I believe the team was forced to pass the ball more because the offensive line became less effective at lining up and imposing their will on defenses in the running game.

I agree that it is a bit of a stretch to say they FORGOT how to unblock. I have to assume they practice doing it every week.

I really haven't analyzed how we've tried to run it, but do you think part of it has been scheme? Like, are we more successful with certain types of runs vs. others? For example, when Decastro pulls and whatnot?

We got quite a few yards on the ground Monday night, but I heard on some podcast that our success rate with Rosie Nix in there was really bad. I kind of watched the game on my phone here and there so I didn't really see details of most plays. Was Nix bad or was he not the problem? I seem to recall on the third and one that Nix blocked his guy but there was still a defender right in the hole to stop the play.

And is it just me who hates that we run it out of the shotgun so often when we only need a yard? I realize that it probably works more often than I notice, because I seem to notice every time it fails. This isn't really anything new. I seem to recall Haley doing that a lot as well.

[Born2Steel]

If a QB gets a pass for his awful half due to coming off a concussion, I think a FB should also get that same pass after coming back from knee injury. Let’s wait and see how Nix does the next few games.

[86WARD]

Nix was not any problem on Monday. He was actually a HUGE benefit if you actually watched him. Several of those long runs were broken off because of Nix and his blocking.

[teegre]

Nix made some beautiful blocks. On other runs, the defense followed Nix’s lead block, while Conner broke it outside (which is how misdirection is supposed to work).

Nix was a plus in this game.

[steel striker]

Yeah Nix made a real difference in the run game and, hopefully this will continue.

[PalmerSteel]

if we don't beat the next 2 teams at home, then we deserve the record we got and to write this season off. without a doubt should win these with the crowd behind us and Pittsburgh weather against warm weather teams

[Fire Goodell]

Rosovelt Dix, the dongblocker only makes dong blocks. The big he-man did very little other than titty-joust and play pussy-paw-paw against opposing linebackers.