Going in to the 2019 season, we all knew that we would have growing pains on offense with the loss of AB. What we didn’t know was that this would be the year that our offensive line would start showing signs of falling off a cliff. The second game of that 2019 season would see us lose Ben for the season to an elbow injury. Ben however was still able to generate some offense in that game vs Seattle.
After that game, Rudolph nor Hodges could barely get the offense in field goal range the rest of the season. The defense was what kept them competitive, but they also began to wear down. The offensive line was not good enough to either run nor pass block. Add terrible QB play, and it spelled disaster for the 2019 season.
In the 2020 season we had Ben back from elbow surgery. His main focus in the offseason was to rehab his arm and learn to throw again. There were no preseason games, so the lack of continuity with the offense didn’t help matters. At the start of the season, he was actually over throwing the few deep shots he had. The running game was actually respectable to start the year. They went with the short passing game and things were moving offensively for awhile. I did believe however, that they had to get better offensively through time.
Then came the second game against Baltimore. They exposed the Steelers short passing game by crowding the line of scrimmage with 8 to 9 men in the box. This also took away running lanes for the running game, and the whole offense went into a terrible decline. We ended up being dead last in the NFL in rushing due to the offensive line getting no push to open rushing lanes. We also didn’t have a true feature back with Connor injured most of the time and Benny Snell and Samuels being just Jags with none of them having good ball security to boot.
The pass protection also greatly declined, giving them the inability to get down field. The incredible amount of drops by Ebron and DJ in 2020 also didn’t help Ben’s case, forcing the offense to punt on possession downs. All this caused a 38 year old QB coming off of elbow surgery to throw 50 times a game. All this is almost impossible for a 20 year old QB to succeed in these circumstances. His arm began to wear down as it should have.
Ben wasn’t perfect last year, but he certainly wasn’t the main issue. Enter the 2021 season. I came into it hoping to have a fresher and rejuvenated Big Ben. Adding Harris I thought was a huge pickup for Ben as he is good in yards after contact and ball security which were we lacking. The young rebuilt offensive line I expected to struggle through at least the first 7 weeks of the season. They haven’t had much time together in camp, so hopefully they will stay healthy and gel to get them going in both running and passing. Even Ben said that things will be ugly for awhile on offense.
I can only hope that things get better for them, and in enough time to give them a deep playoff run. We also have to keep in mind that this is a totally new offense they are learning which takes time as well. Many are pointing the finger at Ben which although not perfect, is an unfair assessment. Against Buffalo on the road in a hostile environment, he had a young, new offensive line, with a new offense and still the lack of a running game.
Against the Raiders, has an offensive line that is very much still struggling. They still have not gotten the running game going. Many are saying his deep passes are inaccurate. I beg to differ. The deep balls are not perfect, but they hit Claypool in the hands. He’s a big WR. He needs to make those 1 on 1 plays. He made 1 play against Buffalo as he should have, but for the most part, he doesn’t come down with those plays. He lacks body control in the air and often mistimes his jump. If you notice, he doesn’t have a true route tree besides going deep. Ben threw a perfect intermediate throw to him on the drive that they got the field goal and Claypool dropped it. Yes he took a hard shot, but you have to make that catch. That’s not on Ben. There is still a lot of season left, but I have yet to see improvement from Claypool from year one to year two.
DJ has made some errors here and there. Most significantly against the Raiders, when giving up on his route when he expected a flag to be thrown. This caused Ben’s interception. However, he is the most consistent big play WR on the team. He dealt with his fair share of drops last season. Although I would like to see more from him, his trajectory continues to go up each year. That is more than I can say for Claypool or Juju.
Juju has been sure handed so far this season. Mainly on possession downs. However his catches are of the short yardage variety. Like Claypool, how well rounded is Juju’s route tree? Teams know the capability of the route tree that each teams receivers have. If your receiver group has a route tree that is limited and they lack getting separation as Juju and Claypool have, it limits your offense. Just as Claypool, I have truly not seen any improvement from Juju’s game in his 5th year, than I did in his rookie season. Think about it. If Juju and Claypool focused on improving their game in the offseason as they did being social media influencers, they just might be able to get consistent separation on defenders. Can’t put that on Ben either.
Washington is hard to gauge at this point due to a lack of playing time. He did however do well in 2019 with Rudolph and Hodges on the field. With the lack of route tree and separation that Juju and Claypool create, it may be time to give him a shot.
This brings me to Ebron. This is a guy that has had a lack of physicality and drops his entire career. His mouth is bigger than his game. He’s not a Steeler. He can’t block nor catch. He has had numerous drops last year and has had a big third down drop on the first drive against the Raiders last week. This was with Ben scrambling out of the pocket to avoid pressure. The result was a punt. This also wasn’t on Ben.
Friermuth although a rookie, seems to make the best of his opportunities. Ben seems to hit this rookie in the intermediate passing game, and he keeps coming down with every catch. If Ben’s intermediate to deep passes happen to be so inaccurate, then they seem to be accurate enough for Friermuth who comes down with every last one of them. The evidence to me seems that Claypool and Juju for the most part do not get open in the intermediate game. Also Claypool and Ebron do not consistently make catches for their QB when it’s needed. This rookie already gets it though.
So yes, there is much room for improvement by Ben. However, there are many variables going on in this offense that are not doing him any favors. He was running for his life last week being hit 10 times. His deep ball could be better, but if it hits your hands, it should be a catch. The Claypool 51 yard catch should have been a TD. When he got up, he should have run to his left and had a clear path. He cut to the middle of the field and was tackled. His 41 yard strike to DJ was in perfect stride and DJ ran out of bounds. He could have easily stayed in bounds and scored.
Ben was running for his life all game. If we would like every deep ball for Ben to be perfect, it requires his offensive line to give him at least 4 seconds with a clean pocket. They’re not giving Ben that. All those issues forced him to throw 40 times. He still was able to throw for 1TD and 296 yards in those circumstances. If everyone on offense did a better job, Ben’s numbers would have been better. I don’t think Ben had even close to a terrible game. He needs to perform better, but so does the entire offense.
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Originally Posted by steelreserve
