Well, I doubt anything happens before the bye
Well, I doubt anything happens before the bye
I don't know how much the rest of you watch other NFL games, but I watch some of every game each week on gamepass. The disparity of play between Ben and even the bottom tier QBs is alarming. There's no way that I could rank Ben any higher than 28-29 based on actual performance. Keeping it real.
Ben hit 400 and beat Mariino's yards while embarrassing himself.
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You want to know the truth Ben has been garbage since AB left! Ben is garbage without him!
Raiders are averaging 30 ppg. Bills averaging 33.5 ppg.
The Steelers have played 3 playoff teams in their first 4 games with a defense decimated by injuries and allowed 23.3 ppg... and they did so without an offense.
GB TD drive started at Steelers 23.
CIN TD drives started at Steelers 19 and Steelers 42.
It is hard for me to understand how the defense is getting blamed after injuries to Watt, Highsmith, Bush, Alualu, Tuitt, Heyward, Haden... think maybe it's just injuries and this defense is top 10 if not top 5? Maybe it's just playing some of the best offenses in the NFL to start the season?
So true, and I am glad you and some others are seeing the same thing. I watch a few games each week, and I see so many other QBs consistently making accurate throws that Ben no longer can with any consistency.
I don't think any Steelers fan wanted to see the end of the Ben era play out like it is, but he is not the first legendary QB to end his career with severely diminished skills and poor play.
No we don't. Ben may be washed up but he is still better than Mason.
"Zeds dead baby, Zeds dead." - Butch
Anyone on here still holding out that Ben isn’t awful and deserves to be benched clearly isn’t watching other NFL games.
He had to put his entire body into the throw just to generate an inaccurate desperation heave to Juju down the seam.
He just looks less than anyone else I’ve seen play this season.
This. Just throwing your hands up and saying MR will suck like BR is not a plan. If we give MR/Haskins starts with this current offense then we will see if they can play next year when BR is gone or if we need to trade/draft another QB. The point is we cannot know how good DH/MR are by watching them play in the pre-season. Since this season is toast NOW is the time to evaluate them.
Not you guys, but the average Steeler fan. Do you think they are clamoring for Tomlin to sit Ben and start Rudolph or Haskins? Or do you think it’s a fait accompli that Ben will continue to start and play unless he’s knocked out of the game?
To be brutally honest, as a fan of another team, and especially one that’s in the same division and a long-time rival, it’s good (for me) as a Ravens fan to see Pittsburgh falter. But as a fan of the game, it makes me wonder what is truly the best option at this point. And by option, it’s not just who will take snaps behind center. If Ben was a so-so QB with 5-6 years under his belt, he would have likely been benched long before now. But he’s not. He’s a future HOF with two rings. I know you can’t keep up pretenses based on past glory, but you also can’t appear to shit on your QB with a resume like Roethlisberger’s at the drop of a hat, either. It’s a bad situation no matter how you soon it.
I do not envy Tomlin and the Rooneys one iota.
Rex Ryan said it doesn't matter who the QB is in Pittsburgh with these terribly designed plays and calls. Fire Canada. Ryan Clark also said Harris is heading for an injury with all the heavy hits he's taking.
It can't be worse. So you start Rudolph. If that flames out after 4 games, you start Haskins. If that flames out after four games, you start Dobbs.
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Would those be the two walk-in TDs that the QB missed? Those terribly designed calls? The multiple slants and shallow digs that would have generated first downs that the QB missed? Those calls?
Sure...there are bad play calls. Might be because when the QB can not hit good play calls, all you are left with is bad ones.
I suspect that Canada isn't some great offensive coordinator. But he likely is average. He looks below average because his QB is physically incapable of running a functional offense.
Ryan & Clark were talking about the almost identical behind the sticks call to Harris. Ryan also questioned calls and routes Steeler WR's were running with the d-coverages that were in place. I agree with you on the two walking TD's. Ben's two picks turned into TD's against the Bengals as did his fumble yesterday. He is still throwing high, behind and low to receivers Art Rooney and company have a real issue on hand if this continues. Ben has always taken 4-5 games to come out of hibernation, but I'm really doubting that he will improve from what we have seen.
Honestly, he isnt seeing something on the field. The 4th down swing pass to Najee, I said to my buddy as they lined up that Friermuth was going to be open in the seam to the left, as he was lined up with a WR....and he was open for the 1st down throw.
I am not saying that Rudolph or Haskins will be any better with accuracy of missing open receivers that get behind the coverage, but maybe the will think of looking at the big TE with great hands on a 4 yard pass to move the chains, instead of the RB that has 3 defenders on him.
This is the truth. Not giving up on him until a few more games. When the season is clearly out of hand and statistically it is bad at something like 2-6 or 3-5, i can see a change being made. That is unless Ben gets injured sooner.
But still, the overthrow to James Washington last week, missing Claypool on the skinny post last week and the more missed completions deep this past week show that teams can gamble on stacking the line of scrimmage and they likely wont get beat deep that often with Ben under center. Until you can make defenses pay for sending 5 rushers or more, they are gonna keep coming.
This. Couldn't agree more. As others have said why does it always seem that other teams can get WR's running WIDE OPEN on plays but ours never are? I'm not saying on every play they should be but it would be nice to have a few where they were. Yes, yesterday we had a few of those plays and Ben missed them badly but this offense as a whole just stinks.
The Harris thing scares me as well. You can tell he's so damn good and when he gets behind a real OL he's going to explode but now he has to beat 2-3 guys just to get a few yards almost every play as he's getting gang tackled.
Harris a force, I mean he has 4-5 guys on him and he's still moving forward and it always seems like one of the would-be tacklers ends up hurting. I just hope that they get this kid some protection. Wonder if Canada knows we drafted a TE in R2 this year? PF had one ball come his way yesterday for 11 yards. Is that Canada, Ben or both?
DK's Daily Shot of Steelers: Let's talk about Ben Roethlisberger
I don't think it's too likely Ben will suddenly start playing well - but not too likely the other guys will either.
At some point, a decision has to be made about whether the rest of the season is going to be about going all-out trying to be competitive, or about experimenting to see what the future holds. In another 5-6 games that decision will likely be out of our hands, but in the meantime my bet is that they will still try to be competitive - if for no other reason than it doesn't look like we have that much to experiment with. Many will also say four games is too quickly to give up on a season (or a player), and our front office is probably among them.
If there is anything that inspires any hope in me about Ben's otherwise putrid performance, it's that he does not seem to be experiencing quite the same noodle-arm syndrome you saw from Montana or Manning that let you know their careers were done. (Or in less illustrious company, from Maddox or Batch.) Instead he looks like his throws have gotten wild and he makes bad decisions. So maybe they figure out how to address that. Or it could be like what a famous MLB pitcher (I want to say Roger Clemens or Mike Scott, but I forget) said about getting old - one day you wake up and realize that your fastball isn't going 96 miles an hour anymore, it's going 90 or 91. So you can either throw the ball as hard as you can, and it'll still go 96 but you can't control it - or you can figure out how to pitch at 90 or 91. That may be where Ben's at, but whether he is the kind of player who can figure it out ... that strikes me as unlikely, unless maybe he had some truly outstanding coaching, which he doesn't.
See you Space Cowboy ...
I don’t think the problem is Canada and his playbook, i think it’s the limitations at QB
Rex Ryan on the play calling @ about 2.23
At 4:15, Ben telling N. Harris to "run people over" is great and all but I remember hearing Bettis tell a story about a coach early in his career telling him to NOT do that because his career won't last much more than 5 years. Bettis said his coach told him if you can make people miss with your legs then do it as long as you're moving forward to gain yards. So essentially Ben's advice is horrible. Watching this offense stumble the one thing I fear is that N. Harris isn't going to make it through the season because he CONSTANTLY has to run people over just to gain 3-5 yards and is being gang tackled.
I was afraid of that before the season even began. I knew they'd try and run the tires off him. It sounds like he could quite possibly be the best conditioned player on the team. Hopefully he can stay healthy for the most part through his rookie contract. It seems that is the lifespan for RBs nowadays.
Nothing we haven't discussed right here on this forum. Getting vertical has been a problem ever since AB left. It's a mixture of Ben not trusting the Oline to give him enough time, Ben's arm, and not really having a burner at WR. Teams can go with a 1 high safety and not think twice about it.
Claypool is our deep threat, but most teams have a guy that can run with Claypool. DJ did a nice job of getting behind the defense, but that was a rare occasion. There's not a WR on the team that the defense needs to double, or scheme for. We talk about the OL and QB being big issues, but this WR class should definitely be scouted heavily. They need someone that can take the top off. That will go a long way in getting those safeties out of the box.
At some point we need to see what we really have in Mason and move on from there