Steelers dead last in pass attempts.

[zulater]

How 'bout this, how bout next Sunday the Steelers put together some decent drives that end up in the end zone while it still matters. I don't care what the run- pass ratio is, I'm not claiming that i have all the answers, I'm just saying the guys that take the checks to play and coach this wonderfull game need to start earning them.

[Texasteel]

ADL stands for Arians defense league, for all you sycophants who immediately get your panties all bunched up at the mere suggestion that our offense isn't all that it can or should be and rush to poor Brucie's defense as if he were offering his services for free. ( though he should be)

Does the defense deserve a free pass? Hell no. But at the same token if the defense had played to the god awful standard that the offense has for the majority of the season we'd be lucky to be sitting at 3-6 today.

Thankfully often in the face of disaster a glimmer of hope arises in the ashes. And I think there's more than a decent chance that Ben might have refound himself at the end of the game tonight, and that is our hope going foward. Oh yeah i know it was in "garbage time" yada, yada, yada, but I think once the spark is ignited, even if in total futility, it will stay lit. And Ben, when he gets in his groove is capable of carrying the offense to greater heights than it's worthy of ascending to.

Don't think I was the one that brought BAs name up, I believe you did. Then again you always do. In fact you mentioned his name a lot last night. I do not love or hate BA. I simply will not blame everything that go's wrong on him. When Ba does leave this team we'll simply replace him, when Dick leave I will probably shed a tear or two.

The point I was making, and you know it, is that the defense has not play well at several time, and I will not make excuses for them as well. Dick has made some decisions and calls that I though were bad, and there were times that some very good players did not play that well. Plus the fact that the secondary look lost most of the time, at times even Troy. I did not compare the Hall of Fame defensive coach, to want I see as a fairly good offensive coach, I will leave that trash to you.

This team will win as a unit, or loose as a unit. The players know that, the coaches know that. There is still a lot of season to go, Ben started looking a bit sharper at the end of last nights game. Hopefully we will get some sort of healthy line back, both offense and defense, and we can figure out just how to cover receivers for more than the count of 2.

I understand the life is a lot simpler if you can look at one thing and say, there is the problem, but it normally doesn't work out that way.

[zulater]

Don't think I was the one that brought BAs name up, I believe you did. Then again you always do.

No I didn't, HTG did, as she nearly always does any time offensive production is questioned.


In fact you mentioned his name a lot last night. I do not love or hate BA. I simply will not blame everything that go's wrong on him. When Ba does leave this team we'll simply replace him, when Dick leave I will probably shed a tear or two.

When Arians leaves I predict Ben's game will ascend that final step to greatness.

The point I was making, and you know it, is that the defense has not play well at several time, and I will not make excuses for them as well. Dick has made some decisions and calls that I though were bad, and there were times that some very good players did not play that well. Plus the fact that the secondary look lost most of the time, at times even Troy. I did not compare the Hall of Fame defensive coach, to want I see as a fairly good offensive coach, I will leave that trash to you.

Fair enough, I love to shovel the trash. lol

This team will win as a unit, or loose as a unit. The players know that, the coaches know that. There is still a lot of season to go, Ben started looking a bit sharper at the end of last nights game. Hopefully we will get some sort of healthy line back, both offense and defense, and we can figure out just how to cover receivers for more than the count of 2.

I understand the life is a lot simpler if you can look at one thing and say, there is the problem, but it normally doesn't work out that way.

This is what i Suspected going into last night's game, and this is why I started this thread. To wit, we weren't going to win last night's game any other way than in a shootout. I was pretty sure that the Pats would score early and often against us, because defensively we match up poorly against them. And in my opinion our passing game, our best player, wasn't properly prepared to succeed in such a circumstance.

As I said before, the defense (imo) towed a disproportinate share of the load for most of the first 8 games, this was a game that I thought that the opposite was going to be in effect, and that our best ( and only ) chance to win would be to come out full throttle offensivley and set the tempo of the game with that unit, much as we did last season against a much superior defense when we beat the Packers in a shotout scenario.

The Patriots was 29th in the league going into last night's game. I understand that's somewhat misleading, pointswise they're better than that, but they were explotiable none the less, and we didn't lay waste to their vulnerability. Again because in my opinion the offense wasn't brought up to speed going into last night.

You know when Bruce should have been getting this passing game fine tuned? In the 3rd quarter of last weeks game against the Bengals, he should have been trying to stretch out that 20-7 lead with Ben instead of run, run, 3rd and long, Ben run for his life, punt possessions that we employed on 3 consecutive possessions to start that quarter!

[HometownGal]

For the record, Zulater - I mentioned BA's name in SARCASM. On the flip side of the coin, any time the O stinks (as they did last night), you and the BAHC start with your finger-pointing. BA didn't drop those passes last night, throw that pick that resulted in a Pats* TD and I don't recall seeing him playing on that dreadful OL that had Ben running for his life most the night. He also wasn't on the playing field when the Cheats* put up almost 40 points on us. This entire team has problems right now and no one coach or player can be held accountable. Collectively last night, they all stunk out the joint. I'm going to do as I always do after a Steelers loss - put it behind me and get my energies in gear for next week's game. Makes no sense to cry over spilled milk.

[Texasteel]

Now to be fair Zu, and I know you want to, HTG was just kidding around, which a lot of people here do. I have hear her blast BA before, but like me doesn't blame him for everything that happens. She was just trying to have a good time like the rest of us, and she should.

Keep in mind that BA is trying to fine turn the passing game, plus get Ben into the flow of the game, while the games count. This has to put a lot more pressure on him. Like Dick having to work with a patch up line, the fact that all of a sudden his line has gone to shit can't help. Still I saw some good signs last night as well as bad, on both sides of the ball.

Already looking forward to next weeks game. GO STEELERS

[zulater]

For the record, Zulater - I mentioned BA's name in SARCASM. On the flip side of the coin, any time the O stinks (as they did last night), you and the BAHC start with your finger-pointing. BA didn't drop those passes last night, throw that pick that resulted in a Pats* TD and I don't recall seeing him playing on that dreadful OL that had Ben running for his life most the night. He also wasn't on the playing field when the Cheats* put up almost 40 points on us. This entire team has problems right now and no one coach or player can be held accountable. Collectively last night, they all stunk out the joint. I'm going to do as I always do after a Steelers loss - put it behind me and get my energies in gear for next week's game. Makes no sense to cry over spilled milk.

As I've said, going into last night's game I thought our only chance to compete with the Patriots was to put on a strong offensive performance. Defensively we match up poorly with them and due to injuries we were more vulnerable than ever going into that game.

I also didn't think a run heavy game would work for us, but i knew we would try it because the Browns did so well with it the work before. The sad part is that BA ( imo) doesn't understand the difference between why that works for the Browns and it wouldn't for us ( hint, they have kick ass o-line, we don't)

What makes Bellichick so brilliant is that he always plays to his teams strenghts in big games, last night our most exploitable advantage was our franchise qb against their defense. But not passing until we were in obvious passing situations early in the game played right to their strenght and away from ours.

Time to recognize facts, this team can't compete against elite passing teams if the training wheels don't come off Ben before the game's out of hand. We have a qb who can dictate a games tempo, but first we've got to let him.

[HometownGal]

As I've said, going into last night's game I thought our only chance to compete with the Patriots was to put on a strong offensive performance. Defensively we match up poorly with them and due to injuries we were more vulnerable than ever going into that game.

I also didn't think a run heavy game would work for us, but i knew we would try it because the Browns did so well with it the work before. The sad part is that BA ( imo) doesn't understand the difference between why that works for the Browns and it wouldn't for us ( hint, they have kick ass o-line, we don't)

What makes Bellichick so brilliant is that he always plays to his teams strenghts in big games, last night our most exploitable advantage was our franchise qb against their defense. But not passing until we were in obvious passing situations early in the game played right to their strenght and away from ours.

Time to recognize facts, this team can't compete against elite passing teams if the training wheels don't come off Ben before the game's out of hand. We have a qb who can dictate a games tempo, but first we've got to let him.

Points noted Zu, but I don't want to hear any more excuses for the shoddy play of our D no matter who they match up against. I don't want to hear about injuries or pinning our shortcomings on our CB's alone. The entire D needs a huge kick in their asses imho, along with Coach Lebeau (nice to know you all - lightning will strike me in 10 seconds for daring to take the black and gold God to task ).

As far as taking the wheels off Ben - I can't remember if you were in the "why aren't we running the ball more" crowd or not, but it seems a lot of Steelers fans can't make up their minds as to what they want to see. If BA calls a pass heavy game, the B & M'ing kicks up and we hear "why doesn't he run the ball more?" If BA calls a run heavy game, the B & M'ing again kicks up and we hear "why doesn't he take the wheels off Ben?" If BA mixes up the run and the pass, the B & M'ing still is heard from the rooftops. If the D shits the bed (and yes - they did so again last night but the game was gone way before the 4Q this time), it's always the O's fault even when they put up a decent amount of points. Can't please you people.

Look - the entire team last night sucked and there's no two ways about it. Our WR's were dropping very catchable passes that could have resulted in scores. The D gave the Pats* an early lead and the Steelers O was trying to play catch up all night and never got there. Reed missed a FG that may have swung the momentum, but I'm not going to pin the game on him - it was 3 points. We lost our top WR who is a huge playmaker and losing Hines in the O is like losing Troy in the D. Everything that could have gone wrong last night did - again - on all sides of the ball. Are the Pats* a better team than the Steelers? I'd have to say no, but last night, they were a more determined team and that determination was there from the start of the game and carried on to the finish.