If Ben can't go: You start Batch or Hoyer?

[Sword]

There have been plenty of rookie QB that have been given the chance and succeeded big time. After last week why would you not at least give him a chance..
He came in for Brady!!! He has worked with the Elites...
Hell I could run 2 dozen plays from a few days of practicing please...stop making learning a playbook or connecting with a WR is some great obstacle...

[JUST-PLAIN-NASTY]

There is game tape on Batch now. It is done. You will be putting yourself in passing situations on a higher percentage now with Batch in there.

"Blood in the Water" is already on the Ravens message board. Single high safety with man across the board when the Steelers show any "20" personnel grouping or 12 & 13 and heavy run blitz. Single high safety with a soft zone & overload blitz on passing situations. Everyone thinks the injury rate is high??? Just wait now. I can't stress enough what the Browns game just showed the league. The Steelers just showed you can eliminate "down & distance" football when you play call them on defense. Batch on the field makes the defense defend 30 yards vertical..That's it. Defend between the hashes on a zone and jump the sideline routes with heavy blitz. You might as well give Haley a helmet...You would get more out of him.

The Steelers are in BIG trouble if they have to turn to Batch. Sorry guys...Reality sucks on this one. If you are purposing that Batch just sits there & hands off and ONLY pass when he has to...You might as well give the Ravens the play when you come up to the LOS and HOPE they over commit on the play. Even if you only have Hoyer throw 1/2 a dozen go routes to Wallace, Burress, Sanders, etc to show you can...It would have more impact on the offense than Batch being in there. It would be even better to get Johnson back here and throw less than 10 times in the game. I can't believe I'm saying this...Palko gives us a better chance.

Be done with Loyalty...Batch will get over it!

[snarky]

Batch. Charlie Batch. (I had to give him the James Bond treatment, because just saying Batch was deemed too short).

[hawaiiansteel]

Ben throws; Batch still to start

Posted by Teresa Varley on November 27, 2012

Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin was able to deliver some good news on the injury front this week, with some players who have been battling injuries working their way back to playing.

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw the ball on Monday and Tomlin said he “Will take steps towards playing this week. We’ll leave the door open.” In addition Byron Leftwich threw some on Monday, but Tomlin made it clear that Charlie Batch is the starting quarterback at this point for Sunday’s game against the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium.

“Right now Charlie Batch is our quarterback,” said Tomlin. “We are working offensively to put together a plan to complement his strengths. That is our plan until otherwise. These guys will participate in some form or fashion. We’ll let that participation or the result of the participation guide us in terms of their availability as we push to the later part of the week and see where those guys are a little later in the week. As we sit here today we are doing so with Charlie Batch being our quarterback.”

Receiver Antonio Brown is going to practice and at this point is scheduled to play against the Ravens. In addition, safety Troy Polamalu is expected to practice this week and could play on Sunday. Tackle Willie Colon, who missed the Browns game, is improving and has a “strong chance” of playing.

Tackle Mike Adams has been ruled out for Sunday with an ankle injury, and will be replaced by fellow rookie Kelvin Beachum.

[URL]http://blog.steelers.com/2012/11/27/ben-throws-batch-still-to-start/[/URL]

[pfelix73]

Tomlin mentioned that Hoyer isn't quite up to speed on the playbook, but really should be by the end of the week.....

[steelz09]

There is game tape on Batch now. It is done. You will be putting yourself in passing situations on a higher percentage now with Batch in there.

"Blood in the Water" is already on the Ravens message board. Single high safety with man across the board when the Steelers show any "20" personnel grouping or 12 & 13 and heavy run blitz. Single high safety with a soft zone & overload blitz on passing situations. Everyone thinks the injury rate is high??? Just wait now. I can't stress enough what the Browns game just showed the league. The Steelers just showed you can eliminate "down & distance" football when you play call them on defense. Batch on the field makes the defense defend 30 yards vertical..That's it. Defend between the hashes on a zone and jump the sideline routes with heavy blitz. You might as well give Haley a helmet...You would get more out of him.

The Steelers are in BIG trouble if they have to turn to Batch. Sorry guys...Reality sucks on this one. If you are purposing that Batch just sits there & hands off and ONLY pass when he has to...You might as well give the Ravens the play when you come up to the LOS and HOPE they over commit on the play. Even if you only have Hoyer throw 1/2 a dozen go routes to Wallace, Burress, Sanders, etc to show you can...It would have more impact on the offense than Batch being in there. It would be even better to get Johnson back here and throw less than 10 times in the game. I can't believe I'm saying this...Palko gives us a better chance.

Be done with Loyalty...Batch will get over it!

I couldn't agree more. The Ravens can be beat down the field with our WRs. That will back them off the LOS and I think Drywer can run on them. So, what's the problem?

With Batch, we don't have the passing attack to back the Ravens off the LOS. They will show him zero respect as a passer like the Browns did and the outcome will be exactly as you indicated.

[steelz09]

I think playing the field position game with Batch at quarterback is playing to win. It's playing to win by using your best weapon to win the game, the Steeler defense. He can make the throws he needs to make he was 20 for 34 for 199 yards, if it weren't for the picks it probably would have been good enough to win. Batch isn't a long term solution by any means, but the Steelers don't have to fold up camp because Batch has to play. There's a game plan out there (IMO) that can work with Batch at the controls.

I like the Steelers' chances this week simply because the defense is playing well and the the special teams need to not give up a big plays. Suisham and Butler will be the "go yo" guys this weekend if Ben can't play.

Pappy

The defense has been outstanding the last 2 games. I won't deny that.

However, you still need to score points to win the game. Even with the turnovers, the Browns were trying to gift wrap us a victory and we STILL couldn't score. The same goes for Leftwich against the Ravens. All he had to do was SOMETHING... ANYTHING and we couldn't. It was disgusting to watch. I still can't believe we lost to the Ravens. Our defense absolutely DOMINATED and we couldn't even get a 1st down. And trust me, it wasn't because of a dominating performance by the Ravens D. It was a VERY poor performance by Leftwich and the coaching staff: Tomlin for not taking Leftwich out and Haley for questionable playing calling. I've really like what Haley has done overall this season but the Ravens game wasn't his best game by any stretch.

[lloydroid]

Batch knows the team, knows the offense and still threw three INTs...

Hoyer couldn't do worse...

And he has no ability to throw the deep ball....like Balt. won't even have to defend it; he can't get the ball there.

[lloydroid]

LMAO. Ali G. Priceless.

[papillon]

The defense has been outstanding the last 2 games. I won't deny that.

However, you still need to score points to win the game. Even with the turnovers, the Browns were trying to gift wrap us a victory and we STILL couldn't score. The same goes for Leftwich against the Ravens. All he had to do was SOMETHING... ANYTHING and we couldn't. It was disgusting to watch. I still can't believe we lost to the Ravens. Our defense absolutely DOMINATED and we couldn't even get a 1st down. And trust me, it wasn't because of a dominating performance by the Ravens D. It was a VERY poor performance by Leftwich and the coaching staff: Tomlin for not taking Leftwich out and Haley for questionable playing calling. I've really like what Haley has done overall this season but the Ravens game wasn't his best game by any stretch.

It's the only way I see it playing out. It may take 2 or 3 offensive series to maneuver into scoring range and deliver points. I didn't say it would be easy, but its the only path to victory that I see. The Steeler defense knows Joe Flacco pretty well and if they get him into situations where his tendencies run in the 70%-80% probability the Steelers will have great success again on defense. He may be able to throw it farther, but he throws it up for grabs a good bit also.

Special teams, defense and enough offense to win the game 17-13 or something similar. It can be done, have faith, maybe a heavy dose of fullback lead running plays and big dose of Dwyer is the ticket, I don't know. I think Charlie steps up this week and delivers a game managing performance and a Steeler victory. He had to be shaking off some rust last week. His number in preseason were okay, I can't believe he's gone that far downhill that fast.

Pappy