Can we just stop already with the ben debate!

[feltdizz]

Not unless forced to by injury or just having to pick from a few poor options IMO.

I think it's maybe his biggest failing as a coach.

And while it's on the offensive side of the ball - where he presumably has less influence - it's happened over multiple OCs and he's seen how it hurt our team in the playoffs when guys like Bell get hurt. So I think it's on him.

I think load management is a big reason for analytics. I think it's made a big difference in the NBA this way. I assume that the results will say something like limit your RB touches before the playoffs to avoid Pyrrhic victors in the regular season.

I don't mind that he uses his gut in game on decisions that are close to coin flips. It gets a lot of chatter, but I think these decisions are usually not unreasonable (even when they may not be optimal).

But the load management thing is something that I think we've been doing clearly wrong for a while.

I don't know how big the impact is. But I will continually point to the year where we crowded Blount off the team because we didn't carve out a role for him (65 carries and 6 receptions in 11 games) while Bell was getting an insanely high workload (290 carries and 83 recs in 16 games). Then we lost to Baltimore in WC round after Bell gets hurt and we play the likes of Josh Harris (9 carries) and Ben Tate (5 carries)...Ben had 2 carries and a bunch of other people with 1.

Would Bell still have gotten injured if we gave some of his touches to Blount?
Do we beat Baltimore if Bell isn't out for that game?
If we do beat Baltimore, could we beat the Pats (and Blount) in the next game and follow their road to SB victory in XLIX?

It's impossible to know the answer to any of those questions. But I think running Bell into the ground (373 touches) before the playoffs even started wasn't a great strategy for success.

And we continue to walk the same path with Harris on pace for 385 touches (289 carries and 96 receptions) over 17 games...if he makes it through that many games.

I get that we want to win games and that Harris sometimes seems like the only bright spot on offense. But we need to figure out other options or we're going to get him killed IMO.

Do we make it deep into the playoffs if we do load management with our RB’s?

Maybe.. but maybe not.

[feltdizz]

We definitely need to manage NJ's load. Save him from himself. He wants to do so well and wants to be our offensive focal point but it's not fair or right for him to have to carry the load he's carried so far. Not too much we can do to help him per carry this year. But we can run those other clowns we have as runningbacks more than we have.

It's paramount for us to really upgrade this sham of an offensive line next year to help NJ. Would also help him to find a QB upgrade somewhere. Might be asking for too much to fix both in one off-season thou. Just feel real bad for NJ. Feels like management is taking advantage of his enthusiasm to want to do well and youth; without giving him some real help.

Rookie OC who's learning his job isn't doing him any favors either.

Run the clowns huh?

and as soon as the circus happens and the clowns fumble or miss blocks that gets Ben killed you will say Tomlin should have used Harris

[steeler_fan_in_t.o.]

So you think it's a good idea to run an experiment that's failed 99%+ of the time because it worked in one case?

Similar to the complaining about Bush not playing well enough yet after returning from ACL surgery. The only guy who has ever was AP.

[Northern_Blitz]

Do we make it deep into the playoffs if we do load management with our RB’s?

Maybe.. but maybe not.

Another question we can't know the answer to.

But when you have a backup as talented as Blount, sharing carries would have been a great idea.

I would have rather lost an extra game in the regular season to have Bell in the playoffs. I think we both agree that he was amazing in the playoff games he was able to play in.