A Smith is Canada-esque

[feltdizz]

We had 520 total yards in the first Bengals game.

Last night we had 193 TOTAL yards.... AT HOME.

I've made a lot of concessions for Tomlin but as we all know, I soured on him last year and this skid confirmed what I knew all along.

ITS OVER.

There is no way anyone can defend the coaching decisions made last night and the game plan to impose our will with the ground game. Tomlin is stealing money. We are going to need an AFC Championship for me to change my mind.

I was skeptical of Smith as OC. I was skeptical of Wilson and Fields. The 10-3 start gave me high hopes that Russ and Tomlin had a good thing going. Never in my life would I think they could sink this low and lose all that good grace but the offense bitched up something serious these last 4 games. If it was just the drops I could defend Tomlin but going for it on 4th down after failing 3 times to get one yard was disgusting. Leaving Chase 1 on 1 with Trice? Why? Running on every first down until the 4th quarter? 12 pass attempts at the half? WHY???

I thought the haters were ridiculous when they said all Tomlin cares about is .500 or better but last night it sure looked like Tomlin doesn't try to win games once we get to 9 or 10 wins. I know that isn't true but the way he coaches makes it appear so, which means he is terrible at coaching.

and let it be know, I was one of Tomlin's biggest supporters but I'm done wasting time and energy on this dude.

[Moonie]

I don't know how we went from the firepower offense that destroyed the Bengals a month ago, to an offense against the same Bengals that looked exactly like the timid, limited, predictable, short offense we had under Pickett (and others) last year.

What changed? How did the whole look and strategy of the offense change in a month?

[NorthCoast]

I don't know how we went from the firepower offense that destroyed the Bengals a month ago, to an offense against the same Bengals that looked exactly like the timid, limited, predictable, short offense we had under Pickett (and others) last year.

What changed? How did the whole look and strategy of the offense change in a month?

A look at 1st quarter pass attempts.... something ain't right in Steelers country:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2qDMqQg][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2qDMqQg]1st Quarter Pass Attempts[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/191750946@N04/]R W[/url], on Flickr

[feltdizz]

A look at 1st quarter pass attempts.... something ain't right in Steelers country:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2qDMqQg][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2qDMqQg]1st Quarter Pass Attempts[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/191750946@N04/]R W[/url], on Flickr

Like I said, Arthur Smith calling plays like he has Derrick Henry is a bad recipe in 2024.

[Northern_Blitz]

This collapse has been really disheartening.

If you play this kind of game (and you may have to if you don't have a good QB), you can't make stupid mistakes.

[LPMAN]

This collapse has been really disheartening.

If you play this kind of game (and you may have to if you don't have a good QB), you can't make stupid mistakes.

I think if we just start the game aggressive on both sides of the ball we win comfortably. We had 500 yards of offense last meeting. They didn't draft a whole new defense since then. Tomlin living in his fears is hurting this team.

[NorthCoast]

Like I said, Arthur Smith calling plays like he has Derrick Henry is a bad recipe in 2024.

There is a small positive after looking at pass attempts by quarter for each week. Turns out that the most balanced pass attempts by quarter was in both BAL games. At least that is something... sigh.

[Northern_Blitz]

I think if we just start the game aggressive on both sides of the ball we win comfortably. We had 500 yards of offense last meeting. They didn't draft a whole new defense since then. Tomlin living in his fears is hurting this team.

I would certainly like to see us score on an opening drive. I believe we were 0/17 this year in that respect.

Looking like we need to totally rebuild the skill players again. Failure of an offensive rebuild. But the D keeps getting older and will need to get replenished too.

Maybe they can turn this around next week...but I won't be holding my breath.

[LPMAN]

I would certainly like to see us score on an opening drive. I believe we were 0/17 this year in that respect.

Looking like we need to totally rebuild the skill players again. Failure of an offensive rebuild. But the D keeps getting older and will need to get replenished too.

Maybe they can turn this around next week...but I won't be holding my breath.

We need a whole new mentality. And an identity.

I mean isn't it refered to as insanity to keep doing the same thing & expecting different results? Tomlin ain't going to reinvent himself any time soon.

[hawaiiansteel]

We need a whole new mentality. And an identity.

I mean isn't it refered to as insanity to keep doing the same thing & expecting different results? Tomlin ain't going to reinvent himself any time soon.

Nah, we just need to impose our will and start doing the routine things....routinely.

[Northern_Blitz]

We need a whole new mentality. And an identity.

I mean isn't it refered to as insanity to keep doing the same thing & expecting different results? Tomlin ain't going to reinvent himself any time soon.

Agreed on offensive philosophy. But the list is longer than that for sure.

And skill players.

And a QB.

And OTs that can pass protect.

And WRs that can catch (although I guess that's point 1 again).

Pretty much a total fail last night.

[Eich]

It doesn't explain the offensive burst when Wilson first took over as starter. Did Tomlin tell Smith to dial it down after that? The offense is just running the same stuff over and over. The tape on the O hasn't changed. That's on Smith.

What explains the way we attacked the Bungles in the first matchup vs. the 2nd? Even Tomlin admitted that the approach was different. WHY?? A poor attempt to look clever and change things up?

[Eich]

Agreed on offensive philosophy. But the list is longer than that for sure.

And skill players.

And a QB.

And OTs that can pass protect.

And WRs that can catch (although I guess that's point 1 again).

Pretty much a total fail last night.

18 weeks in and the offense looked the worst it has looked all season. Against one of the worst defenses in the league. AT HOME. What in the holy ?

[Northern_Blitz]

18 weeks in and the offense looked the worst it has looked all season. Against one of the worst defenses in the league. AT HOME. What in the holy ?

Certainly not good.

Although to be fair, it seems like Cincy's D has improved since the first meeting.

But we've definitely regressed on offense.

I wish I could believe something like we're trying to hide stuff for the playoffs. But I think it's more likely that teams have figured this offense / Russ out.

And we run basically every first down when we're not down by multiple scores.

And we run slow developing runs with slow RBs like Najee and Patterson. Why Patterson even gets offensive snaps at this point in the season is beyond me.

Freiermuth seems to play OK when we remember he exists. Although he dropped a ball that gets us into Boz range with a possible chance to spike it yesterday. Just like how Pickens baked the DB on a double move but the throw was over the outside shoulder instead of the inside (could be on either Pickens or Russ).

[NorthCoast]

Certainly not good.

Although to be fair, it seems like Cincy's D has improved since the first meeting.

But we've definitely regressed on offense.

I wish I could believe something like we're trying to hide stuff for the playoffs. But I think it's more likely that teams have figured this offense / Russ out.

And we run basically every first down when we're not down by multiple scores.

And we run slow developing runs with slow RBs like Najee and Patterson. Why Patterson even gets offensive snaps at this point in the season is beyond me.

Freiermuth seems to play OK when we remember he exists. Although he dropped a ball that gets us into Boz range with a possible chance to spike it yesterday. Just like how Pickens baked the DB on a double move but the throw was over the outside shoulder instead of the inside (could be on either Pickens or Russ).

Aikman made an interesting comment during the game that I'm not sure everyone picked up on. He said the Bengals defense struggled all season long on intermediate passes over the LBs and short of the safeties.

Just did some checking and saw a shocking difference between game 1 and game 2 vs CIN. In game 1 Wilson was 6 out of 6 passes throwing between 10 and 20 yards down field. Every single pass was completed for a total 146 yards.

Game 2, different story. Wilson was 2 out of 8 pass between 10-20 yards for a total 36 yards. That is the game right there. OK, 2 targets went to Pickens so give Wilson credit for two drops. Still a big difference from game 1. Bengals defense obviously changed something.