giving credit where it's due.....

[JUST-PLAIN-NASTY]

Re: giving credit where it's due.....

The OL pass blocking was really good... Ben actually ran when it was there. This does wonders against teams who sell out...

We pretty much scrapped ARE from our game plan and it paid off...

Go with the young guys and watch their speed get the separation we desire.

I think all of us are happy with Manny & Antonio getting the nod. HEY...We all agree on something!

[NorthCoast]

Re: giving credit where it's due.....

Why is it so hard for people to understand that if you give a someone (team) the same test week after week, they will get better and better grades. This is what our offensive gameplans have been like under BA. The defense knows all the answers to the questions before they get the test.

Finally, BA throws some new questions out there to try and trip the D up. You can say 'execution' but it a whole lot more difficult when the defense knows what is coming, otherwise why would the Cheatriots have bother to cheat...?

[papillon]

Re: giving credit where it's due.....

[quote=JUST-PLAIN-NASTY]

It looked good because the Steelers won 35-3 and executed well. If they would have lost using the exact same plays Arians would have sucked and Lebeau would be an idiot. Winning and losing makes a game plan look good or bad, at least, to the fans of the team.

Pappy

I don't know Pap. Wouldn't a good gameplan aid in the win? That would kinda be like me also saying that even if the Steelers lost, I wouldn't have been critical of BA play designs because he made adjustments. You can only speculate & believe the source.

You know how critical I was on Arians last week. you also know what I was calling for in detail in the other topics. I might speculate you would believe me when I say I like what I saw because it was relatively similiar to what I was explaining in detail.

I understand what you are saying in regard to winning and losing in relation to complaining. You are correct for the most part. In my case, take away the penalties, because some were legit, & the Mendy fumble...I would have nothing negative to say on either side of the ball. The offense was productive and the defense played 60 minutes.

I still have to commend the job Koogs is doing with the patchwork OL. Two bad penalties called took away 40 yards of rushing from Mendy but a missed one gave Wallace a big gain. If you watched the game and didn't look at the box score...The Steelers look like they still will be able to run the ball even with all the injuries. I just hope Pouncey & Kemo are aright. It really was the right tim to move Essex to the bench and I was pleasantly surprised with Foster's body of work. I think you stay with that starting 5 moving forward.

Also, credit to Tomlin for FINALLY giving Sanders & Brown a helmet. I would say Brown & Sanders earned a helmet for the rest of the way.

JPN, as you know and I readily admit that I'm not and X's and O's guy, but I have played sports (not football) when I was younger. Our coaches would scout other teams and make suggestions as to what we could do contain a good shooter, or a good scorer where these players liked to get the ball and try to deny them the things that they like. In theory if we were able to do those things we would win. Sometimes we were successful and others not, in either case, I typically believed the game plan was good, but on occasion we were simply unable to execute, because the other guy may be better or he changed his modus operandi and our game plan was void at that point.

A good game plan goes into a successful game, but in the end the players have to make it work. I never thought any less of my coaches because the game plan they believed would work failed or we were incapable of executing.

Ultimately, my point is that Arians and Lebeau have been around football a long time and understand the game and this particular version of the Steelers. When the players play well, they look like geniuses and when they don't they look like novices to the game.

I just think that the difference between last week and this week is simply the opinion of the coordinators as to what would be successful against each team. Last week they were wrong and this week they were right. Another go round with the Patriots would be an interesting game form a game plan point of view to see what changes (if anything) and what doesn't.

Just like back in 2004 (I think) when the Steelers steamrolled the Pats and stopped their winning streak during the regular season, they probably tried the same thing in the playoff game and it didn't work the second time, it happens.

Pappy

Don't forget Pap, you are also being gameplanned against. You are also being scouted. So who's shoulders does it fall on when the other teams gameplan negates your top scorer? Is it your top scorers lack of execution that he couldn't beat the others team gameplan? For your basketball reference, ( I assume), if your top scorer got double teamed everytime he got the ball or everytime he got the ball down low and he couldn't beat the double team and score like he normally could....Does that fall on him? No, it falls on the coaches. When they see the gameplan from the opposition is shutting you down it is on them to make the adjustment to get production somewhere else. We see it all the time in the NFL. The teams takes the "star" or "biggest threat" away. Does the coach or QB continue to just keep going at the coverage or front or do they adjust and look for success somewhere else? No, they go somewhere else and still can win the game. It is not a rare occasion where you see an "elite" WR end up with a 0,1, or 2 catch game or see an "elite" RB with a 10 for 16 yards because the defense gameplaned against him. It is also not a rare occasion to see the team he plays for with the win because the coaches made the right adjustments to find production somewhere else.

The play designs for the Pats & Raiders were night & day. Different personnel packages also helped spark the offense. Arians attacked the middle of the field. You could see those LB drops getting deeper and deeper to help as the game unfolded. And when the got deep enough and they started focusing on the crossing patterns & square-ins in the middle of the field.....Wallace dragged underneath the LBs and ran away from them. The underneath DBs had their backs to Wallace and the Ss were high and still couldn't get the angle to catch him. I hate to say this after only seeing it for one game....But that was good recognition by Arians to see that unfold through the game.[/quote:brckaml3]

All I'm saying is that each week's game plan is the opinion of a man who knows the game and his personnel. This week it looked like a big change (and it was), because you saw different personnel, different play calls, etc. We don't know what would have happened last week using Brown and Sanders against the Patriots. They may have been confused on hot routes, the route tree, etc and looked even worse than what we saw. On the other hand, maybe they would have lit up the Patriots secondary and Ben would have had a huge day and the Steelers would have won.

To me the game plan is a framework in which the offense and defense are going to attack the opponent, believing that it plays to the Steelers' strengths and the opponents weaknesses. This week the Steeler coordinators won, last week they lost.

Believe me, I kept asking out loud last week "Why in the world won't they try to pass for 4 or 5 yards on first down and put themselves in a good position?" Or, "Why is the defense playing so passively against Brady? He's killing you, you may as well try and rush more than they can block and see what happens." But, these things weren't forthcoming and I have no idea why. It seemed like insanity to continue to do the exact same thing and have the same result and not try something different. I have to believe there is a reason for that, but for the life of me I can't think of it.

Yes, this week's game plan on both sides of the ball was different and it was successful. Was it personnel? Was it execution? Was it the opponent? Was it luck? Was it the Steelers simply having better athletes? Injuries? Who knows?

I tend to side with the coaches, since they are with the players day in and day out and know better than we do their strengths and weaknesses, injuries, etc. I have to assume when we see Mcfadden getting torched and wonder why they don't try Lewis or Butler to see what would happen there is a reason for it, and again, I don't know what those reasons may be. Maybe, the Steelers as an organization won't change in the middle of a game to give the player a chance to play out of it, or maybe they don't want to embarrass the player during a game or maybe the backup simply isn't ready. I don't know the reasons, I would love to hear the unabridged answers to questions about poor play, not the company line for the media, but that will never happen, that's between the players and the coaches.

Pappy

[RuthlessBurgher]

Re: giving credit where it's due.....

Kudos to all of the coaches.

Tomlin for his choices to replace Essex with Foster as the RG, replace Randle El with Sanders as the #3 WR, and replace Randle El with Brown as the PR (although I still don't like the Suisham replacement, but we won't know much about how that is working out until he starts attempting FG's at Heinz instead of just PAT's...I never was a Sushi guy).

Arians for varying up his playcalling and formations. I typically hate empty backfield sets, but when your 5 wide formation includes 3 speedy, potential game-breaking youngsters in Wallace, Sanders, and Brown to go with underneath possession WR's like Ward and Randle El, it got even me excited. Now he only has to realize that whenever David Johnson is on the field, it is a run play 99.3762% of the time. The opposing defensive coordinator obviously knows this...why can't Bruce do a little self-scouting to figure that one out?

LeBeau from unleashing the hounds and bringing the heat. DB's were able to make plays on the ball instead of playing way off receivers all the time. We played passive defense last week...this week it switched over to truly aggressive Steeler defense.

Everest for allowing his new plaything Antonio Brown to go out there (even when he was backed up to his own 10) to field punts and actually try to run them back instead of always calling for a fair catch. Didn't understand the one time out the punt return team took after which we removed Brown and replaced him with Randle El for yet another fair catch.

Kugler for having everyone ready to go yet again...an "all hands on deck" mentality since we had our LT-LG-OC all go down with injuries during this game. I don't remember a game in which all 7 active OL did not play at some point.

[_SteeL_CurtaiN_]

Re: giving credit where it's due.....

Sanders and Brown should be dressing for all remaining games, these kids give the offense some much needed speed that has been lacking all season. Sanders and Brown are explosive and have the potential to be special, nice draft picks!

[feltdizz]

Re: giving credit where it's due.....

Sanders and Brown should be dressing for all remaining games, these kids give the offense some much needed speed that has been lacking all season. Sanders and Brown are explosive and have the potential to be special, nice draft picks!

I'm excited every time the other team punts.... unless it's ARE of course.

REally glad the coaches are listening to us and letting the kids play.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Re: giving credit where it's due.....

I'm excited every time the other team punts.... unless it's ARE of course.

I'm always excited about when ARE goes back for punt returns. I know that it will be a fair catch, and when he waves his arm in the air, I pretend he is waving at me. I wave back.

[JUST-PLAIN-NASTY]

Re: giving credit where it's due.....

I'm sure I wasn't the only one concerned about the Bills game, but we got lucky...I'll take it. I'm sure Urbik helped out the Bills coaching staff on protection schemes and blitz packages....Enough said about that. Kemo must be still dinged because I never seen him get "owned" like that in a game....I though Essex was wearing #68. Speaking of Essex...And not to pat myself on the back....But it is about time BA used an unbalanced front. Forced by injury...But hopefully he saw the success in the film room. BA seems to like all my designs...Don't mention it BA. Now just mix it up with 12 & 22 personnel with Essex as the #2 TE...Dare them to walk the Ss down. Still headed in the right direction. This will be the test this week.