One really good sign for the Steelers in loss to 49ers

[SteelAbility]

Ben had 350 yards with 7.5YPA.

When you think about it that is incredible!

Here are the offensive options eliminated/reduced by Ben's ankle ..

QB Draw ... completely eliminated
Designed rollout ... completely eliminated
Pocket mobility ... severely limited
Scramble out of pocket on pass play ... completely eliminated
QB running should a running lane open ... completely eliminated

[Steeler Shades]

Re: One really good sign for the Steelers in loss to 49ers

Judgment of when to throw the ball....completely eliminated.

[fezziwig]

Re: One really good sign for the Steelers in loss to 49ers

To tell you the truth, as poorly as things went I never thought we were out of the game and I actually thought we played good except for the turnovers and the defense getting tired. I know that doesn't sound right but, I still thought we gave a hard fight and it just didn't go our way.
The real sad part about it was, so much was ridng on it and we could have erased the two Raven losses away and been on top if we only would have won.
People that are more optomistic about our chances on the road for the playoffs, I just don't know. We haven't done well on the road and I just don't see us pullling it all together in the playoffs. I hope I'm wrong.

[TallyStiller]

Re: One really good sign for the Steelers in loss to 49ers

The problem is, turnover problems seem to define this team. The Steelers are a top 10 offense AND a top 10 defense, but they don't force turnovers and they give up too many of them. Whaether it was the 3 big ones in SB XV, the 7 opening day, the red zone pick by Suggs in Ravens II, or the 4 Monday, they don't take care of the ball and regularly shoot themselves in the foot. Even in wins, we overcome stuff like this - if not for the ugly 1st half pick 6, we blow the Pats* out... we kept Cleveland and KC in the game with sloppy nonsense... but you can't be a great team when you do stuff like this, because you can't BEAT great teams that way, at least not very often.

[papillon]

Re: One really good sign for the Steelers in loss to 49ers

The Steelers may have had 400 yards of offense, but they had the 4 turnovers. When you turn the ball over that's like losing the yardage you gained on the drive.

Drive 1 - INT (-51 yards)
Drive 2 - INT (-22 yards)
Drive 8 - Fumble (-21 yards)
Drive 10 - INT (-44 yards)

That's -138 yards on turnovers, subtract that from 400 and the Steelers generated 262 yards of offense, very pedestrian.

Pappy

[fezziwig]

Re: One really good sign for the Steelers in loss to 49ers

The problem is, turnover problems seem to define this team. The Steelers are a top 10 offense AND a top 10 defense, but they don't force turnovers and they give up too many of them. Whaether it was the 3 big ones in SB XV, the 7 opening day, the red zone pick by Suggs in Ravens II, or the 4 Monday, they don't take care of the ball and regularly shoot themselves in the foot. Even in wins, we overcome stuff like this - if not for the ugly 1st half pick 6, we blow the Pats* out... we kept Cleveland and KC in the game with sloppy nonsense... but you can't be a great team when you do stuff like this, because you can't BEAT great teams that way, at least not very often.

The Steelers may have had 400 yards of offense, but they had the 4 turnovers. When you turn the ball over that's like losing the yardage you gained on the drive.

Drive 1 - INT (-51 yards)
Drive 2 - INT (-22 yards)
Drive 8 - Fumble (-21 yards)
Drive 10 - INT (-44 yards)

That's -138 yards on turnovers, subtract that from 400 and the Steelers generated 262 yards of offense, very pedestrian.

Pappy

You guys are spot on. What defines these mishaps with our turnovers ? I mean how do you prevent them ? To me getting turnovers seems to be the easier buy applying pressure or playing the ball but, I'm just a fan that will admit has much less football knowledge than many of you if not all.

[AxnJxn]

Re: One really good sign for the Steelers in loss to 49ers

The first two INTs, particularly the first one, were huge. SF just isn't built to play from behind, putting Alex Smith in a situation where he has to bring them back. Get them down a TD or 10 points, and IMO, the Steelers would have rolled to a pretty easy W.

[Jooser]

Re: One really good sign for the Steelers in loss to 49ers

To paraphrase John Madden: "Which ever team scores the most points, then..that team is gonna win the ball game."

Yards schmards.....take care of the ball and score some points, you don't win with yards.

[SteelAbility]

Re: One really good sign for the Steelers in loss to 49ers

Judgment of when to throw the ball....completely eliminated.

It's a PREDICATABILITY problem. The other problems shift the balance of predictability way in favor of the D. So looking at it from the D's perspective ...

judgment of when to play for the pass ... completely boosted
defense's having to hedge against a QB run during the pass ... completely eliminated

... and still Ben comes up with 350 yards at 7.5 YPA. This is a VERY GOOD SIGN. Now it's just an issue of getting Ben healthy for the playoffs.

[feltdizz]

Re: One really good sign for the Steelers in loss to 49ers

Judgment of when to throw the ball....completely eliminated.

It's a PREDICATABILITY problem. The other problems shift the balance of predictability way in favor of the D. So looking at it from the D's perspective ...

judgment of when to play for the pass ... completely boosted
defense's having to hedge against a QB run during the pass ... completely eliminated

... and still Ben comes up with 350 yards at 7.5 YPA. This is a VERY GOOD SIGN. Now it's just an issue of getting Ben healthy for the playoffs.

or it's a very BAD sign because we are doing everything but scoring points.

[SteelAbility]

Re: One really good sign for the Steelers in loss to 49ers

Judgment of when to throw the ball....completely eliminated.

It's a PREDICATABILITY problem. The other problems shift the balance of predictability way in favor of the D. So looking at it from the D's perspective ...

judgment of when to play for the pass ... completely boosted
defense's having to hedge against a QB run during the pass ... completely eliminated

... and still Ben comes up with 350 yards at 7.5 YPA. This is a VERY GOOD SIGN. Now it's just an issue of getting Ben healthy for the playoffs.

or it's a very BAD sign because we are doing everything but scoring points.

feltdizz, you are SOOOOOOO missing the point. Predictability is THE main issue. You have a situation where the guy holding the ball becomes predictable. Tell me that isn't just so much easier to defend? All the defensive hedging that has to account for QB mobility is completely gone out the door. Now the defense can give concentrated effort to coverage on pass plays, which are limited to pocket passing only. The offense went from 7 degrees of freedom down to 2 degrees of freedom. And oh, yeah, the defense doesn't have to put out near as much physical effort throughout the game.

If you can't see that or simply choose to put a microscope on "scoring" and a telescope on the "why" behind it, then you are simply operating with tunnel vision.

[frankthetank1]

Re: One really good sign for the Steelers in loss to 49ers

this is a great thread and its a perfect example of why BA isnt the only problem or why he isnt even the problem imo. the steelers offensivley racked up huge numbers but didnt put up points which happens way too often. most of this is because the steelers have turned the ball over way too much this season. is that really BA's fault? ben usually has at least one pick a game which is a bad decision, you cant put that on BA.

even the redzone problems are not due to BA's play calling. this offense puts up good numbers. do you think the play calling all of a sudden gets a lot worse once the steelers get inside the other teams 25 yard line? i doubt that a lot. the steelers are going to finish in the bottom half of the league in TO differential and yet they only have 4 losses. how often does that happen?