The little things nobody is mentioning....

[JTP53609]

1. It seems that in close games we burn timeouts early in the third quarter and it comes back to bite us. Yesterday was no exception, 2 early third quarter timeouts, and to make matters worse they resulted in failed 3rd down conversions anyway.

2. Lack of urgency in the fourth quarter while down 2 possessions. This also hurt us, especially since like I mentioned above, we only had 1 timeout left... We were down 10 points with a little over 7 minutes left and sure enough they walk up to the line and waste 20-30 seconds of previous time after each completion, or run, I'm not asking for a play every 10 seconds but there has to be more urgency.

3. Having mallet announced as the starter hours before the game hurt the defense (yea they sucked and would have against Clauson too). You can't prepare all week for one guys tendencies than have the rug pulled out from underneath you and get someone different, nothing can be done but I think we were really unprepared for him. MAYBE THE QB CHANGE AIDED IN THE REASON FOR US NOT TO PUT PRESSURE ON HIM.

4. Bad Ben played, I have come to the realization that he is good to great 12 games a year, ok 2 games a year and bad 2 games a year (I know he did not play 16 this year but you know what i mean) he was off yesterday and had no zip and could of had 4-5 pics

[Ghost]

Can't get on board with number 3. Yeah, he had tools in college but he was the 4th starter in 6 weeks for the birds. He had been unsigned since late October through mid December. Not on a roster. He had 12 days as a raven before he came in and had a career day (a lot of yards). They had to have dumbed their playbook WAY down.

I mean damn, there were guys in the huddle who didn't even know his first name and only knew his last because it was on his jersey. Not putting insane pressure on him and not playing tighter coverage to throw off his timing is ridiculous. No turnovers either just sucks. D allowed him to convert 6 3rd downs in row in the first and continually had the Steelers O in bad field position.

The entire D gets an F yesterday.

[JTP53609]

I think the guy had nothing to lose, they weren't expecting much of him so he could relax and let it fly, that makes for a dangerous day and added problems to the things mentioned above.

[NJ-STEELER]

Why would the defensive game plan change going from clauses starting to mallet starting?

its not like one is a scrambler and the other isn't

[JTP53609]

Stronger arm, bigger, stronger guy. I'm not saying this is the reason we lost but you can't say that it changed some thought process, I could be way off but if I were the steelers I would of much rather faced Clauson.

[papillon]

Stronger arm, bigger, stronger guy. I'm not saying this is the reason we lost but you can't say that it changed some thought process, I could be way off but if I were the steelers I would of much rather faced Clauson.

Neither quarterback has much of a resume I'm sure to the Steelers it didn't matter which quarterback played, it's not like there is a great difference in skill level that has been displayed thus far in their careers. Clausen would have probably had the same success.

Pappy

[JTP53609]

I agree with you guys, I just think it was a wrinkle in starting him that threw the steelers off a little bit, and a little lack of gamesmanship by harbaugh (shocking)
i just want them to fix my first and second points.