Fichtner: Disturbing

[Northern_Blitz]

Well thought out TO, I do believe they tried that with freakin Samuels!
Νοτ calling you out TO, but just got me on a rant.

The thing is kills me, is they are a lost cause. They are stubborn in thinking that their ways work and that they should don't progress or tinkle with the O. Just wait when they do the same thing in the run- passing game against Cincy, and it works fine, but in reality even if i suited up against Cincy I would look fine. They need to experiment, throw a wrinkle, next level to this offense, can't rely on the same thing and gimick plays. What ever happened to the Canada's influence of movement and jet sweeps, they just dropped it instead of building or evolving from it.

They need to learn that it is ok if players don't play... Ray-Ray screens? Sameuls everywhere!
They need to understand critical-situation football... that 4 and 1 pass to McFarland, that pass to the tackle, that bomb to Washington that was intercepted in Buffalo, what was that a 3rd and 8 play?
They need to unerstad that is ok to play Claypool with Washington, or move any WR from outside to inside, and vice versa.

As for the OL, I think they had a plan to ease out AV and bring Chucks in. Or recently, the same could have been said of Dotson easing into Feilers role and perhaps Chucks taking snaps at LT while Feiler at RT.

I agree that the lack of apparent progress is concerning.

I worry that it's too tough to change the playbook too much at this point. And that changing the play caller at the sideline might not matter too much if Ben is telling the truth about often calling plays himself.

I think the most feasible way out of this is to throw more deeper passes. Set some teams up with pumps on the short passes (we did have some success with this against BUF I think).

Try to use the fact that we have been very 1-D against defenses instead of leaning into it so hard.

But I've only ever called plays in Madden, so who knows...

[flippy]

I agree that the lack of apparent progress is concerning.

I worry that it's too tough to change the playbook too much at this point. And that changing the play caller at the sideline might not matter too much if Ben is telling the truth about often calling plays himself.

I think the most feasible way out of this is to throw more deeper passes. Set some teams up with pumps on the short passes (we did have some success with this against BUF I think).

Try to use the fact that we have been very 1-D against defenses instead of leaning into it so hard.

But I've only ever called plays in Madden, so who knows...

I'm not 100% sure Ben still has the arm right now. And it could even be temporary due to a knee or elbow issue that's holding him back.

His 2 Ints were awful throws and they really jumped out. He floated that ball on a 5 yard pass to Juju for the one. And then he really underthrew Washington when JW was sooooo open and that was only 40 yards down the field and I'm not sure he was able to get it there.

Ben used to throw balls on a rope. Now he's throwing like I used to throw in middle school with a little extra air under the ball to get it to go as far as possible.

[NorthCoast]

Well thought out TO, I do believe they tried that with freakin Samuels!
Νοτ calling you out TO, but just got me on a rant.

The thing is kills me, is they are a lost cause. They are stubborn in thinking that their ways work and that they should don't progress or tinkle with the O. Just wait when they do the same thing in the run- passing game against Cincy, and it works fine, but in reality even if i suited up against Cincy I would look fine. They need to experiment, throw a wrinkle, next level to this offense, can't rely on the same thing and gimick plays. What ever happened to the Canada's influence of movement and jet sweeps, they just dropped it instead of building or evolving from it.

They need to learn that it is ok if players don't play... Ray-Ray screens? Sameuls everywhere!
They need to understand critical-situation football... that 4 and 1 pass to McFarland, that pass to the tackle, that bomb to Washington that was intercepted in Buffalo, what was that a 3rd and 8 play?
They need to unerstad that is ok to play Claypool with Washington, or move any WR from outside to inside, and vice versa.

As for the OL, I think they had a plan to ease out AV and bring Chucks in. Or recently, the same could have been said of Dotson easing into Feilers role and perhaps Chucks taking snaps at LT while Feiler at RT.

It's interesting you bring up Canada. There is talk of friction between him and Fichtner. Started the season with a variety of formations, motion at the snap, etc. Now, hardly a thing. They talked about BUF maybe susceptible to misdirection because of the young LB core. What did we see? RUTFM. OK, first play was a sweep for zero yds, but after that, nada.

Unfortunately I think they will keep Fichtner until Roethlisberger is gone. So I don't expect wholesale changes at this point.

[Northern_Blitz]

It's interesting you bring up Canada. There is talk of friction between him and Fichtner. Started the season with a variety of formations, motion at the snap, etc. Now, hardly a thing. They talked about BUF maybe susceptible to misdirection because of the young LB core. What did we see? RUTFM. OK, first play was a sweep for zero yds, but after that, nada.

Unfortunately I think they will keep Fichtner until Roethlisberger is gone. So I don't expect wholesale changes at this point.

Like several of our somewhat recent opponents, BUF didn't have a great run D and we still can't do anything on the ground.

[flippy]

Like several of our somewhat recent opponents, BUF didn't have a great run D and we still can't do anything on the ground.

Even a horrible D that only has to defend 5 yards is going to have 11 guys around the LOS to stop the run.

[SteelerOfDeVille]

The trend is obviously not good.

.... obviously.... heh

[SteelerOfDeVille]

Even a horrible D that only has to defend 5 yards is going to have 11 guys around the LOS to stop the run.

i've been saying this for a spell now... the short passes are keeping the defense close to the LOS... what happened to all the deep balls Claypool caught earlier in the season? Conner was getting solid rushing yards and this offense was beginning to look scary - if they pull THAT offense out during the postseason, they could be world-beaters.

[skyhawk]

OL is a problem this year, but also, through the stats given we see that, for whatever reasons, the current regime seems to be incapable of or unwilling to make the kinds of adjustments/improvements to the offense that are needed as we move toward the end of the season. I might give them a pass for last season, though, as it was the Duck and Rudolph show.

The OL was fairly crappy and maligned with injuries in 2008 and 2009. What happened those years?

Fire Finctner. Now. Unless some of the creativity earlier in the season comes back.

[skyhawk]

i've been saying this for a spell now... the short passes are keeping the defense close to the LOS... what happened to all the deep balls Claypool caught earlier in the season? Conner was getting solid rushing yards and this offense was beginning to look scary - if they pull THAT offense out during the postseason, they could be world-beaters.

This.

What happened? Finctner. Via Ben.

[skyhawk]

Ben had/has been making some of the best throws of his career from the pocket in his career earlier in the season. Is it because of the competition? OL?

The answer lies in the key of F. And this one is a minor chord.

[Buzz]

Give Canada a crack at the duties.

[Steel Maniac]

So my perception has been that Tomlin's teams generally finish the season on an upswing. Then I did some checking and found something disturbing. Take a look:

December Win/Loss

• 2016 - 4 and 0
• 2017 - 4 and 1
• 2018 - 2 and 3
• 2019 - 2 and 3
• 2020 - 1 and 2 ....

What is significant about these numbers is the change in 2018 when Fichtner took over as OC.

During his time as OC the Steelers have avg'd 18.2 pts/gm in December.

In Todd Haley's last two seasons, the Steelers avg'd 28.2 pts/gm in December.


This, my friends, is not a good sign for this team. Fichnter as OC may be placating Roethlisberger but it is definitely harming the team. I think a change needs to happen sooner and not later.

North coast , can you identify any constant through all those seasons? Some type of tie-in so we can pinpoint the issue?

[Captain Lemming]

Ben had/has been making some of the best throws of his career from the pocket in his career earlier in the season. Is it because of the competition? OL?

The answer lies in the key of F. And this one is a minor chord.

Ben had more deep ball success in single games (look at a typical game versus the colts) than he has had this entire season.

I am not averse to dumping.Fichner, but short pass genius Bill Walsh could not play call SB success with the Ben missing.deep.passes and receivers dropping them. Teams have.to fear getting beat over the top.

[Captain Lemming]

North coast , can you identify any constant through all those seasons? Some type of tie-in so we can pinpoint the issue?

He said it in the original comment: "Fichnter as OC"

[NorthCoast]

North coast , can you identify any constant through all those seasons? Some type of tie-in so we can pinpoint the issue?

You're trying to set me up Maniac.... not gonna go there