A little comedy, a little weightlifting (Weegie)
Okay, that just sucked.
I kept records during the game marking a plus for a good action and a minus for bad action, I'll admit that I may have missed some things, and not all things are equal, even if they're scored that way. (For instance the interception by Polamalu gets one plus, while the play before where he leapt over the pile also got one, just because I'd love to think that that, which looked absolutely like something that would scare the opposition pantsless would have affected the next play.) Let's look at the numbers:
OFFENSE
Ben -3 (2 good/5 bad)
Bettis -1 (0/1)
Randle El 0 (1/1)
St. Pierre 0 (1/1)
Kranchick +2 (2/0)
Rasby +1 (1/0)
Haynes +1 (1/0)
Parker +1 (2/1)
Reed -1 (0/1)
Essex -1 (0/1)
Morey -2 (2/4)
Gibson 0 (1/1)
Washington +1 (1/0)
Wilson +1 (1/0)
Herron -1 (0/1)
Defense
Polamalu +3 (3/0)
Haggans +2 (2/0)
ASmith +1 (1/0)
Hope +2 (2/0)
Harrison +2 (2/0)
Logan -1 (1/2)
Colclough +1 (2/1)
Hampton 0 (1/1)
Townshend 0 (1/1)
Williams -1 (0/1)
Wallace +3 (3/0)
Farrior +1 (1/0)
Taylor -2 (0/2)
Stanley -1 (0/1)
Frazier +1 (1/0)
Jackson 0 (1/1)
So what are we to make of this debacle, and yes, I did use that term, because it fits, for probably the exact wrong reasons everyone thinks.
1. The argument that's being kicked around the sports channels is that Hines' holdout has affected the Steelers badly by knocking everyone out of sync. This just screams of the media looking to keep itself relevant by creating a crazy enough theory. I can't see this being a theory that lasts into the regular season, whether they fix it or not.
2. Ben is out of sync. It's not the recievers, it's Ben. There's only one way to cure this and that's reps in game. Does this mean that Pittsburgh's favorite miracle play, The Agony of St. Backup, will take another turn? Oh, yeah. It's Pittsburgh. (Yes, that could have been the Agony of St. Pierre, but that would have been too cute. By a half and an overtime period.)
3. Alonzo Jackson did get a good play off tonight, forcing a bad pass and laying out Jason Campbell. However, I still don't think he's going to stay. First of all, he seemed to be running around like the special kid. We've simplified his entire playbook to "GO GET THE BALL!" and well, he just runs after the ball, no matter where it goes, he can't catch up to it. I've never seen a Steeler so consistently be the last guy on the pile. This combined with the fact that he seems to have the turning radius of a taxiing 767 means he's being knocked out of position due to his own momentum.
4. The Wallace kid seems to be able to play. He is the depth we were looking for at LB.
5. Hope's +2 is decieving, both of those were on plays where he made the stop, but only because a lot of other people could have made the stop but failed.
6. Okay, Staley is out for a while, Bus is now dinged in a very dangerous spot in the undercarriage. If this continues into the season, oh we are screwed. The prevailing wisdom is start Parker, but then the prevailing wisdom turns around in mid-thought and realizes that Parker is so good that he takes us out of the slow grind offense which allows us to be dominant. The reasonable solution I can see out of this quandary is the Morris/Pegram rotation. Rotate them on drives, if we go up two scores, full Haynes, if we go down two scores, full Parker.
7. Morey demonstrated to me why he can't make this team as the fifth wideout tonight. The position he plays is cruise missile, he gets downfield and locks on to a target, but anything you throw at the missile bounces off. Great for special teams, but let's not kid ourselves that that's a viable recieving threat.
8. I think Mays was injured, but Gibson may have pushed him out the door tonight, not that Gibson was anything good, just that he was able to use his height and leaping to get a pass, and almost get the other one thrown to him. Yeah, he's still a project, but if Ben doesn't get it back down, we'll need somebody on a ladder to pull it down.
9. Look at that Kranchick catch passes. Freaky. Do you realize we had two consecutive plays where the TE caught a pass? And it wasn't even the same TE?
10. Herron didn't look nearly as good as his extended action in the last game indicated.
11. If I'm Cowher, and having seen this, I deliver this message to my first team offense. You're on that field against Carolina until you score a touchdown. Enough's enough, you have one game to get it together. We basically know our roster, there's only about four slots still up for grabs, and those are defense and special teams. You guys have to make it work.
--Weegie Thompson
I kept records during the game marking a plus for a good action and a minus for bad action, I'll admit that I may have missed some things, and not all things are equal, even if they're scored that way. (For instance the interception by Polamalu gets one plus, while the play before where he leapt over the pile also got one, just because I'd love to think that that, which looked absolutely like something that would scare the opposition pantsless would have affected the next play.) Let's look at the numbers:
OFFENSE
Ben -3 (2 good/5 bad)
Bettis -1 (0/1)
Randle El 0 (1/1)
St. Pierre 0 (1/1)
Kranchick +2 (2/0)
Rasby +1 (1/0)
Haynes +1 (1/0)
Parker +1 (2/1)
Reed -1 (0/1)
Essex -1 (0/1)
Morey -2 (2/4)
Gibson 0 (1/1)
Washington +1 (1/0)
Wilson +1 (1/0)
Herron -1 (0/1)
Defense
Polamalu +3 (3/0)
Haggans +2 (2/0)
ASmith +1 (1/0)
Hope +2 (2/0)
Harrison +2 (2/0)
Logan -1 (1/2)
Colclough +1 (2/1)
Hampton 0 (1/1)
Townshend 0 (1/1)
Williams -1 (0/1)
Wallace +3 (3/0)
Farrior +1 (1/0)
Taylor -2 (0/2)
Stanley -1 (0/1)
Frazier +1 (1/0)
Jackson 0 (1/1)
So what are we to make of this debacle, and yes, I did use that term, because it fits, for probably the exact wrong reasons everyone thinks.
1. The argument that's being kicked around the sports channels is that Hines' holdout has affected the Steelers badly by knocking everyone out of sync. This just screams of the media looking to keep itself relevant by creating a crazy enough theory. I can't see this being a theory that lasts into the regular season, whether they fix it or not.
2. Ben is out of sync. It's not the recievers, it's Ben. There's only one way to cure this and that's reps in game. Does this mean that Pittsburgh's favorite miracle play, The Agony of St. Backup, will take another turn? Oh, yeah. It's Pittsburgh. (Yes, that could have been the Agony of St. Pierre, but that would have been too cute. By a half and an overtime period.)
3. Alonzo Jackson did get a good play off tonight, forcing a bad pass and laying out Jason Campbell. However, I still don't think he's going to stay. First of all, he seemed to be running around like the special kid. We've simplified his entire playbook to "GO GET THE BALL!" and well, he just runs after the ball, no matter where it goes, he can't catch up to it. I've never seen a Steeler so consistently be the last guy on the pile. This combined with the fact that he seems to have the turning radius of a taxiing 767 means he's being knocked out of position due to his own momentum.
4. The Wallace kid seems to be able to play. He is the depth we were looking for at LB.
5. Hope's +2 is decieving, both of those were on plays where he made the stop, but only because a lot of other people could have made the stop but failed.
6. Okay, Staley is out for a while, Bus is now dinged in a very dangerous spot in the undercarriage. If this continues into the season, oh we are screwed. The prevailing wisdom is start Parker, but then the prevailing wisdom turns around in mid-thought and realizes that Parker is so good that he takes us out of the slow grind offense which allows us to be dominant. The reasonable solution I can see out of this quandary is the Morris/Pegram rotation. Rotate them on drives, if we go up two scores, full Haynes, if we go down two scores, full Parker.
7. Morey demonstrated to me why he can't make this team as the fifth wideout tonight. The position he plays is cruise missile, he gets downfield and locks on to a target, but anything you throw at the missile bounces off. Great for special teams, but let's not kid ourselves that that's a viable recieving threat.
8. I think Mays was injured, but Gibson may have pushed him out the door tonight, not that Gibson was anything good, just that he was able to use his height and leaping to get a pass, and almost get the other one thrown to him. Yeah, he's still a project, but if Ben doesn't get it back down, we'll need somebody on a ladder to pull it down.
9. Look at that Kranchick catch passes. Freaky. Do you realize we had two consecutive plays where the TE caught a pass? And it wasn't even the same TE?
10. Herron didn't look nearly as good as his extended action in the last game indicated.
11. If I'm Cowher, and having seen this, I deliver this message to my first team offense. You're on that field against Carolina until you score a touchdown. Enough's enough, you have one game to get it together. We basically know our roster, there's only about four slots still up for grabs, and those are defense and special teams. You guys have to make it work.
--Weegie Thompson
posted at 1:05 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home