I had the opportunity to sit and watch the entire Jets-Packers game today and if the Jets are supposed to be the Steelers' top competition in the AFC, I'm not seeing it.
Offensively, if you shut down New York's running game and force Mark Sanchez to beat you, it's awfully difficult for the Jets to win.
Sanchez remains the king of the horizontal passing game. Everything he throws is sideways. And when he does push the ball down the field, he's not very accurate.
That's why Baltimore and the Steelers are the two best teams in the AFC.
Even though I'm not a big Joe Flacco fan, at least he has some weapons to get the ball down the field.
© Trai Essex is active and it appears he will start at right guard tonight.
Cornerback Tracy Porter is inactive for the Saints, as is fellow corner Jabari Greer. That's both starting CBs for the Saints.
35 comments:
That was some poor time management right before the half. Run the ball once and take a little time off the clock. And at least try to gain a few yards on 3rd down to move the ball closer for a FG try. There is no reason NO should have had enough time to go down the field and tie the game before halftime.
Gotta put this loss on the coaches. There is no excuse for not running down the clock at the end of the half so the Steelers either scored or the half ended. Why not run a qb sneak inside the 1 instead of a deep handoff that gives the DL a chance to get a charge? And going for it on 4th down to give the offense confidence? Give me a break.
coaching was awful. awful.
if you think that the Lance Moore play is worth a challenge, then the Mendenhall run certaintly is. I don't care if you risked being out of challenges, thats a huge swing.
Loved the defensive call on that 3rd and 9 before NO's last TD. It must have been the "leave the middle of the field wide open" play. I have no clue what that defensive play was, but it was the worst time to call it.
This is ALL on the coaching. HORRIBLE! How can you call the SAME DAMN CALL 4 TIMES on the 1 YD LINE??!?!?! I am fuming!
Where is Lolley to tell us what a good coach Arians is?
Bruce Arians isn't the best coordinator out there, but he isn't the worst either.
HHAAAAAHAAAAA!!
This was the 2008 Philly game and the 2009 Cleveland (part 2) game all over again on offense.
It's the same problems, over and over and over and over again.
The offense is sloppy, inconsistent, grab bag, and almost completely reliant on Ben making schoolyard plays.
what a shame. that game was there for the taking.
time management was pitiful at the end of the first half and at gave the saints 3 points.
not challenging mendy's run on the goaline cost another 7 points.
harrison's stupid roughing the passer cost 4 points.
going for it on 4th and 4? really?? just stupid.
and, like i said, the saints will pass all over the steelers and they did. the secondary really isn't that good fellas. if the QB has time to throw, it's gonna be a long day.
Tomlin and Arians ahould be ashamed of themselves. LMAO at Arians not being able to figure out how to beat a defense without any corners! Absolutely pathetic.
also, Gay sucks. any decent passing team can beat us by targeting Gay.
actually marc, going for that 4th and 4 was smart. just because they didnt convert, idiots like u bash it
actually, i was bashing them as they lined up for the play.
idiots like you think going for it on 4th and 4 is a high probability play.
good situational football when you are down by 3 on their 40 yard line halfway thru the 3rd quarter is to pin them deep and maintain field position in what was a defensive game, up to that point.
I'm tired of the BA bashing without giving Tomlin some blame.
How long does he need to ratify this before he gets some of it too?
And after last night, it should be painfully obvious that Tomlin is horrible at in game management and decisions. There were also no adjustments at the half, while NO game out and had a completely different half passing the ball.
I'm glad the Steelers are 5-2 but I'm sick of watching the same coaching mistakes over and over with the talent this team has.
also did ANYONE think Reed was going to make a 51 yard FG?
patrick,
tomlin clearly deserves some blame for the time management and the challenge calls. but i think you need to blame tomlin AND the coordinators for lack of adjustments.
also, this team is talented, but the secondary is not. #43 is great, but will get burned from time to time because he guesses. taylor is a good CB, not great. Clark is an average FS. the remaining guys in the secondary are average on a good day.
btw,
how do the refs call that holding on scott and not call it holding everytime an O-linemen does it to harrison when he rushes the QB?
also, i told the guy next to me at the bar no way reed makes that kick and they should just punt the ball.
I'm no BA fan, but he's the same guy who made Kelly Soppach look like a HoF'er against the Steelers in that playoff game vs Clev. The play calling in the first 4 games was fine, even if conservative. Just maybe we need to start considering that BR is a great sandlot qb, but not so much when he's kept in the pocket and made to go through his reads.
said the same thing about Reed's FG attempt. I almost would rather have seen a fake. Of course, a punt is the obvious choice, but thats just too logical.
Marc, imho you're being too harsh on the DBs. Except for the blown coverage on Meacham, they did a good job sticking with NO's WRs.
It's the NFL, even bad qbs are going to complete half their passes and good ones like Brees, more.
the saints completed 20 of 22 in the second half. i wouldn't say the steeler's DB's did a good job.
for the season, the opponent's completion % against the steelers is 68%, which ranks 29th in the league.
i think it is clear the steeler's defense makes every effort to take away the deep pass, but it leaves the short and intermediate routes open. imo, i think lebeau does that because he knows our DB's can't cover.
adamg;
20/22 191yds 2 td for perfect 153 rating.
Brees stat line for the 2 half.
Thats 90% completion, hardly a good job for the defense or the CB's.
Realy good first half, patetic second half.
Payton made the adjustments Dick, BA and Tomlin did not.
"I'm no BA fan, but he's the same guy who made Kelly Soppach look like a HoF'er against the Steelers in that playoff game vs Clev."
That wasnt Arians idiot. That was a horrible Steelers pass D that year. And you got the wrong QB marooon
NO didn't even bother to run. Every defense gives up something to defend something else. The Steelers' DBs play off and will give up the high percentage short stuff. So teams might be taking what the defense gives. Had there not been the two questionable coaching decisions at the end of the half and the 4th and 4, the defense gave up 2 TDs to an offensively talented team. And Ike got a pick and McFadden forced a fumble, neither of which the offense could convert into points.
The stat that counts in the end is the number of points an offense scores against a defense and the Steeler defense is pretty good at keeping that number low.
Yeah, ok, Kelly Holcomb and BA was Cleveland's OC.
i agree with you regarding the coaching decisions and some mistakes putting pressure on the defense.
i don't understand why any team would bother to run against the steelers. bring out 4 and 5 wide receiver sets and force the steelers to play the nickel all game long. the steelers cannot matchup if they have to put gay and macfadden on the field at the same time. neither is that good at coverage and having both on the field at the same time is a positive for the offense.
did you notice they were 2nd and 3rd in tackles this last game? that's because they were picked on by the saints.
like i said before, and it's just my opinion, but i believe lebeau recognizes our secondary is weak and plays the cover 2 to minimize the damage hoping the linebackers can make enough plays to get a stop.
the saints showed what a team with 4 decent receivers and a good TE can do to the steelers. dink and dunk, move the chains, and score.
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the saints showed what a team with 4 decent receivers and a good TE can do to the steelers. dink and dunk, move the chains, and score."
thats been the formula for forever. sad it hasnt changed
So will that NO DB who went helmet-to-helmet with Ward get fined??? I guess not because Ward wasnt hurt, results oriented...Goodell is a joke
That hit was more malicious than Harrison's or Dunta Robinson's, so he should be fined over 50k right
Goodell is a p.o.s. and an idiot
favre was hit high at least twice in their game. once he was scrambling, threw the ball and got drilled. the second time they opened up his chin. Obviously, the QB was hit in the head, but no flag and probably no fine.
you're right, goodell is a joke. they pick and choose who they want to punish.
marc, LeBeau's defense has always been bend but don't break. He doesn't believe a team can dink and dunk its way down the field without making a mistake. It doesn't make any difference who the DBs are.
I can't say I paid much attention to the leading tacklers, but when a team decides its offense is going to be 90% pass, I'm not surprised a CB and nickle back are up there.
Let's face it, if the offense scores on 1st and half a foot or converts one or both of the turnovers into points, we're not having this discussion.
you can say all the "ifs" you want, fact is the saints "did" dink and dunk down the field the whole second half and scored 17 points.
the fact also remains the secondary is the weakest part of the defense. and they cannot, i repeat, cannot cover man-to-man. reference macfadden with his feet cemented to the turf on the out pattern for a TD.
when a team is moving the ball at will, like the saints in the second half, you need to change it up. but they didn't. therefore, lebeau decided they didn't need to make a change or he decided the secondary was incapable of playing tighter coverage on short and intermediate routes but exposing themselves downfield.
i guess that's a question to ask at the press conference.
Ike Taylor is very good at man-to-man coverage actually.
yes, you are right. i was speaking of the secondar as a whole.
Dale, has anyone asked LeBeau about the ridiculously high completion percentages QBs have been having against the Steelers? Even given the facts that even bad QBs complete more than 50% these days and the Steelers haven't been giving up alot of total points, something is clearly wrong here -- and especially in the second halves of games.
Even if the secondary played bad, they still held them to 13 deep into the 4th quarter. Imagine is our offense didn't struggle so much, and especially if heath didn't fumble
Yes, Brees was 20 of 22 in the second half. But about five of those throws were down the field. Everything else was sideways.
They gave up one 50 yard completion on a blown coverage. So the other 19 completions went for 140 yards. That's 7.3 yards per completion. That's a whole lot of sideways passing.
Dale,
does it really matter if it's sideways or down the field? the saints used a short passing game to replace the run. playoff caliber teams will dink and dunk all day long to control the ball and move down the field. the notion of "they will make a mistake sooner or later" works fine when playing average or worse teams. but good teams really won't make that many mistakes.
don't get me wrong, i think they have a very good defense, overall. but i also believe they need to be able to adapt when good teams dink and dunk down the field, and they haven't shown they can do that, yet.
You have to be very patient with that to make it work. This particular team has the players - Timmons and Polamalu - to make you pay on those short passes.
The bottom line, they gave up 20 points on the road at New Orleans to a very good passing offense in a game in which the Steelers turned the ball over three times - fumble, interception and downs.
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