No real surprises on the Steelers' inactive list today. It includes Landry Jones, Markus Wheaton, Richard Gordon, Curtis Brown, Chris Carter, Kion Wilson and Hebron Fangupo.
The weather here is overcast with a slight chill.
Interesting to note that the Raiders have completely covered the upper deck seats ala. Jacksonville. Guess they're guaranteeing sellouts, but they are taking a lot of the crowd, and crowd noise, out of the equation.
For the Raiders, starting strong safety Tyvon Branch and right tackle Tony Pashos are out.
17 comments:
Pathetic. The defense couldn't stop a crippled grandma. The DL is awful, no push, can't hold the point and can't cover.
And why is Paulson, who can't block, holding down the edge on the punt team?
Embarrassing, 21-3. Tomlin really got them ready to play this week with the history lesson. It worked, the Steelers are history
FIRE HALEY! Zero offense vs a terrible team.. Defense gives you two turn overs in the first half and all you can manage is 3 points? Disgusting.
I understand why Suisham was so good, the offense was so bad. I guess Shawn felt lonely and decided to join the club.
Honestly, Lebeau is a Hall of Famer, but his time as a DC has passed. The Steelers no longer have the personnel to run a 3-4 defense. They need to adapt to what they do have. McLendon simply cannot hold the point and engage two blockers nor can he play Hoke's quickness game. He's consistently been locked up and shoved around by Wisnewski the entire first half.
In fact, the entire DL has been easily blocked by just 3 OL and none seem able to disengage from their blockers. They either need to switch to a 4-3 or somehow acquire an NT capable of holding the center of the line if they are going to insist on keeping the 3-4.
Terrelle Pryor is the poster boy for 1 trick pony, yet he's moving Oak up and down the field with ease.
Who is #41? The ball bounced right to him on the fumbled punt and he managed not to come up with it.
And Danny Smith better figure out how to account for edge rushers on the punts and PKs.
Suisham, the wheels really have fallen off in all 3 phases! What does Tomlin get paid to do?
This was a team lack of effort.
What was Brown thinking not fair catching the punt? Dumb. Does Danny Smith even tell him what to do in that situation?
I guess the Steelers are officially in rebuilding mode and we fans will just have to accept that there'll be a few down years before getting back on top.
had suisham made those two gimmies, the score would have been 24-21. Dale's prediction: 23-20. The steelers straight up outplayed the raiders virtually all game. I guess it turns out you can't spot the other team 14 points and miss two field goals and still win.
but hey lets blame the coaches
had suisham made those two gimmies
And if the Steelers run defense was better
And if the Steelers running game was better
And if the Steelers OL didn’t keep getting hurt
And if the Steelers pass protection was better
And if Poulsan was a better blocker
And if Brown didn’t drop passes
And the ifs keep on piling up until someone asks why? Tomlin will stroll into the press conference on Tuesday praising the 35 rushing yards that the Steelers gained against the powerhouse Raiders. Any questions?
I was thinking things were looking up going into this game but some of the mistakes and sloppy play today were too much. Game after game and no accountability.
Players, mostly on offense, made key mistakes.
Zac in Tempe
There is only so much that can be done when an organization decides to keep a team together for 1 more shot at a championship. If it doesn't happen, the team is old all at once and there's a lot of personnel turnover and fast. This is where the Steelers are right now. They are a team in transition. The NFL punishes success with free agency and the inverse order of the draft. Carp about Colbert all you want, but there just aren't many impact players to be had near the end of each round.
Before the season Bettis, Ward, Tom Bradley all looked at the team and said it was going to be a long year because of the vet talent that was lost and the inexperienced players who would have to step up. And expect more of the same next year as guys like Clark, Keisel, Hood, Sanders, etc, aren't likely to be re-signed.
Let me add that although you can mock teams, beating the Steelers is still a big deal to alot of them. Did you see Oak's sideline? They were jumping up and down like they won the SB even though all they did was beat another bad team.
Adamg,
What you say pains me because I know it's true. The painful part is that Ben is still in his prime, but there's a possibility that he'll be past his prime when the rebuilding is finished. Finding a good QB is difficult as witnessed by those many long years between Bradshaw and Ben, though a good defense helped make those years bearable.
Teams are finding out you can't invest 10%+ of your salary cap in a qb because it doesn't leave enough money to sign and keep a decent supporting cast. I won't be surprised to see more teams abandon the highly paid qb model and return to "game manager" type qb and a more balanced team salary structure.
Because of the way BR chooses to play, he's got a lot of mileage on him despite still being relatively young. I think his prime passed a couple years ago.
adamg, i agree with most of what you have said except for the drafting part re: colbert. taking a quick look at the seahawks shows on the offensive side of the ball they only have 2 first round players (25th and 12th selections) and one of those was a free agent acquisition. furthermore, the average draft selection of their o-line is very similar to the steelers.
we could have a very long and fruitful debate about draft strategies and the pros/cons of each, but, imo, the best teams find talent in the middle to later rounds and avoid mistakes in the first two rounds. traditionally, the steelers have followed that model. but, it's starting to appear they have made more mistakes than thought and the talent isn't what they thought it would be.
with that said, i believe the biggest failing of colbert is finding a "real" NT for the 3-4. since hampton started to decline i advocated finding a suitable replacement, but they either couldn't find one or went another direction.
this is why, a "hampton" type NT takes minimum 2 o-linemen to block leaving three for the other 2 d-linemen and 2 OLB's. Uh-oh for the defense which now has to keep a RB or TE in to block. now throw in a ILB/CB blitz and then big time uh-oh. but, the steelers don't have that type of NT which is why sacks/pressures/INT's have gone down. also why the interior run defense is softer as well.
the old saying is quite true, it all starts upfront.
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