Depressing to do this again but a collection of Steelers' offensive plays Sunday night that were plain broken. Nothing to do with scheme or concept. Just fundamental breakdowns that ruined plays. Happened far too often this year.
Second snap of the game. Feels like Harris ran the wrong way. Roethlisberger turns expecting Harris to run to his left (defense's right). Has to switch ball to left hand to get exchange off.
MIKE 'backer unblocked, Harris forced to bounce. Goes nowhere.
Next drive. Zone run left side. Miscommunication between Hassenauer (C) and Leglue (LG). Who is staying on the 1st level block, who is climbing to LB. Both come off and climb. DT left unblocked and Harris has no crease.
Run dead in the water.
3rd down. Ben changes play. Freiermuth doesn't get correct signal and runs wrong route. Just gets locked up on the CB. Roethlisberger wants him on the out. Incomplete, punt.
Another third down. Roethlisberger wants Johnson vertical. Throws into double coverage (safety shallow but don't get the throw here) and Johnson breaks off his route. Doesn't think ball is coming to him. Incomplete, #18 throws up his hands.
Confusion between Turner and Hassenauer over the protection. Turner expecting Hassenauer to slide to him. Hassenauer slides away. 1T runs in free to sack Ben.
Turner/Hassenauer stare at each other.
Remember that weird-looking handoff to Najee? This is what happened. RPO. Ben wants JuJu to run the slant but JuJu settles on a curl. So Roethlisberger tries to hand the ball back to Harris, who isn't expecting it.
Ben motions to JuJu to run the slant post-play.
Last one I'll show. Simple mesh concept. Confusion between JuJu and Washington. Feels like both thought the other would set the mesh and they would run under.
Narrowly avoid colliding with each other and Ben's pass is almost picked.
Had a similar thread after the Bengals blowout loss. Number of mental/assignment mistakes were off the charts this year, both sides of the ball. Lot of youth, lot of guys stepping up into prominent roles. But so many plays were wasted by unfundamental football.
Talent, scheme, nothing else matters when you can't carry about basic assignments. I'd guess a solid 10% of the offense's plays this year were ruined by unforced errors. That's not acceptable in a training camp practice, let alone a game.
Frustrating.
I generally put those assignment/mental mistakes on coaching. But it's playoffs and most of the guys I'm showing here played a lot of ball by this point. Largely, they've been taught these things.
JuJu bit of an exception with all the time missed. But still painful to watch.
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Some pre-game Steelers/Jets thoughts an hour before kickoff. Now often you see Steelers home primetime dogs...only the second time since 2016.
Russ' first start. Be patient past first drive. But every mistake will be scrutinized. Value of improved pass game vs lack of run game.
Jets' offense. Aaron Rodgers can still play at high level even if #'s don't look great this year. Worried Steelers come out and play a lot of zone. Rodgers will attack Beanie, maybe get Lazard on him.
Does Porter shadow Adams? Wilson? Neither.
Jets used lot more motion in last week's game under new OC Todd Downing. Less 2x2 formationally. High use of PA. Alert All-Go Special of 4 verts. Hall is weapon in pass game (T-2nd with 26 receptions).
Short thread on four sequences from the Steelers Sunday that show their repetitive nature. There's a good discussion to be had about sticking with what works vs defenses adjusting but some thoughts watching the game...
Steelers have called this shallow/post over a dozen times the first month. Hit big vs Raiders. Failed many other times.
Fairness, got a good look on 1st play. 2nd play, Pickett too quick with checkdown. But team always seems to come back to same limited menu of plays.
Mentioned this one before. Do it again here. 2nd and 16 call exact same as 4th and 1. How is that your "go-to" play? Expected C3, got C2.
And Heyward not running a crosser in the second clip. He's reacting to Pickett scrambling, trying to get in his vision as KP moves left.
Finished recapping and ranking all of Kevin Colbert's draft picks, 2000-2021, #176 to #1. I'll tweet out the list now. Picks were weighed based solely on Steelers' production, value, longevity, success, etc.
#176, Colbert's worst pick? Senquez Golson. 2nd round pick. Seven career training camp practices. Ended each year on IR. Never played a single game. Not one. Not even preseason.
Can't predict injuries. Really no one's "fault." But it was his least valuable pick.
#175. Alonzo Jackson – Rd. 2
#174. Fred Gibson – Rd. 4
#173. Danny Farmer – Rd. 4
#172. Kraig Urbik – Rd. 3
#171. Bruce Davis – Rd. 3
#170. Artie Burns – Rd. 1
#169. Orien Harris – Rd. 4
#168. Alameda Ta’amu – Rd. 3 (Trade Up)
Ta'amu. What a whiff. Traded up, got embarrassment.
Ryan Shazier a speaker at the 10th annual Man Up Conference in Cranberry. He shared the story of why he started going shirtless in warmups of cold weather games. Short thread on what he said. #Steelers
Winter game at Buffalo several years ago. Shazier is sick, thinks he has the flu. Steelers' defenders are never to wear sleeves. But he tells teammates before the game he is planning to. Too cold, he's too sick.
Defense comes to him and says. You wear sleeves and we're fining you $15,000...per sleeve.
So Shazier opts against the sleeves. And decides to take the field without a shirt.
Put together some clips of forgotten and underrated Ben Roethlisberger moments. Most of these aren't incredibly consequential throws. No Super Bowl game-winners, walk-off TDs, plays you'll see on all his highlight reels.
These are little moments that made Ben Ben. Enjoy.
3rd down, end-of-half pass to Le'Veon Bell. Threw sideways as he's falling to the ground. I don't know how he did it. But he did.
Early in his career. Late game against the Jags. Defender draped on him, pulling him down, somehow able to fling it on-target to Hines Ward on 3rd and 8. Hurt on the play. He played through the pain.
Steelers big underdogs tonight. Rightfully so. But last Sunday proved anything can happen. Keys to Pittsburgh pulling off one of the biggest upsets in playoff history. #Steelers
Turnovers and red zone play two team stats that will define this game. Steelers -3 in the first meeting, Chiefs had 17 points off it. Can't give Mahomes extra possessions/short fields. Think Steelers gotta be at least +2 and not turn it over.
Defense must get RZ stops. Keep score down. Steelers have basically won all their games this season by winning red zone defense, keeping games close in first half. Dug 23-0 hole in 1st half in Week 16. Give offense time to get going.