Steelers this Season

I live in Virginia but I am a Pittsburgher. I was boon there, went to school there, met my wife and married her there - so the Steeltown is in my blood.

No matter where I go, one of the first things I do, is call DirectTV, and get my NFL Package Sunday Ticket :)

So here is my season ending rant.


New Coach

Tomlin














I like Mike Tomlin. Like everyone else, we are still getting to know the man but from what I see and the attitude he portrays it is one that goes along with the Steeltown image and that for the Steelers.

His ideas are also good for change and to maintain the tradition of a strong defense and running game.


Now, this season we started so strong - but I saw mental lapses against Arizona and Denver. I mean of all the games we should have expected an all out test and attack against our weaknesses would be the Arizona game.

Why? Simple, REVENGE. Sure, Whisenhunt (note, I liked Ken for the H.C. job personally - but am more than happy with Mr. Tomlin) is a new head coach, but he was passed over by the Rooney's for a coach out of no-where.

Since the relationship with him and Ben was not the best (I am going from broadcaster statements here, but there was an article in the Tribune Review on the matter), I am sure he also blames Ben to some degree for that.

So, why did Coach Tomlin not have his team prepared? Why did a team with a 2nd year QB, who cannot read defenses/and an over-the-hill backup beat us?

On the field, it looked like we would have beaten the Cardinals easily, but they whooped our ass mentally, so did the Broncos, and that lapse I lay at the Head Coach and his squad.

Coaching
Now, I am not done with the coaching. The loss to the Jaguars and the eeked out win over the Rams (nothing to brag about) showed me some serious flaws. The Dick Lebeau defense is done with the personnel we have.

Teams know how to beat it. Throw in 3 seconds or less, and with our highly aggressive safeties you get some real nice play action for deep damage (I am reminded of Randy Moss walking into the end-zone two times in a row).


Lebeau

I realize that the Rooney's did not want Lebeau to go, but lets face it, Tomlin came on the radar for the turn around he did on that Vikings defense. Not the same scheme as our blitzburgh approach, but I think we either need to blend the schemes (which will leverage some of our existing personnel), eliminate it (stupid solution), or continue with the same only get better starting personnel and depth. I mean, look, once Aaron Smith went out, we basically could not stop the run because our front-office did not get any depth at the position.

I think blending the defensive schemes and getting better personnel are the solutions.

Arians

























My buddy Chris, I almost said the 'H' word - well he really DISLIKES this coach. Chris is one of the smartest people I know and he has some pretty valid reasons for it, but I cannot argue with Arians results.

He has improved Ben Roethlisberger's production, and without the Bus we had the number one rushing game. But, in my gut, I did not think he knew how to use the running game - until the RAMS game, when Willie Parker was injured and he returned to "up the gut" smash mouth football.

All these sports experts say the Steelers are done because the defenses will no longer respect the play-action without Parker since we have no deep threat, but if Arians goes into his little playbook and does what - I think it was Whisenhunt - did with Kordell, Antwaan and Hines - et al, he can use them to slow those blitzes on Ben.

We have no Kordell or Antwaan, but Santonio and the other receiver corps have shown they are more than capable replacements for that kind of once-in-a-while trick.

If we do get Veron Haynes, well all the better.


Shut Up Anthony Smith
How many Steeler fans had the same reaction as I when they saw that clip of loud-mouth before the Patriots game? Up until then I had some hope "don't wake the sleeping dragon", but no, big-mouth has to go and open his yap, and more than that he cannot back any of it up.

Tom Brady made sure he learned that lesson, time and time again.

Offensive Line
Everyone knows the real strength of a team is in it's line. Currently, ours cannot pass-block, they are designed for run blocking. While Ben is having a stellar year, he also is getting sacked a lot.

Now, is that the lines fault alone? No!

You can see how long Ben holds onto that ball sometimes, in fact a lot, looking and looking instead of dumping it to his checkdowns.

Ben may be a big guy, but for some reason he strikes me as a fragile guy. He slides head first a lot, and looks bad doing it.

I know he isn't as fragile as I am indicating, but he needs to remember that the season rides on him, and grow up to some degree. There is nothing wrong having fun out there, that is what he is supposed to be doing, but when you look at Tom Brady in a huddle - you know who is in charge, or Peyton or Donovan. Ben is a guy still having fun and taking a lot of risks, and believing he can throw the ball anywhere (why his interceptions are higher than they should be but not real bad), and the reason his sacks are so high is because he wants to go deep in this new offense all the time.