Week 16: The Good, the Bad and Ugly Comment/Vent/Rant Steeler version

[BmoreBird22]

7 hours ago, Purple_ICE 81 said:

The more and more that I look at the tape...The more and more that Eric Weddle looks like a bum....Maybe I'm just an optimist but dude needs to shave his beard and learn the ABCs of covering a receiver

I think this would be the first game this was the case and the entire defense was fairly dreadful

[rmw10]

6 minutes ago, BmoreBird22 said:

I think this would be the first game this was the case and the entire defense was fairly dreadful

Yep.  Weddle has been strong all year and a huge reason this defense was as good as it was for most of the season.  By no means is he a bum.  If one bad game made a guy a bum, that would be our whole team.

[jboy19]

1 hour ago, BmoreBird22 said:

I think this would be the first game this was the case and the entire defense was fairly dreadful

Yeah. I think Weddle was asked to do a lot more when Jimmy went out. I don't have access to all-22 cameras, but my guess is that he had to do a lot of cleanup for Wright. 

[BmoreBird22]

5 minutes ago, jboy19 said:

Yeah. I think Weddle was asked to do a lot more when Jimmy went out. I don't have access to all-22 cameras, but my guess is that he had to do a lot of cleanup for Wright. 

People like to say Jimmy shouldn't make a huge impact on the defense, but when you take him out, you're putting Weddle and Webb in a two high instead of a single high with Webb. Weddle is no longer covering tight ends. Now you're forced to put Orr into coverage more frequently. 

It's a huge trickle effect. Weddle has largely still been effective even without Jimmy, so this truly was just one bad game, but Orr has had his worst games with no Jimmy.

[jboy19]

3 minutes ago, BmoreBird22 said:

People like to say Jimmy shouldn't make a huge impact on the defense, but when you take him out, you're putting Weddle and Webb in a two high instead of a single high with Webb. Weddle is no longer covering tight ends. Now you're forced to put Orr into coverage more frequently. 

It's a huge trickle effect. Weddle has largely still been effective even without Jimmy, so this truly was just one bad game, but Orr has had his worst games with no Jimmy.

I've never understood the Jimmy Smith hate. He's had one of the lowest burn rates the past couple years. I get that people on here generally react irrationally to when players get injured, but like you said there's a huge difference across the entire defense when he's out. 

[trevorsteadman]

44 minutes ago, BmoreBird22 said:

People like to say Jimmy shouldn't make a huge impact on the defense, but when you take him out, you're putting Weddle and Webb in a two high instead of a single high with Webb. Weddle is no longer covering tight ends. Now you're forced to put Orr into coverage more frequently. 

It's a huge trickle effect. Weddle has largely still been effective even without Jimmy, so this truly was just one bad game, but Orr has had his worst games with no Jimmy.

Yep I've been trying to say this all along. He is the best player on our team and highly underrated. The team needs another corner to compliment him. Tired of all these injuries. The rest of the corners are midgets. 

[Gtown Purple]

So much to say here.

 

I can't blame Joe for this loss. This was arguably his best performance of the year. I personally rate it higher than the Dolphins game because of the situation and being on the road. Joe could have had 4 tds and 300+ yards if people catch the damn ball. I'll grant you the Pitta and Perriman TDs would have been tough catches but thats what is needed to win big games. The Waller TD drop is reminiscent of Lee Evans. There were a couple of other very catch able drops. Joe was under much more pressure than Ben.

 

I did like that we ran the ball better but there were drives where we didn't commit like our first drive. We need to make running the ball more of a priority next year.

 

We need a legit number 1 receiver. Wallace and SSR made plays at times this year but it wasn't consistent. We need a consistent number 1 WR who teams have to gameplan for. We don't have anyone of offense like that. Outside of Wallace and SSR nobody else at the WR position made big plays. I would have liked to have seen more of Camp in this game. Too bad he can't stay healthy or he could be our Julian Edelman.

 

I have to blame the defense for this loss. 27 points is one of our highest point totals all year, that has to be made to stick. Over 400 yards of offense is not a good performance. You can dominate scrub teams but decent or good teams blow you away. This defense doesn't feel like a top ten defense. The run magically disappeared and we can't seem to cover a decent WR if Jimmy Smith isn't playing. Go take a look at the stats from the 4 games Jimmy hasn't played vs the ones he did. The stats are polar opposites. I can understand a drop off without your best DB and arguably your best player on D but you shouldn't fall off a cliff. Next to nothing for pass rush, 3 hits and 0 sacks. Pass rush was supposed to be a priority last off season and that was a failure. Now we go into this offseason with that as a priority as well. In big games our pass rush was nil.

 

Like many others I have misgivings about the defensive play calling, especially on the last drive. You know you can't allow points and yet you allow 10 yard cushions and let them run quick hitches 3 times and walk out of bounds? That's completely unacceptable regardless of who is playing. I don't understand why Webb wasn't brought down to nickel more with Powers getting taken advantage of.

 

Geen and Coates didn't play and we still got burnt.

 

Plan moving forward.

 

 

We need to create cap space, even with the cap likely expanding again this year. There are some small savings like Kendrick Lewis out there but I think Doom needs to go. He under performed when playing all year and we need to make room for Matt Judon who is a much cheaper player and looked better. We also need to make pass rusher a priority in the draft and FA. Doom can't be our main threat moving forward. Suggs needs to be kept for his leadership and run stuffing ability. Saving 1 mil on him doesn't make sense.

 

At least one lineman as Bwill is gone. Pierce will help but not much behind him.

 

We need an impact DB in FA or the draft. Being vulnerable behind Jimmy can't be an excuse anymore.

 

I'm fairly happy with our lbs as long as we get someone to rush the passer.

 

On offense we need playmakers, plain and simple. Wallace, SSR (if he returns), Perriman, and Pitta are good compliments but not people who can take over a game or wreck a game plan. 

 

Flacco stays simply because of his contract and the fact that nbody better is going to be available this coming year. I wouldn't mind drafting someone mid round to groom but there is no magic pill. Flacco played well at times but as in the past he is inconsistent. Not sure how you fix that but it is what it is. Does anyone want to argue Jay Cutler or Kirk Cousins is better because those are most likely the best options that could be available.

 

Pretty happy with our RB situation.

 

OL needs to be addressed. Zuttah has killed us at times this year. I would like to have Wagner come back because that means Alex stays at LG otherwise that creates alot of flux. If Wagner goes then I think Lewis moves to RT and we have a hole at LG. I like what we saw from Stanley and Yanda is a Pro Bowler.

 

We need to find an impact ST returner. No kick or punt returns for TDs all year.

 

Not certain we keep our cordinators. Marty was up and down and so was Pees at times.

 

[trevorsteadman]

I know it was only for one drive against an injured Steelers' front seven... But I thought Hurst did alright at right tackle when Wagner went out. Maybe Hurst fits alright as a RT and just is terrible at LT. 

[balfan23]

The Good: The offense woke up and did what they could to deliver the win. Too bad "the good" here was not good enough to overcome the bad and the ugly. 

The Bad: Zero pressure on Ben. At a time when you are looking for Suggs to play out of his mind, he was invisible. Doom was totally nonexistent for the entire season, partly due to injury but then he never got his legs under him. You can't succeed if you can't even lay a finger on Ben. 

The Ugly: Blowing the game - not once but twice with a 4th quarter lead. The defense not only couldn't stop the Steelers from scoring TDs, they couldn't even make them do it slowly. Hot knife through butter. 

 

[Militant X 1]

50 minutes ago, balfan23 said:

The Good: The offense woke up and did what they could to deliver the win. Too bad "the good" here was not good enough to overcome the bad and the ugly. 

The Bad: Zero pressure on Ben. At a time when you are looking for Suggs to play out of his mind, he was invisible. Doom was totally nonexistent for the entire season, partly due to injury but then he never got his legs under him. You can't succeed if you can't even lay a finger on Ben. 

The Ugly: Blowing the game - not once but twice with a 4th quarter lead. The defense not only couldn't stop the Steelers from scoring TDs, they couldn't even make them do it slowly. Hot knife through butter. 

 

Both of them are liabilities at this point in their careers imo.

[LosT_in_TranSlatioN]

1 minute ago, Militant X 1 said:

Both of them are liabilities at this point in their careers imo.

Dumervil I agree. Suggs as a pass rusher, yes, but he's still been a good run defender so he's worth stashing around. We need to hope that Judon can develop into a good run player, and we need to draft another OLB. 

[balfan23]

5 minutes ago, Militant X 1 said:

Both of them are liabilities at this point in their careers imo.

I'm afraid that could be the case. I firmly believe we will view Doom that way and given his $6M cap savings, he's a virtual guarantee to be cut. Sizzle only save $1M, so the only way he goes is if he retires. He's got one more year on the roster. Hope he can really recover from all his injuries to the extent that he can at least be effective in 2017. But OLB is the #1 offseason need by a huge margin. 

[Cillmatic]

It's hilarious that no one noticed that ALBERT MCCLENNON was our STARTING OLB. That should've raised some red flags. 

Edited December 29, 2016 by Cillmatic

[BmoreBird22]

1 minute ago, Cillmatic said:

It's hilarious that no one noticed that ALBERY MCCLENNON was our STARTING OLB. That should've raised some red flags. 

Yeah, no kidding. How does a guy who's not even on the roster trick coaches into letting him play?

[trevorsteadman]

8 minutes ago, BmoreBird22 said:

Yeah, no kidding. How does a guy who's not even on the roster trick coaches into letting him play?

Lol I died a little

[Rav'n Maniac]

The only complaint that I have is that our situational football absolutely sucks. We score a TD leaving 1:18 on the clock and what do we do? We kick the ball out of the end zone taking no time off the clock. I was screaming for them to kick the ball on a line drive down the center of the field so that the clock would start the moment the ball hit the field and would force them to return it. We could have easily shaved as much as 15 or more seconds off the clock in that scenario.

Yeah, I know I'm just a lowly, insignificant fan and my opinion means absolutely nothing but, come on, these guys get paid to make this kind of decision and continually blow it. 

[rmw10]

5 minutes ago, Rav'n Maniac said:

The only complaint that I have is that our situational football absolutely sucks. We score a TD leaving 1:18 on the clock and what do we do? We kick the ball out of the end zone taking no time off the clock. I was screaming for them to kick the ball on a line drive down the center of the field so that the clock would start the moment the ball hit the field and would force them to return it. We could have easily shaved as much as 15 or more seconds off the clock in that scenario.

Yeah, I know I'm just a lowly, insignificant fan and my opinion means absolutely nothing but, come on, these guys get paid to make this kind of decision and continually blow it. 

You realize the clock doesn't start until the returning team touches the ball, right?

[January J]

6 minutes ago, Rav'n Maniac said:

The only complaint that I have is that our situational football absolutely sucks. We score a TD leaving 1:18 on the clock and what do we do? We kick the ball out of the end zone taking no time off the clock. I was screaming for them to kick the ball on a line drive down the center of the field so that the clock would start the moment the ball hit the field and would force them to return it. We could have easily shaved as much as 15 or more seconds off the clock in that scenario.

Yeah, I know I'm just a lowly, insignificant fan and my opinion means absolutely nothing but, come on, these guys get paid to make this kind of decision and continually blow it. 

Yep, and we could have pinned them inside the 15 or better yet forced a fumble and ended it right there. We just always play it safe too much and it always comes back to bite us. What hurts is knowing that if Mosley doesnt fall down, AB likely gets tackled inside the 2 and times expires- but what hurts the most is what our path through the playoffs would have been had we been the number 3 seed. 1) Miami at home ( whom we destroyed ...also playing with backup qb...2) at oakland....whom we came 5 yards from beating who is now also playing with a backup qb which leaves them screwed. We almost had a guaranteed path to the AFCG...and we all know we're more than capable of taking care of business once we get in. That really stings. We also likely missed the wildcard on a 40 yard FG miss by Dan Carpenter ( and a 55 yard make by the dolphin kicker) ...just couldn't catch the one break we needed. We came up a couple feet short almost a dozen times this year. That's really becoming our "thing" . almost doesn't cut it.

[OUravensfan]

Put this on the Joe thread but I'll also put it in here as it was in the post game pressor, kind of depressing and likely sums up all our emotions:

 

[Rav'n Maniac]

58 minutes ago, rmw10 said:

You realize the clock doesn't start until the returning team touches the ball, right?

Yes, just didn't say it right.

[Virginia 55]

On 12/27/2016 at 8:50 AM, BmoreBird22 said:

I think this would be the first game this was the case and the entire defense was fairly dreadful

He was a bum in the Patriots game also.

[BmoreBird22]

47 minutes ago, Virginia 55 said:

He was a bum in the Patriots game also.

You're really something with your totally knowledgable and credible insight.

[-Truth-]

13 minutes ago, BmoreBird22 said:

You're really something with your totally knowledgable and credible insight.

The lone TD brought him down, but he was rock solid otherwise, giving up just one reception to Martellus Bennett minus the aforementioned play. His INT was the sole reason that we didn't drop to either 0-19 or 0-23 in that contest, which would've sealed the glass shut on the comeback hopes. I get that the loss still stings and we might be a bit more ornery at this point in time. But how sour do the grapes have to be for multiple people to call arguably our best defender an outright bum? Golly.

[Swift 1]

Harb's had this team still fighting with six seconds left in the game. I do not know what more you can expect from a coach. 

[codizzle]

5 hours ago, OUravensfan said:

Put this on the Joe thread but I'll also put it in here as it was in the post game pressor, kind of depressing and likely sums up all our emotions:

 

Show some passion joe 

[redlobster]

I wonder if weddle would be better suited at FS now. In my opinion he doesn't have the hitting power as a SS.

[The Raven]

2 hours ago, redlobster said:

I wonder if weddle would be better suited at FS now. In my opinion he doesn't have the hitting power as a SS.

I know this point is disputed by the Bernard Pollard Fan Club, Madden aficionados, and the overly nostalgic, but in 2016, there is no difference between the two safety positions. Both have to be strong in coverage and be able to make tackles in run support. That's how the NFL works these days.

[Militant X 1]

On 12/27/2016 at 2:54 PM, balfan23 said:

I'm afraid that could be the case. I firmly believe we will view Doom that way and given his $6M cap savings, he's a virtual guarantee to be cut. Sizzle only save $1M, so the only way he goes is if he retires. He's got one more year on the roster. Hope he can really recover from all his injuries to the extent that he can at least be effective in 2017. But OLB is the #1 offseason need by a huge margin. 

I absolutely agree!  Our pass rush has been abysmal down the stretch.  We got to upgrade Suggs and Doom.  I'd even throw in upgrading at the CB spot as well cause Jimmy can't seem to stay on the field an entire season.

[ellicottraven]

I'm so bummed and done with this Steelers game. They were better coached and played better than us when it mattered. Close this thread already. Ready to move on to next season!

[Tornado700]

last year we finished 5-11. This year we will probably go 8-8. Three game improvement. They are slowly becoming the playoff teammmmmmmmmm that we love to expect. Patience.