Here's why this is posted a tad late: I couldn't figure out what went wrong. I mean, any asshole could say, "Well, we sucked balls in the first half and did real well in the second half, then we let them score because we were dumb and played prevent defense." That did happen, but I had to think about it a little more to figure out what really happened.
Here's what happened: We had a dumb game plan, didn't adjust well when we realized we had a dumb game plan, then rewarded ourselves for finally figuring out that we had a dumb game plan by running a dumb game plan.
Lack of focus, inability to adjust, and just plain-old being dumb. That's what cost us the game. And, the bitch of it is that we're talented enough that we almost pulled it out. I think that actually makes it worse. If we just got blown out, like we deserved, I think I might feel better about it.
But, hands down, the worst part about it was the reactions and interviews by the players and coaches. Ben is the best in the business at saying, "You know what, guys? I'm totally retarded.
If you're looking for someone to blame, blame me." He didn't say that, though. He said the reason that things got so screwed up in the first half was because they put 8 guys in the box, then ran the Cover 2 on defense.
1. The Steelers have faced 8 in the box since 1972.
2. Cover 2 is the single easiest defense to identify. This is not to mention the fact that we usually shred teams that run the Cover 2.
No one said, "Hey, if Hines doesn't drop 10 passes in the first half, we win." Now, not all of them were easy catches. He did take some hits right after he caught the ball. But, allegedly, the reason that Ward is supposed to be our best receiver is that he always catches those and holds on. If he doesn't have that part of his game, we're in trouble. Just like we were on Sunday night.
Sure, three turnovers hurt. Having a fumble returned for a touchdown hurts. They had turnovers, too. Our heads just weren't in the game.
How many times did Santonio Holmes look like the defensive back on a passing play to his side of the field? I'm not just talking about plays where Ben threw into coverage, I'm talking about plays where it looked like he was trying to cover Dre Bly. On Bly's interception, Bly ran that deep out route better than Holmes.
Everyone seemed to want to pick on Ben for throwing more often than running when the play started to break down. People really need to make up their minds. Do they want Kordell or do they want Ben? Seriously. If you look at all the plays in which Ben shook off a defender, we gained more yards when he threw the ball than when he ran it. You can't look at it as, "When Ben broke a tackle and threw, we were losing. When he broke a tackle and ran, we were kicking ass!" You just can't. We're better off with him looking down the field and trying to throw the ball to make a play. You've seen him throw, right? The guy's got a hell of an arm. Let him use it.
All in all, you really have to put this one on the defense, though. I'm not hanging the entire game on that last drive by Denver (although basically playing a prevent defense was a profoundly idiotic thing to do). They were without their best player on offense. They couldn't block for Travis Henry. That meant that they were going to look for someone else to make a play. Before the game, John Madden told us that Brandon Stokley is more comfortable working in the slot and that he'd be playing from the slot on third down.
Think, I dunno, we should've possibly covered him? He was single-covered by Deshea Townsend the entire night when the Broncos had more than 2 wide receivers on the field. In the second half, when the Broncos had more manageable third downs and were looking to preserve their lead by running, Stokley disappeared. When they needed yards in bunches and went back to the shotgun, he was once again tearing us to shreds.
So, given the fact that they were outclassed and outmanned, we should have just played straight defense and made them beat us. For the most part, we did that on 1st and 2nd down and had success. Then, on third down, we went to that goofy 2-3-6 defense and had all kinds of defensive backs (who should have been covering Stokley) blitzing Cutler. If you held the other team to -4 yards on two plays by playing straight defense, what type of defense should you call on 3rd and 14? The answer is not the goofy 2-3-6 defense. Just a little hint for you.
When we play teams that are better than us (like the Colts and Patriots for example), we can try all the wacky shit we want, because we're the outclassed and outmanned team in that situation. We could try, say, coming out with 8 in the box, then doing something crafty like running the Cover 2. When we beat the Colts on the way to winning Super Bowl XL, we came out throwing and using different looks on defense because that was the exact opposite of the strategy we used when they kicked the hell out of us in the regular season.
We didn't need to be clever in this game, we just needed to line up, play, and make them beat us.
Unfortunately, we couldn't adjust. And we lost.
Although Ben's protection resembles wind through a screen door these days, he still waits too damn long to throw -- the frickin pump fake isn't faking anybody! not even my Mom! So stop pumping and start throwing quicker, then maybe you won't get hit 17 times a game and throw stupid interceptions to wide open defenders. or give up a fumble for a game sealing touchdown.
ReplyDeleteand yes, the prevent defense is the most useless, horrible, piece of crap defense there is. It almost always leads to an offensive TD within 90 seconds unless of course the offense wants to eat the clock, then they can stretch it to a TD in 7 minutes, but either way, why not just stick with the defense you were winning the game with?
this game pissed me off -- if we played to our strengths, like running against the worst defense in the league against the run, just may have worked. Did we really need to try and fake them out? Even with Champ Bailey hurt, when will they learn that putting the ball in Ben's hands the majority of the game is a recipe for disaster. He and the Steelers are most successful when he touches the ball less and we run the ball down their throats.