The Steelers were supposed to win, they won, and they covered the spread. They need one more win over the lowly Cleveland Browns to secure the #2 seed in the playoffs and a first round bye. They looked incredibly effective in the passing game, Ben Roethlisberger went his second game in a row without an interception, and they generally looked like they could do whatever they wanted on offense.
Except score in the red zone, especially in goal-to-go situations. They've scored touchdowns only 44 percent of the time in the red zone this season and that's not going to be good enough against better teams. They need to come out of the red zone with touchdowns instead of field goals.
In my mind, this comes back to lack of creativity in terms of play calling and lack of a power running game. The fact that the Steelers power running game kinda sucks really can't be fixed at this point, but it can't be helped or masked by more creative play calling. Getting Ike Redmond the ball -- either in the passing game or the running game -- when they get inside the 20 is a good start. More screen passes and fewer quarterback draws. Fewer play calls that send everyone into the end zone; since the end zone is the last line of defense, everyone on defense is usually in there, so it's difficult to throw the ball straight into the end zone, but it's relatively easy to throw the ball to a guy who's a few yards outside the end zone and watch him run in.
In general -- and this came out against the Jets -- they've just been running their standard offense all season and haven't adjusted for down, distance, opponent, or made in-game or halftime adjustments. Sometimes the offense works, sometimes it doesn't. Well, that's fine if you have 16 games to tinker with, but in single elimination the level of urgency is raised. I think that the Steelers need to show more urgency and creativity on offense (and maybe a little on defense) to make a deep playoff run. They're obviously not as good as the Patriots, but I think they're definitely the second-best team in the AFC. If someone knocks the Pats off or if the coaching staff comes up with a great game plan when the Steelers face off against the Patriots again -- remember, the Colts trounced the Steelers in their 2005 regular season meeting, but the Steelers came back strong and won the 2005 Divisional Playoff match-up.
But, they've got ten days, a Browns game, then a bye week to work on that, so it might work out OK.
The other thing they need to keep tabs on is the ball. The ball is fairly important. Roethlisberger had two fumbles against the Jets and two against the Panthers. That can't continue into the playoffs. God help me, I agree with Joe Theisman when he says, "The Steelers need to protect the football if they're going to advance in the playoffs. Right now, they're not." It hasn't happened often -- if it's ever happened -- that I've agreed with Joe Theisman, so that must be pretty important.
I saw Aaron Smith on the sidelines on Thursday night. I'm not sure that dropping him back into the starting line-up is the best move at this point. Ziggy Hood is playing great football and Smith -- even if he's the greatest 3-4 defensive end of this century -- hasn't played in a long time. Maybe involve Smith on first and second down and make him part of a rotation, but I don't think he needs to be in there full time anymore. I know it's blasphemy to say that, but I think it's true.
The same is not true for Ryan Mundy and Troy Polamalu. Troy needs to get back in there ASAP, but I don't think he's coming back until the playoffs.
No comments:
Post a Comment