Analysis of Steeler's Running Game in Superbowl XLIII
by BillXMA on Feb 17, 2009 9:24 PM EST
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PrintI was watching a replay of Superbowl XLIII a few nights ago trying to determine just why my beloved Steelers generally could not run the ball during the game. If you are like me, the Steelers' inability to consistently run the ball during this game (and for that matter throughout the entire 2008 season), is a source of great concern and one of your biggest worries for 2009..
With this concern in mind and armed with my trusty DVR, I decided to systematically analyze every Steelers running play in the game. I thought people might enjoy reading and commenting on this analysis because I think it identifies some well known flaws, but also some surprising aspects of our running game that I hadn't focused on until I forced myself to go play by play.
To start with, I took all 24 designed running plays divided them into 3 groups:
- Good Plays (4 out of 24 or 17%). These runs produced 7+ yards and were likely more successful than designed. I analyzed these to see if I could find anything or anyone that deserves particular credit for helping us achieve success.
- Normal Plays (6 out 24 or 25%). These are runs that produced gains of 3-6 yards. The assumption is that these plays performed pretty much "as designed" and therefore I didn't spend a tremendous amount of time analyzing them.
- Bad Plays: (14 out of 24 or 58%) These are runs that produced 2 or fewer yards. The assumption here is that something went wrong. I focused most of my attention on these plays to try and figure out where our problems are and what we need to do to improve.
Right off the bat, this high level analysis shows the ugly truth of the running game. Almost 60% of our runs went for 2 or fewer yards. To have this many "failed" runs indicates that there are some serious execution problems, especially when you consider that Arizona's run defense was ranked 16th against the run.
To get to the specific strengths and weaknesses, you really have to go play-by-play, which I did.
In terms of the 4 Good plays, I'll cover all 4 of them in detail:
Good Plays:
Good Play #1
Situation: 5:23 3rd Quarter, 2nd and 9 at Arizona 20
Play: 39-W.Parker right tackle to ARI 5 for 15 yards (24-A.Wilson, 21-A.Rolle).
Result: 15 YD Gain
Comments: Our best run of the game. 3 WR set against 7 in the box. Ward motions right. Parker runs right off tackle w/ Kemo pulling from LG and getting a decent block on LB. Ward and Washington get good blocks on backs while Miller just destroys his man (56). Looks and feels very similar to famous Superbowl XL play. Miller's block really stands out as key to play.
Good Play #2
Sitation: 13:40 1st Quarter, 1st and 10 at Arizona 32
Play: 39-W.Parker left end pushed ob at ARI 23 for 9 yards (54-G.Hayes)
Result: 9 YD Gain
Comments: 2 WR set with 1 back against 7 In the box. Parker sweeps left. Holmes wiffs on his block but Starks makes a good double block. Parker's outside speed plus bad angle by Rolle allows him to turn corner.
Good Play #3
Situation: 1:50 1st Quarter 1st and 10 at Arizona 22
Play: 9-W.Parker right tackle to ARI 14 for 8 yards (24-A.Wilson).
Result: 8 YD Gain
Comments: 1 WR 2 back, 2 TE set with Miller in Motion to right against 9 in the Box; Miller and Colon get good blocks out to right; Mchugh gets good block on end; center gets very good block on tackle. Overall a well executed play by all.
Good Play #4
Situation: 7:52 2nd Quarter 2nd and 4 at Pittsburgh 28
Play: 39-W.Parker left end to PIT 36 for 8 yards (24-A.Wilson)
Result: 8 YD Gain
Comments: 2 WR, 1 back set with Miller in motion left against 8 in the box. Run off left end. Wilson almost makes huge play in backfield after timing snap nicely. Parker makes Wilson miss with nice move and then Miller makes good block to spring him on the edge.
Key Takeaways from Good Plays:
- Heath Miller is awesome. The guy does not miss blocks and he sticks to his guys like glue. He also consistently either stands his guy up or drives him back. He is very effective when in motion.
- All four of these plays were runs outside of the tackles. This makes sense because the speed of Parker combined with the superior blocking of Miller and Ward enables the Steelers to have success on the ends. The Steelers history may be of success running between the tackles, but today's reality is that if they want to have success the Steelers have to run on the ends.
- The Cardinals are lucky they have Adrian Wilson. Without him on the field many of these runs would have gone for a lot more.
Normal Plays
I won't spend time on detailed analysis of the normal plays mostly because the "normal" nature of them means that it's hard to spot any exceptionally good or bad blocks on the play.
Bad Plays
With so many bad plays to choose from, I will select a few of them that were either very important in the game or I think illustrate wider trends evident through the whole body of work.
Bad Play #1
Situation: 11:32 1st Quarter, 1st and 1 at Arizona 1
Play: 33-G.Russell left tackle to ARI 5 for -4 yards (94-A.Smith, 52-M.Beisel)
Result: -4 YD Loss
Comments: 3 tight-end, 2 back "heavy" set against a goal line defense. Arguably our worst run of the game in that here we are 1st and 10 at the 1 yard line on our 1st drive and what do we do but give up a 4 yard loss. Smith (94) blows Spaeth to make tackle for loss. All Spaeth needed to do was block down on Smith because the run was away from him, but Spaeth didn't have speed or strength to make the block.
Bad Play #2
Situation: 4:39 3rd Quarter, 1st and 5 at Arizona 5
Play: 39-W.Parker right end to ARI 9 for -4 yards (58-K.Dansby, 54-G.Hayes)
Result: -4 YD Loss
Comments: 2 WR set againt 9 in box. Parker runs right and Colon pull to lead the way, but Colon misses block on Hayes (54) who then forces play inside where Dansby (58) cleans up. This is another killer because we are all set up on the 5 YD line and our first play knocks us all the back to 2nd and 9 from which we don't recover and end up kicking a field goal.
Bad Play #3
Situation: 12:53 4th Quarter, 2nd and 4 at Arizona 46
Play: 39-W.Parker left guard to 50 for -4 yards (90-D.Dockett)
Result: -4 YD Loss
Comments: 2 WR set again 9 in box (uh oh). Dockett beats Colon badly and Stapleton doesn't drive block the left end which results in loss on the play. This might just be a case of "don't run off left guard when there are 9 in the box", but without Docket's effort this might have been a decent run.
Bad Play #4
Situation: 10:50 3rd Quarter, 1st and 10 at Pittsburgh 18
Play: 39-W.Parker left guard to PIT 15 for -3 yards (56-C.Okeafor)
Result: -3 YD Loss
Comments: 2 WR set. Spaeth completely whiffs on his right side block on Okefor (56) who then makes tackle for loss. Spaeth actually ends play face down, sprawled out on the turf.
Bad Play #5
Situation: 7:31 3rd Quarter, 1st and 10 at Arizona 35
Play: 39-W.Parker left guard to PIT 15 for -3 yards (56-C.Okeafor)
Result: -3 YD Loss
Comments: 1 WR, 3 tight-end power right set with 7 in the box. This sets up well given the power right formation and only 7 in the box, but Okefor (56) sheds Spaeth's block like he's not even there and tackles Parker for a loss.
Bad Play #6
Situation: 3:21 4th Quarter, 2nd and 10 at Pittsburgh 1
Play: 39-W.Parker up the middle to PIT 1 for no gain (55-T.LaBoy)
Result: 0 YDs
Comments: 3 WR set against 7 in the box. This is the almost safety of Parker in the 4th Quarter. Play was designed to run off right tackle behind pulling guard and Kemo pulls clean, but Parker cuts to middle instead of following Kemo and is chased down by weak side LB who was unblocked by design. After reviewing this I am inclined to put this on Parker who panicked a bit rather than going to the right as designed. If he went right he would have had Kemo in front of him with a full head of steam and probably would have gained at least 3 yards as all the TEs and WRs held their blocks on the right nicely.
Bad Play #7
Situation: 2:49 3rd Quarter, 3rd and 2 at Arizona 2
Play: 7-B.Roethlisberger up the middle to ARI 3 for -1 yards (98-G.Watson)
Result: -1 YD Loss
Comments: 4 WR, 1 back set against 6 in box. Designed QB draw off left guard, but Kemo, who makes a good initial block, inexplicably just gives up on the block and lets Watson make the tackle. If you are keeping track, this is now the 3rd rush for negative yards inside the 5 yard line.
Bad Play #8
Situation: 3:20 1st Quarter, 1st and 10 at Arizona
Play: (Shotgun) 39-W.Parker right end to ARI 33 for no gain (90-D.Dockett, 52-M.Beisel). Direct Snap to RB
Result: 0 YDs
Comments: Our one and only Wildcat play this season against 8 in the box. Direct snap to Parket who runs off right end. Davis and Colon Pull right but both overshoot and fail to notice Hayes (54) who shoots the gap and almost tackles Parket for a 4 YD loss. This play actually looks great about 1 second into it, but Colon and Davis went too wide and just got lost in space out on the right end.
I could go on, but I will leave the play-by-play analysis at that. A few lessons from these plays as well the others I didn't cover in detail:
- Matt Spaeth is as bad at blocking as Heath Miller is good. Spaeth badly missed several blocks on key plays and appeared to be easily shed by linebackers and ends. Spaeth clearly needs to do a lot of work on strength training and run blocking as he was basically embarrassed on several plays.
- Colon has major problems when he tries to block after pulling into space. Not clear if he just isn't agile enough or simply loses track of his assignments because he is focused on moving, but Colon consistently missed or made weak blocks when he was moving in space.
- While the Steelers have decent success running on the ends, it seems as though there is a brick wall in the middle of their line. It's hard to pinpoint the issue but having 3 new starters there for most of the year probably accounts for most of the issues.
- The Steeler's goal line short yardage rushing game is in a shambles. This has a lot to do with the poor interior line play noted above, but for some reason execution deep in the red zone seems to sufffer in general with missed assignments and blocks. I can't recall how many times this season we had 1st and 10 within the 5 YD line and failed to score a TD, but it happened 3 times in this game alone.
- Darnell Docket is a keeper. He made a ton of plays for Arizona and no one on the Steelers seemed to want to block him (least of all Stapleton).
Conclusion
After this detailed and slightly obsessive analysis of the running game was completed a few things jumped out at me:
- Our two main strengths in the running game right now are A) Willie Parker's speed and B) the blocking abilities of Miller and Ward. Arians is doing his best to take advantage of this by calling lots of off tackle/end runs, but we clearly need to improve on the interior line because teams don't fear the traditional counter-gap style runs that characterized the Steelers under Cowher and just spreading the linebackers and ends wide.
- I never realized how crucial the tight end blocking is in the Steelers scheme. Sure I have always heard how the Steelers favor tight ends who can block, but I think the importance of our tight ends was dialed up a notch given that with a completely new interior line we were forced to run outside a lot more. I also never realized how large the gap in blocking skills is between Miller and Spaeth. The Steelers had better sign Miller to a new contract because if they are relying on Spaeth to fill his shoes they are going to be very disappointed.
- Let's hope Kendall Simmon's is fully recoverd for next year. Stapleton didn't have a terrible game overall, but he had a very shaky 4th quarter. Not only did he help give up a 4 yard run loss on our first drive of the quarter (#3) but he gave up 3rd down sacks to Dockett to kill each of the first 2 (of 3) drives in the quarter. He didn't make a ton of mistakes in the running game and was strong in the final drive of the game, but we could clearly use a healthy Simmons in that spot.
- Say what you want about Starks, but both in pass blocking and the run he came to play in Superbowl XLIII. He didn't have many great plays, but he was consistent and didn't give up bad plays. It will be a shame to see him go given that Marvel Smith looks like he is also gone.
Anyway, I'd be interested to hear if anyone else noticed any trends or situations I missed as well as if anyone disagrees with the analysis of some of the individual players' performance.
Thanks to all who bothered to read this far and here's to a happy 2009 Season for the Steeler's Nation.
P.S. If you'd like to see all the plays in the game, click on this link to get a spreadsheet with with all the plays (run/pass) and my comments on all the runs.
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Thanks for this.
I had been hoping for something like this; and there are a lot of possibilities for similar posts by others on here looking at some other games. The San Diego playoff game could be an interesting contrast.
It’s interesting how this plays into some of ideas floating around this site, like not signing Miller to help pay for a better o-line and who on the line ought to be kept.
Thanks for the great analysis. It confirms some of the traditional wisdom around the BTSC:
1) Spaeth has acceptable pass catching ability, but is probably a liability in the run game.
2) Miller is about as complete a tight end as a team like the Steelers could ask for. A hell of a blocker, great hands, and the ability to burn defenses with yards after the catch. Not to mention he and Ben seem to have developed a lot of chemistry together. Lets resign this guy.
3) The problem with the O-line isn’t JUST Slow Willie, but is also the interior. Hartwig is good and Stappleton has done well considering he’s bit undersized, and while Kemo has his moments he’s far too inconsistent to be the answer at LG. And for some reason he seems to get manhandled in the red zone.
by BluegrassSteeler on Feb 18, 2009 12:01 AM EST reply actions
Willie or Won't He?
Lest we forget, Willie Parker used to be able to run up the middle. Maybe he couldn’t drive a pile, but he could find big gains with bursts through a seam. However, when the interior line is as bad as you have detailed, the problem becomes two fold: 1) there is no seam 2) Willie waits for a seam that never develops with that annoying stutter step that loses 2-4 yards when it should be no gain.
Despite your superb analysis, I think Willie is the most dangerous between the tackles WHEN THERE IS A SEAM. This is why Willie hasn’t been getting the long runs this season: he can break it 15 yards when there is room outside the tackles but he can break it 30+ yards when the seams are in the middle.
Bad interior line = Bad Willie Parker
by CarlWeathersMustache on Feb 18, 2009 8:55 AM EST reply actions
I don’t have this game on DVR so I won’t be arguing with your analysis. I do think that you are hyperinflating Heath Miller’s blocking ability based on what you saw that enabled good runs. The runs to the outside live or die by the tight ends blocking ability on the edge, and when they attempt to run to Spaeth’s side this almost inevitably means failure.
However, there have been a lot of runs over the course of the year that have gone to Miller’s side. We have had entire games without “successful” runs and the blocking of the line and the tight ends has a lot to do with that. This post further influences my opinion that Miller is inconsistent. When he has a good game blocking, we can run. When he has a bad game and gets repeatedly beaten, our running game looks even worse than it did in the SB. I suspect a lot of this has to do with certain matchups that he has a hard time dealing with as opposed to it just being luck.
I’d like Arians to spend some of the off-season diagnosing the LBs/Lines that Miller has a hard time dealing with. This will go a long way towards helping Miller improve against those types of players/teams and helping our team develop a gameplan that accounts for this weakness.
Nice post, great breakdown, rec.
Don't worry about the haters. Haters only hate.
Agree
We shouldn’t hinge our opinions on one performance, good or bad. Miller seemed to be adequate all year, never great. But I’d rather have a great pass catcher and adequate blocker than “best blocking TE in football” Mark Bruener. That bum should have been an O lineman, not a TE.
by CarlWeathersMustache on Feb 18, 2009 1:11 PM EST up reply actions
disagree
If you think miller is inconsistent, what do you think of Colon, Kemo, Stapleton? I think miller is the best thing we got and has been pretty consistent since he’s been here. I would like to see tape of what you are talking about. Miller is far superior to Spaeth every day of the week. Miller was there when Parker was getting 1500 a year. Spaeth wasn’t, Colon, Kemo, and Stapelton wasn’t. I agree with the man’s analysis, our interior is pretty weak and needs an upgrade in talent. Spaeth needs to block better and Miller is fine, not the best blocking TE in football but def. an asset rather than the liability you painted him as. Sorry I just don’t see it.
by tannofsteel84 on Feb 20, 2009 9:50 AM EST up reply actions
Colon, Kemo, and stapleton are all very inconsistent, especially Kemo.
Spaeth and Miller were around last year when willie got 1300 yards, as was Mahan. Does that mean that Mahan and Spaeth are good at run blocking?
If you look through the game analysis from last year on http://www.postgameheroes.com you will find many a bad block from Heath. This has definitely continued this year and shares time with his great blocks. Miller’s job has gotten consistently harder as the rest of the line gets worse.
Don't worry about the haters. Haters only hate.
ok
in no way was I trying to say that mahan was a good at anything lol but honestly as far as TE goes he is as good at blocking as a pass catching TE is going to be. I’m all for improvement of course I guess I’m just satisfied at what he does, I know he misses some but not enough for great concern to me, I do feel if you improve the Oline you make his job easier. I think Spaeth needs to improve more than Miller does, if we can get that then things should be fine. Thanks for the link
by tannofsteel84 on Feb 20, 2009 10:24 AM EST up reply actions
Spot on! The OL was awful from the get-go this year.....
they were outmanned, out—physicaled, and beaten to the punch.
Their initial surge was poor. You couldn’t go up the middle on fourth and less than one.
As the season went on, they improved their pass protection, and the offense moved to a short yardage passing game to supplement or supplant the rushing game. The Steelers made do with what they had, and deserve enormous credit for winning a Super Bowl with such a weak offensive line.
And you are absolutely right about Spaeth. He’s too tall, too weak, and not quick enough to be effective in short yardage situations. And everybody in the league knows that by now and exploits him by undercutting him with a stronger, shorter, quicker linebacker. What you saw at the one yard line in the SB went on all season long.
Excellent post, Bill.
FWP
You analysis confirms my memory (which doesn’t make it correct, but it makes me tend to agree with you :-)
When Willie bounces outside he gets 11 yards. Between the tackles, -2.
The perplexing thing is that several times, I saw FWP cut it back inside and put his face on the ground and turtle — when it looked to me he had a chance of making the corner. I don’t know if he just doesn’t trust his speed or what.
Question: How did FWP break his leg in ‘07? I didn’t see the game.Was he making a move to the outside and it brings back bad memories now?
Anyway, it seems to me that even when there is a hole in there — between the tackles, FWP hesitates. He thinks too much — or that’s how it looks. Almost like his instinct is to bounce it back outside, but he says: “No, Jerome always said I should go north to south through the tackles… I should go here…somewhere…lemme see…oh crap!” (Turtle).
Willie
He didn’t used to do that craptastic backfield dance move that has become his signature. I think he’s waiting for a hole that doesn’t develop instead of plowing ahead for two. With a line that can create holes, I think Willie is one of the better RBs in the league. Behind this line…meh.
by CarlWeathersMustache on Feb 18, 2009 1:13 PM EST up reply actions
If I recall correctly FWP broke his leg on a run to the left end when he tried to cut back near the sideline and got his foot caught in the FieldTurf.
As I looked at all the plays in XLIII, there were only a couple where I felt Parker’s indecision was the key factor. Once on the almost safety in Q4 and once when we had 1st and Goal on the 4 Q3 where he did exactly what you said: he was running off right guard and just hesitated waiting for a hole to develop. He did get 2 yards on the play, but might have scored if he just plowed ahead.
In his defense, he made a couple very nice plays. The first one was in Q2, when he avoided WIlson in the backfield with a nice juke and made 8 yards and the second was when he was able to turn a 4 yard loss on the wildcat play into no gain. His speed on the edge also made the difference on several plays.
On a decent number of the bad plays he really has no chance given how poor the blocking up front is. Usually someone whiffs on a block and there’s a guy already in his face 2 yards in the backfield. Until the interior of the line is able to get a true surge of 1 or 2 years and create lanes he is going to find it tough going running between the tackles.
2 running plays that really stood out to me
Bad Play #1
Situation: 11:32 1st Quarter, 1st and 1 at Arizona 1
Play: 33-G.Russell left tackle to ARI 5 for -4 yards (94-A.Smith, 52-M.Beisel)
Result: -4 YD Loss
Comments: 3 tight-end, 2 back “heavy” set against a goal line defense. Arguably our worst run of the game in that here we are 1st and 10 at the 1 yard line on our 1st drive and what do we do but give up a 4 yard loss. Smith (94) blows Spaeth to make tackle for loss. All Spaeth needed to do was block down on Smith because the run was away from him, but Spaeth didn’t have speed or strength to make the block.
Did anyone think this play had a chance to start out with? They had a weird alignment with the Davis and Russell both at the same depth behind Ben. We never throw on 1st and Goal. This set makes it easy for the defense to read since all our guys are packed in tight. Which means that we have to beat them one on one in a package where Davis, Spaeth, and McHugh are in instead of Ward, Holmes or Parker. You know, the guys that actually score.
Bad Play #7
Situation: 2:49 3rd Quarter, 3rd and 2 at Arizona 2
Play: 7-B.Roethlisberger up the middle to ARI 3 for -1 yards (98-G.Watson)
Result: -1 YD Loss
Comments: 4 WR, 1 back set against 6 in box. Designed QB draw off left guard, but Kemo, who makes a good initial block, inexplicably just gives up on the block and lets Watson make the tackle. If you are keeping track, this is now the 3rd rush for negative yards inside the 5 yard line.
I love this call. Its a 4 wide set but I believe Miller is the 4th so you have your 4 top receiving threats spreading the defense all the way across the field. This leaves the middle wide open. If Kemo can occupy his guy for half a second Ben walks into the end zone. There was no linebacker close enough to keep Ben out. It also works pretty well as a set for a quick throw with Ben having the option to take off. I think Sweed will add another dimension here if he can become a dangerous option on the fade.
Great analysis BillXMA
Great job Bill
Thanks for the time you took to break things down so well and then post your observations. You have to add a couple of plays to the “Good” category because running for one yard is sometimes all you need, ie the Russell TD. And there was good blocking on that play. Agreed with your analysis of the OL blocking. Starks was solid, Colon lost in space and occasionally overwhelmed, Stapleton physically overmatched, Hartwig couldn’t get a push and Kemo (again) strangely unable to use his size to any positive effect right off the snap.
The whole Heath Miller blocking debate is kind of puzzling to me. There are very few TEs in the league who are clutch receivers with YAC ability, AND great blockers. I’m happy with what we get out of one of the top five overall TEs in the league. He WILL put a guy on his ass once in a while. Spaeth on the other hand is a horrible blocker.
As for Willie’s running, “vision” (ie being able to read his blocks and understand where the seams will open up) is just another category where he is not very good. Your analysis of the near-safety play (as was pointed out beautifully by Franz last week) was a great example of that, although a counter run on your own goal line late in the SB is kind of a strange call and you can’t blame Willie for thinking that the best way to avoid the safety was plowing straight ahead, rather than being brought down three yards deep while running laterally in his own end zone. A RB needs to trust his blockers, but how do you trust that O-line? Give him credit for getting out. Mewelde Moore is much better at reading his blocking and seeing where he should run, he just lacks some physical tools to be a No. 1 back. Arians can’t figure out a two-back running rotation so how the heck is he going to figure out a 3-man rotation next year? Anyway, give Willie a seam where it should be and he will outperform many other RBs in the league because of his ability to outrun tackling angles. He’s maybe lost half a step but he is still more explosive than most NFL RBs.
The whole Heath Miller blocking debate is kind of puzzling to me. There are very few TEs in the league who are clutch receivers with YAC ability, AND great blockers. I’m happy with what we get out of one of the top five overall TEs in the league. He WILL put a guy on his ass once in a while.
I think the debate is fairly fruitful (well, as much as any debate is fruitful on an online blog), and I hope that Arians and the steelers staff have the same debate. Is Miller a great blocker? If he is not, who does he have a hard time blocking, when does he succeed, and for how long can he hold his blocks?
If Miller was a bad blocker (like Spaeth), then they should take this into account. As it is, I see Miller and Spaeth being relied on like top-notch O-line, and this results in constant failure. As fans we debate all sorts of silly things, and MIller’s blocking ability to me is a very valid concern. I don’t mind at all that he isn’t a consistently dominating blocker because of the rest of the game (I would put him up there in the tops), but it is still a deficiency, just one that can and should be taken into account.
Don't worry about the haters. Haters only hate.
Yep for sure
Evaluation of the good and bad is great fun for us and absolutely essential for the coaches. The fact Heath is our best blocking TE is a big problem in the execution of running plays and again brings the conversation back to the Arians playbook and play-calling. Why run so many multi-TE sets that require good blocking from the least-capable blockers on the team? Just another puzzler. I wonder if anyone has figures on how often an extra OT rather than Spaeth was used as the TE in those sets (aside from obvious goal-line or 4th down short yardage). I’d guess very rarely, if ever. Baltimore (with a weak blocking No. 1 TE in Dan Heap) was innovative in its overloaded OL formations using an extra lineman instead of a TE and ran the ball effectively (granted, with power runners behind it).
I guess the puzzling part for me is that we all should have a pretty good idea by this point of his career what Heath Miller’s strengths are: He has great hands, good YAC ability, is smart and understands the game and his QB’s needs. His blocking is average, in my opinion, not horrible. When we run a 1 TE set, either run or pass, Miller has to be on the field. He is our best blocking TE and our best receiving TE. Improvement in blocking in 1 TE sets will have to come primarily from better talent/execution on the OL. When we run 2 TE sets, the second TE should be a BETTER blocker than Miller, not a gangly scarecrow who is in way over his head. A better OL and a better blocking No. 2 TE will give Miller more opportunities to do what he does best, catch the ball. He was the starting TE when the Steelers ran the ball well in the past (with Tuman as the No. 2 TE and Faneca and Hartings on the OL) so his weaknesses in that area are obviously not an impediment to team success if other people are doing their jobs well.
by steeler.lifer on Feb 18, 2009 6:04 PM EST up reply actions 2 recs
"Gangly scarecrow who is in way over his head"
I just spilled soup all over my keyboard laughing so hard.
Thoughtful discussion with a sense of history
I agree\disagree
Matt Spaeth is the worst blocking tight end I’ve seen a long time. It amazes me that LB’s cross his face and make tackles on the other side of the field. He wiffs on too many blocks with LB’s directly over him. He is flat out horrible.
Stapleton is not strong enough at the point of attack to handle dominate DLinemen. The Ravens, Patriots, and Cardinals used this strategy and lined up Nota, Seymour, and Dockett to dominate him. Kendall Simmons is not the answer, because he was getting dominated before his injury. I actually saw him fall to his needs without being touch and miss a block. Kemaotu was lost when it came to pass blocking, poor athlete and feet movement.
Also, FWP’s just learning how to run. He does a poor job of picking the right holes once you hit him a couple of times. He goes down really quick afterwards
nice to have such concerns
loved the post… nice work breaking down the tape, bill. want to come do it for the high school team i coach in south jersey?
by the way, isn’t it great to be a steeler fan and, as bill wrote, consider the run game a source of great concern and one of the worries for 2009? bill’s right, it is a concern. but can you imagine the laundry list of concerns the fans of most other teams have? karmically speaking, we must have done some things right in past lives to wind up steelers fans in this one…
by cliff harris is still a punk! on Feb 18, 2009 6:58 PM EST reply actions
U.....R........DA.........MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I thought I was the only weirdo to tape all of the games. And I mean all. Since ’01
60 minute men
nope
i dvr every game, and i have watched the final drive of the SB probably 25 times now. That and Deebo’s TD return.
The Spaethster
Can’t figure out why they keep the guy. He works hard in practice no doubt. But he is not there when it comes to blocking. And he only catches a few balls a year. Why keep him? As an insurance policy for what exactly?
Miller – every time I saw him was locking up his guy, even throwing downfield blocks on long plays. Not having someone next to him who can do the same hurts him in some circles.
nice post!
"The grass may be greener on the other side, but it still has to be mowed"
-PsycoSalameh43
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