Arians Speaks

move the ball between the 20’s at will and we’re good.

Also lost in the playoffs.

Cowher could run the ball all day, but he didn’t win a Super Bowl until he had a QB that could put up some points on the Colts.

Just running the ball down people’s throats doesn’t work. Even when you have Jerome Bettis and Kordel Stewart you don’t win a Super Bowl. But for some reason a crappy O-line and a pass heavy offense did just that in 2008. The defenses were awesome for both, but one continually failed to get it done, the other pulled it off.

I don’t want a pass happy offense, I want a balanced offense that can run out the clock when we have a lead. But I also remember that only 2 of our 6 Super Bowl wins featured a really good running performance and that of the 6 MVP’s 3 were WR, 2 were QB and 1 was a RB.

Running all day is great, but putting up solid rushing numbers and a better aerial attack has served the Steelers better.

How much input do the coordinators really have? Rooney wants to get back to running..and so it was written.

Bruce: “Whaddya mean we’re drafting a lineman? Can he play TE? Nothing’s wrong with the current line dammit. Now I’ve told y’all Willie Colon is the best there is, and if you’d just listen to me about this LeCharles Bentley fellow… Who would I pick? Nate Byham: tight end from right here in our own back yard, he’s a guy you’d spend the 18th overall pick on. Mark my words, with the 6-tight end set as our signature offense we will unleash a hell upon this NFL the likes of which has never been seen. Screw the Quarterback position-5 linemen 6 tight ends all the way baby! Kevin? Kevin? Dammit all! >Hangs up and dials again< Hello Mr. Davis? It’s Bruce and boy have I got a helluva proposition for you.”

Animated Mother Fuc….?

Look I’m not here to say Arians is a good co-ordinator. The man runs a good passing game. That is his strength. You want some Arians bashing? Our offensive production weighted by opponent strength has dropped significantly since Arians took over. Even over the abysmal 2006. He needs to do better. But even in 2006 the offense was declining. The great O-Line was getting old and our running game dropped off in short yardage. Rebuilding the O-line and dedicating our team to being able to run the clock out better would fix this offense’s problems.

Seriously. We need to be able to pick up short yardage and then run out the clock better. We haven’t been a great short yardage team since Bettis and his O-Line of doom. We need the O-line and a RB to pick up the yards. I think the O-line is getting there and the RB’s are on the roster. Let’s see what happens this year with that. I think if we can’t pull it off this year Arians is gone, but up till now he has managed to take lemons and make lemon juice out of the short yardage game. Let’s see if he can do something if we give him a bit more.

I don’t have a problem with a pass first offense. When you have Jerome Bettis in his prime and Kordel Stewart at QB you invest in O-line and run the ball. When you have Ben Roethlisberger and Willie Parker you invest in WR’s and throw the ball. Now we have Mendenhall, some backups that show promise, BL or DD at QB and we lost Holmes. Let’s see how our offense works this season.

The point I was making in my post was that Arians is getting trashed like he single-handedly ruined our season and cost us games. The problem is there is little correlation between offensive production and wins from last year. The Steelers win on defense and enough offense to get it done.

For me this is Arians year to show what he can do. Lot’s of pressure and a lot of things going against this offense. If he can put up decent points (20 & up) without Ben then I say he’s not the loser we think he is. Look at our offense, really. O-Line still in the bottom half of the league, WR core has questions, and that’s about it. QB is either Leftwich or a guy with one start and no wins. Any team facing a year with this offense would be expected to suck. Really if you swap our offensive players over to the Browns, Bengals or Ravens we’d be laughing at them. Mendenhall is our best weapon at this point with Ward injured.

If by the end of the year we get our run game problems drastically reduced (not expecting 2004, just a lot better than 2009) make the playoffs winning two without Ben I think Arians keeps his job. I won’t have a problem with it either.

But, just like in 2008 the Steelers won it all as a team, in 2009, they lost many games and missed the playoffs as a team.

Agreed.

The offense didn’t help the defense, the defense didn’t help the offense late in games, and the kick coverage screwed everyone. I understand why we dislike Arians, but I dislike the offensive play calling of a lot of successful teams, chief among them the Colts, I hate their play calling.

But not every team gets Sean Peyton calling the plays. There aren’t a lot of talented OC’s running around begging for jobs, the best ones are hard to get, and they often become HC’s before long. It’s easy to say Arians is the worst ever and anyone off the street could outdo him, but it just isn’t true. He needs to step it up this year. He needs to help the defense, he needs to get some help from the defense and special teams too.

The biggest lesson from last season is turnovers. We force even one turnover we win. even when we lost the TO battle we won if we forced even a single turnover from the opposing team. We addressed our ST and Defense a lot this off-season, both of those should be better. The offense (on paper) is significantly worse. It should be less productive than last year.