An epitaph for Arians

Remember when Arians gladly changed his red zone offense to accommodate a FB since we don’t have a tall WR?

Remember the great gameplan against Denver that netted us so many points in the first 3 quarters?

Remember how he broke out the New England short-throw game plan against SF when Ben was injured and he needed to not get hit as much?

Simply put, Bruce not being retained is more than justified. We have perhaps the best WR corps in the league, a top 5 QB, a good RB – how is it we’re barely in the top half of the league in offense and in the bottom half in scoring? Why did the short-throw (almost West Coast) offense that we ran to perfection against NE never show up again?

The offensive troubles of this team were masked due to the big plays by Mike Wallace early in the season. Once he was doubled up, our offense ground to a halt and despite the OL problems we have too much talent for that to happen. Arians just didn’t adjust his game plan and the offense was entirely too predictable. Run, bubble screen, deep throw on 3rd down…repeat.

on the blog, Mr. Arians.

Simply pointing out that judging a guy by highlighting his worst top ten list is shortsighted and typically reserved for people we never really loved. If we employ the same revisionist history to Dick Lebeau ,he’s a bum who ruined our chances for multiple super bowls when we had some of our most productive offensive seasons. What a wasted opportunity. Ah, but we love Lebeau. With even average talent on the line we could have had another dynasty during Arians tenure but we have to settle for being the best team in football for five years and we won’t forgive him for the lack of greatness. They went 1/1 in superbowls with injured lineman that wouldn’t make other teams when healthy and fell short when the injuries and lack of talent couldn’t be bailed out by Ben and the D. Did Lebeau suck I’m 2009 when the secondary was injured?

No

Arians produced (1) – 1,000 yard rusher, (2) – 1,000 yard WR’s, (1) 4,000 yd passer. Great. His offense was great between the 20’s. The Steelers offense was 21st in scoring.

What’s my point? Simple. I don’t care how many records are broken or how padded the offensive stats are if the offense can’t score points.

If you can’t score, you don’t win.

The games against the Browns, Colts, and Kansas City were games that should not have been close, but the offense couldn’t put points on the board.

Is that Arians fault? Maybe. Clearly, management felt as if it was. There were several questionable calls throughout the season… (5 bubble screens in a single game, 4 straight runs up the gut from the 1 with no score against Cleveland, empty set on 3rd and 1).

These were the things that drove me crazy. His running plays were predictable, especially in short yardage. If Arians put a TE in motion to act as a FB, he would line the TE up a foot behind the o- line and that is where the HB would go. If the TE would line up further in the backfield (like next to HB), at least there would be a little mystery as to which direction the play was going.

"Air"ians obviously liked to “air it out” a couple times a game. No problem with that. However, aside from the bubble screen, he did not like a short passing attack. He preferred the “boom or bust” style where the offense gained yards in chunks rather than dinking and dunking.

This had 2 consequences…the long-developing routes led Ben to hold onto the ball, which caused Ben to get hit a lot. Secondly, there were games, especially towards the end of the season, where the defenses took away the long plays. This inhibited Arians offense, which was unable to produce points.

Arians did not do anything to remedy this. Knowing Ben was banged up, he could have made the passing attack a little quicker. He did it at times, but it was not consistent. He did seem to run the ball more with Ben hurt, but it worked because the teams we were playing stunk against the run.

Clearly, management wants less passing and more running, but was it the lack of scoring or getting their 100 million dollar investment beat up that was the final straw?

….many of the posters on this blog would insist he be buried in bubble wrap.

Not that anyone wishes that would happen…
or that there’s anything wrong with that.

Remember Arians as offensive coordinator in Cleveland. Big numbers for QB (Holcomb), never could run out clock in Wild Card Playoff game because we ran blitzed his 1 back offense. Holcomb got the crap beat out of him because he got hit nearly everytime he went back to pass.

Always trying to thow bombs from inside our ten (last year’s Super Bowl ring a bell?). If we Steeler Fans knew it was coming what do you think D-Coordinators would be anticipating. We win Super Bowl against Cardinals with hurry up attack, Ben asks for it 2 years running and Arians doesn’t turn him loose.

For two years now Steeler offensive players say “we will be explosive” but yet we are 21st in scoring.

Blame that one on Lebeau

Im not blaming the defense or comparing Arians to Coach Dad I’m contrasting the ways in which we judge the two and showing that it could be spun the other way just as easily . Lebeau has more cache and gets more benefit of the doubt and therefore can hang around on 1 yr contacts at his pleasure. BA was likely released because he has been talking retirement for two years running and they weren’t willing to do a one year at a time deal with him. Its very probable thet they will hire from within and run Arians offense for years to come. They will finally get good o line play and you will use the success as evidence that BA sucked while we win the Super Bowl with his playbook. Let’s go Fichtner.

Some of you guys should just go get Niners jerseys so you can watch em run and play defense and never get to or win a super bowl because they only have 2/3 of an nfl offense. But at least you’ll only have 15 or 16 plays to second guess. Is bill cowher coaching them? If only they had Dwight Stone they could have surprised the giants with a reverse and maybe advanced.

then they start to score a FG if a recall good and that fumble was because the plays were predictable, the capital sin of Arians

Sadly in many of those games if the offense could have killed 5 minutes (or sometimes less) in the fourth quarter the defense wouldn’t have had a chance to blow it
Our defense is not blameless but in today’s nfl. You have to score more points. And burn clock ( by run or pass ) in the 4 th Q

All of those comments about the defense are correct, but you have to look at the game from all 3 phases. And when we look at the office, the hallmark of Bruce Arians’ teams has been their inability to score touchdowns and put away lesser opponents. In all of those games mentioned up top, the offense failed to close the deal in eminently winnable games. Field goals kept inferior opponents in games and allowed them to remain two-dimensional against the Steelers defense. Even in the Denver game, the offense had 3 possessions early to put that game away — and they couldn’t get it done.

Bruce is gone. He had too much time served.

As an OC you should have probably about 15 plays that you can go to with different formations when needed that will produce. It seemed like he was never there as far as preparation went and being ready for the moment. I can tell you he has called some good games but they were far a few between. another thing that 22 Double play we always used running over RG with TE and pulling LG, everybody knew that play. It would have been a more effective play if they ran it to the left at times, but it was always right or over 85% of the time. You can’t beat the Ravens with that type of play calling. Does it look to anyone else that Mendy has problems running left, it became even more clear to me seeing Redman run in the playoffs and going left with ease.