Game Balls, Game Goats & FU'[email protected] Chargers.....

[Chicoman]

Well this game had all the emotions a Steeler fan could handle but it ended tragically seeing our pathetic O-line get manhandled by the Chargers D-Line as Joe Haeg gave up 2 sacks on consecutive plays only to see the Steelers offense backed up to their 3 yard line on 4th & 32. This loss sends our Steelers to 5-4-1 and pretty much puts us behind the 8-Ball so to speak as we will be battling the Chargers for one of those Wild Card playoff spots so this loss hurts even more than that frikkin tie to the Lions last week. Once again I've got to question the play calling of Matt Canada and I am starting to think the pre-snap motion is actually starting to tip off the Defense before the snap of the ball. Case in point the 4th & Goal in the First Half from our 2 yd line...when they went in motion pre-snap I even knew it going to be a shovel pass inside to Freiermuth and so did every Charger on the Defense....Terrible friggin playcall. Canada might have been great in college but this is the NFL all that pre-snap motion is not going to confuse an NFL Defense or create any mismatches on the offensive side of the football. If this is Ben's last year...let him call the plays himself...Canada SUCKS and he should have been FIRED during the BYE week! Chargers have the worst run Defense in the NFL (RANKED 32nd) and the Steelers managed a pathetic 55 yds rushing on 18 carries 3.05 YPC. Defensively this Defense was missing Haden, Watt & Fitzpatrick and that was very evident on the final TD toss to Mike Williams that gave the Chargers the lead for good. Defensively this team was attrocious tonight and there's plenty of blame to go around. Devin BusT continues to perform poorly in game....was evident on Eckeler's first TD catch as Bush was Flat Footed and Eckeler made him look like he was asleep on the first TD catch. If you noticed later in the game Karl Joseph on the exact same coverage of Eckeler he was able to see the play as it unfolded and break it up something Devin BusT couldn't do. Devin Bust might actually end up being a worse draft pick that Jarvis Jones. Also seeing Terrell Edmunds miss an open field tackle on Justin Herbert pretty much shows you that kid really has very little ability! He's another BUST! Our Defense gave up too many 3rd & long conversions tonight....I know they were missing Watt, Haden & Fitzpatrick but players need to step up when opportunity presents itself.....tonight no one was able to do that. 7 games remaining in this season and I honestly think the Steelers will be lucky to win 2 maybe 3 of these games. I'll enjoy these next 7 games just seeing Ben play QB for the last time before he rides off into retirement.


Per Tomlin's Post Game:
Eric Ebron - Knee didn't return....being evalauated
Hassenhauer - Pectoral injury being evaluated
Arthur Maulet - Neck Injury

Game Balls:
Dionte Johnson - made some great catches tonight 7 rec 101 yds 1 TD
Ben Roethlisberger - 28 for 44 273 yds 3TD's.......at this point in his career this might be as good as it gets....was good enough to win but the Defense lost this game
Cam Heyward - I'm putting here for his effort and heart. This guy leaves it all out on the field week in, week out....was double & triple teamed the entire game....great effort tackling Herbert downfield

Game Goats:
Devin Bust - I'll go on record now saying Jarvis Jones gave a better effort out there on the football field than we are getting from Devin BusT. This kid is the Dwayne Haskins of the Defense!
Terrell Edmunds - This guy couldn't even tackle Justin Herbert in the open field tonight....Herbert would have scored a TD if it wasn't for Heyward in pursuit. Won't miss this guy after this season.
Tre Norwood - He was in over his head tonight trying to fill the void by Fitzpatrick who was out with CoVid-69
Steelers D-line & LB'ers - 159 yds given up on the ground tonight...90 yds to Justin Herbert....just awful man! I know there's injuries but Buggs, Mondeaux, Wormley, Tsuska, Highsmith, Bush & Schobert need to be better stoppin the run.
O-line - I know it's a patchwork group but I'd expect them to open up some holes for Najee Harris against the NFL's 32nd ranked Rush Defense in the NFL. Kendrick Green was just terrible and Dan Moore was really bad too. Once Hassenhauer went down at LG and Joe Haeg came is things got even worse. Are the 2 rookies hitting that rookie wall already or are they just not very good?

FU's:
FU to the officiating crew for missing the elbow to Najee Harris's neck....that should have been a penalty.....INEXCUSABLE!
FU to our resident *****....Stephon Tuitt.....just do the Steeler Nation a favor and retire from the NFL!
Matt Canada - **** YOU! Your pre-snap motion is doing nothing but tipping off the Defense as to what play your calling. Case in point the 4th & Goal at the 2yd line.....Everyone in that Stadium knew it was a shovel pass to Freiermuth......he was tackled for a loss. PLEASE REMOVE that jet sweep end around running play the WR and run a few bubble screens Also when you playing the worst Rush D in the NFL you might want to run the football more than 18 times and not toss it up 48 times. THIS GUY SUCKS! Worse than Fitchner ever could have been! Heck let Big Ben call his own plays the last 7 games of his career! FIRE THIS BUM!

 

[Big Ben Rules]

Well this game had all the emotions a Steeler fan could handle but it ended tragically seeing our pathetic O-line get manhandled by the Chargers D-Line as Joe Haeg gave up 2 sacks on consecutive plays only to see the Steelers offense backed up to their 3 yard line on 4th & 32. This loss sends our Steelers to 5-4-1 and pretty much puts us behind the 8-Ball so to speak as we will be battling the Chargers for one of those Wild Card playoff spots so this loss hurts even more than that frikkin tie to the Lions last week. Once again I've got to question the play calling of Matt Canada and I am starting to think the pre-snap motion is actually starting to tip off the Defense before the snap of the ball. Case in point the 4th & Goal in the First Half from our 2 yd line...when they went in motion pre-snap I even knew it going to be a shovel pass inside to Freiermuth and so did every Charger on the Defense....Terrible friggin playcall. Canada might have been great in college but this is the NFL all that pre-snap motion is not going to confuse an NFL Defense or create any mismatches on the offensive side of the football. If this is Ben's last year...let him call the plays himself...Canada SUCKS and he should have been FIRED during the BYE week! Chargers have the worst run Defense in the NFL (RANKED 32nd) and the Steelers managed a pathetic 55 yds rushing on 18 carries 3.05 YPC. Defensively this Defense was missing Haden, Watt & Fitzpatrick and that was very evident on the final TD toss to Mike Williams that gave the Chargers the lead for good. Defensively this team was attrocious tonight and there's plenty of blame to go around. Devin BusT continues to perform poorly in game....was evident on Eckeler's first TD catch as Bush was Flat Footed and Eckeler made him look like he was asleep on the first TD catch. If you noticed later in the game Karl Joseph on the exact same coverage of Eckeler he was able to see the play as it unfolded and break it up something Devin BusT couldn't do. Devin Bust might actually end up being a worse draft pick that Jarvis Jones. Also seeing Terrell Edmunds miss an open field tackle on Justin Herbert pretty much shows you that kid really has very little ability! He's another BUST! Our Defense gave up too many 3rd & long conversions tonight....I know they were missing Watt, Haden & Fitzpatrick but players need to step up when opportunity presents itself.....tonight no one was able to do that. 7 games remaining in this season and I honestly think the Steelers will be lucky to win 2 maybe 3 of these games. I'll enjoy these next 7 games just seeing Ben play QB for the last time before he rides off into retirement.


Per Tomlin's Post Game:
Eric Ebron - Knee didn't return....being evalauated
Hassenhauer - Pectoral injury being evaluated
Arthur Maulet - Neck Injury

Game Balls:
Dionte Johnson - made some great catches tonight 7 rec 101 yds 1 TD
Ben Roethlisberger - 28 for 44 273 yds 3TD's.......at this point in his career this might be as good as it gets....was good enough to win but the Defense lost this game
Cam Heyward - I'm putting here for his effort and heart. This guy leaves it all out on the field week in, week out....was double & triple teamed the entire game....great effort tackling Herbert downfield

Game Goats:
Devin Bust - I'll go on record now saying Jarvis Jones gave a better effort out there on the football field than we are getting from Devin BusT. This kid is the Dwayne Haskins of the Defense!
Terrell Edmunds - This guy couldn't even tackle Justin Herbert in the open field tonight....Herbert would have scored a TD if it wasn't for Heyward in pursuit. Won't miss this guy after this season.
Tre Norwood - He was in over his head tonight trying to fill the void by Fitzpatrick who was out with CoVid-69
Steelers D-line & LB'ers - 159 yds given up on the ground tonight...90 yds to Justin Herbert....just awful man! I know there's injuries but Buggs, Mondeaux, Wormley, Tsuska, Highsmith, Bush & Schobert need to be better stoppin the run.
O-line - I know it's a patchwork group but I'd expect them to open up some holes for Najee Harris against the NFL's 32nd ranked Rush Defense in the NFL. Kendrick Green was just terrible and Dan Moore was really bad too. Once Hassenhauer went down at LG and Joe Haeg came is things got even worse. Are the 2 rookies hitting that rookie wall already or are they just not very good?

FU's:
FU to the officiating crew for missing the elbow to Najee Harris's neck....that should have been a penalty.....INEXCUSABLE!
FU to our resident *****....Stephon Tuitt.....just do the Steeler Nation a favor and retire from the NFL!
Matt Canada - **** YOU! Your pre-snap motion is doing nothing but tipping off the Defense as to what play your calling. Case in point the 4th & Goal at the 2yd line.....Everyone in that Stadium knew it was a shovel pass to Freiermuth......he was tackled for a loss. PLEASE REMOVE that jet sweep end around running play the WR and run a few bubble screens Also when you playing the worst Rush D in the NFL you might want to run the football more than 18 times and not toss it up 48 times. THIS GUY SUCKS! Worse than Fitchner ever could have been! Heck let Big Ben call his own plays the last 7 games of his career! FIRE THIS BUM!

Stephon Tuitt would not be a Steeler if I was in charge. if it is in fact true that he is physically ready to go, he would be gone. maybe they can get a 3rd for him. not to sound insensitive, but it be 6+ months.

 

[Steelmann]

Stephon Tuitt would not be a Steeler if I was in charge. if it is in fact true that he is physically ready to go, he would be gone. maybe they can get a 3rd for him. not to sound insensitive, but it be 6+ months.

A lot on here go after the Tuitt situation. Of course I want him on the field. But obviously we sure as hell don’t know the whole story. Until I know the facts,I will side with management on this one. I’d rather cheer for my team,that has a bit of heart,soul. An organization that looks after the person,not just the player. I could be wrong on this one who knows. I’d like to think the Steelers have a little more integrity than most. At least I hope so.

 

[topseed]

Game ball to DJ for another excellent performance, as he shuts up all the naysayers yet again.

Goat to Haeg, who is surprisingly awful at guard. I'd keep him at tackle where he plays better, and get Finney in there at OG.

And FU primarily to Canada for his ridiculous play calling, and secondarily to Ben for carrying it out. Just because the stupid ******* play is called to Freiermuth two yards short of the end zone on fourth down, Ben doesn't have to squeeze the ball in to him with three guys there waiting to make the tackle. Throw the ball to somebody else who isn't triple-covered. Or Ben can call an audible out of a stupid ******* jet sweep from the three yard line with eleven defenders in the box. Or Ben can at least look at other options before, for the umpteenth time, dumping it to Najee who is now regularly being blanketed by the defense out of the backfield. It seems like Ben has regressed in Canada's system -- I swear to God, he looks like a rookie out there, almost constantly forcing the ball to his first read, whether it's covered or not.

 

[stillwright]

Games Balls.....
Ben
Heyward

The only players that showed true heart.

Boz was his usual self.


Goat....


Coaching staff

 

[Super Dave]

Bush needs to sit. It looks like a complete lack of preparation. Zero effort. At any point in the game does he look like a leader?.

He is the QB of the Defense. His game is that of a game day inactive.

Schobert and Spillane should be the starting ILB. There was a reason they started working with Josh Schobert and the green dot almost immediately.

 

[SteelerFan448]

Game balls were spot on. If anyone remotely steps up on defense or the offensive line the Steelers win last night. It’s surprising they even competed given all of the injuries and I get why the defense sucked with, what, five starters out? The offensive line was once again bad and our rookies are showing major regression—keeping in mind they never played particularly well in the first place during the regular season.

 

[TDX27]

Everyone knew before the game, this was going to be almost impossible to win with all of our losses. The D, obviously could not hold up to a team with a good QB, good RB who can catch with the best of them and good WR's. Our O, even though it was depleted as well, needed a rusty Ben to come back off a jet plane at the last minute and win the game. Ben almost did it. He led the O to 37 ******* points, more than enough to win most games easily.

The only good out of this is that we did put up 37. Hopefully, we can keep that up because our schedule is a ***** the rest of the way. Including last night and through the rest of the season, if we went .500, we'd pretty much be in the playoffs. But, we also could easily lose every game (or almost every game) remaining on our schedule. If we make it through this test, they should be ready for the playoffs, assuming they have any players still standing.

 

[Sarge]

Personally, I think you'd get a lot more mileage out of Green at guard. He's not a very good center at this point.

 

[TDX27]

Green is supposedly "too small" at center so he'd be way too small at guard in the NFL. He is getting pushed way back into Ben with bull rushes. He needs to find a way to fix that this offseason or he should be riding the pine next year. The 2nd or 3rd string (can't recall which) NT was destroying Green last night with bull rushes.

 

[Litos]

Personally, I think you'd get a lot more mileage out of Green at guard. He's not a very good center at this point.

The way he got pushed back in to Ben's lap was pathetic, had so much hope for him. He needs an off-season dedicated to strength, this ends up being a FO mistake as they expected the 3rd round rook to start and the same goes for Moore. They invest in a top RB and have an old QB and they put a D rated inexperienced OLine to protect both of them, fundamentals be damned... these guys need to get a clue and that includes Tomlin and company, the team is built from the trenches nit the other way around.

 

[LeXX75]

Bush needs to sit. It looks like a complete lack of preparation. Zero effort. At any point in the game does he look like a leader?.

He is the QB of the Defense. His game is that of a game day inactive.

Schobert and Spillane should be the starting ILB. There was a reason they started working with Josh Schobert and the green dot almost immediately.

Agree on Bush..Schobert has shown me nothing as well...Not the guy I remember that drove us crazy against the Stains..We thought we fleeced Meyer with that trade...I think he may have fleeced us.

 

[Drink IRON City]

Game ball to DJ for another excellent performance, as he shuts up all the naysayers yet again.

Goat to Haeg, who is surprisingly awful at guard. I'd keep him at tackle where he plays better, and get Finney in there at OG.

And FU primarily to Canada for his ridiculous play calling, and secondarily to Ben for carrying it out. Just because the stupid ******* play is called to Freiermuth two yards short of the end zone on fourth down, Ben doesn't have to squeeze the ball in to him with three guys there waiting to make the tackle. Throw the ball to somebody else who isn't triple-covered. Or Ben can call an audible out of a stupid ******* jet sweep from the three yard line with eleven defenders in the box. Or Ben can at least look at other options before, for the umpteenth time, dumping it to Najee who is now regularly being blanketed by the defense out of the backfield. It seems like Ben has regressed in Canada's system -- I swear to God, he looks like a rookie out there, almost constantly forcing the ball to his first read, whether it's covered or not.

DID you see BEN's facial expression when in came the WR sweep call ? Ben definately could call a better game but the COACHING staff forbids it. There must be a pre-consequence out there of if he audibles out. Can't believe this offensive scheme is being called and COACH TOMLIN is allowing it, aybe he needs to cut his eye lids off..










Salute the nation

 

[Sarge]

Green is supposedly "too small" at center so he'd be way too small at guard in the NFL. He is getting pushed way back into Ben with bull rushes. He needs to find a way to fix that this offseason or he should be riding the pine next year. The 2nd or 3rd string (can't recall which) NT was destroying Green last night with bull rushes.

Yeah, I can't think of his name, but dude was a rookie too. Creed Humphrey would look pretty good in a Steelers uniform about now.

 

[Steeltime]

Game ball to Cam Sutton as well. Several good plays, and playing his guts out. If every defender played with the desire of Heyward, Watt and Sutton, the defense would be light-years better.

Agree 100% with Chicoman about the horrible refereeing on both non-calls on the overtly dirty hits on Najee and Sutton. As soon as the hit to Najee occurred, said to a couple of douchebags I sometimes communicate with, "Dirty hit. Soon as they come back from the non-stop commercials selling garbage to America, announcers will give a brief statement about it being a bad hit and move on."

One passing reference and no big deal. 15 replays of Heyward, one passing reference to a blatantly dirty hit on Najee that wasn't called.

 

[FatsHolmes]

Game ball to Cam Sutton as well. Several good plays, and playing his guts out. If every defender played with the desire of Heyward, Watt and Sutton, the defense would be light-years better.

Agree 100% with Chicoman about the horrible refereeing on both non-calls on the overtly dirty hits on Najee and Sutton. As soon as the hit to Najee occurred, said to a couple of douchebags I sometimes communicate with, "Dirty hit. Soon as they come back from the non-stop commercials selling garbage to America, announcers will give a brief statement about it being a bad hit and move on."

One passing reference and no big deal. 15 replays of Heyward, one passing reference to a blatantly dirty hit on Najee that wasn't called.

As I said in another thread, the play after the dirty hit on Sutton was a make-up call. That is not a roughing the passer call that Ben usually gets. That was more a Brady-level call.

 

[steelhurt]

Chico as usual I like your write ups but consider. An honorable mention category please. I would have put the two rookies Muuuth and Najee even though their stats weren’t great, they leave it all out there and give max effort. Najee does more on his own than any back in recent memory and Muuuuth plays hard every week. Just sayin!

 

[Skott]

Coaches knew we were short on players and this is still the best game plan and effort they came up with?

This is the same crap with Tomlin year after year.

 

[Ike Kelly]

Yeah, I can't think of his name, but dude was a rookie too. Creed Humphrey would look pretty good in a Steelers uniform about now.

Humphrey gave up two sacks against DAL. KC offense doesn‘t look as formidable as the pundits say. Their defense, however…….

 

[Troglodyte]

I think if Tuitt was out due to his knee injury, it would be discussed as such instead of always being “in addition to dealing with the death of his brother”.

 

[Tibs]

Back when we signed him, I remember reading a blurb somewhere how terrible Joe Haeg was. Last night proved that, over and over again. Both of our lines are bleeding from many wounds.

The fact Ben and the O put up 37 pts behind this sieve of a line is a minor miracle.

 

[suncitysteel]

An honorable mention to Killebrew on the blocked punt... and a "goat" add-on to the D because that was their first punt of the game. In the 4th quarter..

 

[GMC]

Not much to add other than a big old FU to Butlin for rolling out their playoff defense in mid season. No lead would have been safe last night.

 

[topseed]

Everyone knew before the game, this was going to be almost impossible to win with all of our losses. The D, obviously could not hold up to a team with a good QB, good RB who can catch with the best of them and good WR's. Our O, even though it was depleted as well, needed a rusty Ben to come back off a jet plane at the last minute and win the game. Ben almost did it. He led the O to 37 ******* points, more than enough to win most games easily.

The only good out of this is that we did put up 37. Hopefully, we can keep that up because our schedule is a ***** the rest of the way. Including last night and through the rest of the season, if we went .500, we'd pretty much be in the playoffs. But, we also could easily lose every game (or almost every game) remaining on our schedule. If we make it through this test, they should be ready for the playoffs, assuming they have any players still standing.

14 of those 37 points were 3-yard and 11-yard touchdown "drives," gifts from the special teams and the defense. That ****** defense also made a 4th down stand in Chargers' territory with under 4 minutes left in a tie game, setting the table for Ben to secure the victory with a few first downs. He proceeded to throw three passes (with two poor incompletions) for a total of 7 yards, and give the ball right back to a Los Angeles offense which was moving the ball with ease most of the game. Did you really have any confidence when the Steelers' offense needed a touchdown drive with over two minutes left and a timeout?

Yes, Ben played well enough to win, but he didn't get the job done in the most crucial point of the game. Which he used to do regularly earlier in his career.

 

[steel dino]

Is 8-8-1 considered a losing season?

Just asking..