The Ugly, The Ugly and The Ugly - Steelers Edition

[D1City55]

I agree- it was pretty atrocious. But they had Osemele for seven games and Monroe for at least half the season. And of course, Yanda.

With this Ravens offensive line, I can't even point to an above average player (which Monroe and Yanda were) at any point this year. I think Bozeman and Zeitler are the best and they're pretty much league average.

And yes, Shipley, Gradkowski, and Oher were cheeks with Gradkowski being one of the worst offenders, but I mean, Powers, Villanaueva, and Phillips are right there with them.

They're both awful and I think any pocket passer is getting sacked close to 50 times with either OL but after thinking about it this OL is clearly worst. At least Yanda was the best OL in the league and Monroe was solid when he took over at LT. Everything else was pretty bad but you got two players who can maintain blocks right there.

Villanaueva is a C- player at his best. Philips is probably one of the worst starting Ts right now, and Zietler is a solid player but he's no Yanda. That leaves Powers who improved a bit but IMO still has problems with maintaining blocks in the run game alongside missing blocks in pass protection which has caused him to block the wrong guy at times. There's no blue-chip player on this OL and I've noticed Bozeman snaps have been pretty bad lately. Look at the C play by Matt Skura in 2019, he effortless snaps and gets to his second level blocks with ease. I seriously wish he never suffered that awful knee injury.

This OL is central to our problems. We've got away from extra protections because teams like the Bengals will just send us quarters and dime looks with 6 Dbs. We were able to deal with Denvers blitz with extra protection but at some point you need to trust your OL to handle their blocking assignments and I don't know how Lamar can trust them to do that, they even struggled against four and five man front where TJ Watt bullied Philips with a simple bullrush. Big Al even had trouble of his own against those fronts. This doesn't even take into consideration how weak they are in the run game.

Yes, Lamar needs to throw the ball away some, but a QB also needs to extend plays, this was a big problem with Joe where he had trouble with not extending plays and opting for the throwaway or taking a sack. This might contradict to what I've said in previous posts but I love how aggressive Lamar is in trying to extend plays, it's saved us so many times and led to big plays, I just need him to stop trying to play hero ball.

 

[D1City55]

i was with you right up until that last line lol
lamar missed some reads and missed some throws yesterday but i really dont think he was that bad in totality especially when compared to the browns and dolphins games where he played far worse

That final drive alone was better than anything we saw in the Cleveland game. Used ATS to look away defenders and pick apart zone. Did a great job of coverage recognition and finding soft spots, he was pretty masterful on that drive.

 

[rmcjacket23]

i was with you right up until that last line lol
lamar missed some reads and missed some throws yesterday but i really dont think he was that bad in totality especially when compared to the browns and dolphins games where he played far worse

Well, the Browns game he had 3 dreadful throws for INTs that should just never be made, and he certainly had one of those yesterday. You won't find many INTs in the end zone that are worse decisions and execution of decisions than that one. That was the old "hey I made this throw last week, lets see if I can do it again into actual covered players". It worked exactly how it should have.

I'll also say that, for me, its in the context of the opponent. I don't think Pittsburgh's defense is all that good. I think they're standing on ceremony quite a bit. I think Cleveland's defense is much, much better, and I'd expect better output against Pittsburgh than Cleveland.

I just didn't see nearly as many off target or easy throws missed as I saw yesterday. Maybe they existed in the prior games and I just forgot about them in the sea of sacks and interceptions, but there were a lot of first downs missed yesterday due to bad ball placement.

I'll be the first to tell everybody that the Oline isn't great, because it's clearly not. And its clear that Lamar doesn't trust them, but that's also partially his issue to deal with. Anticipating pressure when it isn't there is something he's just going to have to work through, because there's nothing his teammates can do to help with that. I also didn't think the Oline was all that terrible yesterday. I saw plays where Lamar had gigantic amounts of time in the pocket to deliver, and the play still broke down and we still took sacks. Everybody keeps telling us that you have to take the good with the bad and Lamar is going to hold the ball longer to make big plays, but for the last several weeks, the holding the ball too long and getting sacked have vastly outweighed the big plays.

Lamar's going to be breaking the bank soon. He's going to be taking up 15-20% of the teams total salary cap in the near future. This idea that we're going to need or ever have five stud Olineman to protect him isn't ever going to happen, so the people calling for that probably need to get that out of their head immediately. They want a $40M QB with a 2016 Cowboys Oline while keeping Andrews and Hollywood and all possible weapons on market value deals. It's not going to work that way. You either get an Oline, get weapons, or a mixture of both, but not all.

 

[marklar]

he's not a tackle - he's playing there because no one else can
but the coaches have all said they'd rather he played guard for us (we just cant afford to be picky right now)

hard to put a guy on your shitlist who's playing out of position for the benefit of the team

Not hard at all, I just did it! See attachment.

Seriously though, maybe shitlist is the wrong word, I just do not want to see him on the field. Regarding being out of position - everyone said Mekari never could play tackle due to arm length and he is ok there. Philips looks so lost that I almost want Fluker back

 

[Deebo813]

This is too funny lol.. terrible oline and lamars flaws isnt new lol. Shit being going on all year and last year. Guess it takes an L for people to finally start taking the blinders off and agreeing with the truth

 

[marklar]

But again, I just have issues with the play calling. Roman doesn't scheme players open; instead he schemes them on top of each other consistently (looking at the interception off Bateman's hands against Cleveland...) and doesn't create these easy throws..

Regarding that int that many put up as the proof of Romans incompetence: I do not think it is a coincidence that Bateman's targets and playing time went down significantly immediately after that. Without having proof of it, I would say that smells like he ran the wrong route and is partially in the dog house. But this is pure conjecture on my part

 

[Tank]

This is too funny lol.. terrible oline and lamars flaws isnt new lol. Shit being going on all year and last year. Guess it takes an L for people to finally start taking the blinders off and agreeing with the truth

What's frustrating is that early on it seemed as though Lamar had turned the corner and had improved greatly as a passer. Then as if someone flipped a switch, he fell into a funk that he can't seem to shake.

 

[BoredMarine13]

Man this seems to be the issue every year though. We got Bateman and he looks promising yet we don't involve him in the game plan. Watkins still has speed even though he has the dropsies at times. I'm getting more frustrated as I watch and analyze other teams (playing fantasy) and realize yes our players are not great but the play calling is not helping. Like others have mentioned it seems the game plan both on O and D are not adjusted or formed for the players we are fielding but the players we were supposed to field and are now on IR.

Something is off with Watkins. His facial expressions show a lot of frustration.

The lack of adjustments seems frustrating to the fans, but i can’t help thinking adjustments are being made. The players on the field are just that bad. Wink has one play maker on the that defense in Marlon. Now he is gone. Roman has the X factor in Lamar , but no support on the O line. Just a tough year


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[rmcjacket23]

This is too funny lol.. terrible oline and lamars flaws isnt new lol. Shit being going on all year and last year. Guess it takes an L for people to finally start taking the blinders off and agreeing with the truth

Well the loss itself isn't surprising. I bet the Steelers and bet them heavily. NFL 101... find a desperate team who's season hangs in the balance, at home, getting points, against a team that doesn't need the win nearly as badly. I bet large chunks every time.

It's the fact that the offense plays one of the weaker defenses its seen in a little while, still doesn't play well, the defense does play well, and we lose. The act of losing doesn't bother me. It's the way we lost.

 

[Willbacker]

Well the loss itself isn't surprising. I bet the Steelers and bet them heavily. NFL 101... find a desperate team who's season hangs in the balance, at home, getting points, against a team that doesn't need the win nearly as badly. I bet large chunks every time.

It's the fact that the offense plays one of the weaker defenses its seen in a little while, still doesn't play well, the defense does play well, and we lose. The act of losing doesn't bother me. It's the way we lost.

A ha! I can understand the bet.....but heavily. You're the reason why we lost. Now it comes out.

 

[Willbacker]

First off I just wanna say I had no problem with the 2 pt try and it's more reaffirmed after hearing about Marvin. I know we want to sit here and crack about the oline and playcalling but Lamar missed an awful lot of hot reads and held the ball too long. At the beginning of the game especially our 1st drive he was dropping it off then for some reason just stopped doing it.

To help our oline it might help if we get the play call in and break the huddle earlier so Lamar can make reads. Hiking it on zero gives the dline an edge to jump the snap. This is a continous problem. We also don't have to use motion on every single damn play. Just go up there. Hike.

 

[gtalk12]

What's frustrating is that early on it seemed as though Lamar had turned the corner and had improved greatly as a passer. Then as if someone flipped a switch, he fell into a funk that he can't seem to shake.

Well he was....but how long do you think a QB is going to stand back there taking all those hits before he gets rattled?

I said this at the beginning of the year, Lamar does a great job of erasing issues we have on offense. Realistically, how long did you expect him to carry the offense before it starts to wear out?

We can't run the ball. The only reason it looks like that is because of Lamar Jacksons legs. A lot of these guys aren't getting open when Lamar gets blitzed but for me that is more a scheme thing then a player issue. We aren't running quick slants to combat the blitz for some odd reason but ok.

So now Lamar is pressing. HARD. He is nowhere near the pocket passer he was at the beginning of the year and he isn't looking to scramble outside of the pocket either. He seems to want to dance moving backwards and then run through the O-line

 

[gtalk12]

Lamar leads the league in sacks with 37.

He had 37 last year and 27 the year before that.


Lamar, like Watson and Wilson fall victim to their own success. Their ability to create and move around hides the fact that you have a terrible O-line. You can't lose Yanda AND Stanley and think you'll be fine.

 

[29BmoreBird22]

Regarding that int that many put up as the proof of Romans incompetence: I do not think it is a coincidence that Bateman's targets and playing time went down significantly immediately after that. Without having proof of it, I would say that smells like he ran the wrong route and is partially in the dog house. But this is pure conjecture on my part

I think it happens too frequently to have been a wrong route, honestly.

 

[gtalk12]

Lamar needs to play better. He has to take his game to the next level now and that is all between the ears at this point. I have seen enough to know he can do it. The next step is taking the easy short stuff quickly and living to play another down.

 

[OURavensFan]

Low key Steeler refs struck again yesterday , ticky tack PI on us to negate the game winning INT and then Steelers ran a pick play to win the game

 

[OURavensFan]

Well the loss itself isn't surprising. I bet the Steelers and bet them heavily. NFL 101... find a desperate team who's season hangs in the balance, at home, getting points, against a team that doesn't need the win nearly as badly. I bet large chunks every time.

It's the fact that the offense plays one of the weaker defenses its seen in a little while, still doesn't play well, the defense does play well, and we lose. The act of losing doesn't bother me. It's the way we lost.

Yea seeing what the Bengals did to the Steelers and then watching us lose is what makes it rough

 

[gtalk12]

Yea seeing what the Bengals did to the Steelers and then watching us lose is what makes it rough

Running game and defense.

 

[RavensMania]

A ha! I can understand the bet.....but heavily. You're the reason why we lost. Now it comes out.

send @rmcjacket23 to the pit of misery @Dom McRaven

 

[Tank]

Well he was....but how long do you think a QB is going to stand back there taking all those hits before he gets rattled?

I said this at the beginning of the year, Lamar does a great job of erasing issues we have on offense. Realistically, how long did you expect him to carry the offense before it starts to wear out?

We can't run the ball. The only reason it looks like that is because of Lamar Jacksons legs. A lot of these guys aren't getting open when Lamar gets blitzed but for me that is more a scheme thing then a player issue. We aren't running quick slants to combat the blitz for some odd reason but ok.

So now Lamar is pressing. HARD. He is nowhere near the pocket passer he was at the beginning of the year and he isn't looking to scramble outside of the pocket either. He seems to want to dance moving backwards and then run through the O-line

Completely understand the situation but I'm talking basics, it's just not there.