Steelerfury.com Post Game Report Card: Bengals

Posted Tue, 11/17/2009 - 14:00 by Iron_City

I took an extra day to sleep on this game and collect my thoughts.  At first,  I wasn’t even going to submit a write-up on this game b/c I was THAT pissed off at the performance I saw on Sunday.  But its hard to place,  or displace,  blame when Im just as guilty as any member of the Steeler organization for breaking my gameday routine and rituals that had us on a 5 game win streak.  I thought for sure this game would be a route after listening to Cornholio Palmer say he expected a blowout win over the Ravens.  And hearing the WR formerly known as Chad Johnson talk about sending a little gift to the worlds best defense,  this game was going to be a route.  But after careful deliberation and a tear jerking review of the game tape,  here is what I came up with. 

I cant put the blame on any one coach,  player,  or performance,  because collectively and fundamentally they weren’t that bad.  I’ve watched my Steeler defense dismantle teams for decades and fully understood that the opponent isn’t a bad team, but rather that’s how other  good teams make you look on Sundays.  And that’s exactly what Cincinnati did to the Steelers on Sunday.  Made them look bad by playing fundamentally sound football with outstanding execution and a stellar gameplan. 

Marvin Lewis isn’t unfamiliar with this Steeler team.  It become obvious upon 2nd and 3rd viewing that he’s studied Steeler weaknesses over the years and used it against them.  Alot of teams wont even try to run on Dick Lebeau’s defense,  but Coach Lewis stayed patient.  He put a lot of high % passing plays in the gameplan to stay ahead of the chains and limit turnovers.  They ran various formations,  unbalanced lines,  and misdirection to keep the Steelers off balance.  The Steeler front 7 has always struggled with playaction passing because first and foremost they look to crack heads in the run game.   They didn’t try to run into the teeth of the defense every time,  but they ran misdirection and sweeps and did a good job of sealing the edge on a lot of those plays.  On defense,  they used every concept the Steelers have struggled with against a 4 man front with various twists,  stunts,  and variety of blitz packages.  They coupled that with press coverage that held its own all day and did exactly what you need to do against a team that wants to bring a vertical pass attack,  they kept 2 safeties deep.  It sounds so simple,  we’ve covered every one of these topics in depth as Steeler weaknesses.  But all coach Lewis did was figure it out for himself and do it.  And all that did was cause his team to be the better competitor that day.  Even if I were coaching a Pop Warner team,  the first thing I’d tell them is we have to score in the red zone and win the turnover battle.  The Steelers could do neither and it cost them. 

But Coach Lewis,  I have one word of advice for you as you look down on the rest of the AFC North:

 

“Objects in your rear view mirror are closer than they appear”

 

Don’t take your foot off the gas Marv,  your now on Steeler Nations top 10 Most Wanted List.  Your now in the crosshairs of the Terrible Towel and wont sneak up on anyone again. 

 

Lets go to the tape:

 

OFFENSE:  D+

Overall,  a fairly dismal effort.  The 11 man unit struggled with concepts across the board and were never allowed to find any sort of rhythm all day long.  The Bengals attacked at all levels,  exposed weaknesses and never sat on their heels.  But that’s what a good defense does to you and Cincinnati has a good defense this year.  What did concern me is a lack of patience in the run game in a field position game.  I understand the Bengals had the 2nd ranked run defense and the smoke screens are generally considered part of the run game,  but only 13 attempts to your feature back in a game decided by FG’s is a clear lack of patience to me.  Another disconcerting fact to me is not attacking all levels of a defense when needed.  On every 3rd & 8,  you don’t have to run four 9 yard curl routes,  particularly against man coverage.  That will work more often against  zone where you can sit in a soft spot,  but not press man coverage,  regardless of what you do to scheme free release off the line of scrimmage.  The QB reads the defense and his passing tree from the top down.  But too many times a safety valve was needed that just wasn’t there.  The Steelers offensive braintrust has been deemed guilty of not adjusting quick enough to what was thrown at them this game. 

 

To get to some quick facts that reinforce my theory,  the Steeler offense was an embarrassing 3 of 15 on 3rd down with a measley cumulative 226 yards on the day.  The time of possession was basically a push on the day,  but going 0-4 in the red zone with just 4 FG’s is a clear sign of poor playcalling and execution where it matters most.  They had 7 drives of 5 plays or less and 8 of 11 drives lasted less than 3 minutes on the playclock.  All clear signs of a team that struggled. 

 

QB:  C-

20/40 – 174 yards – 0 TD – 1 INT – 50% CMP – 51.2 QBR

Ben came out o the gate in his scripted stuff and looked fairly sharp and in command of his offense.  It was a well balanced drive that included 5 run plays including a 15 yard scramble for a first down,  which is a staple against man coverage where the QB has time to run.  They got the early FG and it went downhill from there.  They got greedy,  went deep too often against a pair of safeties,  albeit not very good safeties,  that were sitting on top of those routes.  No deep ball went uncontested by less than 2 people and you could arguably say his best throw all day was the one that drew the pass interference call on Ndukwe.  Even down only 6-3 at one point,  Ben went into no huddle looks as early as the 3rd possession of the game and 5 times all together in the first half.  His throws weren’t crisp,  and he couldn’t elude the pressure of a very well schemed and disciplined pass rush that maintained their rush lanes to not let him escape. 

Bens performance never got any better in the 2nd half.  He ended up with a fluke,  tipped INT on a terrible throw and just never found any rhythm.  I will contend this and will stick by it.  Ben Roethlisberger is the best QB in the NFL in using anticipation and arm strength to stick 10-20 yard intermediate routes and thread a needle.  But by the same token,  he may have the ugliest deep ball I’ve ever seen at a competitive level.  He doesn’t spin it properly and its ALWAYS underthrown,  and always has been. 

 

RB:  C+

16 carries - 64 yards – 0 TD’s

Rashard Mendenhall looked less than impressive against a front that stayed extremely disciplined in run fits.  #34 is hell on wheels when he reaches the 2nd level but struggles with vision when the play gets stacked up.  At 230 lbs or more,  he needs to be able to create yards at times by putting his head down and running behind his pads.  Mewelde Moore converted a key 3rd & short for 12 yards on a play that should’ve been stopped had the proper defensive read been made.  We also had a Willie Parker sighting this week.  In his lone carry,  Willie ran hard.  Harder than I’ve seen him carry the rock in some time.  Hopefully he’s regaining form for a pennant run.  As far as pass pro goes,  the backs seem to be identifying the right man,  which is a good thing.   But another training camp of blocking drills wont hurt any of them. 

 

WR:  D

12/130 – 0 TD’s

I just cant grade what isn’t there.  A poor performance all the way around.  Santonio Holmes seemed to show up at times,  but dropped a key TD pass that a WR of his caliber should’ve had.  Hines Ward still struggles against man coverage and Mike Wallace needs to do a better job of gaining position on jump balls.  Too often he lets a CB box him out to gain position. 

 

TE:  D

5/27 yards

This was a game that should’ve highlighted Heath Miller.  When your receivers struggle,  your TE needs to win matchups on LB’s and safeties.  And exploiting those LB’s was the proper way to attack that defense in the passing game but “Big Money” Earl Miller was nowhere to be found.  He and Spaeth continue to struggle in the run game and pass pro when an opponent slides a DE out to a 9 technique to matchup with a Steeler TE. 

 

OL:  C-

Just not enough consistency in this game and their struggles with 4 man fronts continue.  They saw a wealth of stunts,  crosses,  and different blitz packages.  I give credit to Bunghole DC Mike Zimmer for some of the things I saw on tape knowing the Steeler OL struggles with movement.  He’d throw an interior stunt knowing full well they still have to think before reacting in that situation.  And when they did pick it up,  he followed it up with delayed blitzes and zone blitzes.  He brought nearly the same exact game plan Eagles DC Jim Johnson annihilated Ben Roethlisberger with last year,  minus all the overload blitz packages to remain in a cover 2 shell.  None of the 5 dummies up front get singled out this week b/c all 5 had their moments in the sun and played poorly as a whole.  Noone stood out either way to me good or bad.  They all earn C- in my book.  Luckily for this unit,  the Oakland Raiders are the only team left on the grid that employs a 4 man front.

 

DEFENSE:  B

I wasn’t particulary impressed at first glance with what they put on tape.  Early on they got a hand on the ball several times to bat balls down.  But no worries,  Ike Taylor spent the offseason teaching Willie Gay how to catch so we’re good.  And he’s shown it.  The thing that stood out was the lack of splash plays at opportune times.  They were unable to create turnovers for field position and struggled to get to Palmer and his arsenal of 5 step drops.   But in the end,  the glass half full approach is they only conceded 4/5 FG’s for 12 pts while the glass half empty approach says they let Carson Palmer lead 4 scoring drives,  one of which was set up on a turnover.  But in the end,  they were held to just 4-14 on 3rd down with only 218 yards allowed on the day.  Overall,  it was a winning effort by the defense.

 

DL:  A

Anytime you hold an opponent to 61 yards rushing on the day,  your earn top marks in my book.  Big Snack continues to dominate AFC North centers while the fire lit under Brett Keisels ass continues to burn while he got shortchanged and should’ve been credited with another ½ sack.  Nick Eason continues solid play and has shown the ability to penetrate the pocket at times,  but he continues to get caught in the wash in the run game at times. 

 

LB:  C-

The OLB combo of Wood and Silverback notched a sack apiece and were solid in setting the edge in the run game most of the day.  It was a knife in the heart on the James Harrison post snap roughness call,  but emotions were running high in this one.  The second matchup of these two teams proved it wasn’t a fluke the first time around, James Farrior still cant run with Brian Leonard which shows a clear sign of age kicking in.  All game long I kept praying for Timmons to make a game changing play only to come away disappointed in not hearing his name all day long.  It was a Bengal offense that continually attacked the 2nd level asking the ILB’s to make a play and they didn’t.

 

DB:  B+

Another dagger to the nuts when I got blindsided by Troys injury status,  but Tyrone Carter filled in admirably once again by proving not to be a liability.  Ryan Clark had another solid game,  and another solid hit.  I’ll await to see if Fuhrer Goodell pins a bounty on him again.  Both CB’s played winning football and I have no complaints.  “Face me Ike” shut down the Bengals version of Steve Irkle while Willie Gay ran with Laverneus Coles all day.  An acceptable effort in my book.

 

ST’s – Incomplete

In the 2-bit,  coal mining western PA town I grew up in,  you actually had to show up for a test to actually get a grade.  When you didn’t,  you received an incomplete. We’ve been over it all week.  Another KR TD,  kickoffs that barely reach the 10 yard line,  running bobbled kicks out from 5 yards deep,  when will it end?  Matt Spaeth cant block on offense,  why let him try to put a hat on someone that’s coming from 40 yards away on the return game.  Stefan Logan had a decent day,   for him,  ran hard at times but over ran the ball carrier on the long return.  If there were any positives,  skippy went 4-4 on his FG attempts and I liked what I saw from Mike Wallace in his lone return.  He stuck his head in the hole and kicked it in gear and ran tough.  That’s what a returner is supposed to look like. 

 

I’ll reserve comment this week about a guy who has a roster spot just to return kicks and now his performance has him sharing time with kick returns and punt returns.  Some call that a useless entity. 

 

Player of the week:  Dan Sepulveda

He put 2 inside the 20 with a long boot of 55.  He’s the only player on the roster that didn’t make a mistake and he isn’t afraid to make a tackle on ST’s.