Post Game Grades. Time to pay the Piper (Eagles)

Posted Sun, 09/21/2008 - 00:00 by Iron_City

This week,  the entire class fails.  Its been nearly two decades since I’ve been so completely and utterly embarrassed by team.  A 9 point loss that was actually such a complete blowout of epic proportions I wont even begin to be satisfied until someone is benched.  Someone’s head needs to be on a platter for this debacle.  And when I say that,  Im looking at you Bruce Arians,  and you Kendall Simmons and you Willie Colon.  Its not bad enough this team was beaten up,  they were exposed for what they are.  

 

QB:  F

Under a constant barrage of pressure.  Completely clueless in recognizing where the ball should go,  a complete misunderstanding of when it should be out,  and no idea how and when to change up protections at the line of scrimmage.  Just over 50% completion  percentage with 131 yards on the afternoon.   The worst display of leadership I’ve ever seen out of Ben.

 

RB: F

A combined 33 yards rushing on the afternoon.  A total lack of understanding in blitz pickup.  A complete misunderstanding in communication with the QB and offensive line.  

 

WR:  F

Inability to get separation.  Unable to get off the line of scrimmage in press man coverage.  Several key passes off the fingertips.  This group was also exposed for the lack of playmakers.  Unable to key and diagnose hot reads and coverages

 

TE:  F

Beating the same drum here,  but a total inability to set the edge in the run game.  Failure to understand blitz pickup,  let alone even recognize it. 

 

OL:  F

I would comment but apparently they missed the team plane

 

DL:  F

Inability (the word of the day) to shut down the run game in key situations in the first half.  Complete lack of penetration and played on their own side of the line of scrimmage all afternoon.

 

LB:  C-

The first passing grade of the afternoon.  Minimal pressure,  but showed decent pursuit in the run game.  2.5 sacks from this unit on the afternoon on 39 attempts

 

DB:  B

A pair of INT’s and a fumble recovery was one of the lone bright spots on the afternoon.  Troy Polamalu flew wrecklessly around the field.  But yielded two huge mishaps of concending long 3rd downs of 16 and 18 yards.

 

Special Teams:  B

The only consistent unit of the day.  Kicker Jeff Reed was 2/2 and provided the only points of the day while punter Mitch Berger booted the ball 5 times for a 39.2 average.  The coverage team was solid most of the time while there were no huge mistakes in the ruturn game.

 

Coaching:  FFFFFFF

I put this coaching performance just below the Mike Mularkey debacle of throwing the football over 40 times in a foot of snow against the NYJ earlier in the decade.  Went to the well 400 times too often in the passing game and showed no patience in the run game,  yet only being down 4 pts for a long period of time. Coach LeBeau showed a decent adjumstment against the WCO after conceding a 14 play scoring drives,  but OC Bruce Arians had his worst performance yet and was glaringly the worst performer on the field.  There wasn’t a person tuning in that didn’t know the Steelers couldn’t win this game without running the football and controlling the clock.  

 

I truly apologize to Steeler Nation for having to take the time read this breakdown after the performance of this team today.