It Wasn’t Just Charlie that Cost the Game, It was the Whole Batch

It wasn’t just Charlie who blew that game against the lowly Cleveland Browns on Sunday afternoon, it was the whole Batch of Steelers that did so. In a game that saw the Steelers give the ball away 8 times no one man was responsible for such an embarrassing display of “football”.

In all my years of watching the NFL, I’ve never seen anything like that. The Steelers had four active running backs on their roster on Sunday. Collectively they fumbled the ball 6 times, losing 4, one by each back. Emmanuel Sanders added 2 more fumbles, losing 1, making it 8 fumbles on the day with five lost.  Throw in 3 interceptions by Charlie Batch and you have the recipe for disaster soup.  You’d be hard pressed to find a team that has ever won giving the ball up 8 times. 

Certainly Charlie needed to play better and make smarter decisions but I put a lot of Batch’s play on Todd Haley. When you’re down to your 37 year old third string quarterback you need to understand what his capabilities are, Haley failed to do so.  This expectation that Tomlin puts forth each week has gotten sour and old: “The Standard is the Standard” and “Next man up”.  I’m sorry but Charlie Batch does not meet the standard of Ben Roethlisberger, he just doesn’t.  When you have a guy like Roethlisberger, you can play to his strengths and let him freelance. When you’re down to Charlie Batch you need to scheme more, you need to call more conservative plays and you need to mask his weaknesses. None of this was done.  For some reason Haley called for several deep throws, Batch has an arm like a school girl, what was the logic? Why call for deep outs when he can’t get the ball there?  Ridiculous.  On a weekly basis the team runs a bunch of bubble screens and quick, short throws with Big Ben behind center. Why not run some quick slants and screens with Batch? You’re telling me you trust him to throw it 45 yards but not 5? The game tape shows that line of thinking is nothing short of flawed. 

To add to the horribly schemed game was the puzzling use of all four running backs and the amount of carries they received. I thought for sure that with Charlie Batch at the helm the Steelers would be far more ground oriented. We already knew he had a candy arm so why not ground and pound and open up some passing lanes for him?  The team carried the ball 20 times total between the four backs.  What on earth were they thinking?  To top that off, if a guy fumbled, he was benched. I’ve been stating all season long that the team needed to pick a feature back and stick with him, they haven’t done that and this time it bit them on the rear.  Running backs, like most football players need the repetitions to stay in the flow of the game. You can’t have a guy carry it 4 or 5 times and expect him to get it going. Fumbles are part of the game and it is my inclination that had the rotation of backs not been similar to musical chairs, the fumbles wouldn’t have occurred with the rapidity they did on Sunday. Pick a guy, give him the bulk of the carries and supplement with a few carries to the other backs. That’s what needs to happen moving forward or we’ll see this kind of lackluster performance occur again. No back will do well with 5 carries on a day. This isn’t Pop Warner football, not everyone needs to play. Jonathan Dwyer needs to be the feature back on this team. He’s shown he can do it when given the opportunity but now they need to actually trust his performances were not the exception but rather the rule. If he proves otherwise after a few games, then look at someone else but this in game nonsense is amateur. 

Your grade Todd Haley is an F.

This game also falls very much on Tomlin’s shoulders as well. The team was either unprepared or over confident. How else do you explain such a miserable loss to such a poor team? This is the 5^th loss of the season, 3 of which have come to the Raiders, Titans and Browns. Those teams have a combined record of 10-23, meaning 30% of their combined wins are against Pittsburgh. Unacceptable. A true title contender does not lose games like that to lesser opponents. I don’t care if you’re on the road or not, if you want to get to the Promised Land then you must show up and play the bad teams too. The Steelers are rarely doing that this year. When you have half a season’s worth of turnovers in one game, you’re not prepared or you’re not focused. That starts at the top.  When you have 9 penalties in a game you’re not disciplined. That comes from the top. When you lose to an inferior opponent who you’ve beaten 23 of the last 27 times you faced them, that comes from the top.

Parenthetically speaking; Tomlin needs to be looked at a little closer. Does he really have what it takes to be a championship coach or did he piggy back off of Bill Cowher to get his first championship and second appearance in the Super Bowl? I lean towards the latter. It was mostly Cowher players that won that 2^nd title in 08 and several of them were left in 2010 as well.  They were all experienced vets with a ring at that time and they may not have really needed a good coach to get the job done. Let’s not forget that Barry Switzer won a Super Bowl using Jimmy Johnson’s players. This very well could be a similar situation. 

Your Grade Michael Tomlin is an F!

The lackluster performance certainly didn’t stop with the picks by Batch, the fumbles by the backs, the penalties by the entire team, the poor coaching by the staff or the inability to stop an inferior opponent. We need to bring Mike Wallace into this conversation as well. Wallace caught one ball yesterday despite being targeted 7 times. He was the reason for at least one pick as it bounced off his hands and you may say the other pick, the deep ball, he could have at least come back to break the play up. He’s been a lazy player this year. He probably isn’t happy with his contract and therefore it shows on the field. Where can I sign up to be unhappy with 2.6 million?  C’mon Wallace, if you want to get paid, then you have to play the game the right way. I can guarantee you this, Wallace is no Larry Fitzgerald, so that kind of asking price is off the table with the lackluster season he’s had. I can also guarantee you this, he’s all but played his way out of Pittsburgh. There is no reason for the team to keep him if he’s going to be an afterthought in this offense. When healthy they have Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders to go along with Heath Miller, Wallace is not needed. He no longer brings any indefensible element to the field; so let him go to the highest bidder if he so chooses, he’s costing us games now and he’s not doing much to help us win.

To end this diatribe I sum it up with this; the fact the team was still in the game having 8 turnovers speaks volumes as to just how bad Cleveland is. Whether you want to blame the game plan, the coaching or the fumbles, it doesn’t matter. They lost, they have proven they need Big Ben and without him they are cooked.  The season is slipping away quickly and you can’t just blame Charlie for it, you have to blame the whole Batch.

NEWS, NOTES and SUPERLATIVES:

Good to see:  The only thing that was good to see was James Harrison looking more and more like his old self.

Get Rid of after 2012: Mendhenall and Wallace. They are not needed and add nothing to this team. 

Draft: A running back immediately!

Pray: For Big Ben and Antonio Brown to get back soon.

Where were you: Plaxico Burress was useless in his first game back.

Understand: The Steelers have no shot at the division so the win by the Ravens vs. San Diego actually helped us.

More Injuries: Mike Adams and Lamar Woodley both left with ankle injuries.

6-5, up next at Baltimore with the season very much at stake and the team in flux.