Summing Up November

As we head down the home stretch of this 2012 football season we are starting to learn exactly what kind of team we have on our hands. In October the Steelers went 3-1 and looked like they may be a good threat to win the division after all.  The same rang true the first week of November as the black and gold traveled to New York the day of their game and beat the defending champs. The Steelers looked strong in that game, Big Ben led the way through the air and Isaac Redman put up a bunch of yards on the ground (147). All seemed right in Steeler land.

And then; the Kansas City game occurred on Monday Night Football.  It was a game that saw the Steelers win in overtime but it very well may have cost them this season when Big Ben was hurt. This game truly exposed some glaring deficiencies.  From that point on the team hasn’t been the same, escaping the worst team in the league in overtime and then losing to divisional rivals Baltimore and Cleveland to close out the month.

So as we sit here today at 6-5, what do we know, where can this team go and what needs to be fixed in order to finish the year on a strong note? It’s an expectation for this team to get to the playoffs and contend for Super Bowls on an annual basis but I’m not convinced they can do either of those items this year based on the following reasons.

The Team’s Depth Is Lacking:

The Steelers have once again been decimated by injuries, none bigger than that to Big Ben Roethlisberger. The Steelers have proven that without him they cannot move the football effectively.  In the two full games he’s missed at the time of this article, the offense has scored 17 points total.  An average of 8.5 points per game does not get it done.  When Ben is at the helm the offense can run all the plays in the playbook, they can let Ben freelance and they can play to his strengths.  When they have Leftwich and especially Batch in the game, they can’t move the ball. These guys don’t have the ability to escape the rush that Ben has, they don’t have the talent that he has and the team needs to recognize they must mask the weaknesses of these players rather than expect them to play at the same level as Roethlisberger.  More so, they lack a quality backup to replace Big Ben. This is an area that should have been addressed in the offseason and wasn’t. Bringing back the aging vets of Leftwich and Batch was a mistake, neither has played much in the past several years and the expectation that they could fill in and win consistently is ridiculous.  The style of lay Big Ben brings to the table is great but it’s not without risk and he generally gets hurt each season in some way.  A quality backup should have been brought in.

But it doesn’t stop with the QB position, they’ve had James Harrison miss time this year and not get the same quality play out of his reserves.

Troy Polamalu has missed significant time and before Will Allen came into the picture, Ryan Mundy failed miserably. 

The offensive line again has been destroyed by injuries and continues to drop like flies; causing the pressure on the QB to go up.  It’s hard to come by good offensive linemen but this team is not equipped with either enough of them or at least not enough good ones to be able to withstand injuries.

There are some glaring needs that must be addressed in this offseason now that cannot be fixed in season but it’s a shame it takes all these injuries and losing football games to figure this out.

The Coaching is Suspect

Yes, I said it. The coaching is suspect. Mike Tomlin has been nothing short of unimpressive this season in my opinion. His inability to manage the clock has been a failure since the day he’s arrived in Pittsburgh. After six seasons you’d think that would improve at some point, it hasn’t. He constantly fails to take timeouts when he should and uses them when he shouldn’t. He’s good for a mistake or two per game. Many fans will laugh at this and say I’m wrong, Tomlin is a great coach, he’s not. I implore you to watch the game closely. He’ll bungle something, he always does. It’s easy to look past this when the team wins games however I believe that there are plenty of times where the team wins in spite of a Tomlin error.  When you begin to lack depth and suffer numerous injuries these mistakes don’t seem as minor anymore and they certainly become more costly.

His mottos are stale and tired.  “The Standard is the Standard” and “Next Man Up” clearly don’t work. They don’t work because this team doesn’t have the aforementioned depth and Tomlin doesn’t even allow it to happen due to shear stubbornness. Let’s take the running back situation for example. All year this has been a relative weakness of the offense. The team finally got some quality games out of a back when Jonathan Dwyer put up two 100 yard plus games in back to back weeks. He was living up to the standard and then Tomlin makes Mendenhall the starter out of the stubbornness that he should be. Mendenhall fumbles the ball constantly and hasn’t seen significant time in nearly a year, Dwyer has been successful, why mess with it?  Or how about Tomlins bull headedness in the Cleveland game? If a running back fumbled, he was benched immediately, leading to 4 backs playing that game and all 4 fumbling in it. That bull headed mentality led to inconsistent play out of all the backs, an inept offense and eight turnovers. Do you honestly think had Tomlin and Haley picked one primary back for that or any game for that matter the team would have had eight turnovers? They wouldn’t have. The backs, like all ball players need repetition and must get a feel for the flow of the game. Only allowing 5 carries in a game for one guy is moronic and doesn’t allow any part of the offense to click.

When you’re down to second and third string guys; coaching becomes even more important. It also is a time when you know what type of coach you have. The backups are failing. If Tomlin expects these guys to get the job done for him, he and his staff better get to coaching them up.  Todd Haley has been very good for Big Ben and the offense this year with the quick throws and keeping Roethlisberger upright. He’s failed at being able to get the backups into a rhythm.  He didn’t scheme appropriately for Lefwich or Batch, asking them to do what Ben does. They can’t. A specific game plan must be made for your most important positions and it appears those adjustments are not happening.  If you can’t adjust, you can’t win.

You also can’t win if you lack discipline. This team is allowing nearly 70 yards per game in penalties. That’s good for 5^th worst in the league. Discipline comes from the top and you have to question the leadership with numbers like that.

The Team Is Getting Old and Injured

Piggy backing on the lack of depth is the fact that the team is getting old. Let’s look at some of the injuries that have occurred to players who have missed multiple games.  James Harrison has missed a few games and is just now getting his legs up to speed, he’s 34. 

Troy Polamalu has missed nearly all year with a calf injury. When healthy he’s great, but he’s 31, at strong safety, that’s getting up there.

Big Ben is the best player on this team and he’s now 30.

Other starters over 30 include Brett Keisel 34, Casey Hampton 35, Larry Foote 32, Ryan Clark 33 and Ike Taylor 32.  Throw in Max Starks 30 and that’s nearly half your starters.

Where’s the youth, where’s the “next man up”? They are either on another team or in college but a good lot of them are not on this current roster. 

The Inability To Create Turnovers

It may be due to age, it may be due to bad luck or simply due to a lack of talent but this team is again falling short on creating turnovers. The number one ranked defense in the league statistically is not making the big plays when they count the most. They have only created 9 turnovers in 11 games.  Just to compare, they turned the ball over 8 times alone in the Cleveland game.  Now that was more of an aberration than anything else but you don’t win football games consistently without getting a couple turnovers per game. 

The Mike Wallace Factor

I will stop short of saying that Mike Wallace is a locker room menace, I have no reason to say that he is. I will say that I suspect he’s unhappy due to his contract situation and I believe it’s the reason why his performance this year has fallen well short of expectations. He’s only caught 47 balls for 572 yards through 11 games.  Yet he wants Larry Fitzgerald money? No chance.  It’s not even the low numbers that make me question him, it’s his laziness. He’s short armed balls, he’s failed to break up interceptions, he’s failed to come back for balls and adjust routes, he generally looks disinterested.  If he’s going to act like that or bring that attitude to the field, what is he doing or saying in the locker room?  Wallace has indefensible speed but he’s not using it this year. He’s not a factor in games if he’s not getting behind the secondary and if he can’t or won’t play like the Wallace of 2010 and 2011, he’s not going to be a Steeler in 2013.

 

There are certainly many items that go into winning football games and putting together a winning season but it seems that on the surface the Steelers are missing a part of that recipe.  They do have some shining stars in 2012 that can’t go without recognition for what they’ve done to this point. Without them the team would be near the bottom of the league right now.

The Team Stars

It’s clear that the team’s best players are easily Big Ben, Antonio Brown, Heath Miller, Larry Foote, Lawrence Timmons and Ryan Clark.  I’d put Polamalu in there if I could but he’s not played enough.

Big Ben was a candidate for league MVP before he was hurt. You might say his injury increased the odds of him winning. Without him the offense is garbage. They can’t move the ball let alone score.

Let’s not leave out Antonio Brown, he’s their most dynamic playmaker and when he went down the passing attack suffered. He’s as fast as Wallace, plays harder than Wallace and has the most big play ability of anyone on this team.

Heath Miller has finally been discovered in this offense. He’s always been there but now he’s a true red zone threat and a security blanket. It’s not a surprise that he’s putting up a pro bowl caliber year, that’s the type of player he’s always been.

Larry Foote has been as reliable as they come, leading the team in tackles and making big plays at the line. He’s a force in a linebacking corps where he should rank 4^th.

Lawrence Timmons is a big play maker who makes the tackles at the line and makes big plays in the passing game, leading the team in interceptions.

Ryan Clark has really stepped up his game with Polamalu being out. He’s been all over the field and I have found him to be extremely impressive.

 

The end result is yet to be seen but this is beginning to look like a repeat of the 2009 season where the team had a 5 game losing streak and missed the playoffs with a 9-7 record.  The 2012 season has time to be saved and if the season ended today (prior to the 2^nd Baltimore game) the team would be in the playoffs as the 6^th seed.

It’s hard to say that will hold up right now unless Big Ben and a few of the other guys come back. The depth is lacking, the coaching is flawed and the team is in flux. The expectation of the fans has not changed, playoffs and a super bowl run, however, in 2012, it appears that the Standard is truly not the Standard as the next man up is failing to deliver.