Friendly Fire from Steel Tank - Nov 20, 2003

Friendly Fire From Steel Tank

After a long hiatus for various reasons, some strafing is long overdue.� This season has been very disappointing to say the least, but were we ever the team that went 13-3 in 2001? Were we ever that good? �There must be a reason:

�        Ken Bell - Two years ago Bell was a monster and unstoppable in the middle � He is now more a power lifter than a LB.� He has taken a strong, lean, athletic body and transformed it into an over-weight, bulky mass of flesh.� He cannot be an affective LB with this type of body in the 3-4 scheme.� Either the Steelers should think about moving to a 4-3 and make Bell an undersized D.E. in the mold of Hugh Douglas or they should seriously think about getting rid of him.� Make no doubt, his play this year has been sub-par for the lofty standards he set as a rookie.

�        4 Team Division - During the 2001 campaign when the Steelers hosted the Patriots for the AFC title, Pittsburgh played exactly three winning teams with poor passing attacks.� They beat Baltimore and the Jets who both finished at 10-6 and they beat the hapless 9-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers when Porter racked up 4 sacks.� A 13-3 record is impressive regardless of schedule, but the Steelers certainly thrived in the crowded 6-team AFC Central division in 2001.� Especially when a woeful quartet of Detroit, Buffalo, KC and the Vikings showed up on the out of conference schedule. Not too much competition.

�        Gandy - Wayne Gandy is gone.� The only player lost over the past two seasons that meant anything at all. Holmes was adroitly replaced by Farrior and the departure of Flowers and Stewart are classical examples of addition by subtraction.

�        Special Teams - The Steeler Special teams are actually better than they were in 2001 and 2002.� Jeff Reed is more mature and is kicking better than Kris Brown ever did while the punt and KO coverage seems to be getting better every week.

�        Defensive Philosophy � The Steelers are not the blitzing machine of days gone by. This was readily apparent with the lack of blitzing during the 2001 campaign as well. What really seems to be troubling is the lack of use of Porter as a rushing end on every passing down. Strangely enough, ever since Porter�s monster day against Tampa when the Steelers totaled 10 sacks, Porter�s role has been more of a coverage LB than as a rusher.� The lack of pressure has exposed the pathetic secondary that faced no or little competition during the 2001 13-3 season.

�        Sweet Dreams � If there is a main reason why, and there most certainly is, that the Steelers continue to plummet to the AFC North basement it is this:� The brain-trust in Pittsburgh has a distorted view of reality and therefore a gross inability to properly judge talent, leadership and competition. At some point, probably during the 2001 season, the Steelers truly believed that they were destined to win a super Bowl. This came to a head immediately after the first playoff game when the Steelers trounced the Ravens.� A few oddities since then:

o       Players are given two days to make travel arrangements for the Super Bowl � this was an inexcusable delusion of grandeur that ultimately lead to their demise by manifesting itself in the guise of poor preparation. The results was another home AFC Championship loss.

o       The Steelers �Franchise� and sign Jason Gildon to a fat contract before the free-agent period even begins. The purpose of the Franchise tag is to help eliminate the fear of losing a valuable players to free agency without compensation.� In actuality, the Steeler brain-trust showed little imagination because they couldn�t imagine life without Jason.

o       The Steelers draft Antwan Randle El instead of Antonio Bryant. Another �Slash� was born � how exciting! �The brain-trust began conjuring many a trick probably before the draft even started. So enamored they were over the college QB who wanted to play WR that they spent no less that a 2cnd round pick on him.

o       The Steelers figure that Bell should replace Porter in Pass rushing duties and try him out during training camp.� Nothing ever became of this except failure, but Porter, the Steelers best pass rusher, should have never been tapped to drop back in coverage.� More pie in the sky ideas by the coaching staff, but little realization of what it really takes to win football games.� Instead of inventing progressive ways to use players, the Steelers would be much better served to stick with what works and prepare accordingly.

o       The six year long K. Stewart experiment came to a merciful end.� This man still carries the delusion that he is an NFL caliber QB so much so that he balked at signing a 4 year deal with the Bears and only inked a 2 year deal. He did this because he thought he could get more money once he proved his worth! So deluded was he from his time spent in Pittsburgh that he had been convinced of his NFL talent.

o       Replacing Gandy with Oliver Ross � an idea that Gandy himself was incredulous about.

o       Trick plays each and every week.� The coaching staff has the Steelers looking more like a college team than a pro team.� Instead of running trick play drills in practice, the Steelers should be getting Plax and Tommy in synch on deep passing routes.� This has been sorely missing from the Steelers arsenal this year.� Again, stick with what works and prepare accordingly.

There are other reasons the Steelers will continue to flounder, but one has to wonder if this team is really that talented.� The coaching staff must think so if there are still cries of playoff hopes emanating from their ranks, but there is maybe one standout player this year on defense and Ward and Faneca are superb on offense.

Still, that�s only a few players - That�s not too good and neither are the Steelers.