State of the Pittsburgh Steelers (Offense)

Mad Chad here, instead of writing a billion didfferent articles about different Steelers, every week I'm going to write a current summary of where the Pittsburgh Steelers are at.

For the team right now the Steelers would not be in the playoff because of tiebreakers. They're actually behind the Cincinnati Bengals. I don't see that lasting very long though. The Baltimore Ravens, who beat the hell out of the Steelers week one, are still in first place and play the Jaguars coming up this week. The Steelers face the Arizona Cardinals. I expect both teams to win.


Ben Roethlisberger is having an ok year so far but not what I expected him to do. Rig ht now he has a good qb rating of 90.2  and is on pace to throw 24 touchdowns, 16 interceptions, and finish with 4,200 yards. Roethlisberger has had one great game (Titans) and one horrific game (Ravens). For the most part he's been blah, nothing to great  and nowhere near as bad as people would make you think.

Also I love the people that are saying that Big Ben isn't playing as well because he got married. Really yinzers, that's the best excuse you can make? How about Ben's off to a slow start or his offensive line has been a big pile of hot sh*t? 

Roethlisgberger will likely have a few more big games and I still think that he'll make the Pro Bowl. Look for Ben to have back to back good statistical games against Arizona and New England.

Rashard Mendenhall was named offensive player of the week in the AFC. Mendenhall ran for over 120 yards against the Jaguars and a td run. Mendenhall ran the ball more north-south instead of trying to break everything laterally.

Mendenhall is still having a down year. He's only averaging 3.9 yards per carry and is on pace for just 850 yards rushing. That sucks. Maybe Mendenhall should stop worrying about what people say on Twitter and focus on football more.

The backup running backs have looked great and have put a lot of pressure on Mendenhall. Isaac Redman needs to get at least 8 carries a game and should be the short-yardage and goalline back at all times. Mewelde Moore should be the full-time 3rd down back on 3rd and longs.

Mike Wallace continues to run away with the team MVP so far. Wallace is on pace to have 88 catches, 1600 yards, and 11 touchdowns. Wallace will make the Pro Bowl this year and could be an All-Pro if he can outperform Wes Welker and Calvin Johnson going forward.

Hines Ward is 2nd on the team in catches but is not having a very good season. He already has 3 big drops and has looked very slow at times. Most of his stats were compiled in one game and for the most of the season he's been outperformed by the young guys. Ward will continue to get the ball forced to him until he gets his 1,000th catch.

Antonio Brown already has 18 catches and I wish the Steelers would use him even more. Give him some more diverse routes. Brown needs to run more slants, digs, and crossing routes. Brown is a play-maker waiting to happen. I know he still doesn't have great awareness and his football I.Q. isn't great but you can't catch speed and/or talent, and Brown has both.

Heath Miller is having a down year to me. He's dropped a few passes and hasn't been as dominant of a blocker has he has been in years past. I hope Miller, who did have a good game against Jacksonville, can use that game to be more consistent and play up to his capabilities from week to week.

The Steelers are actually 10th in the NFL in yards from scrimmage per game. At times they've shown good balance. I still hate Bruce Arians and I'm not a typical yinzer. Arians never puts the right packages out for plays. He also tips the defense off all of the time on what the Steelers are going to do.

If it's 3rd and 2 don't come out in shotgun. If you want to pass use play-action and bootleg Ben out to the right or the left. If you're going to pass don't use a empty backfield all of the time, especially when your offensive line sucks.

A hot topic this week is Roethlisberger campaigning for the offense to use the no-huddle more. In the past Roethlisberger has been very effective in the no-huddle, this year not so much. I think they should though. No-huddle does not mean hurry up. Roethlisberger and the offense have often looked stale at times. When things are going well use the no-huddle to gain some momentum and give the offense and Ben some much needed rhythm.

What is there to say about the offensive line? Everyone besides Max Starks and Maurkice Pouncey sucks to me. Doug Legursky is hurt and he sucks. Jonathan Scott sucked it up at left tackle now that Marcus Gilbert is hurt he's sucking it up at right tackle.

Starks looks like a damn savior since coming back.

Going forward this offense needs to be better,especially in the redzone. You can't run the ball every play, sorry yinzers, and you can't throw the ball deep every play. Balance means balance. When you watch other NFL offenses they just look a lot better/cleaner. The Steelers need to watch other teams and bite off of their ideas just like teams do with the Steelers.

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