Pittsburgh Steelers Fall To Miami Dolphins, Playoff Hopes Over: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
The Bad
Todd Haley – Despite the Steelers scoring three touchdowns on Sunday (with Ben’s arm, wink wink), Todd Haley continues to fail because he can’t get over himself. Again, he pulls out the playbook with plays that don’t work for this offense no matter who they go up against. Just a few examples: The 4th down hard count to draw offsides. For the 8 billionth time, Todd Haley thinks Ben Roethlisberger has a great hard count. Even though it never works and defenses are expecting it, he still decides that the team should waste a time out by baiting the defense to jump offsides on a 4th and short in a situation that doesn’t really call for the offense to go for the first. And so, late in the 1st half, that’s exactly what Haley did. On a 4th and 3 late in the 2nd quarter, Haley gives the signal to Ben to give hard counts until the play clock reaches :01 and then call a time out. Waste of a timeout and it eventually lead to a blocked punt for good icing on that cake. Another situational gem in this game was when there was 2:15 left in the 2nd quarter, and the Steelers had the ball on their own 40 yard line with all three timeouts. There’s a real chance to go down the field and get at least a field goal to tie the game. To show he has no situational awareness, Haley puts in Jonathan Dwyer as the running back. Not only is he the running back, but then they actually handed the ball off to him.
Yes, there are times when Haley can overcome himself and calls plays that work and even sticks with them for more than a series. It’s just crap like what happened on Sunday that keeps this offense from being any kind of real threat to opposing defenses.
Dec 8, 2013; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Miami Dolphins tight end Charles Clay (42) scores a touchdown as Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Jason Worilds (93) stands in the background during the first half at Heinz Field. Mandatory Credit: Jason Bridge-USA TODAY Sports
Steelers D Inability To Keep Momentum – This has been listed on numerous occasions this season in the GBU (Good, Bad, Ugly) series. The Steelers defense has continually failed to stop the opposing offense on the ensuing drive of a Steeler score. Field goal, touchdown, it doesn’t matter – the defense just can’t seem to get off the field on the 3rd downs in these situations and it is killing the momentum for this team. The lack of nasty compounds into the lack of killer attitude that causes teams to feel deflated and defeated before the game is even over. The few times that the Steelers defense allowed scores after a Steelers score kept Miami right in the game and allowed them to take the lead. This defense is no longer ‘vaunted’ and is seriously putting Dicky LeBeau in the hot seat. I mean how open can a guy get (see first picture at top of post)?