The Steelers lost. That was rough. I think I can speak for all of Steeler Nation when I say I felt like was going to have a heart attack for much of the game. By the end of it, I almost wished I did. The defense actually had a pretty decent game but the offense and special teams squandered opportunity after opportunity to put the game away.
Anyway, that was a terrible, awful, terrible (yes, twice, intentionally) experience. Not to mention, the Ravens stink. They’re worse than they’ve been in years. Oh, just a bad taste in the mouth of the Steelers organization and fans. Let’s not dwell on this. Let’s sound off on the problems and take this long week to fix them (for the Steelers) and forget them (for the fans).
Michael Vick
Michael Vick did ok, I guess. He started better than he finished. With the right game plan the Steelers offense has enough weapons where he can at least score us some points, or not cost us some points. This offense is not going to be the great offense it was (and will be) with Ben but maybe we can at least get some wins during this tough stretch, maybe.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reported a couple choice quotes from the man himself.
On the offense with him under center, “I know I can’t do it like Ben does it. But we can make it work.”
On his inability to get the ball to Brown, “I just didn’t want to force it.”
Chris Adamski of Trib Live quoted Vick, saying of the loss, “probably the toughest of my career. That one is going to haunt me for a long time … We had chances to win the game — I had plays I could have made but didn’t. It’s disappointing.”
Elaborating further Vick said, “My (comfort) level is getting there. I was very comfortable tonight. We missed opportunities. We all said that. We just need to get it done.”
Trib Live quoted Bell as saying, “I thought he played well.He definitely went out there and did everything (the coaches) asked him to do: Didn’t turn the ball over, managed the game well and made plays. He definitely did everything we asked him to do; we just came up short as a team.”
Heyward-Bey, who had another solid game, said, “I don’t know any of his stats or anything. I just know we made some plays, and we missed some plays.”
Tomlin said, vaguely, of Vick’s performance, “I thought there were some good things. It needs to be a building block as we move forward, but obviously it wasn’t enough tonight.”
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Tomlin/Haley Overall
Look, it’s tough to coach a game when you can’t kick field goals. There’s not exactly a blueprint for how to handle 4th down situations when you have no confidence in your kicker. That being said, the choices Tomlin made failed, and the plays Haley called failed. It’s been discussed, but let’s do it some more.
The Steelers have the best running back in the league and on one 4th down they chose to run the ball, outside the tackle, with a quarterback who is well into his thirties. It didn’t work. On the second one, they ran a pass play to the right, with a left handed quarterback, to a wide receiver who he has no chemistry with. The Steelers far too often pass in obvious run situations, which was half their red zone issue last year.
ESPN reported Tomlin as saying, “We have to find ways to win games. When you lose, you’re open to criticism. We’re not going to try to justify anything we did.”
He also said, according to Bleacher Report, “We lost, so I’m not going to try and justify anything that we did. Anything we did, I take responsibility for.”
Bell’s response, from ESPN, sounded a bit disappointed in both the play calls, “It’s not my call. I just have to get the call and run it. if we convert it, it would never be a problem.”
Josh Scobee
Josh Scobee, No Three Scobee. I’ve been trying to get that nickname going since preseason. He might get released before it catches on however. It started in preseason with him missing kicks. It has not improved. If not for Scobee the Steelers could potentially be undefeated. What more is there to say? Let’s find out.
ESPN reported Scobee say, “I let the team down. It’s a bad feeling.”
He went on to say, “This is not what I envisioned whenever I got traded here. This wasn’t what I wanted to happen. I expect better of myself. I expect to contribute and not be one of those reasons why we lost the game.”
Bell said, in Scobee’s defense, “We have to score touchdowns. You can’t point the finger. It’s not all fault. Obviously we could have made stops here, scored a touchdown there. It’s not just the field goals.”
Ok, we’ve reviewed it. We’ve heard about it. Now let’s just forget about Thursday as soon as possible and on to the next one.
Next: Steelers change kickers again
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