3 things we learned from Steelers win against Dallas Cowboys

The Steelers offense seems to be more efficient when we utilize ‘up-tempo’

So what I mean by ‘up-tempo’ is this:  rather than huddling up in the traditional sense, the plays are essentially called at the line of scrimmage.  Ben Roethlisberger, our franchise QB, orchestrates the offense in this ‘package’.

If you are not as old as I am (51), you probably don’t remember that Terry Bradshaw, our 4-time Super Bowl-winning QB, called his own plays almost exclusively.  I am not sure how the plays are called today.  For example, it is a traditional play call like ‘Z motion quick 30 trap’, which I just completely made up, or is it based on a ‘concept’, which may be a one or two-word play call?

Regardless of how the plays are called, the point is the offense just seems to be more efficient. According to NFL.com, the Steelers finished the game with 355 total yards, of which 309 yards were generated via the passing game.

You didn’t have to see the game to know that based on the above ‘stat line’, the passing game saved the day against the Cowboys and all the credit really needs to go to ‘Big Ben’.  Because we were down at one point 0-13, the running game was almost entirely scrapped in favor of the passing game.

The fact that ‘Big Ben’ was able to march us down the field by throwing the ball 42 times without throwing an INT is a testament to his grasp of and his efficiency in going ‘up-tempo’.  Maybe we need to consider starting out the game that way rather than having to implement it when we find ourselves down by 13 points.  Just a thought.

Let’s take a look at the second thing we learned.