Pittsburgh Steelers: The Bruce Arian Mistake and Look at Steel City's Struggles
After the 2006 NFL season concluded, the Pittsburgh Steelers went into a transition that saw, among other things, Mike Tomlin replace Bill Cowher as head coach and Bruce Arians replace Ken Whisenhunt as offensive coordinator.
Things have gone downhill for Arians, who in his second stop as an NFL offensive coordinator is proving to be an anvil around the necks of a talented offensive unit.
If the Steelers are to have any hope of making the playoffs and then a run at the Super Bowl title, they need to either relieve Arians of his duties or force him to make the following changes to the team's offense.
1. Cut The Cookie-Cutter Gameplan
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This may be a news flash to Bruce Arians, but you cannot use the same game plan against every team. In an era of unprecedented video footage, camera angles, and computer analysis, you can barely use the same formations and plays against two different teams.
Arians likes to run the same sort of plan each week. First, he tries to establish the run by sending Rashard Mendenhall up the middle a couple of times. Then he calls a bubble screen to Hines Ward. Then, if it's not time for a punt, he runs the ball again or has Ben Roethlisberger throw out of a bunch formation.
Every week. I'm not joking.
The worst thing that could have happened was for Art Rooney to openly demand a return to power football. It gave Arians the license he needed to continue the run, run, pass offense that he's come to favor.
The Steelers are so predictable that even pedestrian NFL fans can, with a little time watching them on offense, call the plays for Arians.
Veteran NFL coaches? They're eating this up. They know with a great deal of certainty that the offense will be relatively balanced, but that running plays will come on early downs, passes on third downs, and that the Steelers use relatively few formations.
Don't you think it's time for something new?
2. If a Play Never Works, Don't Use It
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Every NFL team has plays that they are comfortable running and that have a high degree of success with their personnel.
Conversely, every team has plays that they simply cannot get to work. Good teams and smart coaches don't run those plays very often. Sometimes, they'll work by accident or because of the element of surprise, but they know that more often than not they fail.
Not Pittsburgh. Here's a look at some of the plays that Bruce Arians calls that either consistently fail or fly in the face of the team's personnel:
1. Wide Receiver Bubble Screens
It's dangerous, especially without tall receivers, to throw passes along the line of scrimmage. There are too many bodies there who can mess things up. Also, if that pass is picked off, it's almost certainly a touchdown. Most teams don't run bubble screens because of this. If you have a tall receiver, sometimes it's more simple because you can chuck it high enough that only that player can get the ball.
Pittsburgh doesn't just run this play. The Steelers run in regularly. They almost always throw towards Hines Ward too. Teams are starting to catch onto this and it's a shock that they've taken this long. The Steelers were a good screen (not bubble screen) team with Willie Parker. Now, it's an unhealthy obsession. Even when complete, the yardage is minimal.
2. The Stretch and the Toss
When you have a speedster at running back, it makes sense to use a toss/stretch play because the play then begins at the corner. All the running back has to do is run forward and possibly skip a tackle to gain positive yards.
When you don't have a lightning fast runner, it's a death sentence because slower backs start further back with the ball and aren't built to get outside and run up the sideline. A better choice would be off-tackle runs, where the running back gets the ball to the outside of center but only must hit a hole and run through it.
Pittsburgh has run the stretch/toss play for years. It doesn't seem to matter who's on the roster either. None of the team's backs is capable of being a blazing runner. Rashard Mendenhall is great off tackle, cutting back, and going through the middle. He's not an outside runner. But Bruce Arians has no problem sending in this type of play, which almost always results in zero or negative yardage.
3. If a Play Works, Use It
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It seems obvious that, if something works very well whenever you do it that you should at least consider doing more of it. Pittsburgh's offense is adept at doing the opposite. If something is good and works, it's immediately abandoned.
Also, if a player has a particular strength, its been getting ignored.
Here's a look at some of the things that have worked well for our personnel but that aren't being utilized nearly enough:
1. Deep Passes
For years, it was questionable whether or not there was anyone in the NFL that Ben Roethlisberger couldn't overthrow with his arm strength. The jury is still out since Roethlisberger has overthrown Mike Wallace a couple of times, but Wallace certainly fits the bill as a blazing runner.
So why not throw a few early deep balls to him? If you complete them, you instantly change field position, possibly the score, and redefine what a team can expect of you offensively. If they fall incomplete, you've at least made the coverage area twenty or more yards bigger. That gives running backs more space and fewer rushers and also slows the blitz.
Not here. The deep ball works great against teams late in games or on rare, sporadic occasions when Bruce Arians dares to pull it out during the first half. If it does work, it's only used once.
2. Trick Plays
Ken Whisenhunt and Mike Mularkey before him were adept at gadget plays. This was pre-Wildcat, when fake reverses, wide receivers throwing passes, and all-around unpredictable formations were something more shocking.
The Steelers have run a ton of reverses this year. They don't work. The one time Antwaan Randle El threw a pass instead of continuing to run, he threw a bomb that completely changed the game against Cincinnati.
What's happened before and since? More reverses that didn't work. Fake reverses that also didn't work.
I'm not saying you should play through ten or twenty tricks a game, but a couple each week would at least have the desired effect of keeping the defense guessing. Why not?
3. Cutback Runs
When you have a running back who's great at spinning in the hole and changing his direction, you should use that to your advantage. For years, that's what made LaDainian Tomlinson so devastating in San Diego. He could cut back and run opposite where you expected.
Rashard Mendenhall has that shifty ability. He never gets to use it because straight-ahead handoffs and toss/stretch plays are just about the limit of his duties. The few times he's been able to cut back in the hole, he's turned in huge gains.
It all goes back to the unpredictable nature of good offenses. If the defense can't predict what's coming, they have to guard against multiple possibilities. That means that somewhere, someone is going to be able to make a play.
4. Designed Quarterback Runs
Think about this for a minute. You have a quarterback who's big, a good runner, and near impossible to bring down. You need a yard or two near the goal line to punch in a touchdown. You use your big quarterback on a sneak up the middle behind your star center.
It would make perfect sense for Pittsburgh to use Ben Roethlisberger in this capacity. He's good outside the pocket, can easily pick up a yard or two if not more on a designed running play, and is near impossible to tackle one on one. Therefore, the Steelers don't use him at all in designed runs.
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4. Know Your Roster
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Every player has strengths that make them dangerous in the NFL. Here's a look at some strengths of Steelers offensive players that aren't being fully utilized. Think of this as a list of qualities Bruce Arians either can't recognize or is simply ignoring that could make a huge difference in the team's season.
Ben Roethlisberger
Plays well outside the pocket, adept at making plays with his feet, throws an accurate deep ball.
Rashard Mendenhall
Great cutback runner who is best off-tackle and in the middle of the field
Antwaan Randle El
Good hands, decent speed even now, adept at trick plays and misdirection
Mike Wallace
Fastest player in NFL, runs great deep routes, good at stretching the field
Heath Miller
Excellent at catching in traffic, good in the middle of the field
Calling Out The Head Coach
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You could write a whole separate article on the defensive problems that Pittsburgh is facing, but we're here to talk about offensive offense. Here's another issue to explore.
Coordinators make game plans. Head coaches approve game plans. Where has Mike Tomlin's head been? He's a defensive-minded coach, sure. But not only do you not get a head coaching job if you don't know both sides of the ball, he played wide receiver in college.
Tomlin knows his stuff. There's no reason to believe he seriously thinks that the Steelers' game plans, which look eerily similar on offense every week, will work consistently.
It's time for Tomlin to step up, be the head coach, and tell Arians that his work is unacceptable. For all of the preaching he does about accountability, his own staff seems to have taken a vacation since Ben Roethlisberger's return from suspension.
Wake up, Coach Tomlin. Your team's problems are staring you in the face in the form of your offensive coordinator.
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