Bruce Arians Larry Zierlein Are Not Getting the Job Done in Pittsburgh

Hoping the Defense Can Hold Out

Here we are at the end of the season, again with reasonable hopes for the Steelers' chances at a Super Bowl berth, and again it is not the offence that has gotten the Steelers where they are, it is the defense.

The offense this year has been an atrocity, few are denying that. It was shaky last year, with a pick-up center and then the letting go of Alan Faneca, which cut the legs out from the entire line.

Today, the Steelers' offense inspires fear in none. Is this all the fault of the offensive line?  Bruce Arians and Larry Zierlein are running the show and Faneca is in New Jersey, and you can bet that five years later the Jets' O-line will be one of the top three in the league.

Running Back and the O-Line

Remember back to when Willie Parker took the mantel from Jerome Bettis. "The Bus" was nursing injury after injury and an intact O-line punched huge holes for Parker to run through, and he ran into the hearts of Steelers fans.

Bettis and Parker are (or were) good, but they are made better by their offensive lines. Parker last season running behind a fullback or around Faneca blocking at guard, churned out a thousand+ yards. This year, opposing defenses are two or three yards into the back field before the ball is handed off. 

The argument here is that any decent back could have run behind the old Steelers line and gotten 100 yards a game. This year, I don't think an Eric Dickerson or Earl Campbell could run behind this line with much success.

The Steelers' O-line has lost its core. One player can make the entire line better, simply by his presence and professionalism. The Steelers probably should have looked at a way to keep Faneca around, making him a player coach or something that would have guaranteed his future. That ship has sailed though.  What should Pittsburgh do with what they have?

A Round Peg in a Square Hole

The Steelers have the tools they have, and nothing more. Arians looks at the players and their abilities but doesn't seem to be using them right all the time, or even half of the time.  

Ben Roethlisberger has a great arm but the passing routes they are sending his receivers on are low percentage. This coupled with the porous line, Ben has little opportunity to get a well articulated throw off before he is chased out of the pocket.

Ben does have great instinct scrambling out of the pocket.  How about a designed roll-out toss to Mewelde Moore or Parker out of the back field, with an option QB keeper.  Open up on first down with a high percentage five or seven-yard quick pass, then follow that with a no huddle end-around run.  The hits Ben might take on these sorts of plays can't be worse than being pounded 20 times a game between sacks and hits after the throw.

Start a couple of series with plays that hurt teams that are blitzing constantly.  Then the deeper routes open up as Ben has time to throw. When the passing game starts clicking, then the running game will see more successes. People talk of Ben's numbers, but he is doing what he is asked to do.  

Take away the Giant's and Colts' games and the number of interceptions thrown drops from 12 to respectable five.  

Hines Ward, Santonio Holmes, and Nate Washington are more than capable, and as a set could be the No. 4 or 5 receiving unit in the league. Ward and Washington are excellent after the catch but too often the are sent on 15-20 yard routes which are just not doable in the three to five seconds Ben has been having before the pressure chases him out of the pocket, effectively cutting of two of the three receiver routes.  

Mewelde Moore has 37 receptions this season for the Steelers, and is a reliable threat out of the backfield. Against the Ravens, he had zero receptions. Moore is an OK running back, but he is better with an even split of run and pass plays.  

Moore just isn't going to churn out large plays unless it is on some sort of play action run or a large hole is opened up for him to get started.

Heath Miller seldom drops a pass. There is no reason he can't be thrown four or five a game.

Willie Parker is not that good coming out of the back field has he has a hard time after the catch. Parker is a fast back, not a power back, so he needs holes opened up or trapping schemes that give him room to run. Moore is the same kind of running back.  

The Steelers just do not have a power back this season, something that needs to be rectified. In seasons past, the Steelers could count on a Faneca to pull inside and provide a second lead block to open up a hole for Bettis or Parker.

It seems those days are gone, or at least those offensive plays.  Whether the O-line is not fast enough to run these sorts of plays effectively is hard to know.

O-Line

If indeed this is a slower O-line (and weaker?) the Steelers are working with then they need to adjust the play calling. A faster line can make line adjustments to support a stronger running game.

If the O-line needs more time to get to the blocks, then the Steelers need to adjust their play calling to force defenses to limit the blitzing, as mentioned above.

Think wish-bone. Think roll-outs.  Think quick passes.  Think direct snapping it to the backs. Heck, pay the line a million-dollar bonus for a game where they don't give up a sack. Whatever is done, they should stop asking the O-line to try to protect the QB for six, seven, or eight seconds while the receivers run 20-yard routes. If they can't do it, then they can't do it.

Bruce Arians in Cleveland didn't have the tools he needed, so it was hard to fault him entirely for three abysmal seasons in which his offense was ranked 25th, 19th, and 29th in the league, ending in his being fired.  

But in Pittsburgh, he has many of the tools, but is just not making the adjustments that are needed. Bruce Arians brought Larry Zierlein with him from the Browns and he too seems to not have what it takes to coach a successful line. He was not successful in the three years he was with Arians in Cleveland and has not been successful since.  

Fast Work: In only one year, Arians and Zierlein have succeeded in reducing the level of playing of Pittsburgh's offense to that of the 2003 Cleveland Browns. There should be a rule against bringing old assistant coaches with hired on coaches and head coaches, especially if from a pair of coaches that mustered only 21 wins in three seasons.

The O-line is floundering without proper leadership on the field and off the filed. You can't dump a coach so close to the end of the season, but who say you can't hire an outsider to come in and consult as an assistant to the assistant.

The Steelers season is long from over, and they stand to fare well against the Titans who are not solid in running and have to rely heavily on the pass. The only pitfall is that the Titans have a decent defense, and the Steelers offense is suspect at best.

The Future

Now: Get some help by hiring a possible replacement for Zierlein this week. If he works out, keep him on next year as a permanent replacement.  

Later: Start looking for a new O-coordinator for next season. Nothing wrong with promoting someone up from O-line Coach in the NFL if they have produced winners. Also, it couldn't hurt to look at someone at the university level that runs an offense similar to the University of Florida's.  

Draft: The Steelers need to blow the bank on the Offensive Line. They need to seriously consider drafting three offensive linemen with their first three picks, at a minimum. This is a problem that needs to get fixed.

They also need to look at picking up a veteran to anchor the line, someone that might develop into a player coach and possibly another Russ Grimm. Winning starts and ends in the trenches. The Steelers could easily be a 9-6 team today struggling for a wild-card berth if not for the Defense and the 60-minute mentality they've adopted.

They could also have been a 13-1 team today had they had a O-line that could have protected the QB a little better against New York and Indianapolis.

The Steelers are in a pretty good position this year and have gotten there through tough play. But unless they fix things, Roethlisberger probably has only three or four more good years before he has to retire early for injuries.