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Expect Changes In Steelers Offensive Gameplan


Menudo
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Although change is sometimes scary, especially when you have been a successful organization like the Steelers, I like some of the things I'm seeing from Arians. He still believes in the run, but, likes to do it from different sets. He talks about using 3 and 4 WR sets and running and throwing out of that. I really think that fits Willie Parker well. When you spread out the field, you give a guy like Parker, who can make one man miss and go the distance some more room to work with. The Steelers offense has been successful enough, and you can't argue with Cowher's record, but, as a fan, I felt he sometimes got too stubborn and loyal to his offense. I think some change could do some good, though, it might take some getting used to. Here is the article.

 

 

:D

 

Arians warms to task in a hurry

New coordinator cuts playbook's size

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

 

By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 

Bruce Arians, the Steelers' new offensive coordinator, knows how to keep warm in his new office these frigid February days. He has thrown the thick, old, patchwork playbook on the fire.

 

He promises the new model to be sleek, trimmed down and easy to understand for his players, particularly quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Yet he will add some personal touches, such as playing four receivers on first and second downs without putting the quarterback in a shotgun formation.

 

The old playbook dates to 1992, when Ron Erhardt conceived it as Bill Cowher's first offensive coordinator. As coordinators changed, they did not scrap the original but added their own stuff until it grew to become almost unwieldy.

 

"Bill had six or seven coordinators; the playbook is six or seven languages hodge-podged together," said Arians, promoted by new coach Mike Tomlin from his previous post as wide receivers coach. "They just kept adding because Bill kept it that way. We're going to streamline it into one language, and I hope to simplify it for our players."

 

Bruce Arians -- You strive for balance. I'm not a guy who's going to beat my head against the wall to run it; I love to run the football."

 

Fans won't necessarily see the adjustments he makes to the offense, Arians said, but they will notice one of them. Previous offenses under Cowher rarely used more than two or three wide receivers on first and second downs, preferring to use them mostly on obvious third-down passing situations with the quarterback dropping into the shotgun.

 

The new offense under Arians will sometimes start with four wide receivers on first-and-10 with the quarterback under center.

 

"The butt part of it won't change, as is the case with most generic NFL teams," Arians said. "But I love four wideouts. I like a better running game out of four wideouts where we can utilize them on first and second down, rather than just being in a shotgun and throwing it all the time. That will be an area we want to develop."

 

Arians took note of the offense of the Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts. He was Peyton Manning's quarterbacks coach with the Colts his first three years.

 

"When you think of the Colts, you think of a finesse offense, but, when they came down the stretch in the playoffs, they had 100 to 150 yards rushing in every game. It's just a different style.

 

"You don't have to line up with two tight ends and two backs to run the football. Rushing yards are rushing yards."

 

Tomlin said he is a proponent of running the ball and stopping the run, and Arians acknowledged that he advocates that as well, back to when he was head coach at Temple in the 1980s.

 

"I think, to the naked eye, it will look very similar," Arians said of his offense compared to Ken Whisenhunt's. "You strive for balance. I'm not a guy who's going to beat my head against the wall to run it; I love to run the football.

 

"I think people who check my history when I was the head coach at Temple, I had a little running back who led the nation in rushing, Paul Palmer. He was runner-up for the Heisman, and that's hard to do at Temple.

 

"I love to run the football and I like the play-action passing game, and there are games that's not to your advantage."

 

Arians was the coordinator in Cleveland from 2001-03, including the Jan. 5, 2003 playoff game between the Browns and Steelers at Heinz Field. Cleveland scored 33 points through the first 50 minutes of the game and held a 12-point lead with a little more than three minutes left, but lost, 36-33.

 

Browns quarterback Kelly Holcomb threw for 429 yards and three touchdowns, but the Browns rushed for just 38 yards (the Steelers were held to 89 yards rushing).

 

"We knew coming down it was going to be really tough sledding running the ball," Arians said.

 

"But we had a good matchup in the passing game. It was a muddy field, our quarterback didn't mind the elements. That's to your advantage -- there's no pass rush on that field. He threw for 429, and we should have won the game."

 

It's a game of adjustments, and that's what Arians promises to adhere to as the Steelers' coordinator.

 

"You have to scratch where it itches," he said.

 

"When it's all said and done, you'd like to be balanced. One of the best stats I've ever seen was about Joe Gibbs, in his heyday. I think he called 20-some thousand plays -- 10 thousand, 50 something passes and 10 thousand runs."

 

And, most important of all, three Super Bowl victories.

 

NOTES -- When the Steelers hire a new quality control coach on offense, he will have other duties as well, Arians said. He also will serve as the assistant offensive line coach to new line coach Larry Zierlein. Arians said he believes in two offensive line coaches. The Steelers have an opening for a quality control coach after Matt Raich was permitted to resign to join Whisenhunt's staff as quality control coach of Arizona's defense and also assistant linebackers coach. Plum native Mike Miller, the Steelers' former quality control coach who was on the staff at Robert Morris after joining the Bills' staff under Mike Mularkey, might have been a candidate here, but Whisenhunt recently hired him for that job in Arizona.

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I agree, that sort of attack would be good for Parker. The Steelers are going to be very interesting to watch next year given the changes that may be in the works.

 

 

+1

 

I still see a need to keep steeltown a tough ground game. Spread formations are great IF you kee p moving the chains. Putting you D on the field too often hurts your ability late in the game, and I don't see the current talent level as one that could win too many shootouts at this point. :D

 

As a childhood fan of the Steelers, I would greatly miss the personna of pounding your opponent on both side of the ball! :D

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As a childhood fan of the Steelers, I would greatly miss the personna of pounding your opponent on both side of the ball! :D

 

 

True enough! It would be odd to see the Ravens facing off against "Air Steelers" :D

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+1

 

I still see a need to keep steeltown a tough ground game. Spread formations are great IF you kee p moving the chains. Putting you D on the field too often hurts your ability late in the game, and I don't see the current talent level as one that could win too many shootouts at this point. :D

 

As a childhood fan of the Steelers, I would greatly miss the personna of pounding your opponent on both side of the ball! :D

 

 

Nope, both Tomlin and Arians are still big believers in the running game. They are still going to pound it out, but, they are also going to spread teams out and run as well. At least, that is what they are saying they want to do.

 

As for the passing game, as long as Roethlisberger gets back to what he was doing his first two years, rather than this past year, there are some weapons there. Obviously Hines Ward & Heath Miller, but, Santonio Holmes showed vast improvement throughout the year and is going to be the real deal, deep threat that the Steelers have lacked.

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Isn't the key to all this finding a competent replacement for Hartings? Pro Bowl centers don't just grow on trees?

 

 

No, they absolutely do not. However, Hartings was far from a Pro Bowl center last year. The knees took their toll, and he was a shell of his former self. In the games he missed through the years, Chukky Okobi has shown himself to be very capable. However, spot starts and full-time starts are a different thing, so, time will tell if he is the answer. They also have Marvin Phillip, who was drafted last year and is held in high regard. I'd be lying if I said all of this wasn't a concern though. Hartings experience and knowledge are going to be difficult to replace.

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It only makes sense to be less predictable.

 

I find it interesting to learn that Cowher forced each new OC to keep the same playbook and just add their own tweaks to it. And it sounds like it developed into a hoge poge of gobbly goo even wtih different terminology.

 

If Steelers plan on going a lot of 4 WR sets, they need another WR in the draft.

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Obviously Hines Ward & Heath Miller, but, Santonio Holmes showed vast improvement throughout the year and is going to be the real deal, deep threat that the Steelers have lacked.

 

 

good to hear you say good things about santonio as i've got him in a dynasty league. Have the off field issues that plagued him some last year been put to bed?

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good to hear you say good things about santonio as i've got him in a dynasty league. Have the off field issues that plagued him some last year been put to bed?

 

 

Yes, they were put to bed immediately. His teammates speak very highly of him, and he seems to have a strong work ethic. I really do expect good things from him. He and Ben were definitely developing more and more as the season went on.

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Cowher was always a formula coach, much like Herm Edwards, but more successful. No real changes in the offensive game plan from week to week, just here's what we will throw at you, try to stop it. That works when you have the horses for it, namely a great run blocking O line. Few teams can make it work these days. More flexable game plans that create mismatches against specific opponents on a weekly basis is what seems to work best in this era.

 

That means smarter players, a QB that will read the defense the same way the WR's do. Checking off to the WR that will be in one on one coverage, or a TE that draws an LB in coverage. Can Roths do that? I think he can. I also agree that it's a better scheme for Parker.

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Cowher was always a formula coach, much like Herm Edwards, but more successful. No real changes in the offensive game plan from week to week, just here's what we will throw at you, try to stop it. That works when you have the horses for it, namely a great run blocking O line. Few teams can make it work these days. More flexable game plans that create mismatches against specific opponents on a weekly basis is what seems to work best in this era.

 

That means smarter players, a QB that will read the defense the same way the WR's do. Checking off to the WR that will be in one on one coverage, or a TE that draws an LB in coverage. Can Roths do that? I think he can. I also agree that it's a better scheme for Parker.

 

Quality post... wish ya were around more, Rov. :D

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sounds good to me. theres a couple things i would like to see also. i would like to see some play action on 3rd and short. all we ever did was run a shotgun formation on 3rd down. whether it was 3rd and 2 or 3rd and 15, the shotgun was out 95% of the time. i dont mind the shotgun at all, even on 3rd and short. but thats all we did last year and it just got old and predictable too quickly. time to mix things up a bit to keep defenses guessing.

 

i would also love it if we brought back some of the 5-wide receiver sets we ran in the nineties. i think we have the personnel to run it also. ward, holmes, wilson, washington, and reid are all relatively small and are all quick short route runners. washington would probably be the exception.. you could even throw miller in there at times. but when you have them all running routes at the same time, theres a good chance one of them is going to get lost in coverage. if ben could just get back to his regular form, he definitely ended the season playing a lot better, then i dont doubt he could run those empty back sets.

 

aside from that im glad to see parker may get some more free running room. not only that but kreider is getting up there a bit in age and wont have to play nearly every down.

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When Menudo posted this, I immeidately thought about the Hawks doing this in 2006. After SA went out with an injury the Hawks claimed they were going to make a concerted effort to play more 4 WR sets througout the season. Subsequent to SA going down, they immediately used it almost exclusively against the Giants and it looked deadly (TE Jerramy Stevens was also out). It seems as though they went back to more standard sets on 1st and 2nd down after getting slaughtered by the Bears (failure along with SA and Stevens getting healthier will force that move also) All in all, it seemed to have mixed results during the year, even though it was largely used due to injuries and executed by an offense filled with backups.

 

It will be interesting to see how this works out for the Steelers, or in my mind, how much the Steelers actually use it after the first few games. I really doubt we see the 2nd coming of the run-n-shoot via Warren Moon.

 

Mike Sando is a blogger for Hawk information and posted some fairly interesting thoughts....not always the best info, but I guess that is why it is a blog. Anyway, some pretty interesting stuff for Steeler fans to digest in this long off season

 

 

 

The Steelers are talking about using more four-receiver sets on first and second down. One idea is to spread out the defense and call some well-timed runs against lightweight defensive personnel. The Seahawks have tried to do this quite a bit over the years. We'll look at the 2006 results here:Chart

 

"I love four wideouts," Steelers offensive coordinator Bruce Arians told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "I like a better running game out of four wideouts where we can utilize them on first and second down, rather than just being in a shotgun and throwing it all the time. That will be an area we want to develop."

 

According to my charting, the Seahawks averaged 4.16 yards per carry on 31 first- and second-down running plays from four-receiver ("Eagle") personnel. That is better than I would have expected. I knew the Hawks averaged 5.15 yards per carry on all four-receiver running plays, but I figured there was some cheap yardage from third-and-long. Most teams could live with nearly 4.2 yards per carry on first and second downs.

 

Passing from four-receiver sets produced less encouraging results for Seattle. The Hawks ran 36 pass plays from Eagle personnel on first and second downs. All but three of these were with Matt Hasselbeck (Seneca Wallace was 2-3 passing for 19 yards on these plays). Hasselbeck completed 20-32 passes for 239 yards with one TD and three INTs from this personnel. That's a 56.6 passer rating for Hasselbeck with four receivers.

 

I don't know enough about football to know how this information might apply to what Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers are implementing. I do know that teams use four-receiver personnel to exploit matchups against an opponent's third or fourth corner. For Seattle, this worked well against the Giants because their secondary didn't have quality depth. But a team such as the Bears didn't blink, particularly with Tommie Harris causing problems up the middle. Chicago's third corner, Ricky Manning Jr., was better than some starters.

 

By the way, Seattle's 31 four-receiver runs included: six of zero or fewer yards, five of 1-3 yards, 10 of 4-5 yards, three of 6-10 yards and four of 11-15 yards. There were no super-long runs to inflate the average. Also, each of these runs was by a running back, so there were no QB scrambles to give us misleading information.

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When Menudo posted this, I immeidately thought about the Hawks doing this in 2006. After SA went out with an injury the Hawks claimed they were going to make a concerted effort to play more 4 WR sets througout the season. Subsequent to SA going down, they immediately used it almost exclusively against the Giants and it looked deadly (TE Jerramy Stevens was also out). It seems as though they went back to more standard sets on 1st and 2nd down after getting slaughtered by the Bears (failure along with SA and Stevens getting healthier will force that move also) All in all, it seemed to have mixed results during the year, even though it was largely used due to injuries and executed by an offense filled with backups.

 

It will be interesting to see how this works out for the Steelers, or in my mind, how much the Steelers actually use it after the first few games. I really doubt we see the 2nd coming of the run-n-shoot via Warren Moon.

 

Mike Sando is a blogger for Hawk information and posted some fairly interesting thoughts....not always the best info, but I guess that is why it is a blog. Anyway, some pretty interesting stuff for Steeler fans to digest in this long off season

 

 

Good information here. I certainly expect it to take some time, and I don't expect the Steelers to be in a it the majority of the time, but, I do like showing the defense a different look. It is going to be strange seeing the Steelers under a new staff, but, I'm looking forward to it. However, I'm realistic to the fact that it sometimes takes a bit to learn a new coaches system and philosophy. How long until camp ? :D

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I just hope the new staff does what they say and run the ball out of 3 and 4 WR sets. The Steelers had an exciting offense when they abandoned the running game(can't remember the exact year) but 6-10 records were the results. The Steelers have had their greatest success as a "wear the defense down" offense. However, I don't think that Willie Parker is that type of back so maybe Arians is onto something here. It will be very interesting that's for sure. Remember, they won the SB with FWP AND Bettis so they were able to wear the defense down more often than not. Bottom line in the NFL: the longer your defense stays off the field the better. We don't need a fast-strike offense. A rested defense is a more productive defense and that is the Steelers strength. I can't remember a time when I've been this antsy for training camp to begin. Curiosity is killing me!

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