OT: The Pittsburgher Thread: 5 and 2 Justin who? Hand the Fields to Wilson

[bigdaddyk88]

I may be wrong but I feel like Mason didn't even complete a pass in that second half.

I thought he started out really well, I think he was like 7 of 9 for 70 yards or something like that. But 9 or 17 with 85 passing yards isn't a good game.

Especially when he had 1 pass for 27 yards in the 85 yards total for the game

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

Pickens being involved in like 75% of total snaps but almost every passing play seems to me to be an incredible tell to the defense that you are running.

Pickens comes out, run commit.

That is what people are missing with this "what's the big deal about snap counts?"

You are tipping the defense that it's a run if Pickens comes out. You are taking a threat of a pass out when Pickens goes to the sidelines. You are limiting yourself when Pickens is on the bench.

Again if we had another WR who was worth a damn, you would not hear a peep from me. I'm more of a spread the wealth guy. But we have no wealth/depth here.

Can't believe this is such a difficult concept for some. As an OC, you should always be "threatening" the defense.

 

[pistolpete11]

That is what people are missing with this "what's the big deal about snap counts?"

You are tipping the defense that it's a run if Pickens comes out. You are taking a threat of a pass out when Pickens goes to the sidelines. You are limiting yourself when Pickens is on the bench.

Again if we had another WR who was worth a damn, you would not hear a peep from me. I'm more of a spread the wealth guy. But we have no wealth/depth here.

Can't believe this is such a difficult concept for some. As an OC, you should always be "threatening" the defense.

Don't worry about it, man. The running game is doing great! No need to make any changes.

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

Don't worry about it, man. The running game is doing great! No need to make any changes.

Right...the offense is running on all cylinders and we're 3-1. Why change a damn thing?

This is how you accept mediocrity. Shrug your shoulders, blink and before you know it we're 9-8 and just squeaking into the last playoff spot again to be destroyed by first round opponent. But I guess some people like movie reruns...it gives them comfort to know what's coming next.

 

[T1K]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1840907145904058424

Don't worry about it, man. The running game is doing great! No need to make any changes.

CPatt was running fine… Najee might just suck (spoiler: he does)

That is what people are missing with this "what's the big deal about snap counts?"

You are tipping the defense that it's a run if Pickens comes out. You are taking a threat of a pass out when Pickens goes to the sidelines. You are limiting yourself when Pickens is on the bench.

Again if we had another WR who was worth a damn, you would not hear a peep from me. I'm more of a spread the wealth guy. But we have no wealth/depth here.

Can't believe this is such a difficult concept for some. As an OC, you should always be "threatening" the defense.

Do you have any stats to back up this statement or are you gonna keep spinning this tired narrative? ATL’s run game was pretty efficient last year with London having a similar snap count as Pickens

 

[pistolpete11]

CPatt was running fine… Najee might just suck (spoiler: he does)

It was 6 carries in a game they were trailing and throwing the ball more and had their 3rd string RB in. It's kind of the point we are making. Run when they expect pass and pass when they expect run. When Pickens is out of the game, there's a significant drop off in terms of passing threat.

Do you have any stats to back up this statement or are you gonna keep spinning this tired narrative? ATL’s run game was pretty efficient last year with London having a similar snap count as Pickens

......but it's not working HERE. Who gives a shit about how it worked on another team? If it's not working, you've got to make adjustments. You can't just keep bashing your head against the wall.

 

[T1K]

It was 6 carries in a game they were trailing and throwing the ball more and had their 3rd string RB in. It's kind of the point we are making. Run when they expect pass and pass when they expect run. When Pickens is out of the game, there's a significant drop off in terms of passing threat.


......but it's not working HERE. Who gives a shit about how it worked on another team? If it's not working, you've got to make adjustments. You can't just keep bashing your head against the wall.

I’d love to see the rushing efficiency splits of when Pickens is on the field vs when he is not. I bet it would show no difference.

 

[TooManyHumans]

The offense is always going to struggle to make big plays when the starting RB is the opposite of explosive. I'd be thrilled as an opponent when Najee is in the game. Absolute worst case is you give up a 20 yard run. He scares no one. He ought to ride the bench unless we need to run out the clock on a tired defense.

 

[T1K]

Last game CPatt had 7.2 ypc and Najee had 1.5 ypc. Najee has been sub 4.0 ypc in 3/4 games this year. Are we really blaming the rushing efficiency on Picken’s snap counts instead of the soft plodder RB?

 

[JTG]

I'm soured on Najee. He will produce stats, but he is not the RB for this offense. Great call by Khan to let him walk. It's looking like Kenny, Najee, and Broderick are all kind of blah right now.

I was a big backer of Jones until he started fighting people online like a punk. I still think he's going to be a good lineman, and I'd like to see him on the left side, but with how he has been getting turned around, I can't help but envision him as a guard.

This group needs a good vet RB who can do it all, and would be greatly assisted by getting a vet, like Adams, to get into that WR room.

The offense is always going to struggle to make big plays when the starting RB is the opposite of explosive. I'd be thrilled as an opponent when Najee is in the game. Absolute worst case is you give up a 20 yard run. He scares no one. He ought to ride the bench unless we need to run out the clock on a tired defense.

And he's not a particularly violent runner. He's so concerned going E-W that he never really delivers the initial blow - he's just built like a fridge and he's tough to tackle.

Najee needs to lose mass. He's too heavy. He's too slow. He has zero elusiveness. He says he's 8% body fat...stop lifting weights then.

 

[TooManyHumans]

I still cannot wrap my mind around what the hell he was thinking when he went out of his way to stay in bounds. It was so damned stupid.

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

Last game CPatt had 7.2 ypc and Najee had 1.5 ypc. Najee has been sub 4.0 ypc in 3/4 games this year. Are we really blaming the rushing efficiency on Picken’s snap counts instead of the soft plodder RB?

No one is making that claim (well I'm certainly not).
I want our best weapon out there for the majority of snaps whether it's a run or a pass. If we had Waddle or Higgins behind Pickens this wouldn't be an issue.

And this is a binary choice. An election to play VJ in 13 personnel puts CP on the bench. Why anyone would choose this is beyond me.

I still cannot wrap my mind around what the hell he was thinking when he went out of his way to stay in bounds. It was so damned stupid.

In any other context outside of being under 2 minutes, it's actually a good display of balance and trying to get extra yards.

But that would require having a football IQ above room temperature to understand situational football. No wonder Tomlin loves Harris

 

[WickedWrister]

 

[pistolpete11]

Last game CPatt had 7.2 ypc and Najee had 1.5 ypc. Najee has been sub 4.0 ypc in 3/4 games this year. Are we really blaming the rushing efficiency on Picken’s snap counts instead of the soft plodder RB?

No, we're blaming the predictability of the offense. Pickens not being on the field is just a tell that it's probably going to be a run and if it's not, who cares because Van Jefferson isn't going to make a play anyways.


....not that I'm saying Harris is any good. I was against drafting him in the first place.

 

[Peat]

Najee needs to lose mass. He's too heavy. He's too slow. He has zero elusiveness. He says he's 8% body fat...stop lifting weights then.

He did lose weight this off-season. If this is the season that has everyone writing him off, that was actually the wrong move.

Feels like there's a decent chance he's starting real soon. Lies and damn lies, but McCormick's PFF grade was actually worse than Anderson's. Neither was great though.

 

[xlm34]

 

[WickedWrister]

A little bit of injury luck-looks like Dallas will be without arguably their two best defensive players, Demarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons. First game that Parsons will have missed in his career at any level of football.

 

[Peat]

A little bit of injury luck-looks like Dallas will be without arguably their two best defensive players, Demarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons. First game that Parsons will have missed in his career at any level of football.

That's wild. Absolutely freaky.

Honestly part of me would have preferred to have them play to get that barometer of where Fields is against one of the very best defences, but this might be better for him.

 

[WickedWrister]

That's wild. Absolutely freaky.

Honestly part of me would have preferred to have them play to get that barometer of where Fields is against one of the very best defences, but this might be better for him.

I don't know why, maybe it's the post trap game buzz combined with some injury luck, but I feel weirdly confident about beating the Cowboys on Sunday. Only the Bucs defense has allowed more rush EPA per play and Dak has been pretty pedestrian. We're 2.5 point favorites at home and that feels about right.

 

[T1K]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1841142250341810516

https://x.com/i/web/status/1841143113739567279

 

[T1K]

Omar can redeem himself if he acquires Adams. Adams is significantly better than Aiyuk.

I imagine the Raiders would ask for a 1st. While I’d ultimately pay that price if I had to, I feel like a 3 team trade could be interesting:

LV: 2025 PIT 2nd, 2025 MIA 3rd, 2026 PIT 3rd
MIA: Russ
PIT: Adams

 

[Peat]

I don't know why, maybe it's the post trap game buzz combined with some injury luck, but I feel weirdly confident about beating the Cowboys on Sunday. Only the Bucs defense has allowed more rush EPA per play and Dak has been pretty pedestrian. We're 2.5 point favorites at home and that feels about right.

View attachment 911324

Nah I get that. Feels like they're a pretty similar offence but their defence hasn't ran as hot as people expected. That feels like a rock fight and I don't bet against Tomlin when it comes to a rock fight at dawn. Obviously that means another track meet is coming though.

Tangentially, it's kinda interesting to look at that chart and compare defences to who's conceded the most points. All of the six most porous passing defences are in the bottom ten for points conceded, which is as you'd expect. Doing the same with rushing defences founders at the very first hurdle as Tampa are in the top 10. Buffalo are just outside.

Flip it the other way, and you don't have to get far to find an elite rushing defence who's outside of the top 10 for points against as Green Bay is right there. 6 of the 7 best passing defences are in the top 10 (phrasing it that way as I don't want to parse whether the Bills beat the Jets or not).

I guess it's not exactly news that a good pass defence matters more than a good run defence but I've never seen it so clear.

 

[xlm34]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1840907145904058424

CPatt was running fine… Najee might just suck (spoiler: he does)


Do you have any stats to back up this statement or are you gonna keep spinning this tired narrative? ATL’s run game was pretty efficient last year with London having a similar snap count as Pickens

 

[T1K]

No way, Big Daddy said this trade wasn’t happening!

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

A little bit of injury luck-looks like Dallas will be without arguably their two best defensive players, Demarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons. First game that Parsons will have missed in his career at any level of football.

Whoever has the opposing teams' voodoo doll, you're doing great so far this year!