Bruce Arians stars in strange Steelers win
Before reading this article, please read our Steelers-Chargers post-game analysis found here.
This website has been critical of Steelers’ Offensive Coordinator Bruce Arians for most of the season. In our opinion, Arians has failed to make in-game adjustments to counter the constant blitz schemes that the Steelers have faced. As team after team followed the same script when playing the Steelers, Arians seemed to stubbornly refuse to implement the quick passes that are the obvious counter-attack to constant blitzing. In the game earlier this year against the Philadelphia Eagles, Arians didn’t implement this strategy even after the Eagles’ 50th blitz and sack of Ben Roethlisberger (I believe the Eagles sacked Roethlisberger 700 times during that game, but I could be mistaken). We, along with most Steelers fans, were shocked when the Steelers came out in the second half of that game, and showed no sign of offensive adjustments of any type.
With this as background, we felt compelled to give Arians kudos for a job well done. In the Steelers’ odd 11-10 win over the San Diego Chargers, it was really Bruce Arians who was the hero of the game.
Some fans may ask, “how was Arians the hero of a game in which Ben Roethlisberger passed for 308 yards, Willie Parker ran for 115 yards, and Hines Ward had 124 yards receiving”? Well, the answer is simple. Bruce Arians called a nearly perfect game, and he is the reason that each of the above players had the exceptional performance that they did.
In the passing game, Arians had Roethlisberger executing the quick slant pass as effectively as I’ve seen any quarterback execute it. It is that particular play that is the bread and butter play for Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. In fact, the Patriots use that play as a defacto running game.
Rothlisberger repeatedly got rid of the ball quickly in the face of a Chargers’ blitz. Usually, the recipient of those quick passes were Santonio Holmes or Matt Spaeth. In fact, it was this strategy which was responsible for Spaeth catching 6 passes during the game. Steelers Today has always believed that Arians under-utilizes the tight end, we were pleasantly surprised to see Spaeth play such an active role in the offense.
Arians called a diverse game that resulted in Big Ben completing passes to 7 different receivers. That is a very rare statistic for the Steelers offense.
Besides calling a brilliant passing game, Arians also used the running game to eat up the clock and to wear down the Chargers’ defense. Willie Parker’s 115 yards, and the Steelers 36:31minute – 23:29 minute time of possession advantage, is proof of this fact.
Arians also showed a willingness to keep experimenting until he found something that worked. Early in the game, he had Willie Parker attempt to gain short yardage, only to watch him get stuffed. Mewelde Moore met with the same fate. So Arians gave little-used running back Gary Russell an opportunity on third down. Not only did Russell gain the needed yardage, but when called upon to do it again later in the game, Russell did it again. By showing flexibility, Arians may have found a new third down back. Moreover, he has found a way to give valuable playing time to a back who has shown potential, but has been given few chances to prove himself.
The Steelers offense failed to get into the endzone. But that does not mean that they weren’t dominant. Bruce Arians called a near-perfect game, and the offense dominated the Chargers to a much greater degree than was reflected on the scoreboard.
Ben Roethlisberger, Willie Parker, Hines Ward, Matt Spaeth, Troy Polamalu, and James Harrison all had excellent games on Sunday. But in our opinion, the game ball for this win goes to Bruce Arians. Way to go, Bruce!
(If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment below. Also, please subscribe to our blog by pressing the orange button below. Thanks.)
Arians did not call a perfect game. Running Moore at the 1 after he was stuffed twice in the previous game. Please, Arians is a joke and is ruining Ben like he did Tim Couch
1Kris,
I wouldn’t say that Arians called a perfect game, but he called a very good game. That is something new for him, and we felt compelled to give him credit for it.
I can’t say that I disagreed with him calling Mewelde Moores number on a short yardage play. He doesn’t want to destroy Mewelde’s confidence. However, you must give him credit for quickly moving to Gary Russell when Mewelde failed. Moreover, when Russell succeeded, Arians stuck with him. Can you at least give him credit for that?
2Need a short yardage back try James Harrison.Don’t think he’s going down easy you see him after that interception
3Dave,
4Excellent point. I don’t know about you, but I’d be scared to try to tackle Harrison. I get the feeling that the person who tried to tackle him would get the worst end of the deal.
Arians needs to be fired. He has shown me absolutely nothing the past three seasons. He starts with one game plan and then changes to a totally different direction. He often abandons the run and throws too mush or runs when he should be throwing to the tight end (case in point, the 4th and one on the one yard line). Lots of teams do it with great success. Arians rarely does. Try a play action pass play to the tight end the closer you get to the end zone. I will give him credit for the short passes in the Chargers game. They worked to perfection and he did have a more balanced attack of run and pass. But once the Steelers get rattled, so does Arians.
5Dave,
6Good point. However I do believe Arians fails at situational football. When its 3rd and short he has deployed 5 receiver sets when its obvious to everyone that Ben refuses to cross the line of scrimmage, and the O-Line is fairly porous at pass protecting. I believe that the offense does not have an identity as a tough unit and to just now figure out that Russell can run on short yardage situations tells me he is not aware of what his players can do. That scares me. Why even pick up Davenport? What about giving the fullback a chance? How about more Draw Plays and Screens? Shoot at this point, maybe he should install the wildcat offense. Maybe they’ll be able to run on 3rd and short and really open up the passing game.
Thanks for the insightful analysis. Arians’ play-calling usually drives me crazy and I was impressed to see his use of the quick slants and increased reliance on the TE. I hope Arians can make the relevant adjustments in the weeks ahead as the Steelers face some fairly stiff competition: New England, Dallas, Tennessee, and Baltimore.
7Russell and Jesse,
If you read this blog regularly, you know that I always criticize Arians. In order to be fair and balanced, I had to give him credit when he didn’t do a terrible job (since that doesn’t happen very often).
Can’t we all agree to give Arians a little love this time? We’ll go back to beating up on him next game.
8SteelerFaninDC,
Thanks for the comment. Arians’ play calling drives me crazy too. But this game, he did a pretty good job. Like you said, he is going to have to keep it up. We have some tough games coming up.
Am I the only one who thinks the Steelers can beat the Tennessee Titans if we play a smart game on offense and minimize the penalties and turnovers?
9Arians called a perfect game? Are you high? Or maybe you have just seen him call so many atrocious games that mediocre looks good to you. Slany pass and switching backs when one is being stopped are the right calls but ones a beginning High School coach knows to make. It was a sad day when we lost 2 great coaches and replaced them with a mediocre head coach and a lousy DC
10