Bruce Arians not the problem

**Friday133** · 11-20-2007, 02:38 PM

As usual with any loss the yinzer population gets in an uproar over something, this time its Bruce Arians and his play calling. We're 7-3 and Ben Roethlisberger is having his best year as a pro and the majority of people here want the offensive coordinator fired. That makes so much sense, you guys should dust off your resumes and submit them to Mike Tomlin since you all can do a better job.

**BlitzburghRockCity** · 11-20-2007, 03:17 PM

The thing that most of us are questioning is the play calling in this game in particular after we got the 3 point lead. In the past this year when we had a lead we kept attacking until the game was well in hand because we knew teams could come back. The times when we either tied it late or had a small lead late in the game is when you need to go on the offensive and not just sit and take a knee, run a qb sneak, or run your QB your backup RB right into a big pile of defenders.

Personally Im happy with how Ben is playing over all and Im happy at how the WR's and TE's are making plays and you can attribute that to Bruce as much as the players...but when you have critical junctures in games and we seemingly sit on the ball to protect the lead that just doesn't work for me. Our defense is good this year, statistically the best in the NFL but you don't see other elite teams sitting on a 3 point lead late in the game with time left on the clock. There are times when you have to play conservative for various reasons but times like this and in Denver and Arizona we just run plays on offense that make no sense to me.

Could I do it better than Bruce? No because I don't know the playbook like he does but as a fan when I sit back and see us basically get a 3 point lead late in the game and crawl back into our shell that makes me

You dance with what brought you to this point and that's passing and going on the attack till you get out to a good lead on a team and then run the ball mixed with play action, etc... we didn't have a good lead in this game at the end and we weren't running the ball effectively so at that point you make adjustments to use other options in your playbook.

Just me

**Ambridge** · 11-20-2007, 03:24 PM

I've been a critic of Arians offense since Week 1.
http://www.steeleraddicts.com/forum/...t=9223&page=30

Sure Ben is having a very good season and the team is 7-3 but let's face it these guys have beaten only two teams with winning records which is Seattle(6-4) and Cleveland(6-4).....not the stiffest of competition.

Arians offense is fairly predictable and has shown that when challenged by a charging-pressure defense it folds like a house of cards.

I'm not blind to the fact that there have been other issues on the team that have contributed to the losses but Arians and his play calling at times have stuck out like a sore thumb.

**Koopa** · 11-20-2007, 03:27 PM

look at the schedule, that's the reason we are 7-3, not cause of his play calling..........arians is a bum

**BlitzburghRockCity** · 11-20-2007, 03:36 PM

We can only play and beat the teams that we are scheduled and having a 3rd place schedule this year has helped us there is no doubt,yet still all the factors including the play calling at crucial times has caused us to lose to teams that we should beat or keep games that should be blowouts, closer than they should be. Sure you're going to have off games and close games here and there but champsionship caliber teams find ways to win those games more often than not. Players are responsible for on the field actions but Bruce is responsible for calling the plays in crucial junctures the calling has been suspect IMO.