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The (Indian) Elephant in the room.

wig

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I'm as happy as anyone that Roethlisberger has been protecting the ball and all, but at some point - he maybe might want to try throwing the ball more than 4 yards. Defense are "on to him".

Course, the refs appear to be card-carrying democrats and are willing to ignore guys flat out tackling Claypool anytime he gets past them.
 
I'm as happy as anyone that Roethlisberger has been protecting the ball and all, but at some point - he maybe might want to try throwing the ball more than 4 yards. Defense are "on to him".

Course, the refs appear to be card-carrying democrats and are willing to ignore guys flat out tackling Claypool anytime he gets past them.

he's tried...and apparently, he no longer possesses the accuracy to do so effectively. to me, the actual elephant in the room is how alarmingly poor ben's throws are when he throws the ball more than 20-25 yards down the field. i mean, i get it, the further down the field the lower the percentage of a completion, but good God, what happened to him? is it just age? a side effect of the elbow surgery?
 
he's tried...and apparently, he no longer possesses the accuracy to do so effectively. to me, the actual elephant in the room is how alarmingly poor ben's throws are when he throws the ball more than 20-25 yards down the field. i mean, i get it, the further down the field the lower the percentage of a completion, but good God, what happened to him? is it just age? a side effect of the elbow surgery?

I suspect it is the surgery. WHen my son had Tommy John, he was throwing with good velo pretty early, but precision took a good bit longer. Almost an entire season. Yes, I know Ben didn't have TJ, but the point is the finer control takes longer. That is my guess based on pure anecdotal experience anyway.
 
How about some medium range throws?
 
he's tried...and apparently, he no longer possesses the accuracy to do so effectively. to me, the actual elephant in the room is how alarmingly poor ben's throws are when he throws the ball more than 20-25 yards down the field. i mean, i get it, the further down the field the lower the percentage of a completion, but good God, what happened to him? is it just age? a side effect of the elbow surgery?

Ben claimed his arm has been screwed for longer than just last year... that surgery changed its dynamics... he is routinely overthrowing deep passes now....

I was trying to figure out if its timing or a physical adjustment that needs working on... and I don’t know
 
he's tried...and apparently, he no longer possesses the accuracy to do so effectively. to me, the actual elephant in the room is how alarmingly poor ben's throws are when he throws the ball more than 20-25 yards down the field. i mean, i get it, the further down the field the lower the percentage of a completion, but good God, what happened to him? is it just age? a side effect of the elbow surgery?

His deep ball wasn't very accurate before his injury. Maybe it had to do with pain from the tendon that was tearing, but his deep ball has been bad for several seasons. Just not this bad.
 
they ran it a few times in the second half....

Prior to the “let’s run the clock out”, I’d say 3 times. 4 if we count the sweep my Clay. My point is simply we didn’t even bother, yeah we needed to move the ball and get some points but damn BB arm sure could have used a rest.
 
His deep ball wasn't very accurate before his injury. Maybe it had to do with pain from the tendon that was tearing, but his deep ball has been bad for several seasons. Just not this bad.

Thing is, he's usually overthrowing receivers. If his arm was bad you'd think he'd be throwing short.
 
People are actually complaining about Ben? Didn't Ben just carry the offense the past two weeks? He literally picked apart Dallas and Baltimore and called the plays based on the what he saw on defense.

Maybe we should bring Rudolph in and see if he can connect on more deep passes than Ben.
 
Without Ben this team doesn't win ****. But his game is not complete. His deep ball SUCKS. FACT.

Perhaps if it was better they wouldn't be wining games by the skin of their teeth every week.
 
he's tried...and apparently, he no longer possesses the accuracy to do so effectively. to me, the actual elephant in the room is how alarmingly poor ben's throws are when he throws the ball more than 20-25 yards down the field. i mean, i get it, the further down the field the lower the percentage of a completion, but good God, what happened to him? is it just age? a side effect of the elbow surgery?

I think it is just a thing that will take time. Sometimes the WRs aren't helping either. I think in the second half of the season we will see improvement in this area. But as far as the culprit IMO it is time off mixed with improved strength.

That said he still threw for over 300 yards.
 
there should have been PI calls on two deep shots to Claypool...he may not have caught the second one, but the one on the first drive he definitely would have caught
 
They're game planning to get the ball out quick and the idea is a lot of short passes. The problem is teams are figuring it out and the run game isn't helping. It seems that many of the intermediate routes result in drops or tipped passes at the line. Ben just can't get the deep ball in play, though, Claypool dropped a sure touchdown on one today.
 
They're game planning to get the ball out quick and the idea is a lot of short passes. The problem is teams are figuring it out and the run game isn't helping. It seems that many of the intermediate routes result in drops or tipped passes at the line. Ben just can't get the deep ball in play, though, Claypool dropped a sure touchdown on one today.

Teams are figuring it out? Ben did it this week and next week.. who's figuring it out or are you predicting the future.
 
Without Ben this team doesn't win ****. But his game is not complete. His deep ball SUCKS. FACT.

Perhaps if it was better they wouldn't be wining games by the skin of their teeth every week.

I saw two possible deep balls flags the zebras ignored.

Do not throw deep to Johnson. That play never works and never throw it to Johnson double covered.

Claypool should have had a deep pass for xis this game. He dropped it, It's on him.

For whatever reason Ben has been short on the sideline passes or behind his man a bit too often. I'm not sure why. He warms up later it the game.
 
I would be willing to bet that the surgery is almost 100% of the issue. When you have done something so long because of the pain and limitations, reconstruction takes time to get used to.
 
They're game planning to get the ball out quick and the idea is a lot of short passes. The problem is teams are figuring it out and the run game isn't helping. It seems that many of the intermediate routes result in drops or tipped passes at the line. Ben just can't get the deep ball in play, though, Claypool dropped a sure touchdown on one today.

This is what’s happening, teams are watching our film, so we need some new wrinkle. The short passes were really a form of run game. Intermediate passes will open up the run. Out two first half’s these last two games looked a LOT like our offense from last year when we could not push down the field. We do that better, everything gets better. Claypool Ju Ju and Johnson need to get separation and Ben needs to clean up the throws. In his presser Ben took ownership of the poor play
 
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