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Fichtner

J

johngaenzler

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In my opinion, this guy is the biggest problem this team has. Even with Ben in Game 1, the offensive game plan was so sub-par. I’m sure he’s a nice guy that Tomlin can control but he does nothing to help our player personnel win games. Any chance he is let go or am I just hoping our front office gives a **** about winning??

Right now there are a number of potential replacements with more experience and upside.

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johngaenzler said:
In my opinion, this guy is the biggest problem this team has. Even with Ben in Game 1, the offensive game plan was so sub-par. I’m sure he’s a nice guy that Tomlin can control but he does nothing to help our player personnel win games. Any chance he is let go or am I just hoping our front office gives a **** about winning??

Right now there are a number of potential replacements with more experience and upside.

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He doesn't get in Ben's way, we are probably stuck with him for now.

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What blows my mind is how easy it is to dissect our offense just based off of formation alone. I can tell you at least 60% of the time what play we are going to run strictly based off of the formation we are in. I don't get paid to study film, it is not my full time job, but just simply watching game after game it becomes obvious. If a fan can read our offense that easily, what do you think professional organizations that have dedicated staff to study film, game plans...etc can do. On the rare occasion we do look like we are setting one play with another, we make it so glaringly obvious that a Jr. High. team could see it coming and be prepared for it. We never game plan based on another teams weaknesses, we simply come out and try pounding a square peg in a round hole and then blame "execution" when it doesn't work. It is mind numbing.
 
slashsteel said:
I tell yinz a smart move would be to replace our OC with Pat Shurmur who was just canned as the Giants HC....
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A smart move would be replacing him with Ray Charles and Helen Keller as an assistant. A brilliant move would be to bring in Shurmur or any other competent OC.
 
I don't want to hear about injuries either. We couldn't even manage a TD with everybody healthy in week 1. Fichtner sucks, and it depresses me that people say we will not can him because of Ben. Fichtner got NOTHING out of this offense all year. Even with injuries you can manage more than 18ppg and losing the last 3 games of the season with a playoff spot on the line.
 
AggieSteel said:
I don't want to hear about injuries either. We couldn't even manage a TD with everybody healthy in week 1. Fichtner sucks, and it depresses me that people say we will not can him because of Ben. Fichtner got NOTHING out of this offense all year. Even with injuries you can manage more than 18ppg and losing the last 3 games of the season with a playoff spot on the line.
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From what Mason said Ben was not healthy even then.
 
The O last year was almost as bad, except for the impromptu Ben plays.

I have said it before, and it still holds true. A good coach puts his players skill set first, then designs a system around them. This teams coaches develop a scheme and expect players to fit into it. 2DL package, expected to handle 5OL, stupid at best. DL covering receivers down field, idiotic.
 
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It still comes from the top in Tomlin.

Tomorrow, I might look at how "other" top coaches with franchise quarterbacks do when their guy is out. How is the offense?

Because when I see Belichick with his backups and how New Orleans did when Brees was out. How Reid does with backups. Hell, the Eagles won the Super Bowl with a backup.

We go to having the 30th ranked offense in the NFL and 1.50 points per possession with our backups. And it's not like historically (even though we have won some games) all those backups over the years - Josh Dobbs and Dennis Dixon and Byron Leftwich - our offense pretty much blew chunks in all of them.
 
Under Tomlin, we have 32 games started by QB's not named Roethlisberger.

Their performance, in total, is:

582/954 (61% Comp)
6211 yards (6.5 YPA)
37 Interceptions (3.9% INT%)

Approximate QB Rating - in the 70-75 range

I mean, that's pretty bad, isn't it? And I haven't looked at scoring or Points per Possession, but it's not good. Of the 32 games, the backup QB got a QB rating of 100 or better only 3 times. Teddy Bridgewater had 3 games over 100 passer rating THIS YEAR alone with Sean Payton in a backup roll. Matt Cassell had SEVEN games over 100 rating for New England in 2008. Nick Foles had 3 100+ rating games IN THE PLAYOFFS.

Tomlin's had 32 regular season games with backups and has 3 backup QB performances like that.

Am I off to criticize this a bit?
 
AggieSteel said:
I don't want to hear about injuries either. We couldn't even manage a TD with everybody healthy in week 1. Fichtner sucks, and it depresses me that people say we will not can him because of Ben. Fichtner got NOTHING out of this offense all year. Even with injuries you can manage more than 18ppg and losing the last 3 games of the season with a playoff spot on the line.
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Wait till you look over special teams,............ I'm not talking stats...............






Salute the nation
 
Steeler Pride said:
What blows my mind is how easy it is to dissect our offense just based off of formation alone. I can tell you at least 60% of the time what play we are going to run strictly based off of the formation we are in.
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Even more so with personnel.

Samuels in the game? Pass. Snell in the game? Run. Banner in the game? Run.

Watched the Niners offense a bit last night. On one play, the entire line goes right, the guard pulls right, the RB heads to the right and Garrappolo then flips the ball to the FB, who was lined up to the right but is now running left. He picked up the easiest 14 yards imaginable.

All based on coaching and hiding the play.

The Steelers? Run A-gap right. 1 yard. Run A-gap left. 2 yards. Drop Hodges in a 5-step drop, have him hold the ball for-*******-ever, try to avoid sack, dump off to Samuels or McDonald, incomplete, sack or pick up 4 yards. Punt.

Next possession: Run A-gap right. 2 yards. Run A-gap left. 1 yard. Drop Hodges in a 5-step drop, have him hold the ball for-*******-ever, try to avoid sack, dump off to Samuels or McDonald, incomplete, sack or pick up 4 yards. Punt.
 
Steeltime said:
Even more so with personnel.

Samuels in the game? Pass. Snell in the game? Run. Banner in the game? Run.

Watched the Niners offense a bit last night. On one play, the entire line goes right, the guard pulls right, the RB heads to the right and Garrappolo then flips the ball to the FB, who was lined up to the right but is now running left. He picked up the easiest 14 yards imaginable.

All based on coaching and hiding the play.

The Steelers? Run A-gap right. 1 yard. Run A-gap left. 2 yards. Drop Hodges in a 5-step drop, have him hold the ball for-*******-ever, try to avoid sack, dump off to Samuels or McDonald, incomplete, sack or pick up 4 yards. Punt.

Next possession: Run A-gap right. 2 yards. Run A-gap left. 1 yard. Drop Hodges in a 5-step drop, have him hold the ball for-*******-ever, try to avoid sack, dump off to Samuels or McDonald, incomplete, sack or pick up 4 yards. Punt.
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Except he forgot about the dump off even yesterday. Hell had he hit the dump off a few times we might have won.
 
Fichtner is an albatross. I wish they'd dump him, but the Steelers probably won't.

Bring back Ariens for **** sake at this point...
 
Fichtner is the oc as long a Ben is here. The only reason they made an OC move from Haley is because they had a guy in-house ready to promote with Fichtner. There's no in-house guy behind Randy, and they're not going to install a new system with a 38yo QB.
 
You really think Tomlin wants a real OC here? Tomlin wants to try to control everything, Fichtner is HIS guy not Ben's. Fichtner was Tomlins first hire in 2007, they go back to their college days. I don't see why everyone keeps saying he's Ben's guy. Arians was Ben's guy, and he was fired, Haley is not liked by many and he was hired.

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If there were any sort of friction between Ben and Fichtner, then one of them would've left years ago. That's how we know they're all each others' "guy".
 
Coryea said:
You really think Tomlin wants a real OC here? Tomlin wants to try to control everything, Fichtner is HIS guy not Ben's. Fichtner was Tomlins first hire in 2007, they go back to their college days. I don't see why everyone keeps saying he's Ben's guy. Arians was Ben's guy, and he was fired, Haley is not liked by many and he was hired.

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Adding on to this...

RF staying isn't because he is Ben's guy, but because nobody wants to bring in an external hire who will want to change system and terminology at this stage of Ben's career.

And, make no mistake, a great deal of this offense is driven by MT's game philosophy. From this fan's seat, it appears that MT just loves to play conservative. Game plans on offense and defense always seem to be about methodically figuring out what the other team is doing while keeping it close and then find the big exploit that will win the game in the second half and then turtle the lead. The guy never seems to want to come out guns blazing or even step on the gas when leading. This is my biggest issue with MT...never seems to want to go for the jugular. RF has bought into that.
 
I was reading a sports illustrated article "who stays and who goes" (link below) and the guy said Fichtner isn't going anywhere. He goes to say Ben was heavily onvolved in the promotion of Fichtner and as long as Ben is around so is Fichtner. When Ben was in the first couple games. The plays they were running were the same with the 2 rookies playing. It looks like we will have to put up with Fichtner for another year at least.

https://www.si.com/nfl/steelers/gm-report/pittsburgh-steelers-who-stays-who-goes

Randy Fichtner- Fichtner may by far be the fan-favorite to get the can following a 2019 campaign that provided little to no offense for Pittsburgh. Granted, we found out what a post-Roethlisberger era looks like, and it isn't very promising.
 
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slashsteel said:
post-Roethlisberger era..... I may need to be heavy medicated for that.

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I am rocking a sinus infection right now...the drugs are good but not really strong enough for what you will need. I suggest you consider all the fine meds available at your local ABC store.
 
bmoritz said:
I agree that Fichtner should go, but at what point is the head guy held accountable? So sick of the damn excuses year after year. NONE of it matters as long as Tomlin is here.
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Thing is we know Tomlin won't get fired so our only hope is to bring a decent OC to help cool shades

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