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Just Give Me The Damn Ball
By Dagger | September 23, 2008
The Steelers are last in the NFL in RB catches with a grand total of 2. The New Orleans Saints are first in the NFL with 35 receptions by their RBs. Don’t scoff at this stat.
We have talked about this a number of times over the past 2 seasons, but after the Philly game, it gives us reason to bring up this topic once more. Willie Parker and the Steelers RBs as a whole, need to get the ball more often in the passing game. Parker is easily one of the best RBs in the NFL yet the Steelers refuse to give him the ball in situations that would allow him to be even more productive. In case you were wondering, Parker has 0 receptions this year. The Steelers RBs have 2 catches total in 2008 (one for Mendenhall and one for Davis).
With Big Ben and the Steelers offensive line under siege it would seem logical that the Steelers would try some of the following: dump the ball off to the RB, hit quick slants, pop passes to the TEs, swing passes, RB screens, etc…unfortunately, we really saw none of this. Bruce Arians has continued to exclude our RBs from the passing attack and it’s removing a huge weapon from the Steelers offense. Take a look at the information below and see how other teams are utilizing their RBs.
Lets take a look at some RECEIVING NUMBERS for other NFL RBs:
Willie Parker has 0 receptions, 0 receiving yards, 0 receiving TDs.
Reggie Bush has 26 receptions (leads the NFL)…250 yards…3TD
Steven Jackson has 15 receptions.
Marion Barber, Matt Forte, Maurice Jones-Drew, and Frank Gore all have 10+ receptions.
Last year Parker had 23 receptions while LT had 60 catches, Frank Gore had 53, Larry Johnson had 30 catches in 8 games, Willis McGahee had 43, Earnest Graham had 49 in limited action as a starter, Brian Westbrook had 90 receptions, etc…you get the idea.
Want to know something even more shocking?? Let’s look real quick at Career Average Yards Gained per Reception:
Parker–8.3
Frank Gore–8.3
Tomlinson–7.4
Edge James–7.8
Reggie Bush–7.5
Willis McGahee–6.7
Marion Barber–7.2
Looks like Parker is one of the BEST IN THE NFL when he’s catching the ball out of the backfield.
Watch the Eagles, Patriots, Saints, Bills, Chargers, and Giants on offense and tell me that getting the ball to your RBs in space isn’t a big deal. What could a guy with 4.2 speed, agility, and juke moves like Parker do with the ball in his hands on 3, 4, or 5 swing passes or screens per game? How many times per season would Parker break a long run by catching a swing and then beating a LB in the flat? How would the opposition alter their blitzing and defensive gameplan when they now have to account for our best offensive weapon getting the ball in space? I guess we’ll never know. Bruce Arians is in love with unique offensive sets and formations but he is as predictable as the sunrise when it comes to how he gets individual players involved in the game and getting his playmakers the ball.
Here is the info in another format from “most receptions by a RB” to “least receptions by a RB”. See any good offenses on the top of this list?
| Saints | 35 |
| Eagles | 23 |
| Chargers | 21 |
| Tampa | 20 |
| Jags | 20 |
| Rams | 18 |
| Buffalo | 18 |
| Vikings | 17 |
| Detroit | 17 |
| Chicago | 17 |
| Jets | 16 |
| Miami | 15 |
| Pats | 14 |
| KC | 14 |
| Houston | 13 |
| Giants | 13 |
| Falcons | 12 |
| Browns | 12 |
| Arizona | 12 |
| Dallas | 11 |
| Colts | 10 |
| Seattle | 9 |
| Redskins | 9 |
| Oakland | 9 |
| Titans | 8 |
| Carolina | 8 |
| Baltimore | 8 |
| Packers | 4 |
| Denver | 4 |
| STEELERS | 2 |
Side Note: Speaking of vanilla and boring offense…..Take a second and try to recall how many times over the past 2 seasons under this regime you have seen:
WR screen, RB screen, WR reverse, trick plays, direct snap to RB, Parker and Mendenhall in backfield at same time, Reverse or lateral on a kick return, flea flickers, double reverse, shovel passes, surprise onside kick, fake FG, fake punt, etc…
The Steelers Offense is 18th in total points, 29th in yards per game, 29th in pass yards per game, 27th in the NFL in yards per play, and 18th in rush yards per game. Please tell me how that is possible with Willie Parker, Santonio Holmes, Hines Ward, Ben Roethlisberger, Nate Washington, Limas Sweed, Heath Miller, Matt Spaeth, Rashard Mendenhall, Byron Leftwich, Jeff Reed, Kemo, Hartwig, Marvel Smith, etc….on the offensive side of the ball?? Could be a coaching issue.
The Broncos are 3rd in the NFL in offense and you can probably name 3 of their offensive starters. The Saints are 4th in the NFL in offense and their RB leads the team in receptions. The Tampa Bay Bucs are 7th in the NFL and they have already used 2 different starting QBs, and besides Galloway, Graham, Garcia, and Hilliard, you couldn’t pick another player on their team out of a lineup. The Atlanta Falcons, led by Matt Ryan and Michael Turner are averaging almost 10 pts more per game than our Steelers. The Cowboys average 7.1 yards per play….the Steelers average 4.5. The Ravens offense is AWFUL, right? Well they average 5 more first downs per game than the Steelers do and are ahead of the Steelers in just about every single offensive category.
Topics: Sports, Steelers | 14 Comments »
September 23rd, 2008 at 9:00 am
“Could be a coaching issue.”
LOL
Understatement of the year?? To win on the road, you need solid game planning, execution and game-day coaching. That is lacking on one side of the ball and we are what, 4-6 on the road under Tomlin vs 8-2 at home.
September 23rd, 2008 at 9:36 am
I think Arians went to “Game Plans ‘R’ Us” for the Texans game to trick us into thinking he had improved. I’m not huge on all the trick plays, but it’s been obvious for years (before Arians even took over) that we need to get RB’s and TE’s more involved on offense, especially against teams with terrible coverage LB’s like the Eagles and Giants.
Hopefully this debacle, which was VERY clearly a coaching issue, will start getting some change in the works.
September 23rd, 2008 at 9:56 am
Do you notice any high-scoring offenses right above the Steelers, joining them at the bottom? *cough* Denver *cough*
September 23rd, 2008 at 9:56 am
@ Nick C.
Tomlin has never won a road game outside of the state of Ohio. Thats a scary thought.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:07 am
@EDOM
Thank goodness two of the three teams in our Division are from Ohio!
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:51 am
I still think the Steelers should’ve hired Russ Grimm as head coach. Actually, I’m just bitter he’s not in the HOF.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:58 am
Can anyone remember the last time the Steelers beat a good team? We have yet to beat a team that has won a game. We lost to every good team we played last year. I can’t remember any upsets from 06. We are an average team that cruised by on an easy schedule last year and might make it cause of our schedule this year.
The Steelers are in bad shape. With good drafting and some free agents we could fix our oline and add depth to the dline. Might be ready to do something by 2010. This is assume we fire Arians, Colbert and Zeriling.
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:57 pm
El Duffo, actually thats not true, they beat the Rams in St Louis last December. Of course the Rams were only 3-11 at the time.
September 23rd, 2008 at 1:03 pm
NickC—understatement of the year indeed. I just don’t like jumping on coaches after 1 bad game. If we sack/fumble return for a TD on Donovan McNabb in the 4th QTR we win that game and we’re everybody’s new Super Bowl favorite today. But these passes to the RB stats are proven over 2 years, so I have no problem getting on Arians about this.
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:13 pm
You’re looking at averages, and one of the three games was in a horrible wind storm. Of course the steelers numbers are going to be lower. With a sample size of THREE, where ONE of those games deserves an asterix for weather conditions, you’ve basically come to a foregone conclusion.
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Its not just these last three games, the Steelers havene’t featured the RB in the passing game for a long time. Part of that was that Bettis wasn’t a recieving threat and Willie was so raw outta college, I think Verron Haynes was our last guy we threw the ball too.
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Phil–
The 2008 numbers were just that…2008 numbers. Not sure a wind storm would keep a team from throwing a 3 yard swing or screen. The Browns RB/FBs caught 5 passes that game. We caught 0. Anderson attempted 32 passes and Ben attempted 20 passes. Let’s not act like each team ran the ball 48 times. If anything short/quick passes would be the ONLY types of passes you’d complete on a day like that, right?
No other teams have had bad weather this year? Bmore has only played 2x and has 6 more RB catches…Houston has played 2x and has 11 more RB catches….
This article is not really just about 2008 anyway.
The rest of the article was using a sample size of the entire 2007 season, Bruce Arians’ Steeler career, and Willie Parker’s entire career. Pretty big sample size if you ask me.
Big Ben has completed 39 passes this season…0 to Parker. That needs to be fixed.
September 23rd, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Parker is not playing this week, so maybe with Mendenhall starting and Moore as the 3rd down back we’ll see more passes to the RBs.
Actually, I really do not care HOW the offense moves, as long as it does and scores points. Maybe they should put the RBs behind center and run the direct snap…worked for Miami. Bubble screens, slants and the TEs would work too. I think Miller and Spaeth are more reliable options, but Willie is space would be great.
September 23rd, 2008 at 5:58 pm
i hate when pictures of me shirtless get leaked on the net.