Lack of a vertical passing game

[jppaul]

Originally Posted by Mike

Yeah sure - a 2 man route would work. They would have 4 to cover 2. next.

Trickery. We could not gain a yard, they were in the backfield on every snap. They sniffed out screens. yeah, a reverse or flea flicker would have worked, except Pitt would have been in the backfield to take the ball from whatever texan had it. Any other great ideas?

1) There were plays on which Schaub had time. The way to punish pressure defenses, is to go over the top. One deep pass would have backed the defense off some, by not doing so you are doing exactly what the defense wanted you to do. Thus you would be letting the defense dictate your gameplan. It is difficult to win in such a situation.

2) Nothing else we did was effective so why not take the chance? What the hell the twelve bubble screens the offense ran netted crap, yet you would have them continue to beat thier heads against the wall as they did...

Do I have tour logic on this right: continue to do the same thing even though it hasn't worked; we didn't try the vertical passing game because it might not work; it is a terrible idea to try something different because it might not work...

3) Ignoring that though, the steelers were blitzing 5 or 6 on every down, which means that if they were blitzing 6 that leaves 5 in coverage. If you leave 2 in that leaves three running routes which means that somewhere on the field there is a person in man coverage, or the zone is soft.

There is time to get up the field, even if AJ and Walter cleared out downfield there is still 15 or 20 yard gains to be had, eventually that would force the D to crunch down on thier deep coverage, leaving space open over the top.