Take your own advise Ben

http://triblive.com/sports/steelers...admonishes-antonio-brown-for-sideline-tantrum

I don't know how you guys feel, but to my way of thinking, this article from Ben is again an exercise in futility when it comes to fixing any problem that AB may have started with his temper ...

“I wish he would have come talked to me and said, ‘Ben, I killed him on this play.' That goes a lot further than a temper tantrum.”

No kidding Ben and talking to AB in private would go a lot further, IMO, than airing this crap out in public. What we as fans think has nothing to do with what goes on within the team and your venting your opinion is no less distracting than his temper tantrum.

“I'm not trying to call him out,” Roethlisberger said on his weekly 93.7 FM radio segment, “but it's causing a distraction that none of us really need.”

actually Ben, you are calling him out by airing this publicly. Take your own advise and speak to Him privately... I don't need to hear this stuff and it's useless to include us in your rants.

 

I knew that AB wasn't the happiest guy on the Steelers after the game, but Ben talking about it on the radio? What a dolt! Big Dumb.

 

He used to be a bad teammate and good QB, now it's just bad on bad. Wish he would have retired and given us 18M back. We could have used it to upgrade him.

 

I'm not here to throw any negativity or anything, but I'm curious. Does Ben actually have a radio show? I feel like he's consistently airing out Steelers business on the radio and that would only make some sort of sense if he actually has some sort of radio contract/deal like Brandon Marshall does in NY

 

We are all a little tired of Ben.

 

We all bitch about Ben now, but the first season we have to play without him we will all be crying.

 

Anyone that puts on the All-22 each week and watches him won't miss him. He's barely a top-15 QB at this point in his career. The position of QB has changed over the years. It's being won from the neck up and Ben has never possessed football IQ. Let the Josh Dobbs era begin. Smart as hell, good arm, good athletic ability. He'll take his lumps early but he'll get better playing the game.

 

Ben's size and athletic ability were boons early on in his career in the violent AFC North battles we've had to play. I don't think many QBs in NFL history could have sustained a bloody nose in Baltimore and later win the game. Plus, he was peerless for his ability to play behind a bad offensive line and make plays while being pressured. Now, we have one of the best offensive lines in the NFL and Ben's stupidity is on full display. We don't even need to look at Tom Brady to find a QB who would tear it up with this supporting cast. Look at Russel Wilson, who's had a bad offensive line for years. Drew Brees shattered records when he had Jahri Evans and Carl Nicks in front of him. Philip Rivers hasn't had a full team of offensive starters around him since 2006. You think he'd be right back in heaven with Lev Bell like when he could hand the ball off to Tomlinson? Alex Smith looks fabulous right now. Aaron Rodgers, who some say is better than Brady, would kill for an offensive line that could keep him healthy and receivers who can stay healthy (Antonio Brown has never missed a regular season game due to injury).

As unlikely as it is, I'd trade anything we can to get Andrew Luck in black and gold. Hell, I'd even settle for Jacoby Brisset just so we can have a smart QB who doesn't throw teammates under the bus constantly. We can talk about Josh Dobbs all we like but I won't hang my hat on him until he puts together a string of great preseason performances. Unlike Deshone Kizer in Cleveland, Dobbs is smart enough and mechanical enough to then not look like a fish out of water playing in the regular season.

 

Brown gave a public apology today for his behavior on the sideline this weekend. It wasn't long ago that Brown caused a big distraction in the locker room with his FB Live stunt. Ben was asked a question and he answered. Read the whole article. Ben was far more complimentary of Brown than critical. He was critical of behavior not performance.

Ben blamed himself the week before when the Bears beat them. There were a whole lot of other factors that caused them to lose to the Bears. Ben was part of a team loss.

The idea that the Steelers could find a better QB out there to win right now is crazy! Jay Cutler was brought out of retirement by the Dolphins. The Bears gave Glennon 16 million and look how that's worked out. Texans took a big gamble on Osweiler last year. Look around the NFL there aren't many great options at QB. Steelers have played four games. The Steelers are built to win now if they can get the offense clicking. There isn't a QB out there that gives them a better chance than Ben to win now.

They are 3-1 and they have played 3 road games. Ben has not been nearly as good on the road as he has at home the past few years. Statistically Ben isn't having a great year. It's week 4. Bell didn't come to camp. Bryant was out of football for a year and wasn't allowed to participate in much of camp. JuJu is a rookie. The offense is only going to get better.

 

That and this are two radically different scenarios. The Facebook Live thing gave outsiders a look into a locker room they had no business looking into. It shone Brown, everyone else in the video, and Tomlin in a bad light, and it's probable it greatly affected their preparation to play 2016's best team.

This? It's nothing. Brown is known around the NFL for his insane work ethic and for that reason is widely regarded as the pinnacle at his position. I'd rather see players getting pissed than them yucking it up like they have nothing better to do than keep track of their Instagram followers. I thought a common complaint with this team was a generally apathetic vibe, or at least an attitude that suggests lack of preparation and concern. This was the exact opposite. We need our players to get pissed at their lack of opportunity and execution. We need players who want to do great things. Antonio Brown has been nothing but that in 2017. In fact, I'd say he was the only offensive skill player like that from the offseason until now. Bell and Ben ought to be looking at Brown's fury as an inspiration, not look at it as an anomaly. Brown shouldn't have needed to publicly apologize for it since competitiveness and passion ought to run rampant in the locker room, rather than through a single player. Plus, Ben ought to quit calling out his winning team for their mistakes over public radio.

So Ben gets a pass this week because he accepted blame for the Steelers losing to the Bears? You mean he could have come out and diverted blame to the rest of his team outright? Whatever, he did play better against the Ravens, so maybe he finally does realize that what he was doing was bad for the offense. But don't get mad at team members who suffered and made the team suffer because of your bad decision-making [to Ben].

I think it's obvious that the offense will improve. I think. For all we know Ben won't ever get back to peak form. Physical attributes leave and never come back. Mental attributes stay. Ben has never been a cerebral passer in his entire career, and he's been in a slump since halfway through 2016. Is he ever going to rebound? He's the reason the offense isn't top 10 in yards or points, when it has the talent to be top 5 in both.

 

I'm not giving Ben a pass for anything. I'm simply pointing out that Ben put the loss to the Bears squarely on himself. There was the blocked FG and a dropped punt. Multiple dropped interceptions. Many missed tackles and a pathetic run defense. Ben didn't mention any of that. He said the loss was on him and he had to play better.

This situation isn't about poor performance on the field. It was a sideline tantrum and bad behavior on the sideline. Ben and coach Tomlin fielded questions from the media. They answered. Both said it's a distraction. The FB Live incident was a distraction. Now Ben is throwing a teammate under the bus for answering a question honestly? Contrast that to him blaming himself for the loss last week and admitting that he locks onto Brown because of his trust in him. Read all of the praise he gave Brown in that same interview.

Brown is without a doubt my favorite offensive player. I love his work ethic and passion. I wish the Steelers had more players just like Brown. Doesn't mean his behavior is always acceptable. When I saw Todd Haley trying to calm Brown down and watched Browns reaction I was disappointed. There is a difference in playing with passion and bad behavior. I hope he learned from it. Doesn't behave that way anymore.

 

Just to play devils advocate here but what if Ben talked to Brown first and it was obvious that doing it behind closed doors was not reaching Brown.

 

AB certainly went a little ballistic, but he calmed down very quickly. Four plays later after the defense forced a 3 and out, he fielded a punt and showed great leadership when he pulled Nix out of a scrum on the Ravens sideline.

 

beach:
Let the Josh Dobbs era begin. Smart as hell, good arm, good athletic ability. He'll take his lumps early but he'll get better playing the game.

Demo:
I think it's obvious that the offense will improve. I think. For all we know Ben won't ever get back to peak form. Physical attributes leave and never come back. Mental attributes stay. Ben has never been a cerebral passer in his entire career, and he's been in a slump since halfway through 2016. Is he ever going to rebound? He's the reason the offense isn't top 10 in yards or points, when it has the talent to be top 5 in both.

I think Ben has the potential to do well this year, mostly because of his supporting cast. I also think it's sort of a year wasted where J. Dobbs could be getting experience and is not. He has, IMO, all the earmarks of a starting QB, but I also agree with Demo, I'm definitely in a "show me" state right now but am more than willing to suffer the growing pains of his ascendancy. The best of all scenarios for me is win the 2017 SB, give Ben an opportunity to bow out gracefully as a 3 time SB winner and turn the reigns, and our ridiculously bright future over to Dobbs.

 

There isn't a player employed in the NFL who would openly treat his team that way in a major press conference immediately following a loss. He doesn't get a cookie for playing by the unwritten rules of dealing with the media. Besides, if Ben played that game with a modicum of intelligence, the offense would have looked good from the start. Maybe that would have resulted in points early and fewer opportunities for the Bears to gash us on the ground.

I said it after the game and I'll say it again. When the offense looks like it belongs on the field in the first half, I'll begin to scrutinize the defense for its lacking run defense more harshly. Until then, I'll be happy to have the #2 ranked defense in both yards and points allowed per game. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the offense has scored a touchdown at all in the first quarter yet. To date, it's been primarily the offense's fault for keeping the Browns close and losing to the Bears, and they didn't look good against the Vikings either. This is supposed to be the better, more experienced unit. It's supposed to be the side of the ball we rely on when the defense falters. Nope, it's actually been mostly the defense who's allowed the offense to get away with its mistakes. When the defense can't hold up because key players such as Tuitt or Watt are injured, we can't rely on the offense to come roaring back with a score on the next possession.

Who is that on? Probably the diva who handles the ball on every snap. But that's just my observation.

I can get behind this, but I still don't see what Brown did as anything to criticize. He should have earned the benefit of the doubt by now, right? If all the players and coaches declined to comment, the media would have forgotten about it a lot sooner and it would never have escalated to the point of being a possible distraction. This team has had enough of that.

 

We can only comment on what we see. Besides, this would seem entirely unlike both Ben and Brown.

 

Anyone that puts on the All-22 each week and watches him won't miss him. He's barely a top-15 QB at this point in his career. The position of QB has changed over the years. It's being won from the neck up and Ben has never possessed football IQ. Let the Josh Dobbs era begin. Smart as hell, good arm, good athletic ability. He'll take his lumps early but he'll get better playing the game.

^^^^^Or maybe if Ben retires next Spring (yeah right), we trade a second rounder for Alex Smith if KC is ready for the Patrick McCombs era to begin after giving up a king's ransom to trade up for him this past Spring. Smith is still in his prime, is mobile, is adept in working the short/medium passing game and utilizing what's around him...........and most importantly...........doesn't turn it over very often. His game has been one of "taking what's given him" for years now.......something that could go a LONG WAY in Pitt's offense, given the talent it has on that side of the ball. Someone is almost always open every play. That likely wouldn't change with Smith faking handoffs or running misdirection plays at the line of scrimmage and pulling it back to then throw. He's doing incredibly well this year in KC even after they traded away their best wideout. And in Pitt, he'd have a better supporting cast around him at every position except TE.

 

That ^^^^^ could be scary. A PIT QB with a brain.

But . . . If Alex Smith's year continues the way it started, to think you would get him for a 2nd round pick is delusional.

 

There isn't a player employed in the NFL who would openly treat his team that way in a major press conference immediately following a loss. He doesn't get a cookie for playing by the unwritten rules of dealing with the media. Besides, if Ben played that game with a modicum of intelligence, the offense would have looked good from the start. Maybe that would have resulted in points early and fewer opportunities for the Bears to gash us on the ground.

I said it after the game and I'll say it again. When the offense looks like it belongs on the field in the first half, I'll begin to scrutinize the defense for its lacking run defense more harshly. Until then, I'll be happy to have the #2 ranked defense in both yards and points allowed per game. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the offense has scored a touchdown at all in the first quarter yet. To date, it's been primarily the offense's fault for keeping the Browns close and losing to the Bears, and they didn't look good against the Vikings either. This is supposed to be the better, more experienced unit. It's supposed to be the side of the ball we rely on when the defense falters. Nope, it's actually been mostly the defense who's allowed the offense to get away with its mistakes. When the defense can't hold up because key players such as Tuitt or Watt are injured, we can't rely on the offense to come roaring back with a score on the next possession.

Who is that on? Probably the diva who handles the ball on every snap. But that's just my observation.


^^^^^^^^Ding ding to ALL OF THIS! And prior to this past weekend.......the offense didn't score 10+ points in ANY QUARTER THIS SEASON.............the ONLY TEAM in the entire league that hadn't. 10 points.......one quarter. Didn't happen until 2nd qtr vs Ravens.

That's frankly an embarrassment for Ben and this group, especially given the opponents face in the first quarter of the season........two of them hamstrung significantly by injuries. The offense should be carrying this defense and making things much easier on it every week. The fact that they're #2 in both yards and points allowed despite Pitt being in the BOTTOM FIVE in 3rd down conversion % and 3-n-out occurrences..........in the entire league, is pretty damn impressive.

 

Alex Smith is a little too far along in his career for me to covet him, personally. The Colts happen to suck with a pair of good-to-potentially-great QBs with a lot of years left. They might be chomping at the bit to get all the draft picks they can, and I'd even be willing to throw Martavis Bryant into the mix.