We were at the Pitt 25 yd line. We were down by 1 pt (20-19). Our offensive was clicking on all cylinders on this current drive. Then we run on 1st and 2nd down. On third down we pick up 3 yards on a little dunp pass to bess. Tony Sparano was just content with FG at this point. He didnt want Henne getting picked off or doing something risky on offensive. We kick the FG and Sparano is getting so excited about a stupid field goal. That cost us the game. If we had a superior defensive and good special teams Then i would of played for the FG and let the D win the game for you. If we had gone for the TD it would have made it 25-20 and for sure he would have gone for the 2 pt conversion to put us by a 7 pts (27-20). Even if pitt would have come back and tied the game, Henne would have been more relaxed driving the team to a game winning FG. Bottom line Sparano please dont be so conservative, Go for it!!!!!
Simply bad, especially the 3rd down play. Throw for the 1st down in that situation. Then the rush play before the 2 minute warning in the 4th quarter. Why rush to save 5 seconds when the game is on the line? Take it to the 2, and get your play/s ready. But there's already a 1000 threads about this...
outside of a minority of designed plays, coaches do not "call" plays to specific plays. Neither tony sparano nor dan henning chose to throw to davone bess there, chad henne did.
Sparano doesn't call the offensive plays. I was as excited as he was when the FG was good b/c finally the Phins recaptured the lead. What do you want from the guy? Hands in pockets with a smirk?
you dont give the steelers more opportunity's to make plays then they already get. You always take what points you can and hope they make a mistake. Like fumbling into the endzone. No, they didn't know that Rapestberger would fumble, but they did have faith in their defense. Faith that was and should have been rewarded.
It's not only that he's too conservative, he's too damn indecisive. Watching the Patriots play the Chargers tonight made it readily apparent to me. Chargers had the Pats on the ropes at the end there but Bellichek never panicked he knew what he was going to do and his team out on the field knew what he was going to do well ahead of time. Everybody was on the same page. With Sparano it's like you have players out on the field with no idea what's going on until right before the snap... This jellyfish of a coach really needs to grow a spine fast because he's going to lose the team if it's not to late already.
Tony likes to play Wannyball... in the long run, if he doesnt change it is going to cost him his job.
I don't know about that. Bess was lined up in the backfield and the play looked like it was supposed to go to him all the way. IMO Henning got too conservative and decided to play for a FG...again.
I pretty much thought the same thing. Sparano and Henning were too willing to settle for a field goal. Everytime we get inside the 30, it seems, we call safe plays instead of attacking the endzone. Playing 2nd tier or lower teams this is probably not going to hurt you, but against one of the best teams in the league you can't win like that. I have faith in Sparano to get it right. Hopefully he is learning this lesson.
I know henning calls the plays but the head coach has some input to what plays he should or should not call at certain times of the game. Who is Sparano talking to on his headset all game? His Mom maybe telling his wife what he wants for dinner!!! The Head Coach has input in everything.
i dont think it was. henne looked to the left first iirc so either it was a look off or bess was the 2nd option
I swear less than half of this site realizes that most pass plays aren't designed for one specific person...
This "Playing for a field goal" **** is completely out of hand. It's like people have taken the 3rd and 6th Wildcat call from the Patriots game(Which was a completely reasonable call given the position, score, and time in the game) and now act like any situation in which a field goal is kicked in the red zone was intentional. Bess being lined up in the backfield doesn't mean it was designed to go to him. He wasn't even the first read on the play in question.
get used to it, this is who we are. we get in points range, we r safe, dont risk losing points. play defense sorry but special teams kill us, red zone defense doesnt. we play tough there. qb draws' the exception. we r 3-3 with the toughest 1st 6 games, we r in the thick of it w/ the easier part of the sched coming
And to explain a little further on what you wrote; not only does Henne decide where to throw, most times it's the ONLY choice he has! The Steelers aren't the number one defense in the league this year and in the top 5 most other years because they give up big plays or give the QB a lot of choices. Our offense yesterday did what was needed to win. Our defense did what was needed to win. Was it perfect? No. did the Steelers play perfect? No.
