Comments on: Ryan Clark Loses His Mind

By: JD

JD — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:15:50 +0000

I agree with Temple. Defense is still ranked highly, but has failed miserably when needed. Really shouldn’t be in that position to begin with. Fault does seem to lie with the offense (and special teams). Roethlisberger is just a good quarterback who is a great scrambler. I don’t know who to look to for blame…receivers, offense line, or Ben himself. I tend to think it’s mostly on Ben…Ben makes hay after the secondary has broken down. He doesn’t seem to find receivers very quickly (like a Manning, or Brady for that matter). Defense can’t stick with receivers forever, and if you give any quarterback enough time, he’ll find someone. Ben is just big enough and mobile enough to get the time for breakdown to happen. Doesn’t take a Buddie Ryan to figure out how to keep Ben contained and get to him. With this ridiculous play calling (3rd and short in the shotgun? TWICE!!!) it plays right into what the defense has been practicing for all week. We’ll see what happens today against GB.

By: Temple3

Temple3 — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:24:27 +0000

“(h)ave” would have fit nicely on line 1. Pardon.

By: Temple3

Temple3 — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:22:06 +0000

I don’t a problem with what Ryan Clark had to say. He clearly and repeatedly affirmed his love for the fans. He is clear about the scope of Steeler Nation and the level of commitment fans have made. He couldn’t have been clearer.

I think his real beef is that the media and some fans are acting as though the defense is equally culpable for the outcomes of the season. The defense, operating without Smith and Polamalu, is still ranked 4th. The offense, for the second year in a row has struggled mightily to score and has turned the ball over when games could have been put away. Every INT Ben has thrown this season has been with a lead or tie. The offense and special teams have surrendered 8 touchdowns. Jeff Reed is ranked next to last in avg kickoff distance.

Between the injuries, the short fields, the offensive turnovers, and the new faces on defense, people need to be honest about the entire team. The defense is ranked 4th and entered the Raider game #1 in fewest TD’s allowed. They’re not as good as last season, but given who is on the field it’s hard to say the unit is not over-performing.

This is not the case for the offense or special teams…and this is the point that Clark is implicitly hammering home in his criticism of the coverage of the defense. It’s just not about Clark and “the fans.” That’s a red herring.

By: Monique

Monique — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:27:12 +0000

Clark misses 4 tackles & when he gets one he wants us all to kiss his butt. I don’t think so. I’ll be glad to see you go ryan! Its not just that we are losing, its the teams we are losing to. They won the superbowl last year for crying out loud. Not that I think he was the main problem, but to insult us fans who bleed black & gold, what a jerk.

By: chris

chris — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:28:31 +0000

Kati, long time, no hear. I was wondering if you were at that Cleveland travesty. It looked like the crowd was 50% Steeler Nation so at least you weren’t alone in your suffering.

And I agree, we do hold the team to a high standard. But I also think we’re realistic in our expectations. If they were 8-8 last season, people wouldn’t be happy but they wouldn’t be near as upset about losing five straight either.

We’re defending Super Bowl champions, for crying out loud.