The Return of Socrates Mendenhall

[Dan Smith--BYU]

Rashard Mendenhall is to football what Steven Seagal is to Hollywood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVsGUw9FWoc

And both are slow moving glaciers at this point.

[USS Steelerworks]

Forget the Roethlisberger INT and the Mendenhall fumble. The reality is that the Steelers had the ball at midfield with a minute to play and a chance to win the game. I blame Mike Wallace for not knowing what he’s doing on offense at the of the game more so than either turnover.

[K_C_]

Forget the Roethlisberger INT and the Mendenhall fumble. The reality is that the Steelers had the ball at midfield with a minute to play and a chance to win the game. I blame Mike Wallace for not knowing what he’s doing on offense at the of the game more so than either turnover.

Disagree.

The Steelers had taken the lead and were driving for another score.

They had established control of the game. I remember watching that game with a Packers fan friend of mine who was about ready to give up.

He saw the Steelers were heading in for the kill shot.....then Mendenhall put it on the ground and everything changed.

[bradshaw2ben]

Actually, I blame the person who drafted Kemoeatu. He nearly got Ben knocked out for the season by letting the Texans best pass rusher a free run at the QB in week 1, then whiffed on the most crucial play of the Super Bowl. Just having an average LG who didn't make mistakes like that would have been so much better.

[gojira5150]

Forget the Roethlisberger INT and the Mendenhall fumble. The reality is that the Steelers had the ball at midfield with a minute to play and a chance to win the game. I blame Mike Wallace for not knowing what he’s doing on offense at the of the game more so than either turnover.

Disagree.

The Steelers had taken the lead and were driving for another score.

They had established control of the game. I remember watching that game with a Packers fan friend of mine who was about ready to give up.

He saw the Steelers were heading in for the kill shot.....then Mendenhall put it on the ground and everything changed.

Agree 100%. Steelers were imposing their will and running it down their throats. Then Mendenfumble coughs up the rock We score on that drive and it's 7 SB's.

[Professor Half Wit]

Actually, I blame the person who drafted Kemoeatu. He nearly got Ben knocked out for the season by letting the Texans best pass rusher a free run at the QB in week 1, then whiffed on the most crucial play of the Super Bowl. Just having an average LG who didn't make mistakes like that would have been so much better.

This was my original point about Ben and Mendy. That o line was some kind of shit-tay and the main reason for the loss in my opinion.

[Professor Half Wit]

Just watched that clip.

While the line did get blown-up, there was certainly something he could do like ummmm secure the damn ball because you are about to get hit.

A hit he saw coming.

A hit he made no effort to avoid.

Screw him.

Go watch the BR7 interception and tell me the same thing can’t be argued.

Again, a QB who is in the motion of throwing a football is a completely different animal than a RB, heading into what he KNOWS will be contact, not securing a football.

If Ben is given an extra "nanosecond", that's a TD.

Ben doesn’t see his lineman being walked back into his face?

[K_C_]

Go watch the BR7 interception and tell me the same thing can’t be argued.

Again, a QB who is in the motion of throwing a football is a completely different animal than a RB, heading into what he KNOWS will be contact, not securing a football.

If Ben is given an extra "nanosecond", that's a TD.

Ben doesn’t see his lineman being walked back into his face?

Ben was focused on the safety and using the pump fake to make him bite....and he did.

No, he was not watching or expecting Kemo to get walked back into his throwing motion almost immediately.

.....and again, a QB in the process of throwing the football deep downfield is very different from a RB securing the ball when he runs into the line of scrimmage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8iqMXy ... nceofNaija

[bradshaw2ben]

Again, a QB who is in the motion of throwing a football is a completely different animal than a RB, heading into what he KNOWS will be contact, not securing a football.

If Ben is given an extra "nanosecond", that's a TD.

Ben doesn’t see his lineman being walked back into his face?

Ben was focused on the safety and using the pump fake to make him bite....and he did.

No, he was not watching or expecting Kemo to get walked back into his throwing motion almost immediately.

.....and again, a QB in the process of throwing the football deep downfield is very different from a RB securing the ball when he runs into the line of scrimmage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8iqMXy ... nceofNaija

Mendenhall was nowhere near running into the LOS. Usually, it takes anyone an instant or two to secure the ball once they get possession.

[K_C_]

Ben doesn’t see his lineman being walked back into his face?

Ben was focused on the safety and using the pump fake to make him bite....and he did.

No, he was not watching or expecting Kemo to get walked back into his throwing motion almost immediately.

.....and again, a QB in the process of throwing the football deep downfield is very different from a RB securing the ball when he runs into the line of scrimmage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8iqMXy ... nceofNaija

Mendenhall was nowhere near running into the LOS. Usually, it takes anyone an instant or two to secure the ball once they get possession.

Mendenhall was handed the ball and took three steps forward before he got hit.

That's plenty of time to secure the ball, which he didn't do a good enough job of doing.

Mendenhall was not hit the very second he was handed the ball. At all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEINLjY ... UTombstone

[Professor Half Wit]

Ben was focused on the safety and using the pump fake to make him bite....and he did.

No, he was not watching or expecting Kemo to get walked back into his throwing motion almost immediately.

.....and again, a QB in the process of throwing the football deep downfield is very different from a RB securing the ball when he runs into the line of scrimmage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8iqMXy ... nceofNaija

Mendenhall was nowhere near running into the LOS. Usually, it takes anyone an instant or two to secure the ball once they get possession.

Mendenhall was handed the ball and took three steps forward before he got hit.

That's plenty of time to secure the ball, which he didn't do a good enough job of doing.

I agree that Ben must have been seriously focused on the safety not to notice what was developing in front of his face.

[K_C_]

Mendenhall was nowhere near running into the LOS. Usually, it takes anyone an instant or two to secure the ball once they get possession.

Mendenhall was handed the ball and took three steps forward before he got hit.

That's plenty of time to secure the ball, which he didn't do a good enough job of doing.

I agree that Ben must have been seriously focused on the safety not to notice what was developing in front of his face.

Yep. QB's get hit in the process of throwing all the time and that is normally because an o-lineman made a huge mistake.

Kemo got wrecked on a play he absolutely could not get wrecked on.

[jeemie]

Forget the Roethlisberger INT and the Mendenhall fumble. The reality is that the Steelers had the ball at midfield with a minute to play and a chance to win the game. I blame Mike Wallace for not knowing what he’s doing on offense at the of the game more so than either turnover.

Disagree.

The Steelers had taken the lead and were driving for another score.

They had established control of the game. I remember watching that game with a Packers fan friend of mine who was about ready to give up.

He saw the Steelers were heading in for the kill shot.....then Mendenhall put it on the ground and everything changed.

The Steelers never led.

[jeemie]

Forget the Roethlisberger INT and the Mendenhall fumble. The reality is that the Steelers had the ball at midfield with a minute to play and a chance to win the game. I blame Mike Wallace for not knowing what he’s doing on offense at the of the game more so than either turnover.

I blame Ben for seeing the confusion and not calling timeout.

I blame the coaching for obviously not drilling on endgame management.

[Jizz Mop]

Wow are we living in the past

Let it go

Ben almost won 3, he got 2….

Thank God

As one of the elders here, (think Swiss is the grandfather of the site), it was a longgggggggg wait between 1980 and 2006

[K_C_]

Forget the Roethlisberger INT and the Mendenhall fumble. The reality is that the Steelers had the ball at midfield with a minute to play and a chance to win the game. I blame Mike Wallace for not knowing what he’s doing on offense at the of the game more so than either turnover.

Disagree.

The Steelers had taken the lead and were driving for another score.

They had established control of the game. I remember watching that game with a Packers fan friend of mine who was about ready to give up.

He saw the Steelers were heading in for the kill shot.....then Mendenhall put it on the ground and everything changed.

The Steelers never led.

Ah, yes you are correct....but that fumble was still the biggest play of that game.

"A quick defensive stop and a 50-yard drive to Rashard Mendenhall's 8-yard touchdown run made it 21-17. But with coach Mike Tomlin's team driving for perhaps its first lead of the game, Mendenhall was stripped at the Green Bay 33 by Clay Matthews -- one of the few plays the All-Pro linebacker made. The Packers recovered, and Rodgers hit Jennings for 8 yards and the winning points."

[jeemie]

Arians/Ben should have dialed up a pass.

I said so at the time.

Packers were dialing in on the run.

Confirmed to be true with sideline footage of the Packers during the quarter break.

He went to the run game well once too often.

[Kodiak.]

Arians/Ben should have dialed up a pass.

I said so at the time.

Packers were dialing in on the run.

Confirmed to be true with sideline footage of the Packers during the quarter break.

He went to the run game well once too often.

To be fair, Tomlin was probably concerned with scoring too quickly. Getting a TD on the next play is not always the best path to victory.

[Jobu]

Wow are we living in the past

It’s what we do best…

[El Kabong]

The tone for that whole game was set at the beginning, though. From jump, the Steelers looked tight and nervous, the Packers loosey goosey. I remember thinking how the hell could it be that way…the Steelers had been there twice before…the Packers never had. Should have been the exact opposite.

Easing in…

Not necessarily. Maybe the Steelers were the more nervous team for the reason you said. The Steelers had been to two Super Bowls recently. It was expected that they should win this one too. Maybe the weight of those expectations had them nervous to start the game. The Packers hadn't been there recently, weren't necessarily expected to win, and so could play loose. How nervous you are to do something often comes down to your expectations.

IF the Steelers were indeed nervous to start the game because of their high expectations, then maybe that would be why Tomlin would feel the need to ease in (if indeed they did ease it). Because when you're nervous about something, it helps to give yourself some small victories to build your confidence. Do some running plays, complete some small passes, get some first downs, get the team to relax before opening things up.

[El Kabong]

But while I'm thinking about that game, I'm remembering how bad our secondary was at that time and how easy it looked for Rodgers to pick us apart and sometimes for big gains, and there were times when we caught a break because wide open Green Bay receivers dropped balls right to them. Not like we couldn't have won, but it wasn't forgone we were going to win. We needed a mistake free game and didn't have one.

[jeemie]

Arians/Ben should have dialed up a pass.

I said so at the time.

Packers were dialing in on the run.

Confirmed to be true with sideline footage of the Packers during the quarter break.

He went to the run game well once too often.

To be fair, Tomlin was probably concerned with scoring too quickly. Getting a TD on the next play is not always the best path to victory.

I wasn’t suggesting a 50 yard bomb.

[jeemie]

But while I'm thinking about that game, I'm remembering how bad our secondary was at that time and how easy it looked for Rodgers to pick us apart and sometimes for big gains, and there were times when we caught a break because wide open Green Bay receivers dropped balls right to them. Not like we couldn't have won, but it wasn't forgone we were going to win. We needed a mistake free game and didn't have one.

Our secondary was depleted.

We had Anthony Madison back there.

[El Kabong]

But while I'm thinking about that game, I'm remembering how bad our secondary was at that time and how easy it looked for Rodgers to pick us apart and sometimes for big gains, and there were times when we caught a break because wide open Green Bay receivers dropped balls right to them. Not like we couldn't have won, but it wasn't forgone we were going to win. We needed a mistake free game and didn't have one.

Our secondary was depleted.

We had Anthony Madison back there.

Oh yeah. It hurt to lose Sanders to injury during the game too. I blame the crappy turf of Jerry's Palace. If we have Sanders at the end, maybe we don't have so much confusion on the final drive?

[Jobu]

But while I'm thinking about that game, I'm remembering how bad our secondary was at that time and how easy it looked for Rodgers to pick us apart and sometimes for big gains, and there were times when we caught a break because wide open Green Bay receivers dropped balls right to them. Not like we couldn't have won, but it wasn't forgone we were going to win. We needed a mistake free game and didn't have one.

Our secondary was depleted.

We had Anthony Madison back there.

That also might have been the best game of Rodgers entire career. He was tossing it through the eye of a needle.

[W&M_Steeler]

But while I'm thinking about that game, I'm remembering how bad our secondary was at that time and how easy it looked for Rodgers to pick us apart and sometimes for big gains, and there were times when we caught a break because wide open Green Bay receivers dropped balls right to them. Not like we couldn't have won, but it wasn't forgone we were going to win. We needed a mistake free game and didn't have one.

Our secondary was depleted.

We had Anthony Madison back there.

That also might have been the best game of Rodgers entire career. He was tossing it through the eye of a needle.

Agreed. Rodgers was on fire in SB45. If it weren't for a number of bad drops by his receivers, that game would have gotten ugly.

[anpsteel]

Just so I understand:

Line gets totally blown off the ball and Mendenhall gets nailed and ball pops out, he’s a cunt.

Line gets blown off ball and walked into Ben who throws a lollipop off his back foot for an interception, but Ben did no wrong.

Just checking.

ahhhh

you learn well, young grasshopper

[anpsteel]

Our secondary was depleted.

We had Anthony Madison back there.

That also might have been the best game of Rodgers entire career. He was tossing it through the eye of a needle.

Agreed. Rodgers was on fire in SB45. If it weren't for a number of bad drops by his receivers, that game would have gotten ugly.

That was always my take away from the game.

It was the only SB I felt the team had little chance, going in.

If the Packers receivers don't put the ball on the floor so often, that game is a blow out.

They were running free, up the seam, intermediate crosses, pretty much at will.

It was the sound of Clank, that kept the game close.

[955876]

The tone for that whole game was set at the beginning, though. From jump, the Steelers looked tight and nervous, the Packers loosey goosey. I remember thinking how the hell could it be that way…the Steelers had been there twice before…the Packers never had. Should have been the exact opposite.

Easing in…

Not necessarily. Maybe the Steelers were the more nervous team for the reason you said. The Steelers had been to two Super Bowls recently. It was expected that they should win this one too. Maybe the weight of those expectations had them nervous to start the game. The Packers hadn't been there recently, weren't necessarily expected to win, and so could play loose. How nervous you are to do something often comes down to your expectations.

IF the Steelers were indeed nervous to start the game because of their high expectations, then maybe that would be why Tomlin would feel the need to ease in (if indeed they did ease it). Because when you're nervous about something, it helps to give yourself some small victories to build your confidence. Do some running plays, complete some small passes, get some first downs, get the team to relax before opening things up.

Never ceases to amaze me the lengths you will go to in an attempt to absolve Jibbs from any wrongdoing. Always there to come to his defense. Even when none is deserved.

If someone could lay out all of Jibba's flaws in a game of Twister I have zero doubt you'd amaze all with your ability to pretzel yourself all over that rug to cover them up.

First off, when the betting odds opened for that game guess who was favored? It wasn't the experienced #2 seed Pittsburgh Steelers team with two prior Super Bowls under their belt but rather the #6 seed Packers who's players had never been.

So stating the Steelers were "expected that they should win this one too" is completely made up on your part. Teams expected to win don't open in Vegas as underdogs.

But but the Steelers had the #1 D that year. Ya. And guess who was number 2? I'll give you a hint. It can get real cold where they play and their fans at times wear goofy cheese hats.

But but we had the #12 offense that year. Ok. Guess who was #10? See above.

In addition, that Packers team did not lose a single game that season by more than 4 points. That Packers team never trailed a single game that season by more than 7 points. A feat that no team since the AFL/NFL merger in 1970 accomplished.

If the Steelers players and coaches were nervous it certainly shouldn't have been because they were playing an inferior team they should be widely expected to beat.

It was the exact opposite. They were facing a young hot team every bit their equal. That is why the asshole pucker. That is why Jibbs eased the fuck in.

And if our coaches were worth a damn they would have certainly known from what GB had been "putting on tape" that we were going to have our hands full that day.

Easing in was the absolute worst thing we could have done.

But that is how Jibbs roles.

Now I know some of the vitriol here against him gets over the top at times so you try to be a contrarian and offer some counterpoints. But you are WAAAAY off base with this one as the facts do not support anything you said.

[jeemie]

Like the Steelers in 2005, the 2010 Packers were only the #6 seed because Rodgers got injured and missed several games (the Packers in general got clobbered with injuries…if I recall correctly, at one point they had 19 players on injured reserve).

They don’t have all those injuries and they likely are the number one seed (the Atlanta Falcons were the number one seed that year and the Packers blasted them 48-21).

I remember thinking if only the Eagles or the Bears had beaten them (Eagles came the closest)…I remember not wanting to face them in the Super Bowl.