On The Steelers: No-huddle Offense 'superb'

On The Steelers: No-huddle offense 'superb'
By Ed Bouchette / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/s...s/201409080155

As promised, the no-huddle offense made its presence known in the season opener to great success and the Steelers plan to see it much more in the games ahead.
Joe Flacco and the Baltimore Ravens, in fact, probably cannot wait to use it Thursday night against a Steelers defense that could not stop the Cleveland Browns when they deployed it in the second half Sunday at Heinz Field.
“Absolutely, absolutely,” defensive end Brett Keisel said, the relief on his face and those of his teammates quite obvious after they nearly blew a big one to the Browns before pulling out a 30-27 victory.
“This is a big-time copycat league. When teams are moving the ball on you, other teams are going to see that and try to exploit that as well.
“It’s something we will look at, something we will address, and I’m sure it’s something we’re going to work on.”
Count on the Ravens, the Carolina Panthers and every other upcoming opponent to work on using the hurry-up offense against a defense that could not protect a 27-3 halftime lead against what looked like a collection of crash dummies wearing orange and white uniforms.
Quarterback Brian Hoyer, cut by the Steelers two years ago after a brief stay, lost three starters and still managed to gouge the Steelers for three touchdowns and a field goal on Cleveland’s first four possessions of the second half.
With their own offense gone silent, the Steelers found themselves in a 27-27 dogfight with a team they just had muzzled in the first two quarters.
Hoyer — Johnny Manziel never played a snap — worked without star wide receiver Josh Gordon, on NFL suspension, and then lost starting back Ben Tate and his next best receiver, tight end Jordan Cameron, to injuries in the game. It did not seem to matter.
Rookie halfback Isaiah Crowell, who went undrafted from Alabama State, ran for consecutive touchdowns up the middle of 3 and 15 yards.
Another rookie halfback, Terrance West, who played at Towson this time last year, ran around and through the black-and-gold traffic cones that were Steelers and finished with 100 yards and a 6.3 average.
The young and transitioning Steelers defense looked shaky, as it had through much of the preseason.
“I think sometimes we didn’t get a chance to set our defense like we wanted to,” defensive end Cam Heyward said of the Browns’ hurry-up offense.
Said Keisel, “This is a new thing teams are doing and we have to find a way to stop it.”
They’ll have three days to do so.
Momentum shifts
As the Steelers offense left the field near the end of the first half before Shaun Suisham kicked a 34-yard field goal for a 27-3 lead, the fans at Heinz Field gave them a standing ovation.
By the time the Browns tied it early in the fourth quarter, the fans booed lustily.
“Yeah, I heard it,” said halfback Le’Veon Bell.
“We weren’t executing so I understand the frustration of the fans. They saw our offense in the first half. I can only imagine as a fan when they saw us strike like that and then we’re not doing anything. It’s like, what’s going on?”
The offense was superb in those first two quarters, nearly as unstoppable as Cleveland’s offense was over the next two with Bell taking a big part of the lead. Yet just as their defense melted down in the second half, their offense fell silent almost to the end.
They fell victim to the prevent offense. They sat on their lead, or at least tried to.
“The second half, we huddled up to kind of slow it down and use up some clock on the ball a little bit,” said quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who threw for a career-high 278 yards in a first half.
“They started getting momentum, and momentum can be an amazing thing in this league.”
The Steelers had none. Roethlisbeger, sacked just seven times over seven games in the second half of 2013, was sacked four times, three in the second half.
Antonio Brown, who had five catches for 116 yards in the first half, had none in the second.
The Steelers scored just three points in the second half, but they did it just in the nick of time. Their defense finally was able to stop the Browns when Cam Heyward sacked Hoyer for a 6-yard loss back to his 14, and cornerback William Gay came up with two big plays on a pass defense and a tackle for a 5-yard loss.
The Browns punted, the Steelers took over at their 43 with 47 seconds left.
“There was never panic, never worry on my behalf,” Roethlisberger said.
He completed three passes, his final two to Markus Wheaton for 31 yards, then spiked the ball at the 24 with five seconds left. Suisham came on and kicked the 41-yard winning field goal and became the answer to a trivia question, kicking field goals on the final play of each half.
Bell impressive
Bell had his best game with 109 yards rushing, a 5.2-yard average, a sweet 38-yard touchdown run where he weaved through the Cleveland defense and another six receptions for 88 yards.
He is a fantasy football owner’s dream.
A quarterback’s too.
“I thought he ran the ball hard, caught the ball, got open and blocked well,” Roethlisberger said. “I thought this was a game that everyone got to see what he can do. He did a little bit of everything.”
Roethlisberger recalls how in the past a back might tap on his helmet when he got tired to come out of the game. He told Bell this summer that if they were running the no-huddle and he got a little winded, to let him know and he’d call a play to not involve him so he could catch his breath and not disrupt the no-huddle.
He said it happened once on Sunday.
“I thought his endurance and conditioning was superb.”