Dink and dunk alive and well in Pittsburgh
Boy, have things changed.
Last week, after the New York Jets’ head coach Todd Bowles all but surrendered to the Steelers by punting on fourth-and-two from his 46-yard line and behind 24-13 with 7:30 left in the game, the Steelers didn’t run out the clock.
They passed it out.
Remember the good, old days when the Steelers would take possession of the ball at that point in the game and run it down their opponent’s throat?
The Steelers took over at their 21-yard line with 7:29 to go, went on a 79-yard touchdown drive and they did it with four runs and nine passes.
It was the best evidence yet that it’s become way to easy to complete a pass in the NFL.
Ben Roethlisberger had a streak of 13 straight completions at one point in the drive, but it wasn’t exactly riveting football excitement.
Eight-yard out to wide open Sammie Coates
Fifteen-yard out to Antonio Brown incomplete but a pass interference call.
Four-yard pass to Jesse James over the middle.
With 2:06 left and second-and-six, from an empty set, a quick 8-yard slant to Brown.
On the first play after the two-minute warning it’s first-and-goal from the seven and Roethlisberger throws incomplete in the end zone for Bell.
After Bell takes a pitchout and runs out of bounds (why?), it’s third-and-goal from the five with 1:51 left when Roethlisberger hits Coates on the goal line for a touchdown.
The dink and dunk is alive and well in Pittsburgh.
And who can blame Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley for passing out the clock? It’s so obvious it’s all but impossible to stop a better-than-average quarterback from completing passes at will in the NFL in 2016.
But is it exciting?
Sorry, but you can have dink-dunking out the clock.
I’ll take Jerome Bettis making opposing tacklers look at the clock hoping they don’t have to tackle him again.
Steelers fans watching last week had no complaints. Their team won, but what about football fans with no rooting interest? They’re the ones who determine what kind of ratings the networks are going to get and the ratings are dropping.
Opening up the passing game was supposed to make the games more exciting, and if you saw numbers like the ones Roethlisberger put up against the Jets – 34 of 47, 380 yards, 4 TDs, no interceptions – even 10 years ago, you would have thought that it was a wildly exciting game.
It wasn’t.
It was kind of boring, unless you were a Steelers fan.
At halftime last week, the CBS crew showed highlights of Tom Brady’s return from his suspension. They raved about his numbers in the first half: 271 passing yards and two touchdowns. They showed four plays: two screen passes, a dump over the middle to the tight end caught less than five yards from the line of scrimmage, and a beautiful long TD pass.
Brady finished 28 of 40 for 406 yards with three touchdown passes and no interceptions. That made Brady and Roethlisberger a combined 62 of 87 for 780 yards and seven touchdowns with no interceptions.
OK, so those guys are elite quarterbacks – probably the two best in the NFL.
Brian Hoyer was 33 of 43 for 397 yards with two TDs and no interceptions. His team lost. Since he’s a journeyman who’s played on several teams, I’ll save you the trouble of looking it up.
He plays for Chicago and the Bears lost the game.
Kick returners are already headed down the road to extinction and running backs are on the endangered species list. I’m not so sure that’s going to help future TV ratings.
John Steigerwald writes a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter.