This NFL season has presented some very unique challenges for teams. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced teams’ to play in largely empty stadiums which have seriously impacted how teams coach and execute their gameplans.
For the Pittsburgh Steelers, recent offensive struggles have been a matter for much discussion. Most have placed the blame squarely at the feet of offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner. This is because of comments coming out about opposing teams calling out plays and tendencies before th offense runs a play.
But on Thursday, Fichtner defended himself in this matter and attempt to rationalize why defenses seem to have him figured out.
I think it’s interesting because the National Football League on both sides of the ball communicates really well, At any one given time, you are going to hear on a second down call, ‘Hey, watch the draw, watch the screen. Watch the deep ball.’ You hear these things all the time. Any time someone says something like that in game, it could have been any one of those three things and you might not have done any of that. There’s always communication. You see it, we feel it. One of the things now is it’s so quiet, you actually hear it. So, you can actually hear coaches on the sidelines. So, you are hearing different things. ‘Hey, watch the screen. Hey, watch the deep ball. He’s blocking.’ You get a whole lot more of that than you ever could have noticed before because of the loudness in the stadium.
All of this is absolutely true and makes perfect sense. But the one fatal flaw with this argument is in the second half against the Indianapolis Colts, when it was clear quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had taken control of the offense, why was it no longer an issue?
Or maybe more importantly, why, if the Colts really were calling out plays and tendencies in the first half, why wasn’t Roethlisberger checking out when he heard it?
