Comments on: Bettis knows his audience

By: Steelers4Life

Steelers4Life — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:35:32 +0000

killachap says: September 16, 2009 6:43 AM
Here’s a new concept. Maybe Ben just sucks and doesnt know when he should throw the ball? No O-line can provide protection for 10 seconds like Ben wants. Maybe he is just the over rated one, i mean he did have a defense win him 2 superbowls.
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News flash Einstein…these articles are particularly about the run game, is the lack of run blocking Ben’s fault too somehow? And do you really believe that an OL that can’t run block effectively can pass block effectively? We all know full well that some of it is the fact that Ben holds on to the ball too long, but so do a lot of QB’s. The only difference is QB’s like Brady and both Mannings have very good OLs blocking for them.
Oh, and in case you didn’t watch the last SB, the Steelers defense is what let the Cardinals gain the lead…Ben and the offense are the ones who won it in the end.

By: Darth Ringo

Darth Ringo — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:17:39 +0000

Bob Labriola, the editor of Steelers Digest, has been critical of the O-line too.

By: mike

mike — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:52:05 +0000

My ass feels dirty after reading all these comments. Where’s my Steelers towel?

By: mrmagoo

mrmagoo — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:14:20 +0000

mborz says:
September 15, 2009 11:10 PM
steeler-hater said: “Anyone who thinks that Bettis doesn’t know what the hell he is talking about please state what exactly he said that is incorrect.”
Who said Bettis doesn’t know what he’s talking about
_____________________
No one. Lil’ Suzy here is just trolling for something, anything.

By: Inept_guy

Inept_guy — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:53:25 +0000

This article is total crap. Bettis clearly says they were “serviceable” last year. The line was below average, but not as terrible as people made them out to be. He says the line should be better and need to play well. Obviously after last week, they are not better and didn’t play well, so I don’t understand how you can fault that.
No one in Pittsburgh is under the illusion that the O-line is good. No one would care if Bettis bashed them. The fact is that he said it was one of his concerns and he was hoping it would be better this year. They aren’t. Also in the SI article he doesn’t really fault the O-line. When below average talent gives you a below average performance, you can’t really blame the players.

By: killachap

killachap — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:43:59 +0000

Here’s a new concept. Maybe Ben just sucks and doesnt know when he should throw the ball? No O-line can provide protection for 10 seconds like Ben wants. Maybe he is just the over rated one, i mean he did have a defense win him 2 superbowls.

By: BennyBoy

BennyBoy — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:12:39 +0000

Who cares?
This is a non-story.

By: Barcid

Barcid — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:07:00 +0000

Speaking of ‘Too Big To Fail,’ Steelers sure miss the Bus on 3rd-&-short, eh?

By: Dont Taze Me Bro

Dont Taze Me Bro — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:18:07 +0000

If you ever read anything out of pittsburgh media, you will see that the OL was the biggest concern for this season.
If you ever happen across a steeler message board, you will see that most steeler fans despise the OL and think the high point of OL coach Larry Zierling’s career was when he accidentally emailed porn to the entire league.

By: lichnor

lichnor — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:56:19 +0000

************NEWSFLASH************
Jerome Bettis says what every Steelers fan in the country is thinking!
Film @ 11.

By: Steelers4Life

Steelers4Life — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:31:47 +0000

@Steeler-hater
I think this is simply Florio trying to find a story where there isn’t one.
You can go to pretty much any Steelers forum and find that the fans that post there share the same concerns as Bettis.
I have no clue why this article by Bettis required two separate stories by Florio, but I can only assume it’s because he just doesn’t want to go into too much detail about how Brady nearly choked against the Bills.
Again, to make it perfectly clear…every Steelers fan is concerned about the OL. We all know that the Steelers players and coaches will not publicly bash the OL and offensive coaches (other than the implied bashing that Parker handed out last year, that was quickly shot down). So it’s a bit refreshing honestly to see the truth printed out by someone who knows what the Steelers offense could and should be like.

By: thepittsburghkid

thepittsburghkid — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:31:41 +0000

read 6 time Super Bowl Champion bitch.

By: GregO

GregO — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:15:59 +0000

These comments are not at all discordant. In both he calls out the offensive line as an area of concern. So he chose to use the word “serviceable” on the 10th, big deal in each case he was consistent with what he believes to be the biggest area of concern.
I am not sure what you are getting out of these that are different. Do you actually expect him to say the exact same thing each time? Sometimes the standards that you try to hold people to are ridiculous and I am sure you cannot live up to them yourself.
Glass houses my friend.

By: mborz

mborz — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:10:56 +0000

steeler-hater said: “Anyone who thinks that Bettis doesn’t know what the hell he is talking about please state what exactly he said that is incorrect.”
Who said Bettis doesn’t know what he’s talking about?

By: steeler-hater

steeler-hater — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:40:05 +0000

Anyone who thinks that Bettis doesn’t know what the hell he is talking about please state what exactly he said that is incorrect.
Trouble is, good luck finding it. What he said is the truth. It’s just some people hate hearing the ugly truth about their sports teams so much they get ticked off when they are forced to confront it, especially when it comes from an ex-player who’s butt the fans used to brown-nose a lot…

By: ppdoc13

ppdoc13 — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:35:59 +0000

Much as I hated Bettis as a player for the Steelers, I find him to be a good color analyst. Both he and Chris Collinsworth don’t mind saying something controversial but when they talk they don’t sound like morons (see Meshawn Johnson.)
Bettis is a thoughtful well spoken man. Personally, I hope he is right about the Squealers, but (hate to admit it) Jen Worthlessbuger has the ability to overcome deficiency in his line because of his size, strength and his knack for keeping a play alive.
The real question in my mind is given the number of major hits he has taken (mostly by Ravens!!!!) will he be one of those QB’s like a Steve McNair who has a limited shelf life in the NFL before he starts to physically break down. (in Baltimore we all hope so.)
I would suspect that most Steeler fans will give Bettis a pass on his comments. He has a lot of good will in the fan base and while his comments are critical they are not inappropriate.
That was as close to complimenting the Steelers as I can get. I hope Mr. Magoo and Frank Burns are watching, because it was damned painful.

By: C.Bass

C.Bass — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:18:55 +0000

TimTheFairy

By: Beezer

Beezer — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:14:16 +0000

How is that a “remarkably different content and tone?” He called the offensive line from last year serviceable and said it should improve with familiarity. Criticizing the lines poor play after calling it serviceable is not that bad. It’s not like the bus said the line was among the best in the league. Relax Florio don’t get offended by the bus criticizing your favorite team. They will be fine as long as Ben learns to release the ball a little quicker.

By: Kidekk

Kidekk — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:06:45 +0000

Still, though it’s smart for Bettis to gauge his message to his audience, consistency of message is fairly important, too.
—————–
And who would know better than Mike Florio.

By: Anrkist

Anrkist — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:51:11 +0000

Ben got hit pretty hard last year too didn’t he. Not saying his luck wont run out but… the man seems rather resilient. I just remember these same stories… they seem a bit old. People are just waiting to say “I told you so!” and cash in on their great prediction.

By: drub

drub — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:47:07 +0000

Like picking the 22nd power ranking team to win the Super Bowl?

By: this class sucks

this class sucks — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:42:19 +0000

Once again as a life long Steeler fan and huge Bus fan I find nothing wrong with his comments (the “gloves off” comments). He is right that coaching did little to help the line via free agency, instead keeping the line together and improving through the draft (assuming A.Q. Shipley makes the team at some point). I don’t think the result of keeping all their O-line together this year would have been greatly different if they went out and got one or two O-Linemen via free agency. There simply weren’t that many good O-linemen to go out and get, and a trade, in my opinion, is a bad idea because you want to keep as much of your team together as possible if it showed Super Bowl wining results.
But once again, I love the bus, I love the Steelers.

By: TimTheEnchanter

TimTheEnchanter — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:38:10 +0000

You’re implying that Steelers fans can read?

By: leatherneck

leatherneck — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:36:47 +0000

Perhaps Jerome Bettis is the kind of man who says the same thing to one group of people that he said to another.
Ever thought of that? Maybe you haven’t met one of them lately. Bettis is an all-time great football player and writes columns about the sport now. If you want to know what he really thinks, just read anything he writes, regardless of the audience.
Whatever happened to earning the trust of the audience first, and worrying about kissing up to them later? Well, that practice is safe and sound, and Jerome Bettis is out there earning trust every single day.
Why the patronizing attitude toward Steelers fans? They can hear one man’s opinion and not freak out.
Sheesh.

By: TripNasty

TripNasty — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:34:41 +0000

That didn’t really seem like a “remarkably different content and tone” to me. He sounded concerned about the o-line in his article for the Steelers Digest and now sounds more concerned due to the fact that the Steelers didn’t patch up this concern during the off-season.

By: CD_Ridge

CD_Ridge — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:33:53 +0000

As a Steelers fan, I really don’t care if the Bus tones his message down for one publication and not for another. He happens to be right. The Bus criticizing the current O-line will not tarnish my view of him one bit.

By: mborz

mborz — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:33:11 +0000

I don’t know Florio, the Steelers fans here at PFT are pretty die hard, and when you brought this up earlier, there were almost no people offended by what Bettis said. The vast majority of them agreed with his assessment.
Bettis has taken his gloves off before, including his book, which was targeted squarely at Pittsburgh fans. If he’s going to be so completely candid in a book, I don’t know if he’d really approach an article differently (which will typically have a much shorter lifespan).

By: American

American — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:32:06 +0000

This does not seem like a story worth posting….and I am not a fan of the Steelers. Who cares?
Plus, in both cases, I’m sure there was a staff writer fluffing things up to fit *gasp* their audience.
Really, who cares? Waste of time. Real football has begun, talk about that.

By: lebowski

lebowski — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:26:03 +0000

Jeez, nitpicky much?!? Favre needs to do something soon to give you a good story.

By: Abe Froeman

Abe Froeman — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:24:19 +0000

ehhhhh, what up doc