Good Riddance To Bruce Arians. May The Steelers Offensive Finally Shine To It's Potential

[Kipper]

Arians.jpgThat sound you are hearing right now from Steeler Nation isn't a Super Bowl victory celebration to hoist the 7th Lombardi or an AFC championship victory to hoist the 10th Lamar Hunt , it's the sound of joyous celebration over Steelers Offensive Coordinator Bruce Arians' retirement announcement that Head coach Mike Tomlin made to today.

Not since Joe Walton ran the Pittsburgh Steelers Offense had an Offensive coordinator for the Steelers been as ridiculed and well, hated as much as Bruce Arians. While he often received blame for a lot of things that related to happenings out of his control (lousy Offensive Line construction, Offensive Line injuries, Running Back injuries ...), what Bruce Arians never managed to do was take the Pittsburgh Steelers Offense to the next level. the offense's overall production had stagnated under Bruce Arians when it should've improved with consistency.

Do we want to see the Pittsburgh Steelers Offense be as productive in the points category like New England, New Orleans, Green Bay, Detroit and Indianapolis have been over the years? I do. I wouldn't want to see us become what all of those teams have become which is a lot of Offense at the expense of Defense but elite offenses rank top 10 in most Offensive categories. The Pittsburgh Steelers don't.

There's room for improvement.

3 Years prior to Bruce Arians :

Year	Points Scored Per Game	Rank	Yards Per Game	Rank	Red Zone Eff.	Rank
2004	23.2	11	324.0	16	49.23%	21
2005	24.3	9	321.8	15	62.50%	4
2006	22.1	12	357.8	7	50.00%	16

5 Seasons with Bruce Arians :

Year	Points Scored Per Game	Rank	Yards Per Game	Rank	Red Zone Eff.	Rank
2011	20.3	21	372.3	12	50.91%	18
2010	23.4	12	345.3	15	52.46%	14
2009	23.0	12	371.3	7	48.21%	22
2008	21.7	20	311.9	22	55.93%	14
2007	24.6	9	327.4	17	59.32%	7

Ben Roethlisberger has seen his personal statistics in the yardage category increase with consistency but Ben but can we attribute any of that to the schemes and playcalling of Bruce Arians or was this more about Ben Roethlisberger doing what he had always done and the yards being a product of an Offense that was throwing the ball more than it had prior to Bruce Arians becoming the Pittsburgh Steelers Offensive Coordinator.

Year	Attempts	Yards Per Attempt	Yards Per Game
2004	295	8.9	187.2
2005	268	8.9	198.8
2006	469	7.5	234.2
2007	404	7.8	210.3
2008	469	7.0	206.3
2009	506	8.6	288.5
2010	389	8.2	266.7
2011	513	7.9	271.8

It's easy to see that Ben Roethlisberger obvious gained per passing yards per game under Bruce Arians however, his attempts per season increased as well but he was never able to obtain the same Yards Per Attempt numbers he achieved prior to Bruce Arians becoming Offensive coordinator. Had Ben Roethlisberger for example thrown the ball as much in 2005 as he did in say 2009, he'd have easily eclipsed his seasonal best 288.5 yards per game number.

What's mos important to remember si that an Offensive coordinators main job is to get his Offense to score points. It's a shame that the Overall Offense rankings are done by total yards since the true measure of an Offense is how many points that they score. Unfortunately during Arians 5 year reign, the Steelers never improved in either Yards per game or points per game. The entire NFL became more Offensive dominant since Bruce Arians took over as Offensive Coordinator in 2007 and the result was that the Steelers remained around the same in both yardage and scoring ranks as they had under Offensive Coordinator Ken Whisenhunt from 2004-06. the big difference is that Bruce Arians inherited a more experienced and seasoned Quarterback ande operated in a more Offense dominated league. The Steelers should've improved on their offensive numbers, instead they stagnated

Along with the rest of Steeler Nation, I bid you, Bruce Arians, a farewell. It's not a very fond one however. The rest of us are excited to see what the next Offensive Coordinator brings to the Pittsburgh Steelers. We hope that it is a more efficient offense, one that can consistently stay in the top 10 in points scored and total Offense. One that is better than an average to below average Red Zone efficient Offense scoring TD's. An Offense that moved into that elite category of being Top 10 consistently. all of these are things you could not and did not provide as Offensive Coordinator.

Good riddance and when you decide to not stay retired, perhaps the Cleveland Browns will rehire you and can go back to where you belong.

[Crash]

The Steelers ran the ball on 58% of all first down plays in 2011.

The Steelers ran the ball on 65% of all first down plays in the redzone in 2011.

And people wonder why we don't score points?

Arians did what Art II wanted, more commitment to the ground game.

It cost him his job.

[bdeff]

Boy I agree with lots of points you guys made....Sometimes it felt as if Arians play calling became predictable...especially in the Red Zone and Crash sure represented that well... how much of that came from pressure above, I don't have an answer.

Kip it always seems like something was holding with incredibly high powered offense back and of course I almost always inevitably pointed at Arians..

But isn't the offensive coordinator always a scapegoat and the least popular guy in town? No hard feelings towards Arians, It was just time for a change.

[airleg1]

Art II asked for more runs which Bruce provided agreed, but when my ten year old daughter can honestly predict the next play usually with positive results before the play happens then we have a problem...

[Kipper]

The Steelers ran the ball on 58% of all first down plays in 2011.

The Steelers ran the ball on 65% of all first down plays in the redzone in 2011.

And people wonder why we don't score points?

Arians did what Art II wanted, more commitment to the ground game.

It cost him his job.

I'm not sure if Rooney wanted the run game to operate with that much predictability but then again... it was tough to determine if Art wanted us to run "better" or "more". Either way, Arians had issues especially with Red Zone Efficiency like you mentioned, 65% of first down plays in the redzone .. where'd you find that stat by the way?>

[Hambert5958]

Good riddance and when you decide to not stay retired, perhaps the Cleveland Browns will rehire you and can go back to where you belong.

Ouch! What, no gold watch?! Yeah, he never was able to get the offense to its full potential, as bdeff said there was something holding the offense back (I know, BA). It'll be interesting to see how this new hire unfolds.....

[Hambert5958]

Ya know, there’s a lot about the Ben/BA dynamic I don’t get. I mean, Ben and BA supposedly had a great relationship. Ben even said if “I don’t like a play, BA won’t call it.” Is that why they had a great relationship? Cause BA was just a yes man? And if he was a yes man, why didn’t he acquiesce to Ben’s desire to run the hurry up more often (not that Ben could have run a hurry up in the 2nd half of the season). Was MT saying no? Everyone feels that the offense never lived up to its potential under BA. Couldn’t the players see it? Did their egos blind them? Were there no dissenters? There’s some stuff that will stay with the team and we may never know……..

I’m excited about the change, I hope Ben will be too…….

[War Machine]

Farewell, Bruce "Run Mendy Four Times Up The Middle From The Two Yard Line" Arians. Despite what idiots were saying on local radio last night, you were a hideous play caller and a total waste of a lot of other people's potential. Now, **** off!

[Crash]

Ben is said to be upset according to Dulac.

Dulac is also suggesting that Art II was behind this and only informed Arians AFTER he went to his off season home in Georgia.

That's a low rent move. And if Dulac is accurate, I can't see Tomlin being too happy about this either.

Art II is a lawyer, he's not a "football guy". He needs to own, and let his paid "football people" run the team.

[jnn123]

Dulac also says that Tomlin told Arians several times between the loss in Denver and yesterday that he wanted him to come back for next season. On the radio yesterday, though, Rooney was asked about Arians and said it would be Tomlin's decision. Something weird about this story.

Either way, looks like this will lead to Tomlin's first major assistant coaching decision. He's been in the rare situation where he just stuck with both the offensive and defensive coordinators who were already there when he arrived.

[exNCite]

As far as I'm concerned, if MT doesn't like it, he can look for a new gig too. Regardless of the numbers, the O needed to get better this year and they didn't. New blood. End of story.

[Palmetto Steel]

Regardless of the numbers, the O needed to get better this year and they didn't.

While there were several extenuating circumstances, you are correct and I agree... These "issues" face every team every season... Weaknesses need to be addressed.

[Steelreign]

The bottom line is that this is a great offense until they reach the redzone, then it becomes less than pedestrian, where touchdowns turned into field goals. What usually happened was the holding call (#68) or the unnecessary taking of a sack or the unexplained delayed draw with nine in the box. What it all boils down to is poor play calling and bad discipline which ultimately comes back to coaching and falls at the feet of Arians .......since it was his offense. Ben felt that the no-huddle offense would have helped in quite a few situations where it wasn't ran, who's choice was it not to run it? Bruce Arians.

[bleedBnG58]

what Bruce Arians never managed to do was take the Pittsburgh Steelers Offense to the next level.

IMO we have not reached that next level, but we should be capable of doing so with the personnel we have, as long as they commit to building an OL to accomplish the task. The other teams you mentioned in your post have that.

Arians did what Art II wanted, more commitment to the ground game.

It cost him his job.

You can look at it that BA did what Art wanted or you can looked at the way most football fans would....to do something he needed to do, should have been doing.....(in order to have a successful offense)... but failed,........ and that is what cost him his job IMO.

[_SteeL_CurtaiN_]

Ben is said to be upset according to Dulac.

Dulac is also suggesting that Art II was behind this and only informed Arians AFTER he went to his off season home in Georgia.

That's a low rent move. And if Dulac is accurate, I can't see Tomlin being too happy about this either.

Art II is a lawyer, he's not a "football guy". He needs to own, and let his paid "football people" run the team.

Art II is the OWNER and has every right to voice displeaseure about his company and how it is being run. He also has the RIGHT to fire and hire as he sees fit. How he went about it may not have been the most appropriate but he has that right. I have no problem with Arians being fired / retired whatever and if Ben or Tomlin are upset to bad.