Joe Greene OK with idea of 'new' offensive plan

[Palmetto Steel]

Joe Greene OK with idea of 'new' offensive plan
Saturday, February 04, 2012
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

INDIANAPOLIS -- Count Joe Greene among those happy to see the Steelers move to change their approach on offense.

"If it doesn't feel good, you have to change it and, basically, it wasn't feeling good," Greene said Friday. "It wasn't feeling good in '09, and it wasn't feeling good in 2011."

Greene, a Hall of Fame defensive tackle chosen the most important player in Steelers history, spent time promoting a new commercial for Procter & Gamble that is a takeoff on his famous Coke commercial 32 years ago which won a Clio.

Greene, a special assistant in the Steelers personnel department since '04, said watching the offense last season was difficult for him.

"I don't like the imbalance," he said in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He implied the Steelers could be playing Sunday in the Super Bowl had there been smarter play-calling on offense.

Steelers president Art Rooney II essentially fired offensive coordinator Bruce Arians when he did not offer him a contract renewal after the season. Monday, the Indianapolis Colts hired Arians as their offensive coordinator.

greeneed_330.jpg"I don't disagree with him," Greene said of Rooney's move.

The Steelers offense last season ranked 12th in the NFL in total yards but 21st in points scored. Coach Mike Tomlin has been interviewing candidates for a new offensive coordinator.

Greene said his complaint with the offense did not lie in the ratio of runs to passes but in the lack of commitment to run, especially in obvious situations.

"Look at the teams that are here,'' Greene said of the Super Bowl matchup between the New England Patriots and New York Giants. "There is a method to their madness, there is a system, you can see what they're trying to do.

"When New England played the [Baltimore] Ravens [in the AFC championship game], had they continued trying to throw the football, they would have lost it. They decided they had to run it, but they couldn't line up and show you they were going to run it, they had to look like they were going to throw the pass, and that's when they ran the ball on them. And that allowed them to score a couple touchdowns.

"And the Giants, they run the football pretty good, but they mix in the pass, and they can throw the ball.

"The thing that people don't understand with us, I've heard it said ... 'We want to throw the football because we have all the people.' Well, hell, [in the 1970s], we had Terry Bradshaw, John Stallworth, Lynn Swann; we had Jimmy Smith, we had the tight end. We could throw the ball when we had to, and we could run it when we had to. That's football! You do what you have to do when you have to do it -- run it when you need to, throw it when you need to. It's not all one way. I think that's what we didn't get."

Greene, who attends training camp with the rest of the scouts for at least the first two weeks, said the commitment to run should start there, and he did not see that.

"That means you have to practice it, that's the thing. For 18 years [as an NFL defensive coach], one of the things that I did was draw up the running game for 9 on 7 and for team," Greene said of those practice sessions. "And there is always a weakness in a defense for the run, but you have to be able to look for it. You don't just call the run because you get tired of throwing it or because someone wants you to."

Greene blamed the Steelers loss Nov. 6 to Baltimore on the offense's inability to run the clock with the lead. The Ravens drove 92 yards in the final two minutes to score the winning touchdown with eight seconds left, 23-20. He also noted that, even in the regular-season finale at Cleveland, the Browns were throwing desperation passes with a chance to win at the end, chances Greene believes they would not have had if the offense had used the clock better.

"In our second game against Baltimore, if we play smart football, we're going to be in a position to host the AFC championship game," Greene said. "I just think that we let this opportunity get away."

He has faith, however, that the Steelers will find someone to improve their offense for '12.

"Oh, yeah. The organization is a great organization, and, sometimes, great organizations stub their toes."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035...#ixzz1lQyAuaEg

.
.
.

Three decades after his Coke commercial won advertising's version of the Oscar, Joe Greene and his No. 75 Steelers jersey make a comeback in another Super Bowl spot on television.

The new commercial relies heavily on the old one, only the Coke bottle has been replaced by a container of Downy Unstopables laundry product. And Greene's sweaty jersey plays a different kind of role in this one.

[exNCite]

He's absolutely correct and I thank Mr. Rooney for doing what apparently Tomlin was incapable of or unwilling to do.

[Hambert5958]

Greene blamed the Steelers loss Nov. 6 to Baltimore on the offense's inability to run the clock with the lead. The Ravens drove 92 yards in the final two minutes to score the winning touchdown with eight seconds left, 23-20.

Oh ****!!! Wait till crash see's this..........

[Palmetto Steel]

Oh ****!!! Wait till crash see's this..........

... I thought this thread topic would **** him off. Still had to post it....

[War Machine]

"If Joe says he doesn't like something, we all don't like it." - Rocky Bleier

I'm with Rocky.

[_SteeL_CurtaiN_]

Oh ****!!! Wait till crash see's this..........

Joe obviously wants Ben gone

[Hambert5958]

Joe obviously wants Ben gone

[Steelreign]

"If Joe says he doesn't like something, we all don't like it." - Rocky Bleier

I'm with Rocky.

X2

[Crash]

"When New England played the [Baltimore] Ravens [in the AFC championship game], had they continued trying to throw the football, they would have lost it. They decided they had to run it, but they couldn't line up and show you they were going to run it, they had to look like they were going to throw the pass, and that's when they ran the ball on them. And that allowed them to score a couple touchdowns.

So let me see if I have this straight. 70s Yinzer Joe Greene thinks that the Patriots running in that game, somehow made Lee Evans drop a game winning TD, and then made Cundiff hook a 34 yard FG that would have sent the game to OT?

Did someone ever ask Joe Greene why he wouldn't sign Steelers stuff 10 YEARS after he was passed over for Noll's job because he was still bitter?

I guess the bitterness subsides when he's now cashing Rooney's checks again.

He's irrelevant. A side show. He's Joe Louis at Ceaser Palace being a greeter.

[bdeff]

He's irrelevant. A side show. He's Joe Louis at Ceaser Palace being a greeter.

Can we get him to come to the tailgate in June? I'll pop for the first $200 of his appearance fee.

I don't think Joe Greene will ever be irrelevant in Pittsburgh.

[Kipper]

He's absolutely correct and I thank Mr. Rooney for doing what apparently Tomlin was incapable of or unwilling to do.

Absolutely right? He absolved the defense of ANY blame to loses to Baltimore and Denver in which the "#1" ranked defense was incapable of stopping Joe Flacco in under 2 minutes from scoring a TD and preventing Tim Tebow and an *** Offense from racking up 29 points on them. As soon as I saw that I disregarded the rest of what Joe Greene said simply because his argument was built up on ignorance and Defensive bias. He's not a Head Coach anywhere for a good reason and was a poor Defensive Coordinator on top of that.

[Crash]

I don't believe was ever a DC. He was always a line coach or an assistant.

[exNCite]

Absolutely right? He absolved the defense of ANY blame to loses to Baltimore and Denver in which the "#1" ranked defense was incapable of stopping Joe Flacco in under 2 minutes from scoring a TD and preventing Tim Tebow and an *** Offense from racking up 29 points on them. As soon as I saw that I disregarded the rest of what Joe Greene said simply because his argument was built up on ignorance and Defensive bias. He's not a Head Coach anywhere for a good reason and was a poor Defensive Coordinator on top of that.

I'm not arguing your points. Did the defense fail? Sure, but it goes back to what I've been saying on a number of threads for awhile now. The best defense is to keep the other teams offense on the bench, and from that regard our offense sucked. We ran up a lot of yards but didn't score many points. We didn't control the ball well enough. I think that's some of what Green was referring to and and I think he's correct. I'm looking forward to seeing what a fresh set of eyes and testicles will do with the talent we have on the O-side of the ball.

[Crash]

The best defense is to keep the other teams offense on the bench

So the Steelers were 2nd in the NFL in TOP in 2011, and yet 7 of the 10 highest paid Steelers play defense.

We are in DEEP TROUBLE, if this defense needs protected by the offense holding the ball.