Don't blame Arians for Steelers' poor offense

By Mike Bires, Beaver County Times Sports Staff
http://www.timesonline.com/sports/steelers/
Published: Saturday, December 27, 2008 12:11 AM EST


You know it’s a meaningless football week in Pittsburgh when the media has to debate Bruce Arians’ future.

Since there’s nothing compelling about the hapless Browns coming to town to close out the regular season, the fate of the Steelers’ offensive coordinator has been a hot topic.


Ben Roethlisberger and Bruce Arians


It started Tuesday at the Mike Tomlin press conference when Tomlin was asked if he stands by his O.C.

“I won’t even dignify that with an answer,” Tomlin snapped.

Good for you, Mike.

Barring a miracle, the Steelers will win their 12th game Sunday. They have already wrapped up the AFC’s No. 2 seed in the upcoming playoffs. And someone asks if the coach stands by his offensive coordinator?

The Steelers may rank 23rd in the NFL in total offense, but that has little to do with Arians managing the Steelers’ offense.

The subject didn’t go away. On Friday during a radio interview on ESPN 1250, Matt Williamson of Scouts Inc. said that Tomlin should fire Arians once this season ends.

I find it hard to believe that a guy who supposedly knows talent and watches tons of videotape actually believes Arians is the cause of the Steelers’ offensive problems.

Granted, I’m not keen on the Tomlin/Arians approach that’s phasing out the fullback. But look around the league. Many teams are doing that, including Indianapolis and New England.

I can list several reasons why the Steelers are sputtering on offense. But here’s the top three:

l The offensive line: This is not breaking news, folks. We knew before the season started that the O-line wasn’t very good, and nothing has changed. In fact, when you consider that guard Kendall Simmons and tackle Marvel Smith have missed most of the season with injuries, the situation up front is worse than expected.

Not all of the 46 sacks of Ben Roethlisberger can be attributed to the O-line. But most are.

l Sloppy performances: How many passes has Santonio Holmes dropped this year? How many passes has Nate Washington dropped? How many times have wide receivers failed to get open? And how about Roethlisberger’s red-zone fumble last week in the first quarter in Tennessee? Was that Arians’ fault?

l The other team’s defense: If the Steelers’ top-ranked defense deserves praise for the way it shuts down opposing offense, other teams playing stingy defense deserve credit, too. Of the defenses that rank 2 through 12, the Steelers have played nine of them.

The bottom line is that Arians is calling plays just the way he did last year. But how quickly people forget.

Last year in Arians’ first season as offensive coordinator, running back Willie Parker led the league in rushing before breaking his leg in late December. Roethlisberger set franchise records with 32 TD passes and a 104.1 passer rating. The Steelers ranked third in rushing and tied for ninth in scoring.

No one complained about Arians then. Nor should they now.