By Alan Shimel
I am amazed at the supposedly smart people who are making the case for Charlie Batch to be the starting quarterback for the Steelers now that Byron Leftwich is hurt and Ben is out for only four games.
I like Charlie Batch. He has been a good trooper for the Steelers, though he has gotten hurt a lot. I think he will make a heck of a quarterback coach sometime soon. But you don’t win in the NFL playing prevent offense.
The reason I am seeing is that Batch will be a great “manager” for the offense. Just what we need. Not someone like Dennis Dixon, who may try to shake things up and could make a key mistake. Come on guys, are you kidding me? This is the NFL we are talking about.
Do you honestly think you are just going to roll over your first four opponents “managing” your offense? Don’t you know on any given Sunday, and all that? If you want to win those games, you need to go out there and grab them.
You don’t win playing a prevent defense, and you sure as heck don’t win playing a prevent offense either! Also, just to recap, we are playing Atlanta, Tennessee, and Baltimore in three of those four weeks. These are not walk-overs, guys. I am not sure where the cockiness comes from that we think somehow we can just manage the offense, running the ball predominantly and win these games. To win in the NFL, you have to go for it.
Can you imagine playing a prevent offense against Baltimore? Ray Lewis will wind up breaking Mendy’s shoulder again. We need to go out there and play for the win. That means establishing the run, passing and putting the players out there that give us the greatest dimensions. Not caretakers.
I, for one, say put Dixon out there. Let the other teams have to game plan for Dixon running. Give them more to think about. This idea that we can let Batch just hand off the ball and win like we did in Carolina is ludicrous. We need a quarterback who is going to challenge the defense, not a caretaker.
About the Author Jim McMillen
The Editor & Chief, the brains so to say, behind Pittsburgh Blitz. Jim is a rabid sports fan who just loves his Stillers, Pens and Buccos. Feel free to contact us at steelerguy26[@]yahoo.com if you have any questions or comments or would like to join our staff and write for Pittsburgh Blitz.
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Ben Roethlisberger won his first 16 games playing prevent offense.
I couldn’t disagree with Zane more, Ben has never been a prevent QB. Sometimes I wish he would be.
As for Charlie Batch, I’ll take a prevent offense from him for 2 more weeks. He’s not capable of any good offense anymore, and if we can just go 1-1 in the two remaining games before Ben comes back I will be ecstatic.