Great read about why our D sucks so bad.

[Steelworth]

I just had a thought. Maybe the steelers love the empty set so much and they feature switzer because in practice, switzer ends up being covered by Vince Williams and it looks as unstoppable as it does when the Pats do it.

Hell, that's a win for the defense. Switzer is a) not quick b) not shifty c) not ******* fast

So Vince is having a field day out there in practice. He wasn't trailing Gordon by too much actually so give the guy credit.

 

[stillwright]

Tomlin is a moron and he hired Butler so what did you expect? The DB's still suck. The formations suck. And we have some new players. It's a mess right now.

Butler was on the coaching staff before Tomlin was and hired and it is well known he passed up other DC gigs while he was our LBer coach because he was promised he would eventually replace Dick.

 

[SojournerSteel]

Butler was on the coaching staff before Tomlin was and hired and it is well known he passed up other DC gigs while he was our LBer coach because he was promised he would eventually replace Dick.

It bears repeating what Jim Wexell wrote after the playoff disaster vs Jax:

"Tomlin won't fire Butler, because he would be firing himself."

Butler may very well be unimaginative and 2 steps behind the '10's, but it's pretty clear this is Tomlin's mess. In the early years as frustrations with "the old white guy" DL grew, the refrain was "Tomlin deserves his own defense," and "I can't wait until Tomlin can have his own system."

Well, after drafting 7 straight years of defense in the first round and losing two generational offensive talents, the results speak for themselves.

Tomlin finally owns all of it.

 

[bermudasteel]

So, your saying it would have been different had Davis been there? If memory serves me, Davis was there in San Diego where this exact defensive scheme allowed Allen to **** all over us - all freakin’ day without any adjustment.
Yes, Allen was covered by LB all game! Davis did nothing and would have done nothing this game either. It’s not about one or even a few players. It’s about the entire defensive scheme that continues to allow this to happen. If Seattle has any brains, they will follow the Pats script and will hand the Steelers there 2nd loss of the season. Our coaches for some reason can’t see it when everyone else does - that’s a 2nd very unfortunate problem for this team!

And you're saying that the defense is the same as last year.

I'm telling you, "no" it's not. Not having Davis out there caused multiple problem at every layer of the defense. Kelly is not a starter - and he's still learning the defense.

Watch and see...

Sent from my SM-N960U using Steeler Nation mobile app

 

[Ron Burgundy]

Butler may very well be unimaginative and 2 steps behind the '10's, but it's pretty clear this is Tomlin's mess. In the early years as frustrations with "the old white guy" DL grew, the refrain was "Tomlin deserves his own defense," and "I can't wait until Tomlin can have his own system.

In fairness the league had caught on to DLB's defense and figured out how to beat it and he refused to adjust or change enough but MT's new system isn't working either.

 

[Vader]

In fairness the league had caught on to DLB's defense and figured out how to beat it and he refused to adjust or change enough but MT's new system isn't working either.

I don't believe it was figured out at all. Tomlin started putting his 2 cents during DL's last few seasons. He got sick of it.

 

[stuntmanmike]

I find the whole thing bizarre... how in gods name does butler and Tomlin think playing everyone out of position is a sound defensive position. its beyond belief. even more bizarre is the solution to the defense schematic problem is on the coaching staff. for a second lets go back to the beginning. the steelers hired a young defensive guru in chuck roll at head coach to turn around a morbid franchise. roll had played for legendary coach Paul brown and coached with offensive genius sid Gillman. Gillman was famous for attacking the whole field, breaking it up into zones and having receivers in those zones. it was nolls job to defend those zones. when he took over the steelers he hired a coach from Penn State "the father of linebacker u" dan radakovich. mad rad and noll went about building a defense that became the famed "steel curtain" defense. it basically rushed four dropped 7 in a mix of man and zone for all intent and purposes to cover those zones. it was based on the Penn State 4-4 defense and its "hero" back, a back that could lineup in the hole or drop back into coverage. the "steel curtain", the Chicago bears, "46 defense", the Seahawk "legion of boom" defense, the "Tampa two" are all based on that defense. on our curtain staff is coach tom Bradley, the last of the old Penn State 4-4 coaches. the steelers should be lining up in a four man line with tuitt, alualu, hardgrave, and Heywood on the line then drop seven good coverage men again the empty backfield formations, zone blitzing the free guy. that's it and that's all... and all this other horse **** that they are doing which has never and never will work needs to go into the garbage bind. just play fukn football the WPA way the we know its played! how hard it that??

 

[stillwright]

I find the whole thing bizarre... how in gods name does butler and Tomlin think playing everyone out of position is a sound defensive position. its beyond belief. even more bizarre is the solution to the defense schematic problem is on the coaching staff. for a second lets go back to the beginning. the steelers hired a young defensive guru in chuck roll at head coach to turn around a morbid franchise. roll had played for legendary coach Paul brown and coached with offensive genius sid Gillman. Gillman was famous for attacking the whole field, breaking it up into zones and having receivers in those zones. it was nolls job to defend those zones. when he took over the steelers he hired a coach from Penn State "the father of linebacker u" dan radakovich. mad rad and noll went about building a defense that became the famed "steel curtain" defense. it basically rushed four dropped 7 in a mix of man and zone for all intent and purposes to cover those zones. it was based on the Penn State 4-4 defense and its "hero" back, a back that could lineup in the hole or drop back into coverage. the "steel curtain", the Chicago bears, "46 defense", the Seahawk "legion of boom" defense, the "Tampa two" are all based on that defense. on our curtain staff is coach tom Bradley, the last of the old Penn State 4-4 coaches. the steelers should be lining up in a four man line with tuitt, alualu, hardgrave, and Heywood on the line then drop seven good coverage men again the empty backfield formations, zone blitzing the free guy. that's it and that's all... and all this other horse **** that they are doing which has never and never will work needs to go into the garbage bind. just play fukn football the WPA way the we know its played! how hard it that??

You have to realize there will always only be one coach roll.

 

[Vader]

I find the whole thing bizarre... how in gods name does butler and Tomlin think playing everyone out of position is a sound defensive position. its beyond belief. even more bizarre is the solution to the defense schematic problem is on the coaching staff. for a second lets go back to the beginning. the steelers hired a young defensive guru in chuck roll at head coach to turn around a morbid franchise. roll had played for legendary coach Paul brown and coached with offensive genius sid Gillman. Gillman was famous for attacking the whole field, breaking it up into zones and having receivers in those zones. it was nolls job to defend those zones. when he took over the steelers he hired a coach from Penn State "the father of linebacker u" dan radakovich. mad rad and noll went about building a defense that became the famed "steel curtain" defense. it basically rushed four dropped 7 in a mix of man and zone for all intent and purposes to cover those zones. it was based on the Penn State 4-4 defense and its "hero" back, a back that could lineup in the hole or drop back into coverage. the "steel curtain", the Chicago bears, "46 defense", the Seahawk "legion of boom" defense, the "Tampa two" are all based on that defense. on our curtain staff is coach tom Bradley, the last of the old Penn State 4-4 coaches. the steelers should be lining up in a four man line with tuitt, alualu, hardgrave, and Heywood on the line then drop seven good coverage men again the empty backfield formations, zone blitzing the free guy. that's it and that's all... and all this other horse **** that they are doing which has never and never will work needs to go into the garbage bind. just play fukn football the WPA way the we know its played! how hard it that??

The Steelers have won their last 2 SBs with the 3-4 defense. The 08' defense is one of the best defenses of all time. Probably 90% of the league play the 4-3 defense and they aren't all good. So to me it isn't about the type of defense but what you are doing with the players you have. You aren't changing a defensive scheme after 1 game into a new season. Right now the need to figure out what they want to do to stop having LB lined up on WRs. You'd think someone during the summer would have addressed this but obviously that's part of Tomlin's plan. They are obviously good with those type of matchups.... which is more bothersome than what type of defense they are running.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

I find the whole thing bizarre... how in gods name does butler and Tomlin think playing everyone out of position is a sound defensive position.

 

[Punxsutawney]

In fairness the league had caught on to DLB's defense and figured out how to beat it and he refused to adjust or change enough but MT's new system isn't working either.

I'm not sure the league passed Lebeau by as much as the key players on the defense got older and lost effectiveness.

Lebeau had some success with Titans after leaving the Steelers.

This ultimately gets back to Tomlin.

The guy just cannot coach defense, as the further we have gotten away from the Cowher/Lebeau defenses in terms of both personnel and scheme, the worse things have gotten.

They still cannot draft and develop DBs for ****, despite Tomlin establishing himself in the league as a DB coach. He should seriously thank John Lynch and Ronde Barber for launching his career.

The guy just brings nothing to the table. His flaws as both a defensive coach and a leader have been exposed in recent years.

If giving up 35 points to that prolific Jaguar offense in the playoffs did not get him fired, the collapse after the 7-2-1 start last season and all the dysfunction that went along with it should have.

This franchise supposedly has strong Superbowl aspirations, yet it gave Tomlin an extension with two years left on his contract with last three seasons ending in disastrous manners ( that AFCC game pounding by the Patriots being the first).

What type of message does that send to the fans? To me, it says the standard is not what it once was.

 

[Tibs]

For whatever it's worth Vince Williams is wearing the green dot today, will be calling defensive plays. Looks like we're gearing up to stop the run...

 

[Tibs]

I'm officially on the fire Keith Butler bandwagon. It's early enough in the season the D could get a hard re-set and turn this around. Teryl Austin is waiting in the wings.