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Our Defense....

Rodgers ? From GB? We don't even play the Packers ?


No. Unless Charles is pulling a Nostradamus and foreseeing a SB rematch between the two. If so, I like the way he thinks, quite a plausible notion actually ;)
 
sprained knee.....not as severe as Ben's


Kid's a baller. He's going to be great for us for a lot of years to come. Hope he's back by the Cincy game.
 
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I don't see a Rogers like QB on the Steelers schedule

Maybe this guy?

Mister_Rogers'_Neighborhood.jpg
 
For years now we havn't had the personnel on the DL to play the Dick Lebeau 3-4 defense we as steelers fans have been accustomed to. What we did have however, were young DL that have been drafted in past few years who are better suited for the 1 gap scheme in which they can attack the gap and make plays instead of relying on what was our aging and also inexperienced 3-4 OLBs. Now also with coach Butler calling a much more aggressive gameplans game in and game out our defense is beginning to gel and we are getting consisten pressure on qbs. I think those are some of the roots of how well our defense has been shaping up and playing this year.
 
I haven't read or heard any bitching about the Golden/Mitchell combination the entire game. Crockell has been a pleasant surprise. Hell, Cam Thomas had an okay game today.
The Cardinals have been over hyped and over rated, the Steelers were their first true test. Of course the Steeler D did a great job, their opponents weren't ready for an arse whipping. The Cards believed they could win but they couldn't execute. 421 Palmer passing yards and 1 TD? Did Johnson get 100 yards?
Maybe that week at the WV resort made the Cards fat & lazy.
 
The Cardinals have been over hyped and over rated, the Steelers were their first true test. Of course the Steeler D did a great job, their opponents weren't ready for an arse whipping. The Cards believed they could win but they couldn't execute. 421 Palmer passing yards and 1 TD? Did Johnson get 100 yards?
Maybe that week at the WV resort made the Cards fat & lazy.

Yards don't win games by themselves. Rivers passed for 503 yesterday, and they lost too.
 
WTF are you even talking about? The question was about our DEFENSE.
So what, I brought up a new point. What do you mean what am I talking about? I stated my opinion. Is that not OK? Instead I get a "WTF"?
 
One lost stat that no one is talking about. QBs are not looking Gay's way. He's closing off his side of the field! Keep it up Gay!

He seems to rush/blitz more than cover lately, but it's been working.
 
Nope. I disagree. Play to win. I will give the 2 pt play. Even right before half....just run it out and get to half time. The past to Bryant was a good call to me.

Yup, there it is, the pass was to win the game, loved it, hated the 2 point try though.

Papillon
 
So tell me please...Our defense has actually looked like one the last few games. So what has caused this to happen? Anybody know?

TURNOVERS! We had 3 of them on Sunday. Mix in an 80+ yard play that goes for a score and you win 90% of the time.

Our inability to cover remains and Issue. Blake should be a sub package player, not a starter. Blake's very good at tailing a receiver then making a tackle if the receiver has to slow down to catch it.
 
Torn Curtain

It looked like the Steelers were going to be sunk after Ben Roethlisberger went down with a knee injury against the Rams in Week 3, but an unlikely hero has risen in Pittsburgh. No, it’s not Michael Vick, who has mostly been useless and left Sunday’s game with a hamstring injury. You could say it’s Landry Jones, who led the Steelers to a win over the Cardinals as Vick’s replacement, but even he was only part of the solution, given how much of his work came down to a pair of spectacular plays by Martavis Bryant.

The surprise, instead, is the much-maligned Pittsburgh defense, which might very well have saved the Steelers’ season. A group that was 30th in DVOA last season was up to 15th before Sunday’s game, and they’ll rise even further in the rankings this week. They held a Cardinals offense that had been averaging 32.2 points per game (38 if you include return scores) to just 13 points on 11 meaningful possessions. The Cardinals scored their lone touchdown after taking over on the Pittsburgh 47-yard line; Arizona’s 10 possessions that began on their own side of the field produced a total of two field goals.

How did the Steelers pull that off? There isn’t one obvious smoking gun, but it starts with what is quickly becoming one of the league’s best run defenses. Despite missing promising inside linebacker Ryan Shazier for the fourth straight game with a shoulder injury, the Steelers headed into the Cardinals game with the league’s fifth-best rush defense DVOA. They promptly bottled up Chris Johnson & Co., holding the Cardinals to just 55 rushing yards on 20 attempts.

The Cardinals also played undisciplined football, especially on offense, which wiped away big plays. A Johnson chop block wiped away a 16-yard completion. Michael Floyd shoved his way to a touchdown catch that was called back. A Jared Veldheer hold negated what would have been a long pass interference penalty on Ross Cockrell. An offside call on Kareem Martin took away an interception by Patrick Peterson (to be fair, Vick probably realized it was a free play). The Cardinals threw in two unnecessary-roughness penalties and finished with nine flags for 111 yards.

Arizona still made big plays — Palmer completed four passes of 30 yards or more — but the Steelers were able to hold up in the red zone after struggling there before Sunday. Pittsburgh headed into Week 6 allowing 5.3 points per red zone trip, the ninth-worst rate in football. The Cardinals, meanwhile, had been averaging 6.1 points per red zone possession, with 17 touchdowns in 22 trips inside the 20. That was the second-best rate in the league.

History would have suggested that the Cardinals would march into the red zone and punch the ball into the end zone, but history was wrong. The Cardinals took four trips inside the 20 and came away with 13 points, an average of just 3.3 points per trip. That doesn’t include Palmer’s game-sealing interception in the end zone on a play from the Pittsburgh 20-yard line or the opening drive of the game, which made it to the 25 before ending in a punt after an aborted snap and Bobby Massie personal foul. The Cardinals typically make teams pay, but they couldn’t do that to the Steelers.

While Pittsburgh was able to sack Palmer once and knock him down seven times, including a three-hit, two-TFL day from Cameron Heyward, the oft-belittled secondary deserves credit for making plays against one of the league’s best receiving corps. Pittsburgh knocked away eight passes and picked Palmer off twice, although the game-sealing interception by Mike Mitchell was on a truly inexplicable decision from Palmer. Emerging star wideout John Brown still had his way with Cockrell and Antwon Blake en route to a 10-catch, 196-yard day, and Palmer finished with 421 passing yards, but the Steelers were able to come up with plays when they needed them. Sometimes, it’s just that simple. Hold up against the run, slow down the offense in the red zone, and pick up a couple of takeaways, and all the yards in the world aren’t really going to matter.

The Vick experiment thankfully seems over, given that he picked up none of his seven third-down opportunities and finished the game just 3-of-8 for 6 yards. Roethlisberger might be back for Sunday’s game at struggling Kansas City, but if he isn’t ready to return, the Steelers would probably turn to Jones, who went 8-of-12 for 168 yards and two scores while resembling a functional NFL quarterback in a way that Vick simply doesn’t at age 35.

They’ll be down another starter on their offensive line after left tackle Kelvin Beachum suffered a season-ending torn ACL. He was replaced by 6-foot-9 Alejandro Villanueva, an Army Ranger who played multiple positions in college and tried out as a tight end and defensive lineman for the Bengals and Eagles, respectively, before catching on as a tackle with the Steelers. He’s unquestionably a badass, but he’s also a very inexperienced 27-year-old rookie who will be entrusted with protecting Pittsburgh’s quarterbacks in the months to come. The Steelers were paper-thin heading into the season, and they are realizing their biggest fears on the offensive side of the ball.

In any case, the Steelers have managed to stay in the AFC playoff picture in a way that would have been hard to imagine while Roethlisberger was on the turf in St. Louis. The defense held on in that game for a 12-6 win and hasn’t looked back; Pittsburgh is a pair of missed Josh Scobee field goals away from going undefeated during Roethlisberger’s absence, allowing just 18.7 points per game in the process. Per FPI, the Steelers have a 73.6 percent chance of making the playoffs, and they even have a 26.5 percent chance of winning the AFC North. They’ll play the Bengals in Week 8 in a game that could matter a great deal in deciding the division.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/nfl-week-6-takeaways-what-the-snapfu/
 
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