The Defense

[Coach]

Pre-season or not that was perhaps the worst defensive effort from the Steelers in the past ten years. A team that didn't have a starting quarterback played four, and each of them looked unstoppable. Even more alarming was the lack of fight among the 2nd and 3rd sting players in danger of being cut.

Our cover 2 shell was as bad a a prevent defense, perhaps worse. Just throw it deep over the middle and neither of our safeties are good or smart enough to play it. I have seen two long TD bombs vs this defense in the past three games. Bills QB's were 30 for 33. The Steelers made it difficult for the Bills to pick out who was the best of the bunch.

The run defense, when the Bills bothered to run was bad as well. Our D gave up 3 runs for 20 yards or more. McClendon just can't hold his ground often enough and without Timmons the 2nd line of defense is soft.

And the corners? UGH. Why is Blake playing over Boykins? I wish we kept McCain.

The pass rush? Mostly DOA. I watched Dupree hoping to see something. Not this game...

The loss of Dick LeBeau is going to hurt more than most of us thought. Butler has been the opposite of impressive. Bad QB's have burned the Steelers in the pre-season. What's going to happen when we play good QB's in the regular season? The Offense needs a near record year. Otherwise we are meat.

 

[fogdoctor]

I keep saying it, this D will he historically bad. It's not going to bother me because I have accepted it.

 

[black and gold apex]

Become obvious the defense was not the coaches fault. Our defense looks lost, preseason or not as the excuse . It will be truly hard to watch, I love defense more than offense and the Bill's game I had to say please score and get the misery done with. Nothing stands out, the coverage is pitiful, Even Simms was 100 percent on passing.

 

[Coach]

I keep saying it, this D will he historically bad. It's not going to bother me because I have accepted it.

I can't fully accepted it. Not yet. My anger has shifted. Bryant is an out of this world type of talent. Its such a waste that he's suspended for four games.

 

[antdrewjosh]

Every quote out of the players and coaches is that Butler defense will be very aggressive. We are not seeing that during the preseason. They are not showing their hand.

 

[scstillerfan]

Every quote out of the players and coaches is that Butler defense will be very aggressive. We are not seeing that during the preseason. They are not showing their hand.

They are trying to be aggressive and can't get to the QB, which completely exposes the secondary. The defense simply doesn't have enough talent.

 

[thesteelcity]

I wouldn't be surprised if we picked up some other team's cuts in the coming weeks to sure up the D. Tomlin and Colbert can't be comfortable with what they have right now. With our schedule this season, there is little room for shotty play of the D. Maybe it will get better with the starters playing most of the game, but so far they are Swiss Cheese.

 

[antdrewjosh]

They are trying to be aggressive and can't get to the QB, which completely exposes the secondary. The defense simply doesn't have enough talent.

Other then the same blitz they have shown in all four games I don't think they are.

 

[diver]

Every quote out of the players and coaches is that Butler defense will be very aggressive. We are not seeing that during the preseason. They are not showing their hand.

To me that is the most overused excuse for preseason ineptitude. Not showing your hand. This is the NFL. What, the Steelers are going to come up with some cutting edge defense the other teams haven't seen before?

I understand it is preseason and all that. As you know, I am a Tomlin supporter. But I do not understand why you can't have your defensive backs play aggressively and jam receivers in hopes that your pass rush can get something going. You can't just turn it on in the regular season, can you? Maybe if you are a vet team. But this team isn't. Again, it is preseason and they lost 43-19. They get beat over the top they lose 50-19. Who cares? I just want to see them compete hard, and I didn't see that yesterday.

I don't like the approach Tomlin seems to take to preseason. A lot of us have coached, and one of the things you should do as a coach is provide your athletes the opportunity to be successful. I don't think dropping off 12 yards and backpedaling and being so passive and allowing easy completions is allowing your guys to be successful.

 

[SteelVictory]

Every quote out of the players and coaches is that Butler defense will be very aggressive. We are not seeing that during the preseason. They are not showing their hand.

I really hope that is the case but I can't buy it.
This is basically a new scheme with tons of young players, one would think they need to practice and play with most of the scheme installed.
I can understand disguising and playing vanilla if this was the previous group with tons of experience SB winning players that had played the same scheme together for almost ten years.
Will be telling what the players say to the media this week, in previous years they did mention they weren't playing the entire playbook.

One thing that concerns me about this last game, didn't look like there were many breakdowns.
WR and TE were wide open between the zones, it was death by a thousand - 7 yards at a time - cuts.
It didn't look like a man-man coverage skills problem. I don't think that is something that simply having Timmons back will fix.

 

[antdrewjosh]

To me that is the most overused excuse for preseason ineptitude. Not showing your hand. This is the NFL. What, the Steelers are going to come up with some cutting edge defense the other teams haven't seen before?

I understand it is preseason and all that. As you know, I am a Tomlin supporter. But I do not understand why you can't have your defensive backs play aggressively and jam receivers in hopes that your pass rush can get something going. You can't just turn it on in the regular season, can you? Maybe if you are a vet team. But this team isn't. Again, it is preseason and they lost 43-19. They get beat over the top they lose 50-19. Who cares? I just want to see them compete hard, and I didn't see that yesterday.

I don't like the approach Tomlin seems to take to preseason. A lot of us have coached, and one of the things you should do as a coach is provide your athletes the opportunity to be successful. I don't think dropping off 12 yards and backpedaling and being so passive and allowing easy completions is allowing your guys to be successful.

Why would you show your hand in preseason and the first game is the patriots?

 

[antdrewjosh]

I really hope that is the case but I can't buy it.
This is basically a new scheme with tons of young players, one would think they need to practice and play with most of the scheme installed.
I can understand disguising and playing vanilla if this was the previous group with tons of experience SB winning players that had played the same scheme together for almost ten years.
Will be telling what the players say to the media this week, in previous years they did mention they weren't playing the entire playbook.

One thing that concerns me about this last game, didn't look like there were many breakdowns.
WR and TE were wide open between the zones, it was death by a thousand - 7 yards at a time - cuts.
It didn't look like a man-man coverage skills problem. I don't think that is something that simply having Timmons back will fix.

The only young guys who are actually going to play who didn't play Alot are Tuitt Shazier and Thomas. The rest of these guys aren't going to play any meaningful snaps unless injuries occur. There is no need to show your hand and put anything on film for the Cheatriots

 

[ZonaBurgh]

T

I don't like the approach Tomlin seems to take to preseason. A lot of us have coached, and one of the things you should do as a coach is provide your athletes the opportunity to be successful. I don't think dropping off 12 yards and backpedaling and being so passive and allowing easy completions is allowing your guys to be successful.

I honestly think that the attitude displayed in the pre-season carries over into the regular season. The Steelers never seem to wake up until game 6 or 7, and then struggle to make the post season every year. Eh, but what do I know?
It does seem to be a pattern though.

 

[SteelChip]

I honestly think that the attitude displayed in the pre-season carries over into the regular season. The Steelers never seem to wake up until game 6 or 7, and then struggle to make the post season every year. Eh, but what do I know?
It does seem to be a pattern though.

Me too Zona but I'm of a mind that we do not have a lot of talent on this team so when they remove the starters and insert the 2nd line in these preseason games, it is very noticeable. We have some starters that are bubble players, their backups are on a whole nuther level.

 

[Vader]

The only young guys who are actually going to play who didn't play Alot are Tuitt Shazier and Thomas. The rest of these guys aren't going to play any meaningful snaps unless injuries occur. There is no need to show your hand and put anything on film for the Cheatriots

Yes they are. Both Spence and Williams played a ton last year. Remember everybody said that they could start on other teams? And again how is not showing your hand going to hurt the pats****? It won't take Bilicheat 2 series to figure out what is going on. Not only that the Tampa 2 zone has been around for decades and isn't a big secret. Remember Bilicheat has been running a 3-4 4-3 hybrid for years. It's ridiculous to think Butler has some great scheme that he is going to employ with a bunch of kids that haven't even practiced it against real NFL talent. Hell they are lost playing the simple version. But somehow they are not going to use it in pre-season and they are going to be good with it in the regular season? I'm calling BS.

 

[steelhurt]

This team especially the entire defense has been built by Tomlin and Colbert from the draft to free agency. If this isn't an indictment of winning with Cowher's players in the past, I don't know what is. Need I say more.

Don't quite give this offense a pass just yet either. They have to show me more consistency especially within the 20.

 

[Troglodyte]

30/33 passing. That's good against a ghost defense.

I don't make anything of preseason, but I do wonder if we will see yet another slow start.

 

[Chicoman]

I keep saying it, this D will he historically bad. It's not going to bother me because I have accepted it.

What makes it hard for me to accept is the fact that our offense with Ben, Brown, Bell, Bryant, Wheaton, Miller and everyone else has the ability to be one of the best this season and the Defense is so awful I feel like they are wasting Ben's best years which should be his next three.

Very frustrating to watch because this Steelers offense is a Championship caliber offense while our Defense couldn't stop a college team IMO.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

This team especially the entire defense has been built by Tomlin and Colbert from the draft to free agency. If this isn't an indictment of winning with Cowher's players in the past, I don't know what is. Need I say more.

Don't quite give this offense a pass just yet either. They have to show me more consistency especially within the 20.

That's the thing. Tombert has drafted very little in the way of decent defensive talent. Doesn't matter if the DC is LeBeau or Butler, or if they run a 3-4, 4-3, zone blitz, Tampa 2, three little pigs, whatever, the talent on that side of the ball is bad. You have four, at most five, decent players on defense. The rest would not start for any other team in the league.

 

[jitter77]

The steelers are a poor preseason team. I think they should put a little more effort into it, but thats on the coaches. As far as the D, I am not overly concerned yet. We have a ton of new players and a new coach. I would not show teams anything new in the preseason. The questions then become
1. Do they have anything new and 2. Can they actually execute it. I dont think these will start to be answered till the second game of the season. If Brady plays and the pats crush us then that is pretty much the norm. If Jimmy G plays and they crush us then its more of a concern, but I would still not be too worried. I think when the 49ers come to town will be a good measuring stick of where we are at.

 

[steelhurt]

That's the thing. Tombert has drafted very little in the way of decent defensive talent. Doesn't matter if the DC is LeBeau or Butler, or if they run a 3-4, 4-3, zone blitz, Tampa 2, three little pigs, whatever, the talent on that side of the ball is bad. You have four, at most five, decent players on defense. The rest would not start for any other team in the league.

Yep! Offensively they've done a very nice job especially at receiver but I really wonder what these two would do if Ben wasn't here. I do not trust Tomlin to identify QB talent and this worries me.

Defensively here's my position on it. You have a couple above average guys not game changers or difference makers but steady players in Timmons and Heyward and a very old Harrison. Now you follow that up with a load of question marks in Shazier,Dupree, Cortez, Boykin, Shamarko, Mitchell, Tuitt and Big Dan. Now you have your just a guy category. That's McClendon, Cam Thomas, Jarvis Jones, Gay, Blake, Golden, Allen and Moats. Now you have the WTF. Jarvis again, Shamarko again.

See what I mean. This defense is mostly made up of ?'s and just another guy and absolutely zero difference makers.

 

[diver]

Why would you show your hand in preseason and the first game is the patriots?

What hand, Ant? I am not saying show some kind of blitzes or anything of that sort. I am saying it is preseason. Get up on the receivers and play aggressively. If you get beat, oh well. Allow the coverage and rush to see if it can work together. yesterday, the Bills QBs were getting rid of the ball on 3 and 5 steps. It was out so fast because of the soft coverage that there was no opportunity to put much pressure on.

I am a big believer in once you have some success it breeds more Give your players the opportunity to hit the QB, see if some of the stuff they have been working on in camp, hand usage, dipping the edge, works. How the heck do you know if the ball is out so fast? And how do you know if you have anyone that can cover if you don't let them actually try to cover? Being off 12 and backpedaling is not covering. It's shadowing.

But back to the original question. What do the Steelers, or any team for that matter, think they are hiding? It makes no damn sense. Football ultimately isn't about what you are hiding that surprises folks, it is about playing better than the other team. How do you do that if they aren't playing that way in the practice games?

 

[black and gold apex]

After the Bills game and seeing the secondary completely blown away , how does anyone of them deserve to play in the NFL. Might as well pick players cut by other teams, could not be any worse, doubt Tomlin or Colbert get that.

 

[madtacker]

I honestly think that the attitude displayed in the pre-season carries over into the regular season. The Steelers never seem to wake up until game 6 or 7, and then struggle to make the post season every year. Eh, but what do I know?
It does seem to be a pattern though.

I agree and thought the same thing yesterday. Their seems to be this culture of being unprepared, slow starting, getting blown out,etc.
Remember the eagles pre season game last year? It rolls into regular season and you never know what team is going to show up from game to game.
I honestly thought Dick L. Was still capable of being a good coach. The amount of shuffling players, lack of playmakers, and linebackers.
Thought he did a good job. He proved with the right players he could have a number one defense. He did it over and over.

All in all I just feel like the culture in whole has changed and the standard of Steeler football is not there.

Not sure if the rule changes for hitting in practice or what, but I can't remember seeing defense like this.

 

[LastRide]

As the saying goes, "you can't polish a turd". You can't teach talent. The organization has done a very poor job of drafting defensively, and the inability to correct the problem areas.Let's just hope the offense puts up 50 a game.