The Defense

[antdrewjosh]

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?

Just think they are choosing to work on different aspects every week of the preseason. Still have to execute of course and yesterday they didn't. But they aren't game planning anything and they are trying to see what they have behind the starters..Buffalo didn't gameplan either but they played their starters way longer especially up front to protect their potential starting QB. I don't think we are as bad as it looks..

 

[Steel Ballin]

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 weren't showing their hand last preseason either,when they were so bad, and yet they still sucked in the regular season. Preseason CAN tell a lot about a team.

 

[diver]

Just think they are choosing to work on different aspects every week of the preseason. Still have to execute of course and yesterday they didn't. But they aren't game planning anything and they are trying to see what they have behind the starters..Buffalo didn't gameplan either but they played their starters way longer especially up front to protect their potential starting QB. I don't think we are as bad as it looks..

I hope you are right. It really doesn't matter what I think, what matters is what the coaches think. And I don't know how that game yesterday helped the coaches determine anything. If they wanted to see if their DBs can follow receivers all over the place, I guess they accomplished their goal.

This is not some bash Mike Tomlin rant. I like the guy. I think he is a good coach. But even good coaches and staffs aren't good all the time. Yesterday they were not good. IMO they did not put their players in positions to succeed or at the very least to play aggressively. That tone needs to come from the head coach.

 

[obxsteeler]

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.

Maybe Timmons is really worth that $9M a few seem to worry about. And it looked like the Titans made Alex Smith look all pro last night.

 

[stillwright]

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.

This post is right on......

 

[stillwright]

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.

He didn't do a good job. Butler probably won't do a good job either. The talent is just not there. Dick did a hell of a job for us with his earlier years. I just wonder if you gave that talent to Bulter or someone else if they also would of excelled.

 

[Vader]

Just think they are choosing to work on different aspects every week of the preseason. Still have to execute of course and yesterday they didn't. But they aren't game planning anything and they are trying to see what they have behind the starters..Buffalo didn't gameplan either but they played their starters way longer especially up front to protect their potential starting QB. I don't think we are as bad as it looks..

What were they working on yesterday? The Bills played their "starters" more but they didn't start half of their real starters on offense. So the Steelers starters were really going against the Bills second team. And they got steamrolled. Hell they didn't start their top 5 WRs, top 3 CBs, and only 1 of their top 5 RBs (and he had 5 carries). Jones was going against their real LT and didn't do anything. What scheme, game plan or wrinkle is going to allow Jones to get to the QB if he plays against a real LT?

And as I've mentioned before, everybody talks about the great depth at ILB. Spence, Williams and Shazier played yesterday. They were horrible. Nobody acted liked they wanted to play and the scrubs acted like they didn't want the job.

I'm not sure they are going to be the worst defense in the league. However they are going to struggle because they don't have the talent and they don't have difference makers at any positon on defense.

 

[stillwright]

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.

Belicheat**** seems to be able to polish a turd. Hell he would throw WR's in at CB and they excelled.

 

[Vader]

Belicheat**** seems to be able to polish a turd. Hell he would throw WR's in at CB and they excelled.

There is a reason he is called Belicheat****

He didn't do **** in clownland. He got really good at coaching when he started cheating in NE.

 

[antdrewjosh]

They weren't showing their hand last preseason either,when they were so bad, and yet they still sucked in the regular season. Preseason CAN tell a lot about a team.

I don't know whether they are going to be good or bad. I'm saying I'm not basing it on preseason. How they play in August may not be how they play in September. How they play in September may not be how they play in December. They are a young defense let's give them time that grow together. I mean it's possible they can improve.

 

[stillwright]

I don't know whether they are going to be good or bad. I'm saying I'm not basing it on preseason. How they play in August may not be how they play in September. How they play in September may not be how they play in December. They are a young defense let's give them time that grow together. I mean it's possible they can improve.

Umm. They might improve from very bad to just bad.. I will take that. Yesterday was horrid looking.

 

[antdrewjosh]

And why are we acting surprised like we didn't know the offense was going to have to carry this team. Even with out Bryant we still have weapons. Wheaton should be better. Williams looked very good. If we were playing light as out on D the narrative here I'm sure would be it's just preseason they ain't playing nobody. So let's just wait in two weeks we will know where are starting point is.

 

[stillwright]

I think it is the DC job to put the players into a position to succeed. I know the talent is not there but continuously placing our DB's and LB'ers 5 to 10 yards off the first down marker on every third down possession is not helping them out.Every third down pass seemed to be a curl or out at the marker. The closest defender always was at least 5 yards away every time......A lot of the same old same old from the last few years. As some have stated it doesn't seem much will change on the defensive side this season.

 

[madinsomniac]

He didn't do a good job. Butler probably won't do a good job either. The talent is just not there. Dick did a hell of a job for us with his earlier years. I just wonder if you gave that talent to Bulter or someone else if they also would of excelled.

Lebeaus schemes and plays are now used widespread throughout the league... he may be the single most influential coordinator of the past 50 years. there isn't a team that doesn't run several of his blitzes each game. Don't downplay what he accomplished just because rule changes and 25 years of offenses adjusting mitigated the strengths of his scheme.

 

[madinsomniac]

I think it is the DC job to put the players into a position to succeed. I know the talent is not there but continuously placing our DB's and LB'ers 5 to 10 yards off the first down marker on every third down possession is not helping them out.Every third down pass seemed to be a curl or out at the marker. The closest defender always was at least 5 yards away every time......A lot of the same old same old from the last few years. As some have stated it doesn't seem much will change on the defensive side this season.

do you watch other teams play?... heck did you watch where some of the bills guys lined up yesterday... the league has a lot of 10 yards off the wr CBs... they are so freaken fast these days that mostly they can recover to play a short out and wrs blow past guys way too easily if they miss a shove playing too close.

 

[stillwright]

And why are we acting surprised like we didn't know the offense was going to have to carry this team. Even with out Bryant we still have weapons. Wheaton should be better. Williams looked very good. If we were playing light as out on D the narrative here I'm sure would be it's just preseason they ain't playing nobody. So let's just wait in two weeks we will know where are starting point is.

Well hopefully our offense will be more consistent this year especially in the redzone. If our defense can generate more turnovers even if they are bad it will go a long way, but I haven't seen anything to support that idea.

 

[madinsomniac]

Lets call it the Efense.......because until they prove otherwise, there is no "D" in "Pittsburgh"....

 

[stillwright]

do you watch other teams play?... heck did you watch where some of the bills guys lined up yesterday... the league has a lot of 10 yards off the wr CBs... they are so freaken fast these days that mostly they can recover to play a short out and wrs blow past guys way too easily if they miss a shove playing too close.

Yep I do. I see what you stated but I also see them jamming at the LOS. Did you see any of our preseason games? Last season we played against some bad QB's. We played off the WR's and gave the short pass. They ended up looking Brady like at the end of the games. Don't you think jamming WR's at the LOS and disrupting timing routes would help at all? ....Take at look at what opposing team QB rating was against our team last season. Then take a look at who they were. I would rather get our offense on the field after being aggressive and getting beat then watch our defense give up an 80 yard drive that took 6, 7,8 minutes.

 

[antdrewjosh]

I'm definitely more concerned with the lack of turnovers. If your going to give up yards at least be opportunistic and create turnovers.

 

[madinsomniac]

Defense is all about having playmakers and players other teams have to.double team or scheme for. We have one player that fits that bill a 37 year old Harrison. Every other player is just a guy not a difference maker.

Heyward gets double teamed often. The rest of that dline is meh... McCullers looked subpar yesterday too

 

[LastRide]

LOL

Steelers LCB Cortez Allen is expected to regain his starting job this season.
Fantasy owners, rejoice. Allen was one of the worst corners in the NFL before a thumb injury mercifully ended his 2014 campaign. With special teamer Shamarko Thomas replacing Troy Polamalu and Mike Mitchell coming off a bad year at free safety, Pittsburgh may field the league's poorest secondary this season. Jun 10 - 12:16 AM
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 

[madinsomniac]

Here is the issue... the D isn't in sync... its hard to say that they will be bad by season's end... every position group is in flux. the Dline has a new scheme. the linebackers are trying to play in front of a lot of 1 gap DLinemen for the first time, the safeties are a hot mess and don't know who is covering whom, and the corners are trying to adapt to everything around them while playing more cover 2 and zone than in the past...

Zone coverages work because of pressure and teamwork, and we have neither right now

 

[tapeANaspirin2it]

if you have a team of veterans who know the defense, then yes, you stay vanilla in preseason, don't show anything and then just flip the switch come regular season. The steelers have done this many times in the past.

What if you have a new scheme, new coach, and new players? Is it smart to think you can stay basic in preseason and then come regular season, all these guys will just perfectly master the defense after a series or two? Or are you putting all your chips on the hopes that you came up with some groundbreaking scheme that nobody has seen like the 85 Bears with their 46 defense?

You have a team of inexperienced and i'll just say it, mostly DUMB players. Want to know why the Pats can rotate guys in there? Because they draft SMART players. The steelers have been drafting athletic but mostly dumb players who make the same mistakes over and over.

Let's be real about last year too. The Schedule was the team MVP. That schedule was so easy it allowed the steelers to stumble into the playoffs. That won't happen this year with a tough schedule.

And let's not forget Tomlin's utter failure outside the eastern time zone. Last year only 1 game outside eastern time. This year there are 4 road trips outside EST. I guess we should feel lucky that the Raiders have to come to Pitt this year otherwise chalk that up as a loss.

 

[Steelz]

Well if it means anything, if you look at the Vikings/Cowboys box score stats, the Vikings only had 3 incompletions the entire game, and their 1st & 2nd string QBs completed 100% of their passes. And the Cowboys are expected to have a great defense this year. Just another example to take preseason as a grain of salt. Also just last week we had 6 sacks and held the Packers to less then 250 total yards. So I'm not worried until it counts.

 

[tapeANaspirin2it]

The Steelers front 7 now has FIVE 1st round draft picks, plus a 2nd rounder in Tuitt. Find me another team with so much high draft talent in the front 7.

This defense should be destroying people.

Look at the investment in defense by round
1 Timmons, Ziggy Hood, Cam Heyward, Jarvis, Shazier, Dupree
2 Worilds, Tuitt

That's 8 high draft picks for the front 7 under Tomlin and what do we have to show for it? A front 7 that can't rush the passer and doesn't stop the run. What else is there?


Look at the picks on the OL
1 Pouncey, Decastro
2 Urbik, Glibert, Adams

They got lucky on Beachum with a 7th rounder. You found a quality starting LT in the 7th round and mix that in with 5 high draft picks and you should have a dominant OL.

Do the steelers have a diminant OL? No. They have an adequate OL.

The Steelers are getting the bare minimum from their premium picks. If not for Big Ben plus a few total luck draft picks like Beachum and Antonio Brown, this team would be a dumpster fire.

The Steelers have become the browns. They just have Big Ben to cover that up.