Darius Slay Blasts Steelers Defensive Scheme: ‘Backwards Over There’

I've often seen on X that those who do the film rooms during the week after the Steelers' games, and all the other teams, say that the Steelers are too often beaten before the play even starts... The first game against the Bengals is a perfect example; Flacco knew where to throw every time before the snap... But credit to the Steelers for doing things differently in the second matchup; they had no choice!...I guess those who do film room every week are lazy too!

 

Slay was a very good player in 2024 with the super bowl champions eagles.....Slay become unplayable the year after,what has changed?

The eagles wanted him back too when the steelers put him on waivers but the Bills was before the eagles on the waivers list

 

Again....you make a claim. And you post a random screenshot with no explanation.

Sharp usually knows what he is talking about....but he also likes to be snarky just to get views. So....again....I will ask....what was the predictable thing the Steelers were doing on defense? I mean it is so obvious and just everyone is doing detailed analysis of it....why do the thousands of posts here and other Steelers fans sites never contain that information?

 

I don't have everything but I have the brutal game against the bengals on TNF

https://jonledyard.substack.com/p/watch-film-room-video-breakdown-of-1dd



The one against the packers



The one vs bears

 

I mean you clearly think you know. So what is it?

 

Awesome. I can not watch the videos currently. But why not post these instead of snarky Twitter nonsense?

 

I skimmed through the Bengals one....and Ledyard talks most extensively about Wilson playing the defense wrong and blowing assignments than some basic schematic failing. Her also talked extensively about players making mental mistakes and not recognizing what the Bengals were showing them.

Clearly that is an issue that could and should be addressed by the coaching staff. But it is not what you are saying it is. Because Ledyard in the bits I was able to work through is not identifying how the scheme was too basic or the design of the defense was flawed. He was talking in detail about how individual players blew their assignment and/or the coverage players overall failed to recognize fairly basic stuff.

Again...there are coaching issues that can be identified. I have never argued that. It just isn't the stuff that you and others think it is.

It is the same with the Packers video. The video's creator talks the majority of the time not of the Steelers being caught in the wrong alignment...but in guys just blowing assignments and losing leverage. And the dreaded "communication issues". Weird how once Slay and Ramsey stopped playing CB....that cleared up. Wild.

None of these videos show the same thing being predicted and beaten. It shows specific players failing at their assignments and bad execution. So if you want to point to coaching issues....at least point to the right ones.

 

I think that is an apt characterization of Tomlin's POV/philosophy?

Is there a defensive coaching POV that counts on your edge defender not keeping contain on a running play? Is there one that schemes around your CB covering the wrong guy?

Again....there are many coaching issues that can be identified over the years with the Steelers, just like any NFL team, but I am not aware of any football approach that says..."well on this play we are going to lose about 4 or 5 matchups but that's okay....that is just how we want it."

 

Ok. Assume that's true.

Why can no one provide the evidence?

43 tried but I watched as much as I could of the videos he posted and they all talked about blown assignments and guys playing the defense wrong NOT the offense predicting the outcome stuff.

Like there's plenty in the videos to take the Steelers coaching staff to task over. It just isn't what y'all are claiming it is.

By no means am I trying to argue the 2025 team was without fault. And some of the stuff being recently posted has brought me around on the message going stale. Clearly the team struggled to teach the defense to multiple guys the last two seasons.

I also want to point out something I've believed for a LONG time. Tomlin and staff struggled to teach the dumb guys.

 

That basically proves my point.

Most of the internet "analysis" of football is nonsense by people that don't know what they're talking about. Then it gets repeated often enough that it becomes canonical.

It is like how Steelers fans believe a LB on a WR is a specific Tomlin/Steelers failing not a tactical decision that gets made around the league every week. Either this past season or the one before, the Packers lost a crucial game to the Besrs in part because a LB gave up a TD in coverage. The local talk was why are the Pack the only team that does this and the coaches are too set in their ways and all the same noise that surrounds each Steelers loss.

Either there's only like 4 things that lose NFL games or most of us don't know what we're talking about.