The Steelers run defense

Snack's worst season was his next to last one ... and we finished 8th vs the run and gave up 4.0 per carry. His last season we were #2 vs the run and gave up 3.7 per carry. If I was sure Snack was still under 400 lbs, I'd still take him over McLendon.

 

I don't buy it. Casey Hampton averaged about 13-14 tackles a year his last 3 years in the league. McLendon alone had 20 last year. So this brings us to the old argument that "Hampton ties up two blockers and he creates push allowing the LB to get to the QB or the RB" - True, but that doesn't really matter when you see what teams are doing more to run on the Steelers - they are zone blocking or some form of stretching the field laterally where a lot of plays are minimizing any effect the NT has on the play anyway. A lot of those big runs in the 2nd half were run at Thomas and Worilds not McLendon. When that is going on as others have pointed out - you badly need good communications and your LBs need to maintain gap control. Last Sunday there was a lot of overpursuit, guys not getting off blocks, and some poor communication on expectations of where guys were supposed to be. I also find it somewhat of a concern that over the course of two to three possessions in the 2nd half Tomlin and LeBeau couldn't make any kind of adjustment to stop the bleeding.

 

Not the only one, but Snack made a huge difference by himself. His rookie season we jumped from #12 to #1 vs the run ... and our first season without him we dropped from #2 to #21 vs the run. That's not a coincidence.

 

casey was abused by zone blocking, part of the reason he got less playing time as we went. as teams went to that casey became more of a liability to us in those situations.

to add contract, yes our ranking may have been higher with casey in there, but when hoke started games we were close to undefeated. i'll take the wins over rankings.

 

And Hampton was another example of a guy who they kept far too long and paid way too much money to and exacerbated our cap issues which in turn is why we couldn't make a competitive offer to a guy like Keenan Lewis....which leads us to another problem with our run defense. When you are so concerned about getting burned on pass plays where your CB and Safeties have to play farther back they can't make near the impact they used to in the run game.

 

With the current style of the NFL we are not going to see the traditional offensive sets as much anymore. Due to that we need speed on the field. Right now a lot of our speed guys are young especially at LB. That leads to being out of position, not being on the same page and leads to what we saw on Sunday in the 2nd half. There is going to be growing pains with this defense and it might cost us a game early in the year, but by year end I think we will definitely see a different group of guys in terms of level of play and team work. I expect us by year end to be one of the top defenses in the AFC. The biggest key is to keep everyone healthy!

 

If we had the CB'S we could go to a 4-4 stack and pinch the A Gap. The running game starts at the Center if you can get him back into the QB then you have something.

We have speedy LB'S so they could drop in coverage nicely we just don't have the CB'S to make it work.

 

heiward mclendon(till mc cullers is no t ready) keisel , bring the safety up

 

yet they are still the leaders in tackles. it all has to work as one or it creates weaknesses. the front 7 need playing time together as do the DB's. nobody has played much with Mitchell. Mitchell hasn't played with them. he's not going to play like ryan clark did. clark knew what troy was going for and where ike was going to cut it off and pass it over to him as a couple of examples. this all comes with playing together for years in the same defense.

when the front 7 play well the db's play well. nobody on this defense were playing together a year ago at any level of our defense and it changes things until they get used to playing together.

the o-line didn't get to play with pouncey last year. he's like a new guy to them. munch is a new coach to them. it's different, it will take time.

the d-front is totally different. guys have switched sides. new guys have been added. young guys have been added. it's different too.

I think it's just a matter of gelling as a team with a lot of different parts, including coaches that have to mesh. I think we are jumping the gun on expectancy game one. this wasn't just going to happen in camp.

 

That is a pretty reasonable way to look at it. The only thing is the defense still has to make some impact by making enough splash plays i.e. sacks, turnovers, tackles for losses. They are going to give up some yards and big plays and I strongly doubt this is going to be a Top 10 even Top 15 defense, but if they can make enough splash plays they can still make a net positive impact on the game.

 

I totally agree, but I wish the Steelers would have taken more of an attitude 3-4 years ago of starting to replace guys. It is easier to mesh one or two new guys then it is to mesh in 3 or 4. I think there was too much of an attitude that this is a Top 5 defense keep it together at all costs when there should have been far more emphasis on asking whether they were getting the expected value for what they were paying out. As we have all noticed the change in the contracts for rookies alone makes it almost a necessity that you get guys on the field sooner - you don't have 3-4 years to figure out what you have.

 

Sorry mac - I meant to include your text.....

I totally agree, but I wish the Steelers would have taken more of an attitude 3-4 years ago of starting to replace guys. It is easier to mesh one or two new guys then it is to mesh in 3 or 4. I think there was too much of an attitude that this is a Top 5 defense keep it together at all costs when there should have been far more emphasis on asking whether they were getting the expected value for what they were paying out. As we have all noticed the change in the contracts for rookies alone makes it almost a necessity that you get guys on the field sooner - you don't have 3-4 years to figure out what you have.

 

Most 1 Gap D'S require more than 3 OL. See 4-4 stack post above.lol. But you can't run it unless you can play a lot of man. It would give us more help in run support and allow our guys to rush the passer better , but we need at least 1 shut down CB to take away half the field.

 

This was the first game of our season and the first half seemed to go very well for both sides; I'll preface this with the fact I only listened, I didn't see the game. I am hoping that we can get some of these young/new players on the same page and correct some of issues. I am trying to stay optimistic and hopefully at the end of the season we look back and see steady consistent improvement on D. We still have Peezy coaching and Keisel missed training camp so I don't believe all is lost. I think we can still be a good if not great defense.

 

Why didn't we try different combinations?
Why not see some Sean Spence/Mcclendon? Why not see SOME sort of adjustment? Why do we have to be gouged a whole 1/2? Do we not have coaches that are capable of making ADJUSTMENTS?If something is not working, don't you try something different?

 

I saw the browns countering every move we did make. when we changed to stop the run they threw it, when we had extra help against the pass and pass rushers, they ran it. we used our best people. you don't go to a backup player to stop what a starter is supposed to be doing, or that backup should be the starter.

our front 7 are supposed to stop the run along with our safeties next. our safeties led the team in tackles. followed by our corners. that should not be. our DB's safeties included had more tackles than our LB'ers and then our leading d-lineman was mclendon with 3 solo's way down the list. that's the problem. then we vilify the db's for giving up the pass, when they were the run supporters leading the team. that's a problem.

 

Maybe Spence isn't full healthy yet? I would like to see him out there and you would think that he has enough speed to be good in pursuit. I'm just looking forward to seeing him bring it period. He might be the most intriguing story of this year given all his circumstances ya know?

 

Our front 7 were biting on play action and every rollout bootleg it seemed like they threw at us. Do you think that's because the young guys are coached more to just go with the play that is called instead of just instinctually sniffing out the play and adjusting accordingly?

 

or possibly the other way around. maybe the coaches are figuring that the young players instincts are their strong suites right now. they have instilled the basis to this defense to them and the football instincts will help make up for the lack of cohesiveness until they play together longer in this defense. the more these guys see on the field thrown against them the more the coaches can coach them in those situations. that's not going to be done mid game though.

 

You have to respect the run so the PA is always going to get LB'S to step up unless you are in man coverage. This is why the PA is so effective against us as we are mainly in Zone coverage.

To stop the PA or limit its success you need to be playing some man Defense or at least some man/zone. Basically u can't expect a LB to cover a hook zone and stop the run at the same time ,1 or the other will be open. Now if you man that side and he mans that side ,he has the RB whether it be pass or run.

 

SHHHHhhhh, they don't want to admit Foote was a force in the middle against the run game, here is his one man wrecking crew stats in monday nights game...

Larry Foote (ILB, Arizona Cardinals):
Stats: 8 solo tackles, 2 stuffs, 1 pass defended
What a great start to 2014 for Larry Foote. In his first game in Arizona, Foote more than proved his worth as he was "undoubtedly the player of the game." "He was everywhere on the field," and made the victory-clinching play for the Cardinals. With a little under two minutes remaining, Foote tipped a fourth-and-two pass, causing the ball to fall to the ground and seal the win.