Falcons question Steelers game plan vs. Tom Brady, Patriots

I think the real problem is ultimately not as much about whether it was man or zone. It was the complete lack of physicality and the space we gave up on the field that just made us look so soft. I think the only two ways to get Brady off his game are to either jam the crap out of his receivers Mel Blount style or bum rush him and make him move. We can pound the secondary all we want and they deserve a lot of heat for this game but the pass rush didn't help them out either. Our whole identity for years has been more predicated on pressure from the front end as opposed to the back and the fact is that we had a 38 year old linebacker trying to rush and it was just too much to ask. The best rush of the night was when Gravedigger absolutely manhandled his guy and got to Brady. Other than that we generated zero pass rush and you can't give ANY NFL qb that much time and especially the best ever. You also can't hardly cover any NFL wr for that amount of time either. There's really just no way to boil this loss down to just "one thing". Yes the coverage was terrible but even if it had been great without a pass rush Brady still would have found a way to get it to guys.

 

I don't dispute it was an appalling display. But zone or man had little to do with it. All you've mentioned there could equally happen in man coverage.

There were multiple reasons we stunk so bad, which is why this idea that if we played man it would fix everything is getting tired. For me, at least.

 

The problem is that the players were unable to get consistent pressure on Brady. The teams that generally had the greatest success vs Brady were the teams that could pressure him consistently. Why don't some of you people understand it?

 

That's your opinion...mine is that the coaching staff **** the bed and had the worst game plan since Custer played the Indians.

 

BB knows we're going to use zone every game. In the regular season, that defense put the Steelers in a chance to win.

This game he went no huddle early to take advantage of fatigue, and four wide to nullify our strengths at LB. It was a risky strategy, but they executed it well, and then our offense was utterly ineffective. And then Butler didn't seem to have a counter to it. Etc etc

This zone/man thing is a red herring.

 

So how many times were we in man vs. zone? The narrative after the game by every sports media outlet is that the Steelers soft zone defense was eaten alive by Brady. When Tomlin was asked about it he said they didn't go man because they didn't feel they had the personnel to do it. That's fine, but we've got some 4.3-4.5 guys in our secondary and the guys that burned us were 4.6-4.8 guys. I know that success in man coverage isn't based on speed alone, but it sure as heck helps. Maybe we did go man at times, but it seemed like we were in zone coverage most of the game. Not a SINGLE PASS DEFENSED!

I'm absolutely not saying that Brady wouldn't have torched us in man defense as well, but I know our guys, Burns, Cockrell, Davis, who played actual football in college ought to be able to cover slow-footed college lacrosse players.

And why don't some of YOU people understand that we witnessed one of the most piss poor defensive coaching jobs in the history of the franchise?

And I don't disagree that the lack of pressure definitely contributed to the slaughter. Tomlin and Butler are no match for Belichick.

Absotively and posilutely!

 

I think Cockrell statement is just defending his coaches. But I will add that Porter (coach), Harrison and Gay all have been around long enough that when they seen this game plan should of locked Butler in the closet and let Porter run the defense.

 

I said the exact same thing and got ridicule over it on this board. My point was simple; "We never ever ever beat Tom with zone, we did beat him with man". Even if man doesn't work and we get torched, we can easily justify using it because it worked once before.

 

What i don't understand is how were the DBs confused? We are a zone scheme team. We played it all year. Why they get to last game of the season and play like they are in the first preseason game with a new defensive scheme. I think this fall squarely on the coaches.

 

**** guys it's over... It sucked, reason this or that... Move on til the next time we don't have an answer or our boys lay down. They beat our boys plan fair and square. This ain't our fathers steelers so all the want and hope of hurting turning into mean ain't happening... Just root them on and hope for the best. I'm sure they know or think on what or how to fix things... Let's watch it play out. We're going to do it either way lol

 

I hate to say it but I agree with this and will go one step further and say they teams with the most success against him have gotten that pressure and gotten in his face as well.

 

In retrospect, I agree... Some of us, me too still hold on to the beauty of press that beat those bastards after our super bowl loss to the packers.

I will never yield the notion that had we played the pack that way that our boys would be now searching for 8 hahahahhaha

 

I didn't like the gameplan either. I don't think it would have mattered, really. I was watching the highlights of the 2008 season and the difference between that D and the one we have now is evident. The same 'zip' isn't there. Against good QB's we just don't have the athletes on that side of the ball.

 

LOL very suspect, as is the coaching staff. We had a better roster that day and blew it. Thanks coaches and players.

 

The coaches failed in their gameplanning. The players failed in their execution (of a flawed gameplan). I mean, that was seriously the worst performance as it relates to pass defense that I can ever remember the Steelers having. They didn't so much as sniff a defended pass. It seemed like every throw Brady made the receiver was clear by 10-15 yards. I realize Brady is good but, gee whiz!

Bottom line, we SUCKED from top to bottom.