Steelers Defense

Rule changes over time. Defenses like the Steel Curtain and 85 Bears are not happening today.

 

Of course the rules have.


Heck, if the NFL were more lax or had better clarity on some of these rules, the game could be a lot more entertaining towards a mass populus and incite those who possibly have an interest to invest more into the game.


Instead, the NFL is nothing more than a track meet; fastest team to point total "x" wins being the end result.



As a fan, I want variety in the product I invest in. If I simply wanted to see a track meet, I will go watch the IAAF instead.

 

Just a couple third down stops lol

 

Agree, but all I've heard is what a great SB that was. I thought it was horrible, where only one play was made on D....and that was really just a lucky stripping of the ball.

 

So maybe I was wrong, watching this defense getting progressively worse over the season and disappearing in a home field, 1st round bye in the playoffs being the 2nd seed...

Nah, I was right to be critical. I am not going to rationalize the defensive mess.

 

I have been saying this for awhile, need a couple changes MITCHELL and ILB. I brought up the rules thing in another thread when people were talking about defense's winning championship's, not sure there was any defense Sunday....1 punt!

With that said I still feel we have talent on the defensive side of the ball, not only was the loss of Shazier major but the last of adjustment by the coaching staff on game planning needs to be taken into consideration. Coaching is just as much to blame as talent and imo more, jmo

 

Maybe we need to draft on offense.

 

SUCKS

 

The leagues has become more 7 on 7 than what we were use to watching. Can't really blame the NFL, when players are suing them for health reason they have to do something. I don't like it but it is what they have to do.

 

I'm fed up with this teams total lack of attention to detail, the things they over look in preparation costs them more than any other key in getting ready for an opponent, on both sides of the ball, until they fix it they will only stumble along losing games they shouldn't lose........

 

" I find Butler at fault the most for his inability to get his unit to line up properly and to communicate with each other. Either the defense is too complicated or the players aren't smart enough to execute what they're doing. Figure it out and make the appropriate changes". - Ray Fittipaldo.

This is what I say.

 

Playmakers win championships, and a championship team needs playmakers on both sides of the ball. We didn't shut down Arizona in our last SB win, but when needed, JH made a huge play. Troy made tons of plays when needed over the years. More recently, Malcolm Butler made a huge play when needed to win the SB for the Pats. This year, Alshon and Clement made huge catches for TD's when the Eagles desperately needed it. On defence, they got a strip sack with the game on the line.

There's more than one way to skin a cat. You can win with either defence or offence, but you won't win without clutch plays made on both sides of the ball. We didn't make any plays on defence against Jax.

 

What needs to be remembered is the fact that we lost Ryan Shazier mid to late in the year. You don't just replace a guy like that and other teams do everything they can to exploit that deficiency. The defense was just barely hanging on in just about all the games. Boswell won 5 games this year (I believe). The only way that happens is if your offense is keeping you in the game. I give SOMEWHAT of a pass to the defense (other than Mitchell) because Ryan is a one in a million type player. If it doesn't get fixed in the off season then I have a problem.

I will now take of my rose colored glasses.

 

The thing that bothered me the most about the Jags game was the fact that we had ZERO, ZIP, NO positive plays on defense. We go no pressure on Bortles. We had no tackles for loss. Nobody broke up a pass. Nobody created a turnover. We got pushed around like I haven't seen in a long time by a very mediocre offense! We were not ready for that game!

 

Speaking of Mitchell - it’s very rare on this board that just about everyone agrees someone has to go.

There was Cam Thomas, obviously, but otherwise I’m hard pressed to remember any other player who nobody wants to defend at all.

 

I thought of Blake, but I think I stuck up for him... thought he was ok as a dime CB. But he certainly came close to uniting the board.

 

Actually Tuitt made a play in the backfield, it might have been a TFL. Unfortunately that was it though.

 

Philly lost their starting QB and won the SB. Minnesota lost their starting QB and starting RB and got to the NFC championship game. So lets cut it out with this Shazier excuse. He's far from a one in a million player. If he was that good, he'd win defensive player of the year every single year, but that hasn't happened. He's an incredibly talented player, but he's far from one in a million. When Jax pumped us earlier in the year, Ryan Shazier was playing.

 

We are very average from the LBs back on defense and very average or below depth wise. They knew this. Top teams don't scramble at the end of preseason still looking for starters on defense. Cutting and trading guys that up until that point were who we were counting on. Let's face it we were in some trouble going in on that side of the ball. Sutton, Allen, Hilton, sensabaugh, haden, TJ, alualu, Wilcox, spence were all new and add Vince which was a backup to timmons previously as a starter, harrison past his prime, moats very below average, gay past his prime, golden very average, big Dan below average, Mitchell past his prime and then lose shazier. That is all just lack of good planning. Smoke and mirrors. Colbert built this mess and put his stamp on it. When you field a team of new, old, average, below average and misfit, dit we really expect a championship team on that side of the ball? They did go 13-3. Mostly because of the offense just squeaking them out for the most part.

 

It's talent and scheme. We have big problems with both.

 

Not sure it's so much scheme as the talent evaluation to run the scheme. The money is tighter than we know. I do believe that is why Hilton, one of the best finds we have had in awhile at DB only got signed to a one year deal. Is he a super star? No but he played very solid at a position of need and he got a 1 year deal? Cmon man. If he builds on what he did last year, we will probably lose him next year. These are the guys we need to lockup while we can afford them and not wait until we can't.