Weakest link

Agreed. We might have a better chance vs Lamar because of familiarity and by making him one dimensional but a guy like Mahomes would absolutely carve us up right now. Ben would have to play the game of his life

 

Yep. I'm not as scared of Lamar as Mahomes. That doesn't mean I think we're ready for him, just that we're less ready for Mahomes.

And thinking about the defense...how many of our sacks do you think were coverage sacks? I might say 1, but that would be it. Isn't that telling? Some are saying that secondaries cannot be dominant in today's NFL. I couldn't disagree more. There are fronts getting sacks because the coverage is so good. Ours is not one of them.

 

Nelson has been terrible so far after being a rock last year. Minkah is a ghost and we already know Edmunds sucks although he has maybe been better the last game or so. Haden is old. The secondary is a major liability

 

And silly me, I thought it was going to improve from last season.

 

Part of the problem was the pocket control and allowing Watson to break contain. He mainly hurt us on the run, rolling out and hitting strikes downfield. We have great rushers, but we just cant let the QB break the pocket and get to scan downfield while threatening the run. Always causes big plays to happen. Would like to get this cleaned up since that is Lamar's strong point (and he looks to have improved again within the pocket), and literally the only thing that Mayfield has proven successful at (he is pretty useless if you can contain him in the pocket and make him beat you with his brain). If we can clean that aspect of our defense up a bit, it should make these games a lot easier on us.

 

I would concur, but things did look better 2nd half yesterday. Last year before the Minkah things looked very similar. Then they started getting their communication together and they look outstanding. Three games in so I am looking forward if they start to gel more, or if Nelson just reached a special gear last year that he is unable to re-create. I mean 2 TD's given up for a whole year is going to be hard to repeat, but 2 in 3 weeks is hard to stomach when we saw last year, just saying.

 

Watson didnt do jack**** in the second half. Just sayin. I mean, the Texans offense did NOTHING.

 

The Steelers safeties haven't created a turnover in 10 games, I miss the Minkah from last season .

 

A lot of times when a defense is #1 against the run, the pass defense ends up in the middle of the pack, because that is what the opponent is forced to do, which plays into the Steelers strength, sacks.

 

Well that doesn't bode well for us down the stretch because this is a passing league. The best offenses are pass oriented. I know the Chiefs are an anomaly, but a stout run defense can't beat them. And if the Steelers want to make it to the SB, they are going to have to.

I haven't seen anything this season, or even last season, to give me confidence in our secondary being able to compliment our front 7. If the front 7 doesn't generate pressure within roughly 3 seconds, there's going to be an open receiver somewhere because we simply can't cover. The secondary's stats are much better than their actual performance because unless there's a sack, they get credit for a passing down ending up in an incompletion. And the majority of the time, they had little to do with the positive outcome.

 

Can`t blitz Mahomes. He is too quick, too smart. The only way I see to slow him down a little is often faking the blitz, but most of the time send only 4. Just give him the distraction of having to check that, but actually only blitz enough to keep the threat legit. Yeah, Ben would have to have a big day. They are guaranteed to score 30 points against us when they are playing well. Sort of a rehash threat of a younger Brady led Cheatriots team, but without the cheating.

I`m wondering if on an exotic blitz we could get Bud on Mahomes quickly and unblocked sometimes.

 

Problem is that we've rushed four against MUCH lesser qb's and they still picked us apart. We rushed 4, got decent pressure, and still had receivers running free. The only reason the lesser qb's didn't put up big numbers was because they were lesser qb's and drops.

You want to stop him? Keep him contained. Shrink the pocket. Don't go for sacks. Disrupt timing and stay in passing lanes. Plaster receivers. Match him on offense. Win time of possession. And pray. Lots of prayers.

 

I don't know man. Mahomes creates his own lanes the way he sees the field and can flip the ball sideways. I mean the fake jump pass and sidearm completion was insane.

 

I know, I know. It's going to take much greater minds than us to devise and execute a plan to make him look human. I just think that shrinking the pocket around him and taking away lanes limits his ability to improvise. Can't sidearm a pass if you've got your guard backing up into you.

 

Hey bettissb40.

I think we can. It is a shame as I was psyched that we "pitched a shutout" for the second half of the Texans game. Maybe it is just me but this is kind of what I was waiting for. Now, our "momentum" per se may be thrown off some with the postponement of the next game. Maybe wishful thinking, maybe not. We will have to wait and see.

The Secondary was terrific last season. At this point, I refuse to believe that they have fallen off that much. The Secondary is playing good but not great right now. I think with the Offense only to get better as Ben and Company are re-finding themselves, this in turn should give the Defense more rest throughout games and therefore, this should amount to an even more well rested and stronger Secondary than last season. In theory (smile).


STEELWINDS The East Side Kid

 

Joe Haden is rated as best CB in league w a 36 against passer rating

 

There was no need for the authoritarian part of this post.

 

Where does one find these ratings?

 

He is on another level rn

 

He'll show up. It's only 3 games. He's literally the least of my worries

 

dont tell anybody because its a secret , i found these ratings on google search

https://www.behindthesteelcurtain.c...ed-pittsburgh-steelers-stats-defense-nfl-news

 

Just for balance, all three teams we faced had their worst rushing days against us.

 

True lol

 

With the Browns, Ravens, Titans coming up on the schedule, now would be a good time for Minkah to show up.

 

NE held KC to 26. We have a better defense. If we hold KC to 26 we have a fair chance to win.

KC pretty much is who they are. We still have the potential to keep getting better on offense each week.