lack of turnovers by our defense

I've been wondering a LOT about the strength and conditioning coaches. Here's the question though. Are they responsible for HOW conditioned the players are or HOW players CONDITION? Seems like it would be almost impossible to make sure they are in some certain "shape" ya know? So what exactly is their role? I mean I don't think they can say "ok now give me 10 suicides" or something. Although in Woodley's case I wish they would. Lol.

 

Tomlin came down on Dwyer about coming to camp out of shape this past off season , let me look and see if I can find the article



here it is , was a quick find ...

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap10...r-validating-pittsburgh-steelers-faith-in-him

 

Well I wonder what they considered "overweight" ya know? Does the team have a benchmark for certain positions or just want guys to generally be above or below a certain size?

 

It all starts with pressure on the QB, No pressure equals pitch and catch.
Its really that simple.

 

I agree with you Rukus and the one constant scenario both have had to deal with is piss poor line play, either as a result of guys getting injured or guys just having average talent to begin with. I think I read that going in to the Dallas game today it will be the 4th or 5th game in a row where they've started different guys on the OL. You can plug a player in here or there on a limited basis and still get pretty good production but it seems our OL has been in constant shuffle mode at multiple positions for 2 years and running now. That kind of inconsistency with personnel makes it tough to win football games.

 

Turnovers happen in one of five ways:

1. Hard hit on a ball carrier that jars the ball loose.
2. Good play on the ball by a DB for an interception
3. Strip of the QB
4. Tipping or blocking a pass that becomes an easy interception
5. Bad throw caused by too much pressure on the QB

Others are usually caused by the offense itself: QB/RB exchange, simply dropping the ball, ball slips out of QBs hands.

The Steelers defense is not really designed for #1 or #2. The philosophy is to play sound coverage and tackle well. They usually do the latter very well.

So now we have #3, #4, #5...there's your answer. This defense gets little pressure on anyone. Notice the turnover that changed the Baltimore game two weeks ago came when Harrison stripped Flacco...I believe that was (and is) the only time the Steelers' D has managed to do that all season.

 

Yeah but #1 used to be the Steelers way..

 

talk about a Barren Batch.It's been a few years the team has been lacking turnovers.

 

well to be honest the defense probably figure the offense has enough turnovers so why get anymore.

 

Most of the turnover a couple years ago would be when Aaron Smith and Hampton would push the line in the QB's face and force the QB into a bad decision or put the QB in a position where the OLB's can clean up with a strip or sack.

I really feel our woes are due our front 3 guys just haven't been disruptive as they used to be. If they were, it would create more opportunities for turnovers.

 

That may be a part of it, but if you actually watch Harrison, he isn't driving people back like he used to. He's either past his prime and is finished, or he's still hurting. Either way, it's time to evaluate whether he should be on the team next year.

 

All good points. I really think that Woodley does have one point though...teams have been doing more "dink and dunk" against us and it has worked to some degree. It obviously works. Just look at our own offense. Our line has been REAL hit and miss with the injuries and shuffling and Ben hasn't taken as many sacks or hits this year (still too many though).

Our problem is that we don't blitz people like we did in the past and our DBs give too much cushion far too often. Announcers and the media act like we blitz, but 4 pass rushers isn't a blitz. We don't blitz as often because other teams have adapted by getting the ball out earlier. So now, we keep an extra DB back to cover and give more cushion to keep everything in front of us. I think we give too much cushion and our defense misses too many tackles as a result of that additional cushion. When we have more guys in coverage, it means more communication and potential breakdowns (especially for newer players or backups).

If we step up the pass rush more, the QB will have more pressure. Even if they adjust the offense to get rid of the ball more quickly, we still rush them and bring our DBs closer to the line of scrimmage to stop it. More disruption and pressure leads to more mistakes and more turnovers. That's how our defense used to roll!

Finally...would somebody PLEASE TEACH OUR DBs HOW TO CATCH THE STINKING BALL!!! By my rough estimation, we seem to average about 2 dropped INTs each game. That's totally unacceptable!

Go Steelers!

 

Well if you remember earlier in the season everyone was talking about how people had "figured out" our scheme and noone was surprised by us. Maybe this is just rearing its head again. Maybe that's why it's harder for us to get turnovers because we are just not fooling anyone. However it is also true that our DBs can't catch. That's why I would LOVE to see us take a Corner in the draft!

 

exactly the lack of pressure come first from the middle , i know in the 3 4 they suppose to eat up blockers but some havoc has to be created in the middle too otherwise everything is under control for opposite oline