The Teryl Austin/Defense Complaint Thread (2025)

Steelers defense looks the same as it was in late November and December of '24. Steelers have just replaced aging vets with aging vets. It's not working and it's not going to work. Steelers will have to rely on their offense this year which is a recipe for disaster when the weather gets cold. I can see another 2003... where we had a spontaneous and inconsistent offense.... and defense that was aging all over... pre-Troy, pre-Lebeau with Alexander, Flowers, Scott, Gildon.... dudes that were getting too slow. Defense is gonna get gashed big time.... and again the culprit is the D line and ILBs.... while the older secondary can't keep up.

 

probably.

Queen's game is based on speed, not run stopping girth - never was his game.

Wilson is good, he will be FINE. maybe Holcomb needs to be on the field more - let Tomlin figure that out.

the FRONT 4 needs to be MORE STOUT!

but COACHING / scheme is the #1 problem - no doubt.

 

This is spot on. I have been saying it for years as well. We keep on saying the issue on the Oline is talent and the issue on run defense is the talent. When are we gong to realize after all these high pedigree draft picks at Oline and ILB or the FA’s we brought in that it isn’t talent. How many more draft picks and free agent aqusiiions are we going to make before we realize it is a schematic and coaching issue?

We play way to conservative on defense and we really don’t position our ILB’s to succeed. We are asking the ILB’s to play the pass first and then take on and shed a blocker before stopping the run. These guys are built for speed. They play best moving forward not standing flat on their feet. They need to be blitzing in between the gaps before the line man can even get out on them. You have one guy play the pass and hang back and the other guy blitzes a gap. Its not rocket science.

zThey also have to recognize their personnels talents and put them in position to succeed. Why are we continuing to ask Keeanu Benton to play NT and take on double teams? It is a disservice to his talents and to the team. He was on his back multiple times yesterday. Either get bigger bodies to play interior Line and keep your fast athletic ILB’s clean or get bigger ILB’s that can shed blocks if your get smaller gap penetrating D lineman in front of them. You can’t have it both ways.

The line fix is very simple. Get a real Oline coach here that knows how to coach wide zone blocking. I’m not as worried about the right side of the line. Jones and Seamalu are a concern. I don’t think Jones is fixable at least for us. Seamaul for some reason has regressed every year he has been here and he can’t stay healthy. Personally I would ask Jones to put the weight he lost back on and move him to guard and put Washington at LT.

 

That's probably because every time they got a 1st down they needed 3 downs to do it.

 

That was Elandon Roberts, not Spillane.

 

Agree being able to not stop the run is not new. It goes back back to last years games. Along with not blitzing on passing downs. The only time we put pressure on Fields is when we blitzed both middle linebackers, but we didn't do it enough, same as last year. We still rely too much on our outside linebackers to put pressure on the QB.

 

No, I meant Spillane from a few seasons back. I didn't explain it well. He put a whale of a hit on Henry. P. Wilson will never do that.

 

I disagree. First off all you reference Tomlin led Defenses breaking down in the playoffs to porous drafting then you reference a bunch of of offensive players we drafted.

The issue with Tomlin led Defenses breaking down is become of scheme and philosophy. Number 1 we do no justice to our ILB’s in this system. We offer them zero protection and are basically asking them to be Superman. We have gone away from the traditional thumper ILB and with more athletic and speed. However we didn’t complement or protect them with bigger interior DL up front. So we are asking our DL to penetrate a gap instead of gap contain and contain multiple blockers this protecting the ILB’s and allowing them to flow freely to the run. We rarely blitz the ILB’s on run or pass plays asking them as their first priority to play the pass and thus often be flat footed and ill positioned to take on and shed a block. They often are asked to cover the middle of the field and also the flat. Doing all of this simultaneously is a bit hard to do. We either need bigger thumper type ILB’s or we need bigger interior DL to protect the ILB’s. At the very least these guys are built for speed and to move forward not be on their heels. They should at the very least be blitzing one of them alot more while asking the other one to play back. They need to be shooting the gaps and getting to the RB before the play develops.

The other issue is we play very conservative on defense both in the pass rush (often rushing only four players) and playing prevent (alot of zone) dropping the safety back deep and tackling the catch. The intent is bend but don’t break. Don’t give up the deep play. Allow the other team to methodically move down the field in small chunks and eventually they will make a mistake through attrition and turn the ball over. That has literally been Tomlin's philosophy. The issue is over the course of the season the defense is on the field for a very long time with that style of defense. Rarely forcing three and outs over time is going to cause injury and fatigue for your defense. That is the biggest reason why late in the year we have alot of injuries and the players are tired.

 

Spot on.

 

If you need a superstar at every position on Defense for your scheme to be successful something tells me maybe you should change your scheme. The sad reality is we basically have a superstar at nearly every position on defense and we still played terrible. We made Fields look like Lamar Jackson yesterday. It will be pretty scare when we face the real Lamar.

 

So again, a lack of depth is going to rear its ugly head sooner than later. Free Agency on its own isn't going to solve the entirety of the issue. Drafting well doesn't either but it plays a major factor into acquiring good depth.


When a team misses so often, extreme measures are taken. Consistently counting on these extreme measures is a recipe for disaster. Coaching can only do so much.


Have to get the right players before good coaching can take over.

 

Jackson is one of the few guys I've been pretty wrong about. I thought coming into the league that the Vick similarities were too big to ignore. He would be a great runner and good vertical passer, but the rest was too raw for me to want to take a chance on. He's turned into possibly the most electric offensive player in the game, and is just as dangerous throwing in the pocket as he is in space. Our team would look a lot different had we taken him instead of Edmunds that is for sure

 

ST I usually agree with your thoughts but your becoming a Tomlin apologist. Tomlin is the common denominator here. How much he is involved in the defense can be up for debate but the fact is even if he isn’t super involved in the defense he is the one that approves of the game plan. He is the one hiring and often times keeping these coordinators way pat when they should be kept. He is loyal to a fault. How long have we had issues stopping the run? How long have we had issues pass blocking? How long have we had issues running the ball? We have drafted alot of players and brought in alot of free agents to fix theses issues but they seemingly never get fixed. Year after year after year we have the same issues.

My prediction - Broderick will improve a little bit over the next half dozen games and Tomlin will defend him and then he will implode against better competition and end up getting Rodgers hurt. Then and only then will Tomlin replace him with someone else. Even with Jones struggling this game we did nothing in game to help the guy. We have arguably the best blocking TE in the NFL. Why is the guy on the sidelines in crucial passing situations instead of being on the field next to Jones? It was really really stupid to keep the Oline coach when we brought in a new OC. We should have started fresh across the board.

On defense Tomlin is completely out of excuses. We brought in all his players that he wanted and we drafted to fill needs on the defense. We have spent more than any franchise in the league on the Defense. The issue has always been and will be scheme and coaching on defense and it clearly starts with Tomlin. He is resistant to change. He is wasting alot of talent on that side of the ball because of his stubbornness. At minimum play your best coverage guy on their best WR. DOn’t play your 3rd best CB on their best WR. Were so darn married to scheme and game plan we outthink ourselves and become unpractical. It made no sense to have Slay covering Wilson in man coverage by the way which isn’t even his strong suite. Part of being a good coach is to position your players to succeed and not try to be so stringent with a scheme to fit square peg in round hole.

 

In the late 90's, Fred Taylor of the Jaguars and Jamal Lewis of the Ravens did not rack up the yardage on the Steelers..... like Dalvin Cook of the Vikings did in 2021 and Breece Hall did yesterday.

 

Eddie George of the Titans, also.

 

Stop it. Your logic would make sense if our defense played bad in the second half yesterday because of fatigue but we played bad the whole game. The Jets never punted the ball yesterday. This defense is highly overrated.

 

This is what I have been saying. We put in small athletic ILB’s and then ask them to shed blocks. You have to have big DL to protect smallish ILB’s and occupy blocks or go get Thumpers at ILB. You can’t have smaller gap penetrating D Lineman an expect your your smallish ILB’s to thrive. Queen is literally the size of a safety. Benton should not be a NT. Benton was on his back a ton yesterday. Either change the scheme to fit your players or get players to fit your scheme.

 

What game did you watch? Exactly how did they play well? When your safety is the leading tackler on your team that does not reflect well on your ILB’s. They played terrible.

 

Bingo ... you figured out what the all of the OC’s in the league already know about the Steelers.

 

It wasn’t fair to Slay to have him covering Wilson. He had no help over the top either. To me Highsmith has been average at best in outside contain and stopping the run throughout his career. Part of it is the way we ask these guys to play the run but in reality the real issue was the interior Lineman and the ILB’s were terrible.

 

I agree... the entire defense sucks... but so does the left side of the O line.

 

I disagree. Yes we have some aging vets on defense but we have young talent on the defense as well. Porter JR. Wilson, Queen, Benton... those guys didn’t show yesterday and in fact they all played pretty poorly. This is not a talent issue, it is a scheme and coaching issue.

 

Obviously... we need a new head coach, O line coach and defensive coordinator. We can agree on that.

 

This is not a Queen issue it is a schematic issue. They aren’t playing him right nor are they setting him up to succeed. Tomlin is infatuated with these small athletic linebackers but he is positioning them and asking them to play like a Thumper. You either get bigger up front and ask you Lineman to occupy multiple blockers and gap contain and run blitz or you get bigger ILB’s if your going to ask them to take on blockers.

 

Wholeheartedly.