The New Frontier: Why Justin Gilbert's Arrival Will Solidly Pittsburgh's Secondary

Namely the lack of safety play is the main culprit for the bolded.. although Antwon Blake did not help either.

 

I just read a story about Chuck Noll. As the team was going out to play Minnesota, in Super Bowl 9, there was no rah rah speech. He just said "Play the way you have been coached."

 

He is alright I guess.

 

I am still hopeful this secondary can minimize its chunkability. I do question whether Gilbert is a good scheme fit. Perhaps they could run more man/zone like with ike? Hopefully Gilbert comes to work and is in a position to make a solid contribution if called upon.

 

Currently.. Keith employs a zone based scheme like his predecessor. The difference is that this variant utilizes the teams core strengths.. such as the pass rushing ability of the defensive ends or the cover ability of the inside linebackers. While this may sound like a traditional Nickel set as we currently know it.. Butler focused specifically on what the no.1 asset of each positional group and formulated a new plan around those aspects.



This analysis after receiving information from his first year as a defensive coordinator would pave the way for the "Eagle" defense. While the scheme was intended to bring back the glory days of defensive lineman dominance... the other aspect was to utilize a boundary corner who can nullify big possession receivers and have the safeties maintain their depth for the deep speed players.


As such, Gilbert's talent's allocate him for a zone corner role. Granted.. he can easily develop into a man based corner the same.. but Pittsburgh's new scheme is designed to clamp down within the end zone and make turnovers based on either pressure or contested catches.

 

I saw Blake get beat by the 3's this pre-season. Damn glad he is gone

 

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would see Beck's Triad in a football discussion forum, except maybe to explain this board after a Steelers loss. Well done.

 

I hope our young guys step up big Artie, Sean, Cockrell. We are going to need them to play much better than expected. Justin Gilbert will be a non factor in our defensive plans, lets
hope his return skills are fine.

 

Outside of the week 1 debacle/confusion vs New England, the safety play was absolutely not the culprit. Mike Mitchell had a borderline Team MVP season last year.

 

I remember when Gilbert was drafted... he and Joe Haden were gonna be the best CB duo in the league. Well... Haden is still pretty good.

 

It's a little early to write Gilbert off at least give him a few games before you write his epitaph, he might still become a top CB, he wont be the first player to have to shake immaturity, we have two of those on game suspension right now....

 

Blake was rated by PFF as the 2nd worst corner in the league last year in front of only 1 guy on the Saints who were historically awful. He single handedly brought the rank down.

 

the missed tackles by the safety spot wasn't too great.

 

lets be fair here. who could tackle BFT when he dons his mighty mouse suit.

 

And the other half of it was not as good as Mitchell's

 

Bingo.

 

Glad you enjoyed it.