A Ninja In Our Midst???

You know a name I've not heard on here in a month of Mondays? Keith Butler. We often talk about Haley. We often laud Munch. We often argue about Tomlin and are baffled by how much gum Danny Smith can fit in his mouth. But, in all this, have we overlooked the job of Keith Butler? There have been moments this year where we've had a sense of dread for our defense to take the field but I feel much more comfortable with them now and that's WITHOUT Cam AND Tuitt. Do you guys think Butler deserves a little more credit? Is he creeping up on us with an overall good year?

 

To have this defense with the amount of injures and young players...keeping us in games...is remarkable. This defense is not the dominant defense that we,are used to but bend but don't break,4th and 1 stands, and getting better and growing each week has to be kudos for Butler.

 

This defense is bi polar. I have no idea why or how we went from being a total joke to one of the best in the league, but something clearly changed and it wasn't the players. I'd like to hear the story of what actually changed with the coaching. Not sure we ever will hear it though.

 

I do know we need tuitt bad

 

I really think it all boils down to one thing for the young guys. Experience. The more they get the better they get. Also it was wise to bench Jarvis and also it was a huge help to get Bud back. Compounded by the fact that Harrison seems to have found the fountain of youth as of late and the young guys are buying what he's selling. Regardless of who gets the credit we are now ranked 9th in total defense for YPG.

 

I guess I have the dissenting view. This defense lacks big pays and can't get a stop when it counts. Butler's crew let the Ravens march down the field in the 4th quarter, including four 3rd down conversions with the whole season on the line and let them score a TD. They did the same thing with the Cowboys. The only difference this time is there was enough time for our O to do something. The O better score early and often in the playoffs or it will be one and done.

 

They did give up some conversions but honestly a lot of that was just great old school running with a purpose.

 

Kinda goes with my point that our defense is bi polar. We were terrible at times and great at times. Early in the season we were flat out garbage. The past 6 games we've made some plays when needed and slowed down our opponent. Tonight we really struggled. Last week as well. I don't think we forced a punt the entire first half vs the bengals. IMO that points to the fact that our D-line is not good with out Tuit and Hargrave. We need them both. I think with those 2 our front 7 is so much better. lets hope we're at full strength vs the dolphins.

 

We desperately need Tuiit...

 

It's not unreasonable to look at it this way, but in fairness a defense will get tired when your QB throws 2 terrible picks to give the opponents extra possessions and short fields.

The D did really well to hold the ravens to field goals on a number of red zone possessions until the offense got their act together. I'm not sure if I am remembering correctly but didn't the TD for the ravens in the first half come after a terrible call when Shazier had got a stop on third down and somehow got called for a blow to the head of a helpless receiver? The FB is tiny and lowered his head into Shazier's tackle you useless refs.....

Overall I think the D did well. If the offense had used their possessions better in the first half when we forced the Ravens in to a bunch of punts we could have won comfortably instead of last second AB heroics.

 

Yep.

Not saying our defense is amazing, but they've been stout in the red zone of late, and not always helped by the offense.

Just imagine if we can enter the playoffs with both units firing...

 

I'm usually negative, but the D has overachieved considering the two best D-lineman were out: Heyward and Tuitt.

 

The defense DIDN'T GET A SINGLE STOP!!!!!!! The Ratbirds either had a penalty, dropped pass, or poorly thrown ball to stop them from scoring TDs in the red zone, the defense did nothing to stop them. The 2 picks were bad but the balls were being forced at that time because the Ratbirds shut the run down and they have a good defense against the pass, something we don't possess. Once again we saw the team fight back to gain the lead and be 1 stop away from winning only to watch as the opposing team marches down field and scores, the best part however is this time there was enough time on the clock to try and get into FG range to tie or FG to win. The Ratbirds had what, 1 punt the entire second half and 3 the entire game??? 1 and done when we play a team with a decent QB unless we score on every single possession.

 

Our defense, which had seemed to turn it around, has to play better in the postseason if we are going to make a run st number 7. Not a stellar performance at all.

 

Harbaugh won with Billick's players.

 

The defense's kryptonite is still the tight end over the middle. Pitta did it last night and come the playoffs you've gonna face the Patriots or KC in the championship game and they have TEs that can go there.

The stars are aligning to help the Steelers, likely they play the Dolphins and Raiders, neither of whom have their starting QBs.

 

The Ravens punted 3 times, kicked 4 field goals and fumbled the snap on another field goal. Now you can claim that none of that was due to our defense and was all down to offensive misfires. I think that misfires like that can come down to pressure from the defense even if it doesn't lead to splash plays. I will agree that the last drive was very disappointing.

The offense needs to help out the time of possession stat to keep the defense fresh for later in the game though. The turnovers from Ben were terrible, no excuses. I didn't see any evidence of the Ravens shutting down the run. Bell had 60 yards in a quarter and a half. That was just more bone headed Ben picks. He really showed in one game how he is capable of winning and losing games. At least he can shake them off and just get on with leading great drives like the game winning one.

More consistency from Ben, commit to running the ball and have the defense do enough to slow teams down. I'm not seeing things through rose tinted glasses. We all knew coming in to the season that the offense would be relied on to win games, but I am pleased that the D is doing more to help out than I at least hoped. Roll on the playoffs.

 

We need a round Tuitt

 

I was trying to agree twice on one sentence, the first half and the last half.

 

It's the young guys. One play they show why they were drafted, Next play they show what happens when you start young guys who aren't ready.

 

Harrison, Burns, Hargrave, and Davis were promototed to starters. That's a pretty huge turnover and there is your reason. They are all a lot better than the person that was starting over them.

 

I would tend to agree. We have talented young guys that have gotten better with each game. The DL injuries really hurt us up front. But there was a lot of bad tackling last night with even guys like Shazier nit wrapping up. We couldn't stop the run. There was one play where the RB had 5 steelers on him and still moved the pile 5 yards with no rats OL even pushing him.

 

I wish the run defense was better going forward into the playoffs.

 

You have to remember though Elvis when things go wrong defensively....



Blame Tomlin!!!!