Whats the biggest change you want to see in the D?

The biggest change I want to see is the end of the 8-10 yard cushion for the CB's against WR's. It drove me nuts watching a 3rd and 5 with an 8 yard gap. Loved DL's overall accomplishments but that, to me, was very questionable why he did it so often.

 

I agree 10000000 percent. The reason he did it so much is that is the way he runs the 3-4 . Stop run give up short passes make Teams beat you driving the long field with lots of plays . The premise is 1 bad play ends the drive . Used to work great , but recently Teams have been running on that D , they have been hitting big plays as well.

Scheme and Players are both to blame .

 

The problem is that we don't have any corners that are best suited to play press coverage... The only one really is Cortez Allen (and I believe I've said before that I wish they would press him, because he would be more successful because of it). The rest of our guys will get blown up if they press, hence the cushion. It's not part of their skill set. Unfortunately we won't be seeing any press coverage until we start drafting guys that are more adept at it.

My my biggest change would be to send the OLB's on more blitzes, or maybe find more ways to get our better rushers in one on one match ups. I feel like we wasted Worilds in coverage (where he wasn't good) last season, and really needed to let him pin his ears back and go. Even if we rotate OLB's more to send them more often, I'm cool with it.

 

Get to the effin quarterback!!!!!


When we attack the qb/jam recievers/ tight ends, at the line, we seem to be much more successful, than when we do not...
Period.

I misss BLITZBURGH!!!

GO STEELERS!

 

There were times when it was completely uncalled for, and they did it anyway. But those times were few and far between. For the most part, it worked extremely well, when we had the personnel to make it workable. LeBeau's record speaks for itself on the matter. He did it all the time, and was successful all the time. Hard to complain about that. Like I said, there were some plays when the cushion was way too big given the down and distance, but nobody's perfect. It's like a bad play call from a brilliant offensive coordinator. It happens.

It does bother me that people hate on the big cushion in a general sense. Look at LeBeau's success. You think it would have been the same if his go-to was a 2 or 5 yard cushion? There was a good reason for it. (Until very recently) We didn't allow the big plays. We let them have the 5 and 7 yard plays. Our CBs tackle, and we don't let you get by us deep. We make the offense earn their points. They want a touchdown on us? They're going to have to march all the way down the field and have success 12 plays in a row. We're not going to let one good throw beat us. Sometimes teams were up for that challenge, but mostly they weren't. Hence LeBeau's legendary rankings.

The biggest change I'd like to see this year is a better pass rush. I would like to be more aggressive at times, but that's not the main answer. The main answer is to get more out of the 4 guys we have rushing every play. More from Tuitt, and more from the edges.

 

I'll boil it down a bit. I want to see that JJ belongs in the NFL! I can't overstate how critical this season is for JJ.

 

Ditto. I think he's proven he belongs in the NFL, but does he belong as a starting Pittsburgh Steelers OLB? Those are very different things.

We optimists point to Jarvis looking pretty good at the beginning of last year, before getting hurt. 2.5 games is a small sample size. Was that the real deal, or a fluke? If it was the real deal, he should be even better this year and an effective starter, especially after spending his offseason with what's-his-name. If it was a fluke, he might fizzle out into a Ziggy-like quasi-bust. That is, not a bust, but not meeting our expectations.

 

Very good point . I don't think he is strong enough to play in a 3-4 . I hope the new Coach gets him in on more multiple schemes . IMO he is a good football player ,but a bad fit for our scheme . My hopes are the staff bends there game plan more around there early draft picks.

Both of our young early draft picks are a bit slight a extra man on the DL should bring out the best of them both. At the least we would have a true gage of what we really have in them.

 

I just want them to be more aggressive. Lebau got cautious when it came to blitzing in his old age.

Pressure needs to come from everywhere.

Id throw the ILB cross blitz in the trash. we need quicker pressure up the middle.

 

i think one of the worst 10 yard cushion execution i saw ...was when we lost at home vs the phins two season ago -- when they drove in our territory basically uncontested and they scored in the endzone where cb were still off a couple of yards thinking he was still on th field (maybe the snow were a factor seeing the redzone line).......................... was embarassing

 

Return to Blitzburg,attack watch all the mt seats
vanish.

 

Even before I read this thread, this was the kind of thing I was going to post, because I knew people would be on to the 10 yard cushions immediately.

The point is, when the defense struggles, it's not just because of the cushions, but stuff going wrong with the rest of the play which required the cushion in the first place.

Often when we got beat deep last year this was often due to mix ups between safety and CB. I expect that to improve this year. The main improvement I was to see is a more confident reading and reacting to developing plays. The DBs need to be in sync.

 

Live by the sword die by the sword. With the DB play we had last year, playing tight would have given up long TDs instead of short gains. You can't play tight if you can't cover. And you can't cover if you don't provide pressure on the QB. We need better talent on D.

 

A better pass rush from our defensive linemen. A good push up the middle would make a world of difference.

 

Bump and run. Corner blitz. Bringing the house. Being aggressive. Balance.

The days of hiding behind the front 7 is over. Need better secondary play. Of course pass rush is a huge part of the 3-4. But pressure can only be applied with good coverage, especially with the quick draw QB play of today. I feel the front 7 is set enough that secondary should be the priority in the draft. Yes we all hope that Jarvis Jones can excel. But the secondary has many questions. Can Thomas step in? And stay healthy? Will Mitchell take a step up? Was not a strength last season. And can Allen shake off the meltdown and contribute? Gay is solid but getting long in the tooth. Blake is a nice player and has some of that aggressiveness. W Allen good insurance. Need a player right out of the gate to help this secondary.

 

better safety play and not just a guy that knows where to line up but aggressively making plays.. timmons back to blitzing. the defense to stay healthy. butler to show he belongs at DC. turnovers. DE's stopping the run again.

 

Nice wishlist Mac. Christmas is not too far away.. lol

 

keeping up the 420 theme

I want to see more SACKS

and Turnovers yum

 

I was also gonna say get to the dang qb! The cushion needs to go the way of the dinosaur as well though. It infuriates me as well.

 

1. I want to see the team make better use of the rookies. They needed to be provided a role, give them something that fits them into the game. Let them get their feet wet on those things and then let them excel. We did it with Bryant last year, but seem to be reluctant to do that on defense.

2. Play players more based on situation. For instance, I don't care that Lemon can't play the run if he can be in on 3rd and 7 where he can get to the QB. Yes, he would really hurt us if we had him on the roster and he has to start, but let's not be so inflexible about how players are used.

 

I get what you're saying, but wonder if you had anyone in mind last season? Shazier started (then got hurt), but was lining up against TEs where he was drafted to play; McCullers played his role part well; Tuitt was eased in effectively (though would have liked to have seen him earlier and more often, given the travesty of Cam Thomas' play).

Previous seasons I would take your point, but last season I was pretty pleased with how they used the rookies.

 

I wasn't necessarily thinking of anyone from last year. My point was mostly that this coming year we are going to have some rookies, probably 5 or so, or make this team and we need to make use of them more effectively. For instance, if we draft Peters and he is the best cover man we have, I don't want him "eased" into a role. He is going to have to shut someone down. I would not be asking him to take away the other team's #1 guy, but if you effectively eliminate the #2 guy with one player, you can scheme double coverage to the other side and be okay. Again, if we draft Orchard in round #2, he needs to be playing....period. Even if we get one OLB in this draft more than likely we will need another next year, especially if Jones falls flat on his face this year.

 

They've definitely gotten much better about that the last couple years (right around the time Rooney said something publicly, I think ). The way they put Shazier on the field, and before him Jarvis, was a huge improvement compared to the agonizing way they eased in Ziggy and Heyward and Worilds.

That said, they still have work to do. They eventually made the right move by swapping out Cam Thomas for Stephon Tuitt, but that took too long. It might sound nitpicky to complain over only half a season, but Cam Thomas was so terrible, I simply refuse to believe Tuitt would have been worse. Even if he was equally bad, at least you're giving him the time he needs to grow, and helping him and yourself down the road. Still, they eventually made the change, which is something they wouldn't have done in the past on year 1... Then again, in years past, our defense would never have featured such a bad starter.