Anyone think the secondary will get better before regular season?

The offenses from opposing teams are vanilla also. The routes are simple so it is just basic play on both sides of the ball at this point. The problem is the first team defense, vanilla as it may be, is getting torched by a vanilla offense with 3rd string QBs that look really good. Watch some of the other games that Matt Simms has played in as well as Tolzien, the only games they looked really good in were against the Steelers, that tells me that is it more than communication problems or execution, they simply don't have much talent in the secondary, it is what it is. My biggest worry is we end up having a bad season, Ben retires and when the secondary situation is finally addressed for real the offensive capabilities of the team will be so diminished that the defense will have to keep teams from scoring more than 10 points per game to have a chance, and that isn't going to happen unless the league goes back to the 80s rules which allowed DBs to push and shove receivers down field. I love your optimism but I've said the exact same things so many times that I realized I was fooling myself, what we see in preseason during the Tomlin era is pretty much what we get the entire season with a few extra gadget plays thrown in now and again, nothing more.

 

Until the games really count, I'm not going to start jumping up and down. But, you can't like what you see thus far. But, in defense to the defense. We have a lot of guys who will be starting but aren't playing. Such as Mitchell.

But, we shall see.

 

thats troublesome too troy. mitchell not being able to practice or play will have an effect on this unit too. he's not that good to start with and cohesion and communication can't be up to where it should be with this group. golden sure isn't making a case that he's up to the task either for a guy in his 6th year here.

 

They have been doing a lot of strange stuff lately in these games. Did anyone notice when they ran an overload blitz to the right side with a CB and sadety (I think) walking up close to the line while having Dupree or Chick covering the outside wr on the left side of the play?

 

Burns is the best we have and that isn't saying much for a second year guy. I don't see him as a shut down corner. There is a reason why the Steelers play zone they, don't have the talent to play man coverage. Man coverage is where it is at. Good quarterbacks and even the rookie quarterbacks have eaten up our secondary in zone. Cockrell is a joke ! Why the FO continues to treat this area of the defense as a non issue is amazing to me. Other than the Burns signing the FO has tried bargain basement applications. I realize with the salary cap you can't make everyone or have everyone as a number one or two pick but come on, it's so evident this is a glaring problem. We haven't had opportunities to grab a good or great corner but having said this, the FO by now could have cut some type of deal, trade to get the required personal. How sorry is this team when, they let Gay go, bring him back and he was our corner. He's not even a corner in my opinion. He's too slow right now even at safety. We are stacked at receiver and yet, they take Ju-Ju Smith. Not only is this a waste of trying to use his selection for a corner we, are going to give up a wide receiver to another team to keep Ju-Ju. And probably a receiver that will help another team defeat us. I believe whatever receiver we let go, the Cheats will sign him. Ju-Ju is already injured or has been injured and he's beginning to look like a bad omen to me.

I thought at one time the Steelers believed, the heck with the secondary, we will out score our opponents with our offense. Nice mind set but, our offense is underachieving with Haley at the helm. I was okay with allowing Haley is growing pains but, he doesn't have it. This should be a feared offense that, should be putting up in the neighborhood, 28 to 30 + points a week.

This could be a great, should have been a great Steeler team but, they just don't address the obvious needs on defense. If our Steelers can't out talent or muscle the teams we are in trouble. Many head coaches you see their X & O's of game planning of taking away what, another team does but, you never see this with Tomlin. I think this is why Bradshaw said Tomlin is a cheerleader. You do not see Tomlin being a savvy coach.

 

I've been saying this for years. The Steelers offense is overrated, big time. Bell and Brown are not as good as the media makes them out to be... and Ben is not as good of a QB as he was 6-7 years ago.

And I agree.. the Patriots will pick up 1 or maybe 2 of the WRs we end up cutting. Also agree that JuJu was not a good pick. This could very well end up like the Sweed pick in '08 for different reasons. Not because JuJu can't catch, but because he'll be like Spence and Golson... on IR or PUP list.

Steelers should have used 2nd round pick on a CB or Safety. The Dobbs pick was questionable, too. The '17 draft may end up like the '08 draft... with only the 1st rounder contributing. Like Mendenhall, Watt will make good contributions to the team. I still think he needs a year or two before he's in the 8+ sack territory. I hope I'm wrong and Watt makes the Pro Bowl THIS YEAR.

For the record, I believe Haley is much better OC than Arians was. Problem is... the Steelers offense doesn't execute plays very well in the playoffs. And during the regular season, the offense tends to take entire quarters off... with consistent 3 and outs. If there's anything the Steelers offense is consistent at... it's 3 and outs and punting.

 

I don`t know why we are not the #1 offense by a wide margin, much less what we were ranked last year. We have the best receiver, depth at receiver, best RB, great OL, HOF QB. Failure to achieve #1 has to be on the coordinator. Logic would imply we could copy (fill in the blank) offensive scheme and be better than them because collectively we have the best players on offense in the NFL. It has to be the play calling. Some of it is just pure stupidity, for example, calling a low percentage play on 3rd down and losing a precious possession. Every time that happens, it`s huge.

 

Watt is not going to be his brother and I think he will just end up being a bit above average. I hope not but it's, just a feeling I am having about him at this time. Dobbs ?!!! What do they see in him ? I know he's a rookie but, I see nothing that leaves me to believe he will be anything more than a backup quarterback that, is questionable and always awaiting for him to improve. I thought Houston showed more poise and had a better presence on the field and more sure of himself. Dobbs will be here for years because of the spot he was taken in the draft, Tomlin likes him and Tomlin along with Colbert don't want to axe a guy so quickly and admit, they made a mistake. HeinzMustard, I think you are spot on with your perception of Juju.

 

BigBensBigBong, you said it precisely. There is no freaking reason we are not the number one offense. Even if we fail at Ben not being the leagues number one passer he, still has the pedigree of being one of the top 3 or 4 passers with adding into the mix, the best receiver, the best running back. Add into it our other receivers would be number one starters on other teams or our team if AB wasn't here. Our O-line may not be the best but, best enough to not be a minus to the offenses performance. It all falls upon Haley now. He does some stupid stuff and this is me saying this after watching Arians being bullheaded and doing bonehead stuff too. There is no reason our offense shouldn't be out scoring the opponents. No reason at all.

 

For all the talk about how we need man coverage to beat the pats, here's a good analysis of the AFCCG and what went wrong:

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www....s-defensive-gameplan-new-england-patriots/amp

The key points:

- Pats are built to beat man coverage. Brady thrives on it.
- Zone in itself was less the problem in the game than a crazily vanilla version which Brady read too easily
- Bad zonal play, rather than zone per se, was the killer.

Worth a read, even if you disagree...

 

The question of this string does anyone think our secondary will be better by regular season. I suppose my answer was "no" amid the spewing I did in my previous post but, to say it clearly my answer is "no". What our Steelers secondary is, is what the Pirates are to baseball. Our secondary is equal to the Pirates in pads. Front office that won't spend money on them. A front office that thinks they are smarter than everyone else by putting semi pro talent on the field. Believing, they will magically manifest into playing like the real pros. Hmm, maybe the Nuttings are writing the checks for our Steelers secondary ?

 

That isn't fully true, or players like Sherman, Norman, Dak or Brady would not exist.

 

I disagree. Haley, most of the time, calls good plays.... but sometimes he tries to get too fancy. The players screw it up. Basic fundamentals are lacking.

 

top 5 offense is always (not in this order) pats falcons cowboys saints then some other newcomer, but not us. I don't understand either why we rack up all these yards but can't score.

It's like having a huge wang but unable to get it up.

frustrating

 

That article is a contradiction of itself. It says Steelers zone coverage was a bad defense game plan as the Pats offense is designed to attack man coverage???? I believe the author of that article got some things confused, the first is when you read about how Brady and the offensive scheme look to exploit mismatches in coverage, that right there is wrong as it describes zone where players get mismatched because a receiver crosses into the Lbers zone, man coverage gets DBs on position players for the most part. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Rex Ryan said the key to beating Brady was to play press man coverage on the outside and use outside LBers to apply pressure while inside LBer along with safeties played a short zone to cover the 5 yard dink and dunk passes. By doing that it would take away timing routes and force Brady to hold on to the ball longer and allow pressure to get to him, and if there was one weakness Brady has, the same one P.Manning had, it is that he doesn't play well when being hit repeatedly because he gets gun shy and throws the ball away or way to early when he thinks guys are even getting close. We saw the Steelers beat the Pats at home by playing the same way and I agree that the article was interesting but they have the terminology wrong, zone defense allows the QB to exploit mismatches in coverage, not man coverage.

 

I didn't want a WR in the second round but there was a run on DBs before the Steelers picked in the second. Green Bay took safety Josh Jones right before the Steelers pick, that's who I wanted.

 

i'd just like to see some more aggressive play from someone. even in zone. driving on guys coming into their zone. i see some of that in dixon when manned up. yes he's a little grabby but plays with aggressiveness. i see too many in the secondary first trying to decide where to go and where to be instead of going after. hilton plays aggressive too. so does davis this year. so does dangerfield. i want more of that.

 

I think his point was that we played too basic a form of zone which Brady could read easily. Ultimately that's the way the to beat Brady - stop him from knowing what to look for, so he can't get rid of the ball so quickly. Which can be done via zone, man or a mixing up of both.

As someone who also often sounds like Ross's dad, I agree 100%!

 

lol, sounds like Ross has a lot of Dads around here.

 

Maybe one of them should have taught him how to play man corner

 

The Steelers need another Ike Taylor. Ike Taylor is one of the most underrated Steelers of all time.

Like the old Cinderella song goes... "Don't know what you got... 'til it's gone."

 

If Ike would have had good hands he would have been a legend. Ironically, because Ike didn't have good hands he's still sort of a legend. LOL! I agree though that when it was all said and done Ike done his job and this is coming from somebody that frequently liked to complain about Ike. The one thing about him that would always get under my skin is the fact that he was usually good for a penalty when he was clearly beaten. I don't know if that's an actual "fact" or not but it always seemed like he'd be good for a penalty quite a bit. Also he was a bit of a hot head as well. Regardless, he went toe to toe with opposing number 1's for a long time. I don't really expect to see Cockrell here for as long as Ike was.