Butler deserves more time

3 teams with backup qbs and the browns twice help those stats a lot. just sayin. i found out something tonight reading that i didn't know, the patriots have not only a DB coach but a corner back coach and a safety coach. i'd hope we got someone to help lake if he's staying. we have 2 LB'er coaches and 2 OL coaches, why not 2 DB coaches? i'd be all for that.

 

If we could get one more guy in the secondary who is good, that would go a long way.

 

You make a good case for him. But my biggest problem isnt with the numbers. How many times have we seen this defense look utterly confused? I'm not just talking about the Jags game either. Look at the Patriots. They also suffered some tough injuries, and looked dazed and confused for a while. They figured it out and are now playing good defense. We have had quite a while to figure things out without Shazier. We didn't. We got much worse with each passing week. The bottom line is if your defensive success revolves around a super human effort by Shazier, then I'm not sure you can call your DC successful.

 

We play teams with back up QBs every year though. Other teams go against weak starters. I get the point you’re making mac, but there is no denying a statistical improvement in a lot of areas. However bad the d had looked at times....

 

okay, we were bad at all defensive position this year.

Saftety -Probably worst in the league

Middle Linebacker - Before Shazier injury we were average, after Shazier we were really bad

Defensive line - All year we were bad against the run okay with sacks and pressure against the pass (got man handled against good teams)

Outside linebacker - Dupree side was bad against run and pass pressure, Watt side just okay average against run and pass pressure.

Corners - Struggled against mediocre QB with running ability and made them looker better then what they were. Burns did not grow and still has problems turning to the ball, Haden is okay and we didn't develope him, only other bright spot is Tilton and maybe Sutton.

Lets not forget how how bad we were defensively against some average offensive teams like Cleveland, Chicago, Jax, Colts, and Packers without Rodgers.

We need more then one guy in the secondary, we need better players or better execution at almost all defensive positions along with new coaches on that side of the ball OR we will be looking at thing same thing next year and have to score 30 point a game to win. Too many excuses for too long with lack of game adjustments against runs and pass coverages like against Gronk, the communications within the group was just horrible all year.

 

Naw, we only need one for every coach position. We just need to go out and get the right ones. Now, there is nothing wrong with having an assistant ... but, not two coaxhes for one position.

 

I was all about the stats but believe me they lie, our defense is not good

 

Blast, numbers lie sometimes. That's all they are, numbers. Eye test. I wanted some of the defensive staff to be dismissed. Some upgrades are seriously needed. I knew Butler would get another chance. They were all retained. How can you justify keeping Joey Porter? Or, Carnell Lake? Even John Mitchell shouldn't get a pass. Hargrave and Tuitt were both below average and at times Heyward was a ghost. Big thanks to Alualu who played pretty solid.

TJ Watt hopefully becomes a force, and at times he was. At times. Bud Dupree looks like Jarvis Jones part two. Now they have to look at an OLB, Chick is a RFA. He could do no worse then Dupree. And the only thing Dupree is worried about is his 5th year option. Hopefully that's not happening. Porter has run his course.

Burns and Davis. There have been threads, major criticisms about these two over and over. Development. That falls at the heals of Lake. And we won't even get into that has been Mouth Mitchell. A change needed to be made. But it's not.

The run defense has been horrible all season. This starts up front in the trenches. Fail. This lies at the feet of John Mitchell.

ILB and Jerry O. I feel Olsalvsky gets a pass. Dealt a horrible blow when Ryan went down and tried to piece the position together. But lets focus on the run defense, even with Ryan it was below average.

The definition of Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over expecting different results...

Tomlin made the call and now this defensive mess is at his feet. A below average mess...

 

It all boils down to one thing regarding the Defensive Coaching performance... 45 points given up in a playoff game to a team that you lost to earlier in the season - NO EXCUSE!

 

This speaks volumes. Can't lose your lead dog and not have issues. Shazier is a beast.

 

I can live with Butler being retained, but don't you think there needs to be a shakeup among the defensive coaching staff? There just doesn't seem to be any accountability there. Carnell Lake has not gotten much from his secondary and Joey Porter has presided over the utter failure of Jarvis Jones, the slow development and even regression of Bud Dupree, and after TJ Watt got off to an impressive start, he trailed off pretty significantly at the end of season. Keep Butler (on a short leash) but Lake and Porter should be fired. Tomlin refusing to make any changes on the defensive coaching staff is unacceptable.

 

First at making crap QB's look like Brady
First sucking at 3rd down and long
First at having CB's look at the wide open receiver and just stand there picking their nose
___________________
First insacks: 56
3rd total yards: 306.9 yards
5th in pass defense: 201.1 yards
7th in point allowed: 19.2
10th in rush defense: 105.8 yards
___________________________

 

Not a stat guy at all ,but come on,I did a quick search and 10 sacks came from the 2 browns games and 7 in the texans game ..
Games against the Pats and 2 jags games ,total sacks 4 .

The D was not good this year

 

The stats look good, but if the D can't get stops on 3rd down... then to hell with the stats and why even bother?

I think it's long overdue for the Steelers to go 4-3. We're stuck with Tomlin and he is familiar with the 4-3. Steelers need an entirely different approach on D. The LeBeau 3-4 system helped to win us 2 Super Bowls, but it's outdated and has never been able to stop the better QBs in the league (Brady, Rodgers and Brees).

 

It speaks volumes that an injury prone player like Shazier was the lead dog and the defense falls apart when he is out. I thought this game was a team sport. Relying on one player to cover up the mistakes of other players is just asinine coaching and a downright retarded defensive scheme especially when you don't have a capable backup to handle the job.

 

As some writers have pointed out, the Steelers D stats can be deceiving. For instance, 23 percent of the team’s sacks (13 of 56) were against the Cleveland Browns. Thank goodness we are in the AFC North.

 

Okay I could live with getting rid of Porter and Lake now, then we get rid of Butler next year if we have the same results, then we get rid of Tomlin the following year. If we have learned anything it's Tomlin is not the defensive genius people make him out to be and he oversees this mess.

Rooney's please do something now because Tomlin is not going to get rid of his buddy Porter no matter what he does or how bad he is.

 

It takes more than putting star players on the field on defense, it takes a DC who is a strategy minded coach who can adjust his defense based on situational down and distance in real time, Butler after 17 years with this defense hasn't proven he is the coach who can do that IMO....

 

Stats are misleading because we sometimes play 5th stringers and browns twice who pad our sacks. Games that matter our D line falters and secondary torched. Elite defenses shutout awful offenses and hold elite offenses to 25 or less