Mclendon at nosetackle

How when he is not on the field?

 

was hoke great? we had one heck of a record when he played.

 

How when he is not on the field?[/quote:cdzcdijc]
Are you kidding or do you really not know?

 

Are you kidding or do you really not know?[/quote:2284rv2w]

I do know; know I am right.

 

so we have ziggy,mcclendon,keisel as starters? backups are heyward,weston,woods,bryant,blanc,and hampton if he comes back.So the only two guys with age are keisel and hampton.keisel has a couple more years in him and hampton is hurt and probably on his way out.Look like we could go from the oldest to the youngest.

 

and casey at some point. not really a bad looking bunch.

 

Now people don't value a nose tackle. I'm not saying we should draft one in the first but we need one. You build your team to win your division. Ravens (run oriented ) bengals (run oriented) and browns (will be run oriented) under there new coach. These guys don't have the vaulted passing attacks. The quarterbacks are OK but they rely on the the running game first. I will take my chances forcing dalton,flacco and McCoy throwing the ball then letting them hand it off. PLUS take a look at there offensive lines. I think they all match up good against our dl. And we have the worst oine in the division. Just saying.

 

Are you kidding or do you really not know?[/quote:35al5j74]

I do know; know I am right.[/quote:35al5j74]
Good one. But let me try anyway.

If you run a 3-4, A good nose tackle is ingredient #1 to a strong run defense. There are other key factors too, like DEs, but NT is the single most important position for stopping the run. It's the keystone. The better your run defense is, the harder it will be for the other team to run on you. As you may have noticed over the last 10 years or so, teams almost always have a very hard time running against us. When that happens, they are forced to pass against us, whether their passing game is any good or not. When our defense only has to worry about one phase of the offense, because it knows the other is not a serious threat, their entire job becomes easier. As an example, you've seen how well our offense works (or doesn't work) when we can't get our running game going. As another example, our pass defense has always been our weakest point, our achilles' heel, and yet it's also always rated highly. Often in the top ten, sometimes in the top 5, sometimes 1 or 2. And that's with guys like William Gay, Bryant McFadden, and a 40 year old Deshea Townsend starting. But offenses have their work cut out for them when they can't run more than 50 yards in an entire game.

It's all connected. A strong running game helps the passing game. A strong passing game helps the running game. A strong run defense helps the pass defense. A strong pass defense helps the run defense. A strong defense helps the offense. A strong offense helps the defense.

A great nose tackle helps the pass defense by shutting down the run on the two thirds of plays he is in. He not only helps over the course of the game and season by making teams one dimensional, he also helps in individual circumstances, by creating longer down and distances, as another poster mentioned. When it's 3rd and 8 instead of 3rd and 4, yes, he has already helped on that 3rd down play, even though he'll be on the sideline. Sometimes you play a team that knows ahead of time it can't run on you, and so it comes out throwing almost every play with 4 WR. Then the NT might only play 1/4 of snaps instead of 2/3. So the offense only brings one dimension to the game because it knows it can't succeed in the other. The NT has helped you from the sideline. The help he gave was given on previous plays. It's not that hard to understand if you think about it in other ways. If I get a 10 yard sack on 1st down and then come out for two plays, didn't I make those next two plays a hell of a lot easier? You might be thinking, "Teams like that pass like crazy on us because that's what they're good at." But if you check out their other games, they -- like everyone else -- like to be balanced and enjoy the benefits of a strong running game like everyone else. Running well only enhances your passing game.

 

It will be interesting to see what happens in the draft. If they don't go after one of the top NT's and then cut Hampton I don't think they draft one at all.

They aren't going to keep 3 NT's on the roster.

 

I do know; know I am right.[/quote:zjp3wq6p]
Good one. But let me try anyway.

If you run a 3-4, A good nose tackle is ingredient #1 to a strong run defense. There are other key factors too, like DEs, but NT is the single most important position for stopping the run. It's the keystone. The better your run defense is, the harder it will be for the other team to run on you. As you may have noticed over the last 10 years or so, teams almost always have a very hard time running against us. When that happens, they are forced to pass against us, whether their passing game is any good or not. When our defense only has to worry about one phase of the offense, because it knows the other is not a serious threat, their entire job becomes easier. As an example, you've seen how well our offense works (or doesn't work) when we can't get our running game going. As another example, our pass defense has always been our weakest point, our achilles' heel, and yet it's also always rated highly. Often in the top ten, sometimes in the top 5, sometimes 1 or 2. And that's with guys like William Gay, Bryant McFadden, and a 40 year old Deshea Townsend starting. But offenses have their work cut out for them when they can't run more than 50 yards in an entire game.

It's all connected. A strong running game helps the passing game. A strong passing game helps the running game. A strong run defense helps the pass defense. A strong pass defense helps the run defense. A strong defense helps the offense. A strong offense helps the defense.

A great nose tackle helps the pass defense by shutting down the run on the two thirds of plays he is in. He not only helps over the course of the game and season by making teams one dimensional, he also helps in individual circumstances, by creating longer down and distances, as another poster mentioned. When it's 3rd and 8 instead of 3rd and 4, yes, he has already helped on that 3rd down play, even though he'll be on the sideline. Sometimes you play a team that knows ahead of time it can't run on you, and so it comes out throwing almost every play with 4 WR. Then the NT might only play 1/4 of snaps instead of 2/3. So the offense only brings one dimension to the game because it knows it can't succeed in the other. The NT has helped you from the sideline. The help he gave was given on previous plays. It's not that hard to understand if you think about it in other ways. If I get a 10 yard sack on 1st down and then come out for two plays, didn't I make those next two plays a hell of a lot easier? You might be thinking, "Teams like that pass like crazy on us because that's what they're good at." But if you check out their other games, they -- like everyone else -- like to be balanced and enjoy the benefits of a strong running game like everyone else. Running well only enhances your passing game.[/quote:zjp3wq6p]

Good teams usually pass mostly and occasionally run against the Steelers, and when they run it is against the nickel. Again the nose tackle does not play nickel.

The nose tackle and olb's are the making of the 3-4 BASE, no doubt. Offenses that are balanced and need to establish the run give more significance to the NT.

It is just a fact that the NT is less important in today's defense, not a lot but some. The d ends see every down in the Steelers defense; they become d tackles in nickel and dime.

This defense needs to develop a consistent pass rush in nickel; the NT is not on the field.

With McClendon showing potential and Hampton coming back NT is down the list of needs this year.

 

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I don't believe that NT is less important today in the NFL. I think if the Hampton from the early 2000's was on this team you wouldn't be saying that. Hampton and Hoke, the last year or two, just weren't the same.

To me Mclendon is just the next Hoke....high motor guy who will be the back up for a long time here.

I think Lebeau just needs to retool what to do when QB's try to 3-step-drop/spread out the Steelers though. They need to work on ways of getting to the QB quicker because no OLB can get there when QB's 3-step-drop. Lebeau needs to dig deep in his bag of tricks and find his DL Stunts and and ILB Blitzes up the middle, and not just that crossing ILB blitz that takes too long to develop. I think the Steelers have become a little passive in that regard. If teams are going to try to spread the Steelers out why not use more CB blitzes.