Our Inside Linebacker Problem

Notwithstanding Timmons playing in Harrisons position ive noticed that we are hindered this year by the lack of speed and reaction instincts by Farrior and Foote. If you watch both are slow to the ball and slow to recover from a cut a RB makes at the 2nd level (on top of that the tackling has been suspect at times).
Even though Farrior has a sack on the season both are turtle like in shooting through the gap on a direct or stunt blitz. I believe our run defense will suffer till we address the problem and I fear teams like Green Bay and the pats will continuously run crossing or seam routes as QB's realize that our middle is soft.

 

If Sylvester is really going to be Farrior's successor, then he should be in for Foote now. Then again, LeBeau or Tomlin seems to have a total hard-on for Larry Foote. Why, I don't know.

If Sylvester is not going to succeed Farrior, then ILB needs to be a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd round draft pick next year. Hopefully 2nd or 3rd. I'd rather spend our 1st rounder on the secondary or offensive line.

 

since harrison and worilds are out and carter is not reday yet ,i would play a 4 3 with woodley mclendon ziggy and keisel upfront and timmons farrior sylvester at lb ,sometime switching farrior with troy adding another db

 

I've been wondering for a couple years now if we shouldn't switch back to a 4-3. Seems like we have a lot of personnel for that kind of system. I get that Lebeau is a 3-4 genius, but he's not going to be around forever. When he leaves, we should consider the switch.

 

I don't understand why Sylvester isn't playing right now?

 

because they love foote like they love gay like the love essex
i don't undestand why we cut morty ivy ,butler and hills . i can understand love for veteran (not always) but love for old garbage in place of young talent is insane :banghead:

 

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that they resigned Morty Ivey.They need to give one of the new guys a shot,because the sight of Foote missing tackles in the hole is getting old. How about the way Farrior is always being tossed to the side on the blitz up the middle he needs to steamroll the blitz pickup guy.We could be so much better with pressure up the middle like in the old K. Bell days.

 

i'd like to see ivy brought up. i'd still like to see timmons and harrison as the two inside backers at some point even if it's next year. if carter gets stronger and passes up worilds as i think he will, his speed off the edge will pan out hopefully and harrison brought into the middle will really stengthen our pass coverage, rush ability and put some fear in receivers coming across there. worilds,sly and ivy as the backups and we would be as strong as ever at LB.

 

Official website shows Ivy on the practice squad so you are right. I totally agree about Foote and Farrior's play. How many times is Farrior going to let the RB push him out of the way on a blitz? I think Farrior has been worse than Foote this year. He's 36. The age is showing. We need to get these other guys some playing time, even if it's one series.

 

Hard on the guys to make those kind of moves on the field when one is sporting a walker and the other is sporting no talent!

 

I know it's been a complaint many of us have had for years about giving the young guys some burn.You see alot of other teams playing younger guys and them playing well.Would it be too much to try and give our young LBs a series or two?

 

I'm grasping here, but maybe the coaches dont have the confidence in Sylvester or Timmons to be the miked player? I would think that Timmons should definitely be able to do it, but maybe they are just reluctant to. With Harrison out I think it's even worth a try to play Sylvester on the outside and put Timmons back to his normal position. At least this would get Foote off of the field.

 

There is a report Farrior has a calph injury too. NE's 2 TE's will eat up a Farrior, at 50%, and a Foote, who has never been great in pass coverage.

 

They had a clip on Sportscenter last night about the game and the talked to Brady talking about how good the Steelers defense was and how they had studied and put together a game plan and have been practicing it all week. So what i think the Steelers need to do is throw what they normally do right out the window at least for this game. They already have broken down tape of what they have run this year and in years past so why not throw some wrinkles at Brady and see if it shakes them up. Have a four man line with Hood, Heyward, Hoke(if he can go) and Kiesel. Have Woodley and Timmons as the outside backers and put replace Foote and Farrior with Troy in the middle. have Mundy and Clark as the safeties and Taylor and or Gay/Lewis. Between Troy and Timmons they have the speed to stay on the Pats TE and can jump the slot route if Welker goes inside. Woodley can play pass or run and can double as pass rusher to really confuse the Pats Oline. I am not suggesting a whole sale scrapping of the defense that has made the team great for the last ten years just ways to put the best players in a more favorable match-up

 

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Wow that is pretty serious, I think they should change some things up, but the thing is, we may see these guys again in the Playoffs, how much should we give away?

 

Maybe, like William Gay, they're impressed with what they do on the practice field.

The practice field - the place we don't actually win or lose games on.

 

I don't think that's going to happen.

The possibility of LeBeau retiring is something that comes up every year, so no one's counting on him staying. We do have the personnel to play a 4-3 if we wanted to, but that's because we have so many great, versitile players. But we continually draft for the 3-4. Ziggy could play in either system, but Heyward is a 3-4 specialist. Worilds and Carter are two more examples of guys built for a 3-4. The team is preparing itself to stay with the 3-4, LeBeau or no LeBeau.

I don't disagree with that path, either. People will bring up Tomlin's 4-3 background (which they did like crazy when he first took over), but he's so young it's not like he's even had that much time to get used to it. His 4-3 experience is weak considered to the history of Pittsburgh's 3-4 being extremely dominant over the last 20 years, 5 of which were with Tomlin. He was smart enough to convert himself rather than convert the team when he first arrived, and by now I'm sure he's bought in even more. Jeez, in 2008 we had the best defense I've ever seen in my life. I'm happy knowing we're sticking with the 3-4.

 

I think this may be where Lebeau has to acknowledge that he's lost to the Patriots 6 out of the last 7 times and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! I also want to see the Steelers take a different approach for a team like New England because they've studied what we do and have made adjustments (Past & Present). I always felt that we would have 1 to 2 more rings if Cower had done diagramed anything other than a Run, Run, Pass mentality for EACH team (I understand that we were the best at doing it but sometimes whats needed is more than an occassional play of trickery). This is where i wonder if Tricky Dick can think outside the box, and if Tomlin will continue to want him as a Def Coordinator once the Cower veterans have retired. Thoughts.......

 

Steelers play zone, Brady spreads them out to force them to play man....We need guys to win in man coverage.

 

Farrior still wears number 51, right?
Maybe I am missing him getting "pushed out of the way", and "old and slow", but without knowing the exact stats on tackles, etc...
He sure seems to be in on half the tackles they show on tv!
Especially 3 weeks ago against Tennesse, and to a lesser extent, against Jacksonville, seemed like he went on runs, where every other play, was him blowing someone up!
I am sure there are about 28 other teams in the league, that wish they had our "problems" at ILB...(Gotta assume that at least 4 teams have a decent LB corp...)

 

We might get by this year with Farrior (Foote s/b backup only), but next year we will need changes. However, I just can't see picking a linebacker over an offensive lineman (guard) or cornerback.

 

everyone need to take into acount the Farrior is like the QB of the makes the calls ect ect cant just throw some one in and wing it!

 

I agree. Would be nice to see the young pups in there for a series or two per game. Only way to learn the scheme is by playing. Obviously can't play by sitting on the bench. Minimizing the snaps they take will help minimize the mistakes, while providing valuable learning experience at the same time.