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So What Went Wrong with the Steelers Defense vs the Patriots?

Discussion in 'Steelers Talk' started by mcam, Feb 5, 2017.

  1. mcam

    mcam Well-Known Member

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    I'm surprised I didn't see a thread on this. Maybe it's there but just buried.

    Here's an interesting breakdown. https://www.all22.com/nfl/pittsburgh-steelers-defensive-gameplan-new-england-patriots

    I also read a pretty good analysis regarding the Patriots doing a hurry up offense, which did not allow our defense to really communicate different defense patterns, forcing us into a cover 3 zone forcing our younger secondary members to communicate among each other.

    I do recall us blitzing a good bit, but just not getting their with the blitz. Brady picked apart the zone having plenty of time to find a target.

    I read that we continued with the zone defense, as New England primarily devises their scheme against man coverages. Brady finds the mismatch exploiting the weakness of the defense. Using the zone would force Brady to make a decision after the play is called instead of prior. Usually he'd have a player go in motion prior to the snap to determine whether the defense was playing man or zone defense. It was interesting to see that we did play some man to man coverage though. The one play in the posted link has us playing a man cover 1.

    Anyways, I thought I'd post. I'm sure this is talked about on here somewhere. Just can't find it.


    I wonder what the Steelers could have done differently against the Patriots. This is one team that always seems to have our number dating back to when we had Joey Porter and Gildon rushing off the edge back to early 2000s. I think back then we had a better pass rush, but this team still found a way to win.
     
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  2. JackAttack 5958

    JackAttack 5958 Well-Known Member

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    What went wrong? The Steelers inexplicably decided to play the EXACT defense that Tom Brady has torched every single time they've used it before against him! Simple really. No imagination whatsoever from Tomlin and Butler!
     
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  3. Aerosteel

    Aerosteel Well-Known Member

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    If you watch defenses that have success against Brady, they line up 4 and press the receivers. Giants won 2 SB's that way and Atlanta is doing the same thing tonight. Unfortunately, we have coaches who haven't got the memo yet. The Steelers are the worst defense against the Patriots in the NFL. Brady has 22 TDs and 0 Interceptions and a 130 QB rating against the Steelers. The Patriots have been in the last 6 AFC Championship games. If you want to get to the Superbowl, you have to build a defense to beat the Patriots. The Steelers haven't done that. They had a chance when they moved on from Lebeau, but instead of going in a different direction they promoted Butler and guaranteed themselves to lose to the Patriots every time and not make it to the Superbowl.
     
  4. blountforcetrauma

    blountforcetrauma Well-Known Member

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    Tom Brady showed up. The rest is history.
     
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  5. SteelHaven

    SteelHaven Well-Known Member

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    Thing of it is, on this board you get called a moron if you question Tomlin. Those of us that think that the Steelers would do better under a different coach are a minority. In my opinion they are past the stage of needing a players coach. They need a strategist, x and o oriented, organized, and disciplined
     
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  6. RPO IZSB

    RPO IZSB Well-Known Member

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    Yea how'd that work out for Atlanta?
     
  7. blountforcetrauma

    blountforcetrauma Well-Known Member

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    Yeah I was seriously about to come to this thread and be like "Um...yeah... about that..." LOL!
     
  8. SteelerEmpire

    SteelerEmpire Well-Known Member

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    I'll give it to em. At least ATL made an "effort", Steelers D didn't even try
     
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  9. blountforcetrauma

    blountforcetrauma Well-Known Member

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    Do or do not. There is no try.
     
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  10. Rambro

    Rambro Well-Known Member

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    We couldn't collapse the pocket like Atlanta did. Heyward was out. Harrison is not what he used to be. I'll take him in a rotation but we need a top tier pass rusher. Bud Dupree could take that leap but it's yet to be seen. I hope they are able to throw a little money at the defense. We can't rely on the draft because the Ben's window is on its way shut.
     
  11. Wardismvp

    Wardismvp Well-Known Member

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    Our poor coaching staff was unprepared AGAIN!!!!!!!!!
     
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  12. defva

    defva Well-Known Member

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    It worked out well,..until Matty Ice started playing like Ben. The defense didn't lose this game Matt Ryan did. The defense put this team in position to ice the game. The patsies were handed two Superbowl gifts with a bow on top!
     
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  13. NY STEELERFAN

    NY STEELERFAN Well-Known Member

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    4th quarter 5-6 min left no sure exactly and up by 16 when Matty ice throws a pick. I think the Falcons defensive game plan worked pretty well. Brady had 200 yards in the 4th alone, if the Falcons RUN THE DAMN BALL and eat some clock game over. We know better than anyone that if you give Marsha a chance he will come thru time and time again. Even after Ryan threw the pick and the Cheats went down and scored the Falcons got the ball back up 8 and in FG range. Piss poor decisions and another bad decision by Ryan taking that sack cost them the game. Hats off to the freakin Cheats they did what they needed to do and the Falcons were shell shocked on defense in the 4th.
     
  14. Thigpen82

    Thigpen82 Bitter optimist

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    Thanks for posting, @mcam . Nice to see a detailed analysis rather than "they didn't play press man" repeated ad nauseum.
     
  15. CK 13

    CK 13 Well-Known Member

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    Wow, a thread asking what happened to the Steelers Defense? Please. It's over. The lockers are cleaned out and it's time to move on to 2017.
    A lot of questions surrounding another year for the Steelers...
     
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  16. NY STEELERFAN

    NY STEELERFAN Well-Known Member

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    Well if you don't like it don't read it......this is what a message board is for. That was a good post no need to make fun of it, if you don't like talking about why our season ended fine move on. I am not trying to start with you but come on man this is a Steeler message board what do you want to talk about, I didn't see no harm in that post and actually I think it is kinda crappy to act like that to a new guy/gal....jmo!
     
  17. CK 13

    CK 13 Well-Known Member

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    Maybe that new person should have dug deeper... And I understand it's a message board, thank you for pointing that out. Just a little sarcasm due to the fact that there were multiple threads about the Steeler defense or should I say lack their of...
     
  18. mcam

    mcam Well-Known Member

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    Yep we saw this last night. Atlanta did a great job initially on the Patriots doing exactly what you posted. Bump and run to get the routes out of rhythm and disrupt the short passing scheme. Pressure Brady, hit him, and get him in his head.


    I'm completely on que with that. Being able to get a pass rush with 4 defenders is important. We shouldn't have to depend on the blitz to get pressure on the QB. A big difference maker that we saw last night with Atlanta's front four.
     
  19. blountforcetrauma

    blountforcetrauma Well-Known Member

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    Are you talking about the fumble because Matt Ryan didn't actually throw a pick last night. Really he was well on his way to winning the Super Bowl MVP and maybe even having a better game than Phil Simms did. It's sorta like when Boomer thought he was about to be in the Disneyworld commercial against the 9ers and was putting makeup on on the sidelines and all of a sudden a dude named Joe Montana weighed in on the issue... Terry Bradshaw said that he told someone last night on the start of the last pats drive that he knew Brady was gonna bring them back. I don't know why but it's really like he doesn't even start playing until it's down to the wire.
     
  20. mcam

    mcam Well-Known Member

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    I think it worked great initially. They just let up in the second half starting playing softer.
     
  21. blountforcetrauma

    blountforcetrauma Well-Known Member

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    They got lit up down the stretch. They gave up 44 completions and almost 500 total yards of offense JUST to Tom Brady alone. Also a Super Bowl record 14 catches to James White. It was a tail of two halves or more specifically a tail of about 3 quarters or so. The funny thing is that we've all been lamenting the fact that we didn't hit Brady enough, self included BUT the Falcons hit him a lot last night and STILL lost. The secret to beating them is play a full 60 minutes of mistake free football and limit Brady's chances. That's easier said than done though and I don't care who you are.
     
  22. mcam

    mcam Well-Known Member

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    Yep I'm sure it's been posted somewhere. I'm a new old poster actually. I think it's been 10 years since I've been on these forum. With all that said, I thought I found a good link that helped break it down and wanted to share my perspective on it for discussion.


    I'll add I liked the way Atlanta's defense played, especially up front and in the secondary. The problem was with press coverage we saw a number of pass interference and holding penalties. The team needs to have the prototype kind of corner to handle press coverage like that or we start seeing those types of calls.
     
  23. RPO IZSB

    RPO IZSB Well-Known Member

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    Nonsense

    The defense was handed a 25 point lead and couldn't stop anything for over 30 minutes of the game.

    You have it completely backwards, the offense put the defense in a position to ice the game. When you lose a 16 point lead late in the 4th quarter it's a defensive collapse.

    It's easy to point to the 2 offensive plays that flipped momentum. But there were dozens of 2nd half snaps that the defense choked on.

    28-9 in the 4th quarter. The Pat's executed 4 straight scoring drives. You can blame a few offensive plays/calls, but that is still a complete defensive collapse.
     
  24. defva

    defva Well-Known Member

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    That Atlanta
    That defense not only put the falcons in position to win the game against the best qb in the game today...they also, contributed with 7pt of their own. You put the best of defenses in harms way in the 4th qtr with 4mins left...and against Brady?! Really?! Run the doggone ball . You either pick up the 1st down or kick the fg. Fatigue sets in and when you lose momentum...its difficult to retrieve it back
     
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  25. Jim90

    Jim90 Well-Known Member

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    what went wrong, go read the 400 threads about the D
     

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