Steelers DEFENSE

Because in 2020, touchdowns take only slightly longer than the three and outs in 2019.

 

Lol

 

Yes. They won the Superbowl during that sack streak stretch.

 

You can't forget about Hilton as well. His value in the rushing defense can't be understated.

 

Thanks! I asked my question wrong but you figured it out.

 

Statistically great. Fundamentally flawed. This is a tremendously unbalanced defense. It is not solid across the board, and therefore, susceptible to being taken advantage of.

The entire sucess of this defense rests on pressure from the front 4 and well-timed/disguised blitzes. Without that, we're pedestrian at best.

Our secondary isn't fast enough to make up for bad coaching that does not put them in winnable situations. Breakdowns in communication and lack of adequate preparation allow free runners with separation. Even journeymen qb's can find success against this defense if their OL holds up.

Fortunately, through nine games, our front 7 has created just enough havoc to bail out our secondary. Tomlin's "we're selling out to stop the run" line sounded plausible for a game or two, but now we're not even able to stop the run.

So while I agree that in totality, our defense is winning, an incomplete defense does not a great defense make. It can, and will, be exploited and falter before the season is over. Hopefully not when it really counts.

 

The last two take them out of the elite category

 

Especially when they are playing mobile qbs. He has the speed and good football sense,

 

When considering everything the Steelers defense is doing a good job. I don't believe they are to concerned with the run defense. Especially if they can continue to keep teams out of the end zone.

 

Nice.
What's the difference between Tackle for a loss, stuff percentage and negative rush attempts?

 

No clue it’s probably just made up stats to make us look good lol

 

It's working.

 

Not to be pedantic (well I guess I do mean to be pedantic) I'm assuming you meant overstated unless you were cracking wise

Sorry, i don't mean the be the grammar police but when I first read it I thought you were dissing hilton and I thought it was funny.

 

It`s a high risk high reward defense. So far we make more big plays than we give up. Kind of scary when we cannot stop the run sometimes, but maybe some of that is game plan related when it happens.

 

THE stat to look at first is points allowed for defenses and points scored for offenses. That is the bottom line stat. If in addition to that your defense disrupts the opposition with pressure, that is a huge plus. We know turnovers often help decide a game.

Yardage stats not worth much. To exaggerate correctness of that statement in principle I`ll give an extreme example. Team "x" is last in the NFL in yards allowed, but first in allowing fewest points. That defense is #1 no matter what anybody says. Keeping the other team out of the end zone is everything.

 

I'll respectfully disagree. Though the secondary has not been elite, they have played well. Certainly as well, probably better, than any DB group in the past 10 years. Haden has been great, Minkah has found his game, and even Nelson and Edmunds have played better of late. Sutton has filled in nicely, and getting back Hilton will be huge. All in all, I would say this is as good a DB group as we have had in quite a while.

 

Yes and no..

 

You're speaking emotionally, and that's okay. Fans are called fans for a reason. Terms like "great", "found his game", "have played better of late", and "filled in nicely" are completely subjective and are not quantifiable.

Explain how Haden has been great or how Minkah has found his game. I'd love to hear it. Just be warned, I'm already prepared to shoot gigantic holes in your explanations.

But if you just want to admit you're a fanboy, too geeked over being undefeated to actually see our deficiencies, I'll give you a big thumbs up.

 

Interesting. Since we're talking hypotheticals to make a case, let me try one on for size.

So the best ball control offense in the NFL averages 40 minutes TOP. Unfortunately they have the worst red zone efficiency in the league and the least accurate kicker. They are scoring under 50% of the time in the red zone, but only field goals. The defense is only giving up an average of 15 points a game, tops in the league, but is allowing opposing offenses to score on nearly 75% of their posessions. In week 12, the team is -8 in turnover margin with a record of 2-9 and will miss the playoffs.

Now you tell me...is that a #1 defense?

 

Loss of Bush has really turned what could have been a great D this season into one that can hopefully end as a good one. Our run D has become a problem and unless the kid from the Jets can step up and be trusted to understand the playbook and schemes it could be our eventual undoing.

 

If our defenses, past and present, can fall apart with the loss of one player, we have bigger issues than just losing the player. We lost Ben last year and still won 8 games and what I am hearing is with out Bush it could be our "undoing"? If anything, we have been very fortunate in the injury dept compared to a lot of other teams so far this year.

 

I would love to see at least one shutout this season but in todays NFL that is nearly an impossibility. Kickers are just too good and even if a team is down 47-0 late in the 4th you just know a coach will go for an easy FG just to put some points on the board.

 

I agree with you. However have you seen the stats since we lost Bush? Let’s hope they can right the ship.

 

I`ll try to unpack this. Seems you have a scenario where an offense is beyond horrible scoring, yet they hog the ball, so their defense plays only 20 minutes a game and therefor cannot be considered because they play only half the time of an average defense.

Ok. If such an abnormal situation occurred, that defense would be too difficult to compare. One always has to look at outliers, but I stand by my argument that in an apples to apples comparison of teams, points scored or allowed is by far the major consideration. Tweaking could be done by the sport commentators for unusual things, one of what you mention.