The biggest misconception about the Steelers

But still they should be able to do a better job of shutting down average offenses like Oakland and Denver, the Steelers couldn't cover those no name WRs and TEs from Oakland and Denver .

 

The Pats have players on defense with better ball skills than the Steelers .

 

On a Steelers podcast I heard them blame Burnett for giving up that 3rd and 20.

 

Conner's fumble was a killer also, they were driving into Denver territory and Conner wasn't tackled he fumbled on his own IIRC.

 

Got hit on the thigh - nowhere near the ball, though - so all on him.

 

I disagree, fans say we have all this talent and think this team should be in the Super Bowl. The defense doesn't create enough turnovers, and the offense turns it over too much, the Steelers are -10 in turnover ratio.

 

Individual mistakes are part of being outplayed.

 

Cook isn't a no-name tight end and Sanders isn't a no-name receiver.

 

It's a team sport , not tennis or golf

 

No Sherlock, I'm talking about those other Raiders TEs who caught a TD, also Denver TEs who the Steelers couldn't cover.

 

You have a point there, but if we don’t put up 20+ we rarely win. Or if it comes down to a late drive the defense can’t stop anyone.

Yes we do turn the ball over a lot and definitely don’t get any takeaways, but there’s not much talent on the defensive side of the ball. To me we’ve whiffed on a lot of draft picks. We’re just not good enough on the defensive side of the ball.

Think if we had a decent to good defense. We’d be in the SB or making appearances almost yearly. The difference is that defense or lack there of.

 

Burnett came up to cover the short route and Brees threw it over him. Had he not bit it was at least a harder throw and maybe brees throws it underneath

 

So, do we have poor talent and good coaching or good talent and poor coaching. The eye test tells me that our players look confused and out of position a lot of times especially when closing out the game. This is especially true in the def backfield, Tomlins expertise I believe. My conclusion is we keep feeding high draft choices to the defense only to see those talented players put in no win situations. How many recent 1st round draft picks have been successful under this defensive staff. I hear so much about how Shazier's injury caused all of our defensive woes. He was a good player, yes, but not great IMO. I'd like to see a statistical analysis of just what he really did that supposedly made our defense so much worse. I remember many of his tackles were made after 5-7 yards gained and some splash plays one in a while. Good in covering receivers and had lots of speed. Love to have him back but I feel if were to come back as healthy as ever it wouldn't make that much of a difference. And now we see that our DC is game planning against players on IR since October. Makes you wonder about the the quality of game preparation.

 

You have a point there, but if we don’t put up 20+ we rarely win. Or if it comes down to a late drive the defense can’t stop anyone.

Well they finally stopped an aging Brady's late drive which will be the highlight of a dismal season. As I love telling Eagle fans, if Brady was 5 years younger you would not have beat him and he also would have tied the game up against us.

 

I don’t disagree with you there. I think it’s a combination of both. I think Butler‘s schemes are terrible. I said in another post we might have some talent on the defensive of side of the ball, but we wouldn’t know it, because our schemes suck.

Butler should’ve been gone a long time ago and I don’t understand why he’s not? If anyone can give me a good reason why he should still be there I’m all ears? I doubt many can or will want to defend Butler. Tomlin’s not off the hook either, because as you said his background is this defensive of side of the ball.

Every year we draft a defensive player in the first round and it never pans out. I think if we got a different defensive coordinator, someone who knows what they’re doing, we might see that we actually do have some talent if put in the right positions and schemes.

 

We still need improvement on the defensive side to have any hope to improve in the next year or two.

Defensive line is decent to good. Heyward always gives his best and leads by example, Hargrave has improved a lot this year, Tuitt shows flashes of what he could be but not often enough.

Linebackers Watt works his ass off every play but is getting no help from the opposite side, teams can always afford to double or at least chip Watt to contain him. Dupree has one pass rush move up field and wide, almost always just a bit late. Against the run Dupree can't separate from a blocker at all. Teams run at him and past him as he stands engaged with the left tackle.

Inside backers all three Bostic, Williams and Fort are average at best. Fort has some speed but Williams and Bostic struggle with coverage in space.

Secondary has been a confused mess all season, there has been some improvement but still too many breakdowns or
miscommunication's even at this point in the season. Haden is the best we have but getting older and was exposed by pure speed guys.
If Sensabaugh is our other starting corner then that speaks for itself. Burns is a mess and seems to be regressing. Davis has been better but still makes glaring errors. Burnett missed too much time . Edmunds is learning but I don't see enough speed or he takes bad angles same problem with Davis. Hilton makes a few plays but gets limited snaps.

With all these issues on defense we need to clean house with the defensive coaches except for DL coach Dunbar as that is the only unit that is at least consistent.

 

Not sure how you saying that the steelers defense is poor is a misconception. That may be the most discussed topic on the MB this season. Or maybe a close second behind all the leveon bell drama. This offense is more talented than any other AFC team including KC. Saints and Rams O are up there from NFC. For them to be relying on the friggin clowns and us to win in week 17 to barely squeak into the playoffs is a damn disgrace and Tomlin should be fired solely for that reason.

 

Fans just say they have all that talent in general, my point is the defense isn't that talented. Maybe you should try harder to comprehend .

 

Maybe you should try harder to write more coherently.

 

No you just can't read, I said the offense has a lot of talent, the defense not so much.

 

Yeah I know what you wrote. You also proceeded to compliment some "nice pieces on defense" so which is it? Make up your mind.

 

So you don't think Watt is a nice piece on defense? He had 13 sacks in his second season, when was the last time a Steelers player did that in their second season? Also the DL played better the second half of the season, they combined for 20 sacks, and Haden was solid, so those are some nice pieces on defense .

 

I agree with you man. The point of my comment is that there really isn't a misconception. It seems to be a widely held belief that this defense is poor and poorly coached. Besides Watt and Haden, I doubt any of the other defensive starters would start anywhere else in the league. Maybe Heyward.