The Teryl Austin/Defense Complaint Thread (2025)

Yeah me too born in 1954, my appetite has decreased a lot but I still eat what I like just not a lot of it.

 

That's where my mind went also.

 

Honestly, we cannot beat a very good offense without turnovers as we don’t have an offense that can score 30+ points per game. Our offense is a 17-20 point offense without turnovers.
On the other hand, we have the most expensive defense in the league so it should produce TO’s. And Rodgers does a very good job of not creating TO’s on offense.

 

Blah blah blah

 

once in a while is what?
twice in half a season already ?

4 times in a season?
5 times in a reg season and playoffs?

lets gauge a team's greatness by losing the turnover battle by 4 or 5 and still winning

 

TO margin is the #1 predictor of wins/losses in the NFL. Been that way for years. It's the easiest way to win games. If the Steelers don't gain a turnover then you are relying on the offense to play a perfect game, no INTs, no fumbles, otherwise it's likely a loss. Thus, you end up playing very conservative which fans also complain about. Are you wanting to see the Steelers win games the hard way?

 

hey hey hey

when the turnovers stopped earlier this season the field went to sh!t

huh
huh

maybe some truth here

 

Steeler fans complain when winning the turnover battle.

Steeler fans complain when losing the turnover battle.

Make it make sense.

 

Apparently style points are a big deal for some fans

 

NO
NO
NO

Theses fans are just saying that when we win the TO battle in a game it is because the other team did it. In no way did our defense create any of them.

 

True but I wasn't just talking about that game

 

It depends. I'd be more willing to concede the point that the "opposition is at fault" for the Pats game. They had ball carrier fumbles, which are more fluky than anything. They happen about once every 90 carries on average for and NFL RB and they had 3 ball carrier fumbles in the same game. That's not only unlikely, that's just their fault. Even if you concede that we made good plays to take the ball away on the fumbles, the league average for the offense recovering their own fumble is over 50%. So they fumbled 3 times in 22 carries from their RB's and lost all 3. It is unlikely for one out of every 7 carries to be a fumble for a single game, and it is a roughly 10% chance that we recover all 3 fumbles (based of heads/tails probability). Strip sack and the INT were definitely created by the defense. So 2 "forced" turnovers and 3 relative gifts.

The Colts game was a different story. The Downs punt return fumble (based of the ball just bouncing weird and him misplaying it) was a definite fluke, but the other five were simply us making a play. Two strip sacks and three picks. We got pressure, which forced Jones to make poor decisions with the ball (and Wilson's INT and Sawyer's INT were both just great individual plays by Payton Wilson). Watt and Highsmith got strip sacks (and Jones fumbled once more but they recovered). We were all over the Colts' OL and we have to be credited with 5 forced turnovers of the 6.

Both answers can be right depending on the game/situation. Sometimes a high turnover game is a gift from the offense... sometimes it is because we earned/created them. I think we've had both this year so far.

 

Watch the game. It wasn't that close. The Steelers built a double-digit lead, then went conservative and gave up a garbage time touchdown.

 

It's possible in the NFL to win a game with just 1-2 defensive turnovers.If you look at the game against the Patriots, I don't think the Steelers would have won if their defense had had 2 turnovers instead of 5, since they were outgained by 150 yards in that game, I believe.If the turnovers are about even and they're playing against a very good team, the Steelers' chances of winning are low.

If you look at their 5-game losing streak at the end of last season, the Steelers were only at -1 in turnover differential, but the main reason they were 0-5 is because they were outgained by over 100 yards in 4 of those games.

Turnovers are great when they happen, but if they're about even, the Steelers struggle to win against good teams. The Steelers live or die by turnovers like crazy; they can't be at even in that stat.

 

Most of the fumbles by the Patriots came on good hits on he ball. As already discussed on this thread, turnovers are part of the game. The Patriots employed a running back who is prone to fumbling. The Steelers employed players with flaws, too.

 

SORRY
all those fumbles were created by our defense

add to that they were recovered by our defense Earned not gifted

 

Agreed, you have to break it down. You can't live off of muffed punts but the two strip sacks? the two plays created thanks to Wilson causing chaos? Those are all earned. And the final int by Porter? That the benefit of beating up on a team that gets desperate at the end of a game.

 

Depends how you look at it. I wouldn't say that the Steelers beat the Colts because of turnovers. I'd say they created turnovers because they were beating up on the Colts. Other than the muffed punt and the int at the end, each turnover was earned by beating the 11 guys across the line.

 

I agree for this game

 

Well, the Steelers are averaging 25 PPG which is good enough for 12th in the league.

 

Yeah but that's not top 11
A good team would be in the top 11

 

But we were told by some fans even though the Steelers were -5 in turnovers against the Browns in the 2020 playoffs they should've still won the game .

 

Against the Patriots I think two of those fumbles were punch outs and a strip sack on the QB IIRC. The Steelers talked about Rhamondre Stevenson being a known fumbler so they targeted him and it worked.

 

They are the current top 2 teams in the AFC seeding, with the Steelers at #4. Its nice to know the Steelers have clinched the tiebreaker vs both of them.

 

Truck
The Steelers didn't clinch the tiebreaker it was gifted to them