this defense could be scary good

keisel -hood-heyward with meclendon and draft chapman from bama as backups
harrison-timmons-hightower-woodley with worilds and sylvester as top backups
taylor-brown-clark-polamalu with gay and maybe a draft pick as backup saftey


I think if healthy this is the best defense in the league. I think with heyward starting and hood at nose we can get more pressure with the d-line. I hope brown comes around. if not gay had a good year last year so I would not be dissapointed to see him start. I just dont want to see foote or farrior next year. I hope casey is gone as well. I cant figure out why colbert said he will be back. hamp has never been one to take less money. I remember reading one year not sure when but he would not restructure

 

We weren't even that healthy last year, and we were the best in the league. And I would be the last person to complain if our draft went Hightower-Guard/Tackle (Zietler, Osemele, Sanders, Silatolu, Massie, Washington)-Chapman. I would be ecstatic. Day three would hardly matter.

 

Get rid of gay (insert Lewis) ,Gay had a good year cus Pitts had an easy schedule. Against half descent QB's, Gay was back to being Gay.

 

If they didn't get rid of him after an awful season why would they do it after a good one? Seems premature to me anyways. Who's to say he hasn't improved for good anyways.

 

You are sadly mistaken, if we don't start to generate a pass rush,
This defense is mediocre at best. We saw out in Denver, that our
DB's could cover NO ONE man to man, until you get pressure on the QB
especially in this league the way they give the offenses all the advantage
we will continue to struggle. LIKE Cowher use to tell Lloyd, GET THE QB.

 

You can't use the words "hood" and "best defense in the league" in the same sentence.

 

Its hard to generate a lass rush when all four if our olbs missed time we had a ilb play five games at olb and wood and harrison never really played together when both were healthy. In our scheme that where most of the pressure comes form

 

Why not he has been a big oart of the steelers defense the last two years with smith always going down

 

With that front seven and the job that coach lakes is doing with the secondary.....we should be awesome on that side of the ball.

 

The key to a great defense is pressuring the QB. We didn't do a good job of that last year. The teams that beat us did a good job of that. Think about it.

 

It may just be me but I think alot of the problem with the pass rush last year was the fact that casey could be blocked with one man. I hardly ever see him bet doubled anymore. guards are able to pick up blitzing linebackers and help on the outside rushers. I think that a solid nose tackle who has to be doubled could free up some more blitzers and help the pass rush. I thought poe may be that guy but his workout made him unreachable. hampton is just not that good anymore.

 

Agree here somewhat but I wouldn't say mediocre. Last year, the this defense was good against the pass apparently allowing the fewest total passing yards in the regular season, the fewest passing yards per game and sacking the quarterback 35 times. Stats are here = http://www.nfl.com/stats/categoryst...sonType=REG&tabSeq=2&qualified=true&Submit=Go

But here were some of the opposing QB's: Tavaris Jackson, Kerry Collins (39 yrs old), Matt Hasselbeck (36 yrs old), Blaine Gabbert, Kevin Kolb, Andy Dalton (2x), Tyler Palko, Colt McCoy, Kellen Clemens, Seneca Wallace

Biggest problem I see is the lack of push up front from anyone other than Harrison/Woodley and Harrison is nearing the top of the hill if he hasn't crested it already. If Woodley is our only source of pass rush, that can't be good. Hood hasn't done much in terms of getting to the QB.

Brown is unproven and seems like Lewis is the one being groomed to start. Troy was barely top ten in tackles for DB's and out of the top ten for passes defensed. His number was still high though at 16 but one could infer that it's high because they are throwing at him more. We challenged Tim Tebow (TIM TEBOW) to beat us in the air and he destroyed our secondary with both Ike and Troy playing. Was this just a fluke game?

I personally think there will be some drop off so I would say still top 10 D I don't think we repeat as #1. (If you say top 10 is scary good then, yes they will be scary good.)

 

Woodley was getting to the QB before he got injured..Hood must be doing something right. Isn't his job to open the door for the OLB's ?

 

The one big thing I hope happens is that Dontari Poe falls to the Steelers at 24, or perhaps trade up to get him, send Mendenhall packing to get him. He would solidify the defense. This guy is big, strong and fast, will never be blocked by one guy. He is the key. They can go with Slyvester or a 3rd round draft pick in place of Farrior/Foote but both of them need to be gone.

Poe is the key.

Brown, Lewis, Cortez Allen, or gay can start, makes no difference. They all had a good year last year and will only be better this year, especially Brown, and Allen. Hood - Poe - Keisel, Woodley - Slyvester - Timmons - Harrison, Brown - Clark - Troy - Taylor, throw in anybody else at D-Back, Gay, Allen, Lewis and the defense will servive.

The offense should be much better with Haley as the new OC and a better running game which shold help the defense.

We should be in contention for the division for sure.

 

Thats just it though. Steelers had a cake schedule. The "best defense in the league" was a phony title because the stats were really lying to us. We played bad QB's and were also getting run on pretty well as opposed to years past.

I don't think it is a given our defense will be "scary good".

They need a get lucky in the draft and some veterans need to really step up next year to achieve that.

 

poe will be good but is not anywhere near to be ready in year one

 

In typical passing situations the defense is in nickel which is a 2 dlineman 4 linebacker formation with the steelers. The pass rush everyone agrees is lacking, comes form the nickel. So the nose tackle currently means absolutely nothing to the pass rush.

Most everyone only considers the base defense 3-4, which sees little passing formations.

Either the nickel personnel needs adjusted, maybe a 3-3, or the team needs a disruptive 4-3 tackle for the current nickel. A combination of Kiesel and second year hayward my be that. Maybe Poe, Still, or someone else with one of those two will work, but McLendon and Hood are ok nose tackles or backup rotate in guys.

Most need to quit looking at the 3-4 base defense against most teams; the nickel is the new base.

 

The steelers basically go to the same nickel as a 4-3 defense with 3-4 personnel. Therefore the steeler's d-ends and d-tackles are undersize.

 

Why is it only Steeler DE's who aren't suppose to rush the QB and get sacks? I find it laughable when it's said their "job" is to tie up offensive linemen so our LB's can rush the QB. The fact is hood is completely useless as a pass rusher and not much better as a run stopper.

P.S. In the interest of full disclosure, I am the most adamant Evander Hood anti-fan on this board.

 

I'm with you DIEHARD I'm not a big Ziggy fan myself. However, I like Willy Gay even less and then Timmons would round out my least liked Steelers. Oh yeah and then Mendy. But just because we were "number one" last year doesn't mean we were the BEST. We were just the "best" on paper. Ask Tim Tebow and I'm sure he will agree.

 

why do people hate timmons? he is one of the best inside backers in the game.

 

Hold back your dogs! We were one of the best defenses in NFL history with Larry Foote starting at ILB and Bryant McFadden and William Gay rotating as starting cornerbacks...

 

There was a drop off in production last season - which could be due to any number of things; playing out of position, playing with an ageing Farrior, etc. - and I guess folks see that as a sign he's the worst player on the team. Similar to Mendy, in some respects.

I, for one, am expecting Timmons to step it up next year. With a solid partner on the inside, hopefully we'll see some more of his skills at work.

In terms of how good we can be next year - I think there's a tendency to forget that season before this one just gone, we were getting torn apart by the Saints/Pats/Packers type of passing game, and there were calls for Lebeau's head, and that every team now knew how to beat us. This season just gone, the defense was modified to deal with that, and it did it well on the whole. I think we can be awesome next year, but I don't think this will be down to who we draft - how often do rookies start on our D? It's more down to how well Lebeau can readjust and fill the gaps.