Two sacks in two games

Let me read that back to you, Sir. It's your testimony that Ziggy Hood was contained with the exception of one play, and he was mostly blocked with one man. Is that correct?

 

Uhhhh, my testimony? Let's see, am I under oath now or can I still speak with my attorney? But in answer to your question, I saw him make a good tackle in the colts game, not certain if it was only one but it was a good solid solo tackle. Yes, that's my testimony. The eagles mostly doubled him and he was ineffectual. The colts mostly blocked him man on man and I saw him make a good tackle. He may have been in on others but I didn't notice it.

We've had these conversations before snack...my opinion of ziggy is unchanged. In my eyes he's not an impact player, or even close to it. He rarely gets pressure on the quarterback (which I know would be a bonus) and, in my opinion, rarely makes a difference when it comes to stuffing the run (which is a requirement). He's mostly invisible on the field, usually ends up no where near where the ball is, and hardly ever gets mentioned by the announcers as being involved in a play. Now maybe that fits perfectly into what his coaches want of him but he has been graded out at numerous NFL forums as one of the lowest rated defensive lineman in the NFL. In this CBS Sports listing he's ranked as the 142nd best DL: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/playerrank ... _rows=9999. On the Pro Football Focus site they had this to say about him: "Ziggy Hood, DE (32nd overall pick in 2009): The Steelers haven’t gotten the best use out of Hood by having him see so much time in their sub-package defense. You can’t blame the team for Hood’s lack of an impact. Our lowest-ranked 3-4 defensive end, Hood doesn’t eat double teams as some would have you believe. He also doesn’t do all that well when matched up one-on-one. To this point, he’s been a real passenger on the Steelers’ defense."

So it's just not me who's unimpressed with him. Maybe had he been a 7th rd pick or undrafted free agent we could argue he's a serviceable 2nd or 3rd team player who can fill in for an injured starter, but as a #1 pick he was supposed to be a difference maker. I know it hurts you to hear this as he's one of your favorite players, but for a team like ours, renowned for decades by it's defense, ziggy hood is more or less a dud. Even with this year's amazing body transformation, he's still just ziggy - only with muscles.

 

Maybe we could argue if he'd be a serviceable 2nd or 3rd stringer, for an undrafted free agent? Jesus man, you may have actually gone backwards. He's not one of my favorite players, although I have nothing against the guy. I just stand up for injustices where I see them. That's why people think I must secretly be Mike Wallace's lover and Rashard Mendenhall's mom... Hmm, that would suck for Rashard... They aren't my favorite players either, I just have to defend them when people get their facts wrong. This post you just made is proof to me that you are not watching Ziggy with an open mind at all. Your mind has already been made up and you're not willing to let it change. He didn't even need to do anything to prove you wrong; you're doing that all by yourself.

He was ineffective against the Eagles? Are you basing that on play 1, 2, or 3? Well on play 1, Vick let it go 1-2-3 boom, and none of our pass rushers had time to do anything. They might not have gotten him had there been no offensive line at all. But just for kicks, Ziggy was double teamed and got the same amount of pressure that Steve McLendon and LaMarr Woodley did on that play, who each only had one man to beat. On play 2, the ball was run on the far side of the field. He was blocked sort of with 1 1/2 guys, and they didn't really get him, and he chased the play down the line. Did he disappoint because he didn't outrun the rest of the Steelers defense and LeSean McCoy and make the tackle himself? On play 3 he was double teamed again, and his stunt is what put McLendon in good position to beat his solo blocker. Did he disappoint because he didn't break through the double team to sack Michael Vick? Is that the standard he needs to meet to be considered effective?

Against the Colts he played into the 2nd quarter. I went ahead and checked out the details for you. Out of 25 visible plays, he was blocked with 1 man 12 times. He was full on double teamed for an entire play 6 times, and he was double teamed for part of a play (in my stats as 1.5) 6 times. On one play he was blocked with 2.5 men.

1 ------------ 12
1.5 ---------- 6
2 ------------ 6
2.5 ---------- 1
Average ---- 1.42

That includes plays in which he was blocked with one man because due to the design/location of the play he had no chance of having an impact. It's not like he rushed the passer against 1 guy on 5 step drops a dozen times. Most of those are throw-away plays.

He officially recorded two tackles and one assist. In my opinion (which you surely want to take with a grain of salt) he graded negatively in 2 plays, plus one that was sort of a question mark based on assignment. In most of his plays he got a neutral grade, because there's simply nothing he can do to succeed so much of the time. That's how it always is for DL players. For lots of plays, it's like trying to grade a QB by the handoff he did. He graded positively in 10 plays, 6 in particular standing out. He had 3 plays rushing the passer in which he simply abused the man blocking him, disposing of him immediately and chasing after Luck, and he got a good push up the middle on a couple others. Isn't that what everybody's been clamoring for, including you and me? I always said he had room for improvement everywhere, but I was mostly mystified at his lack of production rushing the passer, which seemed to stem mostly from not really trying that hard. Well he tried hard against Indy, and he got a couple of hurries in about a third of a game. It's a stark contrast to what I saw of him last year, during which he usually looked lazy rushing the passer, and we were lucky to get a couple hurries in an entire game, not a quarter. And he pretty much never just ran right by guys like he did three times to the Colts. I'm not saying he's turned the corner and will be a superstar, nor am I saying that his hard work is obviously paying off and he's a much better player. I think it's still too early for that and I need to see more. For all I know he got lucky this week and he'll fall flat on his face against Buffalo. I can't see the future. But one thing is clear to me, and that's that I haven't seen him play like this before. Considering this was his first real game time of the season (to me, because I don't know if you could tell but I didn't read too much into his 3 plays in Philadelphia), I'd say it's a very positive sign that the changes he made are paying off. I'm surprised you didn't notice.

In case you were wondering, both of the plays that I graded negatively (I didn't get too into it like I did for my formal evaluations... this was like a fast-forward version) were against the run. On one he was blocked by two TEs, and he tried too hard to go around instead of through. I thought that was a mistake and he should have stood his ground. On the other he didn't get pushed back, but he didn't get off his block at all and I thought he should have done better. I know everyone in the stadium saw him dive for Donald Brown and miss, but I didn't count that against him at all. In fact, I gave him a positive grade on that play. He completely threw his blocker away, and he did it immediately. From then on it was a footrace with Donald Brown, and he lost. Big deal. The problem with that play was the whole defense. The Colts were in a clear running formation, and we had Lawrence Timmons lined up at defensive tackle. We looked like we were preparing for a hail mary. Then the two ILBs (Foote and Carter) blitzed on the right side, and the Colts went the other way. Woodley rushed upfield. So we had no linebackers, our DT Timmons getting blocked by an OT and a pulling guard (he didn't win that battle) and that was it. Hood shed his man immediately, but the hole between he and the blocked Woodley was a good 5 yards wide. Hood probably could have done a little better by running sooner to try and close that gap, but I think that's a little nitpicky and he had no chance anyway. Plus, if the rest of the defense had done its job (not possibly by the alignment, but should we put that on Hood?) then it would be his responsibility to stay in his gap and trust his teammates, not go sprinting around leaving holes and making it easier to be faked out.

In conclusion, I still don't know what we'll get from Ziggy this season, but if it's anything like what he did on Sunday, I'll be very pleased. I originally disagreed with you about Ziggy because you went out of your way to work it into every thread that he was "dominated almost every single play," until you eventually just made it your signature. That was baloney then and your new lines are baloney now. Quote cbssports all you want. Not even they are backing up what you're saying. He underproduced, yes, and he has never lived up to his potential. That's very different from being a hole or weak link in the defense, which he has never been. Worst player on the DL? Sure, but Hampton and Keisel are freaking amazing and both exceed what should be expected of a #32 overall draft pick. You have claimed a number of times to simply be calling it like you see it, and say that you're a Steeler fan so you're rooting for him to get better as much as any of us. I call ...You clearly want him to fail so you can continue thinking you're right. There is no other explanation for viewing this game and saying there's no difference. And there's no other explanation for the way you reeeeeeach for things to say about him, like labeling him as "ineffective" in his THREE PLAYS against Philly, two of which it was freaking impossible for him to have an effect. You stretch like PWP talking about Redman or macdaddyo trying to explain how Essex and Scott were better than Starks (sorry mac). As for your "he might make a serviceable 2nd/3rd stringer if he'd been a 7th round draft pick or UDFA" remark, we've got plenty of those. So I guess they are in the same league as Ziggy? In fact, that sounds a lot like Corbin Bryant, the #4 DE so far this preseason and last preseason's fan favorite. Why don't you pick up where I left off and watch Mr. Bryant's first drive against the exact same Indy OL? It should look pretty much the same as Ziggy's plays earlier in the game, right? .......Maybe he got better after that, but he was bad enough in his first few plays to convince me it wasn't worth comparing the two any longer.

 

Awh we better pack up and go home then! Just messin with ya. Tomlin isn't showing much. Never does in pre season. Wouldn't sweat it