What would you fix on Steelers Defense?

Lets call a spade a spade. This defense was the main reason why we lost this game. Yes I know our offensive line needs work. I know Najee is slow to the hole and lacks vision to see cut back lanes, etc. I know we need a second receiver. I know the opposing team got away with offensive holding calls and the refs messed up in the Fitzpatrick penalty (the penalties and bad refereeing are going to happen every week).

But to me the real issue is the defense. I saw it last week and even in the Denver game a little. When Herbert started dicing our defense up in the passing game before he got hurt. There are a multitude of things that are very concerning to me with this defense and it isn’t on the talent.

1. I don’t like the scheme relative to what we ask of our Inside Linebackers. I have said this multiple times before.... we literally expect our Inside Linebackers to be Superman out there. We offer no protection when it comes to keeping the offensive lineman off of them. Everyone wants to point to the finger at the Linebackers but the Defensive lineman are often single blocked and still don’t make the play. Our defensive lineman are asked to gap penetrate and if they miss on the tackle or pick the wrong gap we are often screwed because the linebackers are usually sealed off because we allow the Center or Guard to get to the second level to block the linebackers.

The inside linebackers are often frozen for a split second because they are looking cover the pass and that causes them to be slow to react or get downhill to fill the gap. I do think their is some instinctual issues with Queen in this area.

2. Primarily running four man fronts. Thats great when you are going up against an inferior offensive line and the refs are actually calling holding calls. It doesn’t work against a team like Indianapolis and it is really foolish when you have a statue in the backfield like Flacco. Many teams are generating significantly more pressure with significantly inferior talent than the Steelers defense is - Baltimore, KC, Minnesota are just three examples of this. Why are we playing in our fears? Run blitzes and pass blitzes and being more innovative with our blitzes would go a long way towards addressing this. I hate leaving Payton Wilson and Queen in the middle of the field like statues in zone defense and not utilizing their speed on man coverage or a blitz wether it be run blitz or pass blitz. It is maddening. Especially when you have a state like Flacco back there.

3. Zone coverage when your built for press man coverage. At the very least do press man with Joey Porter. He isn’t good in zone coverage and when you do blitz why do you have the CB sitting ten yards off allowing a free release and an easy quick slant to overcome the blitz. If your going to be aggressive be aggressive the whole way and play press man. Press man complements the blitz perfectly. Tomlin needs to trust his guys more. You press the wr and throw off his timing while we are blitzing and putting pressure on the QB and they are forced to take the sack or throw it away. Tomlin lives in his fears here and either doesn’t trust the blitz to get home or his cb to cover so he goes the careful route and has them play off so at minus we don’t give a big play over the top. Its a cowardly way of playing defense. Trust the Safeties to cover the deep half. It shows a lack of confidence all the way around in his players.

This defense will do fine against inferior offensive lines with our four man front but we are going to struggle against the Bills, Baltimore, Houston and KC if we don’t take more risks and develop some exotic blitz packages and get more aggressive with our coverages. I get it you can’t always play man press against scrambling QB’s but we need to trust our players more and let them play and stop being so conservative and playing in our fears on defense. We should not have lost that game yesterday. We lost that game not because of our offense but because of Tomlin being way too conservative on defense.

 

yes

THE
DEFENSE

BLEW

CHUNKS


YES - THEY were reading press clippings! TJ thought it was a bye week!!!

 

The main reason we lost this game is because the offense shot themselves in the foot repeatedly. The defense wasn’t the best they’ve played, but there’s no way in hell they’re the main reason.

 

You're absolutely nuts. This team has been built around the defense. We have the most expensive defense in the league. Our Head Coach is basically also the defensive coordinator. We have arguably the best defensive player in the league. We were playing an inefficient second year QB in what his 7th career start. Then we were playing an aging immobile retread at QB. The defense is absolutely why we lost this game. We could not stop them for three quarters. The defensive secondary is below average when our pass rush is neutralized. Tomlin completely lives in his fears and is afraid to play without max protection and blitz more than four rushers. He completely lacks confidence in allowing the defensive backs to actually play man defense consistently to support more than a four man rush. He has the ILB’s playing ultra conservative in both the run and the pass with no innovation to free those guys up against the run or blitz them against the run or pass.

The only ones that get to play with reckless abandon is the two down lineman and the edge players. If they don’t get to the QB or stop the run the rest of the defense is used and viewed as a prevent defense. We don’t cut them loose to attack down hill. I absolutely hate that style of defensive play. We were playing very conservative from the start and it cost us a quick 17 points. It didn’t need to be like that at all. Tomlin’s game plan on defense and his in ability to manage in game challenges and the clock are exactly what cost us this game. Yes we made mistakes on offense but we made a heck of alot of plays on offense and scored 24 points. Most weeks against most teams if we score 24 points with the pedigree we have on this defense and the amount of money we have spent on the defense .... we should win. Patrick Queen needs to step up alot more, alot more. At this point I like Holcomb and Alexander alot more than I do Queen.

 

It was bad on both sides of the ball. Plus some truly terrible officiating

 

I don’t understand why they didn’t blitz the daylights out of Joe Flacco from every angle. He sat back there comfortable and picked our secondary apart. MT likes to talk about splash plays all the time. I think it is time to start focusing on the opposing teams splash plays against us all game long.

 

Team game, team effort, team loss.

 

All teams require LBs to cover wrs at certain points. It's called scheming a player open for the D You see. We have even scored, and had gains against other teams the exact same way. It happens. You can't play a game without using LBs at some point. Also....as always.....I keep saying this every year, but we need more help at the CB position, but every time I suggest this .....people say we have enough, or they are good enough. Two good DBs is far from enough.

 

I think Austin has run his course.
The offense knew our weak spots, called the right combination of plays to take advantage of those weaknesses.

Gus Bradley had his defense fired up and well organized to attack the Steelers Offense basis of operation.
They knew the tendencies and weak points well.

And of course, the Steelers did not play well.

 

TOMLIN and AUSTIN

best D roster in the GAME

 

he sucks - but he is TOMLINS pawn, let's be honest - it is TOMLIN running that thing

 

I can't disagree a whole lot.

 

I understand that will happen on occasion. Thats not my argument. My argument is we never lock up the offensive lineman to protect the linebackers and allow them to flow freely to the ball. If that is the case then you would naturally think our defensive lineman have a single lineman blocking them. Naturally our defensive lineman should in most cases be beating a single block or penetrating into the backfield causing sometime of disruption. This is why I constantly preach we need bigger DT’s to maintain multiple lineman so we can allow these linebackers access to the gap. With the priority in todays NFL of pass coverage with the ILB’s that means those guys are getting smaller and faster almost like hybrid safeties. With them being smaller and faster you can’t allow them to be stationary in the middle of the field...they become sitting ducks for an offensive lineman. Either blitz one of them or protect them to allow free access to the gap. They aren’t big enough to get off of blocks now like they were in the Levon Kirkland days. Potsy was a smaller linebacker back in the day but he had Casey Hampton and Aaron Smith playing laterally and occupying multiple blockers.

Tomlin’s scheme is a bad scheme as far as I am concerned. Don’t even get me started on the lack of outside contain by the edge players. They teach our edges to crash in and we get beat by cut backs constantly.

 

More blitz packages.

 

I agree. Tomlin says do not play in your fears yet that is exactly how he coaches. He is not a big fan of blitzes. Thats why you see teams who have less talented defensive fronts like Minnesota, Baltimore and KC with alot more pressure. They are aggressive we are not. Its called bend but don’t break. Very frustrating to watch.

 

What would I fix?! They are as follows;


1.) Increase Payton Wilson's blitzing capacity.


If he is to be out there more and more, use him more for that purpose when blitzing up the middle.



2.) More stunts on passing situations for more personnel.



T.J. Watt and Cameron Heyward cannot be the only two who do this. Add more stunts for other players.



3.) Keep Joey Porter Jr. At Press More; Coverage being irrelevant!!


You drafted Peezy Jr for the sole purpose of beating the stuffing out of physical WRs. So.... why is he playing off coverage?! Allow Peezy Jr to use his God Given length to do so.


Beyond this?! Not much else.

 

Need to free up an ilb to spy on mobile qb's..
Preferably Peyton Wilson due to his speed, and then dial up a few more blitzes than normal on the more stationary passers

 

Austin isn’t the defensive coordinator, never has been. If we truly wanted a good defensive coordinator we would have promoted Flores and not let him walk. This is all about Tomlin’s ego. Tomlin could not allow Flores to be Defensive Coordinator and give up that control. When we finally got rid of Lebeau’s system and fully implemented Tomlin’s near the end of Butler’s tenure we started to see significant decline in our ability to stop the run. In theory Tomlin’s scheme of only rushing four sounds good until you face a good offensive line with a QB that can read the field. This defensive scheme is not a good one for stopping the run. If we do commit to stopping the run we get eaten up on the back end in the pass game because we have one less coverage guy.

I get that Tomlin doesn’t want space eaters up front he wants gap penetrators but at least when you can’t provide any pressure with four rushers at least start blitzing with a fifth guy. I don’t think they focus on that aspect of it nearly enough. We don’t do a good job of disguising blitzes or bringing different guys. I would love to see what Spagnula could do with our defensive talent. We are significantly more talented personnel wise than KC. Same goes for Baltimore. There edges aren’t even close to ours in talent.

 

I bet you believe in participation trophies too.Since when did we allow Soccer Mom’s on here?

 

Is Sutton back yet? Secondary is going to change when Sutton gets back.

I like our front line with the OLB's.

Really comes down to ILB's on this team.

 

Yes to all three of your points. There is no guessing or confusion with our defense. It is so vanilla. That allows the QB to really become comfortable especially pre snap. We never crowd the line of scrimmage pre snap. In todays NFL when the offensive line seems to increasingly hold and get away with it you can’t expect just a four man rush to consistently pressure the QB. Queen can blitz as well. So can any of our Safeties and the slot CB.

Why we don’t become more innovative with Herbig when Highsmith is healthy with stunts etc. is baffling. With Porter it is maddening to see them playing him in off coverage. He goes from a borderline pro bowl corner to an average corner at best when you ask him to play off coverage.

When coaches try to fit a square peg in to a round hole or don’t utilize players talents to their strengths it is the height of arrogance and stubbornness. Thats one reason why Canada got fired. Look how he didn’t use Washington as one example in the passing game. Tomlin is the same on defense. He lacks innovation and he is afraid to take a risk with the blitzes.

 

Sure, Tomlin has a lot of say about the team. He's the Head Coach.
But Tomlin is doing the nitty gritty scheming.
He and Dick Lebeau had their differences, no doubt.
But it isn't like "shut up and do what I say." Austin has plenty of say.
I don't want to touch the Flores deal as that had plenty of issues around it.
But I can't subscribe to Tomlin being the Darth Vader and strangling one of his generals for not carrying out his will.
I do think it's time for some new blood there - on Defense.
Tomlin will have his fingers in it though, but some fresh ideas would not hurt.
I'm not arguing that maybe it is time for Tomlin to go either.. that may be true too, but another thread.

 

Total team failure coaches and players.

Although the defense was putrid and should get a larger percentage.

 

How many times did the defense turn the ball over? Did they take a 20 yard sack and subsequently fumble? Did they fumble inside the 10 yard line?