Bud Dupree - Initial report torn ACL

Well he could get in the ear of Claypool about how great Belichick is opposed to Tomlin. Have him go completely off the rails and force the Steelers to trade him. Where he does a bunch of other shady stuff to land with Brady or the Patriots. Just for starters.

 

I agree with SDOT. James Harrison would be a locker room cancer at this point. I'd rather roll with Highsmith and Adeniyi.

 

Report in September was he is still wanting to play in 2020.
https://www.nfl.com/news/clay-matthews-broncos-unable-to-come-to-agreement-open-to-playing-2020

 

Hey SDOT, don't be absurd, nothing like that could happen in real life.....(sarcasm alert, once again)

 

I'm sure the 4th OLB has to play special teams, so I guess that rules out Harrison.

 

This always puzzled me. Between papers, TV, sports radio there must be 30 local people covering the Steelers, and they never, and I mean NEVER, break a story before ESPN or NFL network.

 

Time for Butler to start sending Vince on more blitzes

 

Reveille?

 

I’m forecasting more CB blitzes from Hilton. Haven’t seen those in awhile.

 

They suspect to the deep ball when the rushers don't get to the QB.

 

There were signs of trouble before Dupree's injury, but his injury has been even more costly than I feared. His injury has diminished the pass rush significantly and it is part of the faltering run defense.

The Steelers have six total sacks in three games without Dupree, but that doesn't even tell the full story. Two of the three opponents are among the worst in the NFL in sacks allowed. Washington has given up 44, more than all but three teams in the NFL. Only the Eagles have given up more sacks than the Bengals. The Steelers got two against them, and one was Tuitt catching Finley for a half-yard loss on one of his scrambles. The Steelers only got one sack against the Bills even though they sent the house time after time. They did that because once the Bills started to double-team Heyward, the Steelers couldn't generate any pressure with four.

Yes, Allen and Finley escaped some sacks with their mobility, but that is another area where the Steelers miss Dupree. He has the speed to chase down guys like that.

Teams are seeing they can take advantage of Highsmith's inexperience, as the Bengals did on Finley's touchdown run. That is why I mentioned they weren't just losing an athletic freak. They were also losing experience.

This isn't to say Dupree is the only reason the Steelers are faltering now. Most of that falls on the offense, and the other injuries have also hurt the defense. That said, it is not a coincidence that the Steelers are getting less pressure up front and they are 0-3 without Dupree.

 

I expect marsh may see some snaps soon. One thing I saw was we don't stop the run well in the hybrid. The two down linemen sets. Without good linebackers this is the worst thing they can do. At this point they need to play more base defense to help in both the run and pressure against the pass. Dupree hurt for sure. Spillane hurt also. I think we would be better with Williamson and Spillane, but even Williams will help. Elliott should have been getting more snaps as well. Butler can be quite hard headed at times about fresh legs and who's "ready" at times, to a fault. Always has been.

 

Once we lost Bush this D couldn’t sustain another season ending injury to a top starter. We are certainly seeing the lack of quality depth and further injuries derail a once top notch D.

With that being said it’s almost relieving that the offense has completely collapsed. At least we won’t have to play the what if game on what could have been. Even the 85 Bears D couldn’t mask this putrid offense and Bens decline.

 

At this point the better unit is the D-Line instead of linebackers. I wonder if there are formations to get a 4th extra lineman in their like Buggs or Davis on the field. Big Nickel perhaps?

I’m still shocked Wormley hasn’t done much for us at all. I thought he would thrive in our defense.

 

I agree about Wormley.

 

It's so odd to see the coaches going with two defensive linemen so often when it is the linebacking corps that has been devastating by injuries. Then again, with Tuitt also hurting, they may not have many options Sunday.

 

To answer your question from the locked thread, I was blaming Ben because the timing of his int 2:00 minutes left in the game against Washington, and for a 6'5 guy he sure gets a lot of passes batted down.

 

A tipped pass being intercepted is bad luck. There is a system issue on the offense leading to all those tipped passes. It just happened to bite them in the ass at a terrible time.