I have no idea, but for some mysterious reason, their defense falls apart in the 4th quarter. What the heck is going on?
There’s a thread devoted to the Steelers over here.
Ok, I read that thread, but after reading it and all the pundits, it boils down to this:
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The opposing teams figured out that the way to beat the Steeler’s blitz is to use the West Coast Offense, aka Air Coryell. I would put this at about 30% of their problems.
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Polamalu’s out: have you ever heard of a Superbowl team without a marquee safety? Me either. I would put this at about 30% as well.
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Dick Lebeau isn’t as great a def coordinator as we thought: one of the common complaints is that he’s having trouble calling defenses in the 4th.
Lebeau never had a problem callng defenses in the fourth quarter before. The opening drive always used to be where we gave up big yardage until he figured out whatever it is he figures out to get things dialed in. I believe this prevent we play in the fourth comes from Tomlin. Not the plays, just the strategy. When Tomlin was with the Vikings he was OK with giving up big yardage when there was a lead as long as he felt enough time was coming off the clock to protect the lead. I don’t agree with it. I’d rather see them keep the pedal down.
I don’t know if there’s any truth to these assertions that we’ve changed our defensive mindset going into the fourth quarter, either driven by LeBeau or Tomlin. I would hope very strongly that we would take a look at our performance in every game and see that we ought to abandon that strategy, because it’s just not working. We prevented the Lions from scoring again by bringing two corner blitzes in a row, but don’t seem to be generating much pass rush from other sources in the fourth quarter.
The other part of the problem is that our offense has sputtered regularly in the fourth quarter in each game. I think they’ve been good for a three and out in every game just before a fourth quarter score, but I could be mistaken about that. An improved running game is really what the Steelers need, and what the Steelers of old relied on to salt away a late-game lead. Keep the other team’s offense off the field with a grinding, clock-consuming three yards and a cloud of dust running game, and there won’t be any defensive collapse.
If we weren’t so dominating in the first quarter, I think our situation would appear more dire, but conversely, there’s good reason for concern and a fair bit of stuff to put in order. We’ll see where things stand when Polamalu returns.
Some of it is due, I think, to teams studying the Super Bowl champion more than they do the other non-divisional teams they may face. The strategy is definitely more prevent in the fourth quarter though. There’s a 2-deep zone the first three quarters and 3-deep in the fourth regardless of the underneath schemes. In the fourth they have also taken to having Gay play 10-12 yards off the ball, essentially conceding anything short on his side. I’m not that worried about it though, Tomlin and Lebeau aren’t out to lose. Lebeau usually starts rolling out different schemes following the bye week which usually is earlier in the season for Pittsburgh. I think Troy is going to come back and get some credit for the D playing better but some of that will be due to the scheme changing as they get deeper into the season. I feel really confident that the D will look better in a few weeks with or without Polamalu.
You don’t know??? The refs are screwing Harrison. :rolleyes:
There weren’t any classic arm-around-Harrisons’-neck holds that I saw in yesterday’s game, but there was one where the lineman clearly had a hold of the back of Harrison’s jersey and was pulling it down.
I don’t blame the refs for missing that one because it wasn’t as obvious as all the other ones. And they did actually call a couple, too!
Even though they aren’t calling all the holds the refs seem to be calling more illegal formations when the Tackles try and cheat off the line against Harrison and Woodley. That’s good enough for me right now.
Ok, after more analysis, I’m going to go with this:
- Coaching: Lebeau couldn’t compensate with Polamalu’s loss. He either didn’t have the personnel or back-up plans in case Troy was lost.
- Polamalu: indirectly (because of Lebeau’s lack of ability) the DB’s are incompetent.
So, if Troy plays in week 6, we’ll find out for sure what happened.
If he plays, I predict a (finally) consistent performance from the defense in the 4th.
Ok, after more analysis, I’m going to go with this:
- Coaching: Lebeau couldn’t compensate with Polamalu’s loss. He either didn’t have the personnel or back-up plans in case Troy was lost.
- Polamalu: indirectly (because of Lebeau’s lack of ability) the DB’s are incompetent.
So, if Troy plays in week 6, we’ll find out for sure what happened.
If he plays, I predict a (finally) consistent performance from the defense in the 4th.
I don’t think we can blame Lebeau. Really Not All That Bright pointed out in the other thread that it’s still the 4th ranked defense. The team has played 3-deep zones successfully without Polamalu in the past with almost the same set of personnel. The opposing offense only needs one weakness to keep exploiting and they’ve found it in Ratliff. He’s learning a new position in a new defense; that’s a tough spot to be in but teams are going to keep going after him until the team can respond. Timmons and Woodley have both been dropped into coverage more often than not because teams have gone to the flats so often. Losing Polamalu is not the biggest challenge the team will face this year. Aaron Smith is on Injured Reserve. If you look at the numbers with and without Polamalu and the numbers with and without A. Smith I think you’d find the team suffers a lot more with Smith out even though he’s not a highlight reel player.
Gregg Easterbrook’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback says the problem is:
I think this might be getting blown out of proportion a bit. The Titans only scored once in the second half in Week 1, and it was a field goal.
Chicago scored 10 points in the second half in Week 2, but 14 points is usually not going to get it done in the NFL, and that’s all the Steelers offense could muster. That vaunted 2008 defense allowed 13.9 points per game, meaning the team would have been 8-8 or so if the offense was scoring 14 a game.
The Chargers threw all over the place in the fourth quarter in Week 4, but it was the Chargers. They did exactly the same thing to the still-fearsome-against-the-pass-at-the-time Buccaneers in Week 16 last week. Rivers and Gates are top-5 players at their respective positions, after all.
Detroit scored once in the fourth quarter. Culpepper was a pretty good quarterback at one point and he’s still got a cannon of an arm and not-horrible wideouts.
The only collapse that should be worrying came against the Bengals in Week 3, and the Bengals are 4-1 and one miracle play away from being 5-0.
If there’s a problem here, it isn’t the defense; it’s the offense. Roethlisberger is putting up excellent stats, but except during Week 4 the running game has been piss-poor.
The Steelers are, right now, trying to play Colts football: get a lead, then unleash the pass rush. Problem is, neither the Steelers’ offense nor the Steelers’ defense are designed to play that way.
A team with a decent offensive line can abandon the run when down against the Steelers right now, and throw quick passes, which stymies the pass rush and exposes the linebackers, who are all terrific run players and pass rushers but are not good in coverage.
The offense is designed to close out games by power rushing. Unfortunately, the line isn’t opening holes, and Parker hasn’t been hitting the ones it did open. Mendenhall has been productive, of course, but he’s also played against the 21st and 27th ranked rush defenses. Now, the Colts aren’t a power rush team either, but Manning is so accurate and his receivers catch the ball so reliably that the Colts can bleed the clock with the pass, especially when the opponent’s defense is playing the run. Roethlisberger, for all his gaudy stats, is just not that accurate, and his receivers don’t have those hands.
Super Bowl teams without a marquee safety: 2007-8 Giants, 2007-8 Patriots, 2006-7 Bears, 2005=6 Seahawks, 2002-3 Raiders, 2001-2 Patriots, 2000-1 Ravens, 2000-1 Giants…
Interesting article. I have to nitpick though, they aren’t in man coverage the first three quarters, at least not strictly. Ike Taylor is in man coverage and the other guys may be in zone but there are two deep all the time. In the fourth quarter though, they are definitely in a soft zone as he says. One corner or the other is 8-10 yards off the line of scrimmage for many snaps. When Troy’s there they can disguise what he’s doing better but it’s still essentially the same. They played that defense last year too but not as soft.
One thing that changed since last year was in the Super Bowl Arizona threw to the flats all day. To counter that this year the linebackers have been in coverage a lot to protect those areas. The pass rush necessarily suffers and QBs have more time to exploit the weakness in the secondary. I don’t know the answer but I trust Dick Lebeau more than any coach in any sport I follow.
Yes, very true. Roethlisberger is very good but he’s not in the elite level of Peyton Manning or Drew Brees.
Excellent article here regarding the Steelers supposed defensive struggles. Some interesting points in the article:
Interesting bonus tidbit for FoieGrasIsEvil: