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[fordfixer]

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[hawaiiansteel]

and hurry, we need them returned by this Sunday...

[Djfan]

I told anyone who would listen that the loss of Farrior was much bigger than we knew.

[SidSmythe]

I told anyone who would listen that the loss of Farrior was much bigger than we knew.

I think FOOTE has filled in nicely. Foote might lack a step compared to Farrior in his last year but Foote has been our best defensive player this year next to Woodley and Clark

[Djfan]

I think FOOTE has filled in nicely. Foote might lack a step compared to Farrior in his last year but Foote has been our best defensive player this year next to Woodley and Clark

Player? Maybe, yes. Leader? I doubt it.

Farrior was the complete package. He was a leading tackler a zillion times, called the plays, and was clearly the guy in the D, on and off the field. The loss of a guy like that is hard to replace. I love Foote, but Farrior had it all.

[fordfixer]

and hurry, we need them returned by this Sunday...
They will be given a clean uniform and a steady diet of Eagles

[fordfixer]

Better but not totally back yet. Any news on Troy?

[fordfixer]

Any sightings yet????:shock::shock::shock:

[fordfixer]

A brief glimpse of our D was seen last week, will it show up again this week?


Home » AFC » The Steelers defense: Jekyll or Hyde?
The Steelers defense: Jekyll or Hyde?
Posted by Chris Patterson




To the surprise of many, the Pittsbugh Steelers held the Cincinnati Bengals to only one long drive. It came right at the beginning of the game and seemed to portend issues for the rest of the game. At the end of the night, though, the defense had given up around 180 total yards. After half-time the Bengals only accumulated two first downs. This isn’t a team that is exactly offensively inept. Andy Dalton has averaged around 280 passing yards per game and AJ Green is being talked about as being among the best wide receivers in football. However, Dalton was held to 105 yards passing with Green only catching one pass. That one pass was a touchdown, unfortunately. Ike Taylor, who had been highly criticized coming into the game (and rightfully so) only gave up that one completion, and even then he had nearly perfect coverage. On some plays you don’t screw up, the other team just makes a perfect play. This was an example of that.
So, the Steelers defense held the fort, giving up 17 points, of which seven were gift-wrapped by the offense, to a team averaging around 23 points. This would be the Jekyll of the Steeler’s defense coming through. They were pressuring Dalton all night (who did not have many sacks against only because he was getting rid of the ball in about two seconds) and competing for every play. While the run defense looked a bit porous at times, they were able to sure that up as well. This is the same defense that showed up against the New York Jets and, to a lesser extent, Philadelphia. Confusing, quick, powerful and overwhelming.
Unfortunately, the Steelers version of Mr. Hyde has reared its head on several occasions this season, too. Most notably giving up over 30 points to a very mediocre (that’s putting it kindly) Oakland team, and letting Tennessee and Denver take over in the fourth quarter of their games. In the games featuring Mr. Hyde the Steelers are 0-3. When Dr. Jekyll takes the field the team is 3-0. It’s not a hard formula to crack…when the defense is giving up lots of yards and big plays late, the team loses. When they are overwhelming and stifling they tend to put up a win.
Disclaimer: A certain amount of criticism can be placed on the offense, for certain. But the offense has been more consistent to this point of the year even though it seems as though the offense is only a couple of plays per game from blowing this wide open.
So, what is causing such a change of pace for the defense. Why does the defense show up one week ready to dominate and the next looking like a unit ready to break? There are a lot of factors throughout this question, and the answers will probably reveal a lot about what can be expected of them for the rest of the season. Between old age, injuries and unique situations, there seems to be some explanation for most of the issues plaguing the defense.
As to injuries and old age, this can go hand in hand many times. Either players aren’t on the field, or when they are they are they’re not at 100%. In the three losses the team was without Ryan Clark (not injury related, but the result is the same) and James Harrison. In addition, Casey Hampton was playing on an ACL he had torn in Denver eight months previous. Even if Hampton was healthy enough to play, there is no way he could have been at his normal strength level. Against Tennessee and Oakland the Steelers were missing Troy Polamalu. James Harrison also missed the Oakland game and Lamar Woodley missed the Tennessee game. That’s three of the Steelers best four players (Timmons is in there somewhere as well) missing games. Also, until Tennessee, Casey Hampton seemed to be a shell of his former self, often getting pushed around by a single blocker as opposed to the double teams he normally required. In the Tennessee game he started looking a bit better and against Cincinnati he was sometimes drawing double teams and being a bit more disruptive than he had in previous games.
These injuries and old age lead to two things; players whose stamina is not at its peak and a lack of depth leading to starters playing more than they should, and backups playing more than they should as well. That would certainly make sense for why the later in the game it is, the more porous the Steelers defense looks.
However, I think the injuries and old age are playing less of a factor and the bigger factor has been unique situations (sometimes the injuries and old age goes with this).
In Denver the Steelers faced off in Mile High against a highly motivated Peyton Manning, an ultra-competitive, ultra-talented quarterback whose ability to play was being questioned. The Steelers took the field without James Harrison and Ryan Clark, two guys who could have made a big impact. Realistically, Peyton Manning was not going to lose that game.
In Oakland, the Steelers traveled to the West Coast. This is something the Steelers have not done well with in their history. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, really. There were no truly mitigating circumstances in this game beyond that. However, given the Steelers inability to win when traveling to Oakland regardless of the quality of the Raiders team, there must be some reason this team struggles so mightily playing in Oakland more often than not (and when they don’t struggle, they blow them out). This game was more likely a combination of the old age and injuries.
Against Tennessee I think the combination of injuries and old age on a shortened week caused the majority of the defense’s problems. Give an older team less time to heal, and this is the result.
This isn’t to make excuses for the Steelers. Being injured and old is not an excuse, it’s a fault. The Steelers inability to adjust to certain situations is not an excuse, it’s a fault. However, if these can be pointed to as the driving causes of their overall failings, it should help to determine if the team is on pace for another good season or if they are likely going to flail from here on out. Overall, the Steelers defensive results will probably continue to improve overall. It’s unlikely Oakland would score 34 on them again. However, this defense is filled with injury liabilities: Troy Polamalu, Lamar Woodley, Ryan Clark and to a lesser extent James Harrison are all injury liabilities. If the Steelers defense fields an entirely healthy roster evhttp://network.yardbarker.com/nfl/article_external/the_steelers_defense_jekyll_or_hyde/12067699

[fordfixer]

ON PRO FOOTBALLSteelers’ Defense Keeps Anything From Spoiling Time on Road
By JUDY BATTISTA
Published: November 4, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/sports/football/defense-lifts-steelers-in-road-win-against-giants.html?_r=0


EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The Pittsburgh Steelers’ long Sunday began with an early-morning trip to the airport and then a late-night flight home. It was the middle of the day, bogged by questionable officiating and a sometimes stagnant offense, that must have seemed interminable until the Steelers uncovered an identity that made even a laborious travel itinerary worthwhile.


The missteps and mistakes — by offense and officials, even by coaches — could not undo the best effort the Steelers’ erratic defense has had, and against the best opponent it has faced. In a 24-20 victory over the Giants, the Steelers channeled their 1970s selves, with a running game — behind the third-string running back Isaac Redman — gashing the Giants’ defense for 158 yards and the Steelers’ defense holding the Giants to less than 200 yards of offense.


“Hopefully, this was a big step for us in being the kind of team we want to be,” Coach Mike Tomlin said.


The Steelers might be tempted to remember this game for a series of confounding second-quarter calls by the referee Bill Leavy and his crew that led directly to 14 points for the Giants in less than two minutes. (This was the same Bill Leavy who admitted he botched two calls in Super Bowl XL, which the Steelers won over Seattle.)


They will wonder how Keenan Lewis could have been called for pass interference when he barely touched Hakeem Nicks 41 yards downfield. Or how Ryan Clark could be called for a personal foul for a hit to the head of Victor Cruz when Cruz, it was announced minutes later, had sustained bruised ribs on the play. Or how Ben Roethlisberger could have been ruled to have fumbled a ball that was still clearly in his hand as he concluded his throwing motion, leading to a recovery for a touchdown by Michael Boley. Asked what he saw on the Roethlisberger fumble, an angry Tomlin replied, “I can’t figure out some of this stuff now.” In the locker room, the team owner Dan Rooney laughed and said, “Don’t get me fined.”


The Steelers have felt in recent years that the N.F.L. is out to get them. The hard-hitting linebacker James Harrison, they thought, has been made the poster boy for the league’s crackdown on hits to the head, and a 2011 rule change that allows the league to fine organizations whose players are repeatedly disciplined for improper hits was widely perceived as having been directed at the Steelers, among a handful of other teams. So as soon as the drip-drip-drip of Sunday’s calls began — all of which the N.F.L.’s former head of officiating Mike Pereira indicated on Twitter he disagreed with — the conspiracy theories took root.


But the notion the league wanted the Giants to win as a balm for the wounds of Hurricane Sandy didn’t account for one thing. The Steelers’ defense, which had struggled to close out opponents earlier in the season, has improved in the last three games.


On Sunday, they generated more pressure than they have since safety Troy Polamalu went out, and their secondary covered deep downfield to take away the big plays that have become a cornerstone of the Giants’ offense. The Steelers’ defense is older and slower and injured, but in the first quarter, Ike Taylor intercepted Eli Manning, just the fourth interception for the Steelers all season.


The Steelers got no points from that drive, though. Nor did they get points from three drives that the Steelers started in Giants territory, including one in the fourth quarter that began with a punt return that started a drive at the Giants’ 12 and ended with a failed fake field-goal attempt that took the ball out of Roethlisberger’s hands and put it into kicker Shaun Suisham’s. It was the kind of coaching decision that might have unraveled the defense earlier in the season. But Tomlin eschewed a try on a long fourth-and-1 in part because he trusted his defense to hold the Giants even if the Steelers got no points.


“I took a shot, and the guys backed up my play,” Tomlin said of his decision. “They overcome bad coaching sometimes. That’s on me.”


The rest, though, was on the defense. It limited the Giants to one touchdown and two field goals, including one on a drive that began at the Steelers’ 33 after Roethlisberger was intercepted. When Roethlisberger and Redman ignited for 14 unanswered points in the fourth, the Giants were so out of a rhythm that even what have become predictable fourth-quarter comebacks were out of reach. Instead, the Steelers forced the Giants into three straight three-and-outs. In all, the Giants converted just 2 of 10 third-down attempts.


“We’ve been getting hurt on big plays, but lately we haven’t been giving up big plays,” linebacker LaMarr Woodley said. “Our history has been we’ve been losing games in the fourth quarter. Getting after the run, the cornerbacks’ doing a great job on coverage, pressure on the quarterback, getting off the field on third down — I think it’s probably our best game.”


This is the vision of how the Steelers are supposed to play.


Roethlisberger has labeled Todd Haley’s offense “dink and dunk,” and for much of Sunday, it looked more like dink and slump. But it was a pass of just a few yards over the middle that Mike Wallace turned into a 51-yard touchdown that turned the game, and the Steelers finished with 349 yards of offense and a time of possession 10 minutes 30 seconds longer than the Giants’. The defense did the rest. It was ball control for the new age, and that is the kind of team that Tomlin wants the Steelers to be. At 5-3, they are a game behind the Baltimore Ravens in the A.F.C. Central, with both meetings against their fiercest rival still to come.


In the locker room, Tomlin barked about the “terrible” officiating, but then he turned to other team officials and laughed. “Let’s pack up and make this the shortest road trip in N.F.L. history.” And for the Steelers, one of the most promising

[fordfixer]

By Gerry Dulac / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sports/steelers/steelers-outside-linebackers-eye-return-to-top-form-661434/


James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley, once the most productive sack tandem in the NFL, have fallen on hard times.


The duo that terrorized opposing quarterbacks from opposite sides of the Steelers' 3-4 defense is hoping to regain some of the power and might that produced 89 1/2 sacks the past four seasons.


And that total might have been higher if the two outside linebackers had not missed a total of 10 games in 2011.


But injuries have conspired to slow their production, beginning last season and carrying through to this year. The result is that Harrison and Woodley have combined for four sacks -- three by Woodley-- heading into the game Monday night against the Kansas City Chiefs.


"We still feel like they're the best in the business," said defensive end Brett Keisel. "When those two guys are in there, you know you have two Pro Bowl-type players that are known around the league for getting after quarterbacks and standing up against the run."


And the Steelers still believe the sacks will come from their bookend linebackers.


Defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau certainly believes so. So does Harrison, even though he said his troublesome knee injury never will be 100 percent this season.


"Not to make excuses, but we had a lot of guys who hadn't played any offseason football at all -- no coaching sessions, no training camp," LeBeau said. "And those guys are starting to get their football conditioning going and their football muscles going, and that's definitely a factor in our improvement. LaMarr and James Harrison are two big factors in that equation."


The Steelers had 35 sacks last season, their fewest since 1990, and the main reason was because Woodley missed six games because of a severe hamstring injury and Harrison missed four -- three with a fractured orbital bone and another because of a suspension.


This year, with 14 sacks after eight games, they are on pace to have fewer. And that's because Woodley missed one game with a different hamstring injury and Harrison has been slow to come around after missing all of training camp and the first three games of the regular season with a knee injury that has bothered him since the offseason.


But Harrison said he is starting to feel better and be in better football shape after playing the past five games at outside right linebacker. Nonetheless, his knee, which required arthroscopic surgery in training camp, has kept him from performing at his accustomed level.


"I'd say it's getting a lot closer to what would be fully conditioned, but it's obviously not going to be all the way there for the simple fact my knee isn't going to be all the way there till probably the end of the season," Harrison said. "I've accepted that. Until you're able to go and rehab things correctly and properly, you're not going to be able to get back to 100 percent.


"I want to be able to go out there and run 100 yards every play for 15 plays straight. Obviously, that isn't the case right now. I'm good. It's not anything that's affecting my level of play. If anything, the knee affects that more than anything else."


Harrison said he can't bend his knee as much as he would like, restricting his ability to get underneath offensive tackles when he uses leverage to rush the quarterback. Harrison has used that technique to compile 45 1/2 sacks the past four seasons.


"I don't have the same strength in it as I do the other leg," Harrison said.


"It took a year, year-and-a-half-plus to get where I had to have surgery. It's not something that's going to come back over the course of a few weeks."


And, yet, despite that, the Steelers have managed to rise to No. 1 in the league in total defense and pass defense.


"We try to adjust our defense to what were seeing and the guys we got out there sometimes," LeBeau said. "We're not going to sit there if we're having trouble. We're going to try a different combination of defenses. Nothing radical or anything, but the players have to deliver, and they've done that."


Don't forget Adams' role
Rookie Mike Adams, the team's No. 2 draft choice, has started the past three games at right tackle, and it might be more than just coincidence the running game has come to life the past three games.


While everyone has noticed the aggression and improved play of left guard Willie Colon, the reality is that the Steelers are primarily a right-handed running team that runs most of its plays to Adams' side.


Granted, Adams has struggled in pass protection -- he gave up two more sacks in the victory last week against the New york Giants -- but he has been very impressive in run-blocking, using his long arms and leverage to move defensive lineman and linebackers off the line of scrimmage.


"He knows how to extend his arms and keep his feet moving," left tackle Max Starks said.


"If you can get into position with your hands and keep moving your feet, you're always going to be successful."


Adams has played so well that Marcus Gilbert, who had a nasty ankle injury in Week 5 in Tennessee, might not get his job back. Gilbert had the tendon that protects the muscle tear away from the bone and needed to see an ankle specialist in Charlotte, N.C.


He has resumed practicing lightly this week with the hope he can return next week for the game against the Baltimore Ravens

[fordfixer]

Steelers’ defensive backs look for respect

Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012.
http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/2904892-85/steelers-chiefs-mccluster-run-clark-defense-dexter-pass-respect-yards
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review





By Ralph N. Paulk


Published: Friday, November 9, 2012, 8:06 p.m.
Updated 20 hours ago


Outspoken free safety Ryan Clark isn’t annoyed that the Steelers’ top-ranked pass defense isn’t getting its due. But he’s not happy about it, either.


“We’ve always been known as a run defense even when we’re not stopping the run,” Clark said. “What gets overlooked is the pass defense. We’ve been No. 1 lately more than we’ve been No. 1 against the run.


“They don’t talk about the way our corners (Ike Taylor and Keenan Lewis) have been playing. For me, it’s no big deal because I have to insert myself in both the run and pass.”


The Steelers, who held the Giants’ Eli Manning to his lowest total (125 yards) in four seasons, are allowing 174 passing yards per game. They were No. 1 last season, surrendering 156.


“It’s frustrating because I want them to get the kind of respect they deserve,” Clark said.


EYES ON MCCLUSTER


The Steelers respect Kansas City receiver Dwayne Bowe, who leads the Chiefs with 45 receptions for 571 yards. But slot receiver Dexter McCluster got their attention in the film room.


McCluster, a 2010 second-round draft pick, has 29 catches. Kansas City coach Romeo Crennel has been frustrated because his quarterbacks have been unable to get McCluster more touches.


“I think Dexter’s done a good job of developing in the slot,” Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel said. “He worked hard this offseason learning the ins and outs of the position and reading the different coverages.


“Dexter has tremendous ability with his quickness and his ability to uncover. There’s also a second side of that where he’s a little bit smaller, so sometimes it’s challenging from a physical standpoint for him.”


— Ralph N. Paulk

[RuthlessBurgher]

The Steeler D sees Chris Rainey every day in practice, so they should know what to expect out of a guy like McCluster.