To be able to lead the league in defensive yardage allowed without very many turnovers or sacks is seemingly an even more impressive accomplishment if you think about it. The teams that get a ton or turnovers cut opponent's drives short, and the teams that get a ton of sacks put the opponent's in many third and long situations that are difficult to convert. We are not doing either of those things on a regular basis, but are still holding our opponents to less yards than those team that do.
The Rams' offense featuring weapons such as Marshall Faulk, Torrey Holt, and Isaac Bruce were known as "The Greatest Show on Turf"
The Steelers' offense featuring weapons such as Le'Veon Bell and Martavis Bryant should be known as "The Greatest Show on Grass"
This has nothing at all to do with respective playing surfaces at the Edward Jones Dome vs. Heinz Field.
2015 MNF Executive Champion!
Any Steeler fan who watches every game can argue against this stat.
You know as well as I that the Steelers
-gave up 11 passing TD's(middle of the pack)
-are tied for 4th in the NFL with the worst 3rd down opponents conversion %
Do the stats look great on paper?
Hell yeah.....
Does a knowledgeable Steelers fan who doesn't miss a play see otherwise?
Hell yeah
The pass def. has room for improvement, always has always will
Last edited by pittpete; 11-02-2012 at 12:50 PM.
Bingo!!!! Solid post... The #1 ranking didn't stop Oakland, Tennessee or Denver when we needed it. Don't get me wrong.. I understand Denver has a great QB but the other 2 teams? Nah.. we didn't look #1.Originally Posted by pittpete
I want our D to impose it's will on bad teams... until that happens I'm not going to celebrate.
You can't impose your will unless you can get the opposing QB on the ground. We have become very mediocre in doing that. We can cite injuries all we want but the reality is you have to adjust because the need to sack opposing QBs doesn't go away because someone is hurt.
Sorry, but that is simply not the case.
Rankings by yards does not tell the whole story, but it certainly DOES tell some of the truth. They are #1 vs. the pass; you can't tell me that that's a completely irrelevant stat. Teams get less yards, per game, passing against the Steelers than any other team. You can't tell me that's not a reflection on our D at all. And all of this is without China Doll Troy on the field.
So let me summarize: If the Steelers' D doesn't lead the league in picks, fumble recoveries, sacks, points, yards against in passing and rushing, then it stinks and we should be unhappy? OK, got it.
Is this D the greatest of all time? Of course not. There are only 3 teams in that discussion: The 70's Steelers, the 1985 Bears and the 2000 Ravens. Is this D so bad that we should complain about it like it just stinks? No. Supposedly, this team has little hope of winning without Troy in the line up, and they are putting up these stats without him (and BOY, am I getting sick of seeing his lame arse on the sidelines.) My point wasn't that this D is perfect. My point was it isn't nearly as bad as many of us gripe about. There are probably 28 teams that would trade for our D right now. And if Pola-fragile ever comes back, it will be even more so.
Harrison isn't whole, neither is Woodley; they are our top guys to get to the passer. And, you are not correct: There have been many fabulous and effective Ds that didn't put up huge sack #s. Getting lots of sacks is sure fun and exciting, but not mandatory in creating solids Ds.
hmmm... I don't think there are 28 teams who would trade their D for ours... probably 14 to 15 but not 28.
my biggest problem with our D is the lack of TO's... I remember when our D used to get game changing, game saving TO's.. that hasn't happened too often since 2008.
And, as a support stat, SF has the #1 rated D by yards, so, in this case, the yards against stat actually are a perfect indicator to the quality of the D; I don't think many would argue that SF doesn't have a superior D to Pgh. The 7.7 points less per game is a pretty huge indicator that their D is better. SF is solid as hell on D. They got two huge play makers on the line and some of the most beastly LBs on earth, in their prime. And couple of DBs who are excellent. If there is a better LB than Pat Willis, I don't know who that would be. (I so wished we traded up to draft him.)
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