And the fact that our two sack leaders plus Troy have been dealing with injuries the past few seasons had no impact? Really Flippy?
I will break it down below using examples when the linebackers were healthy but the lineman was out.
I understand the "THEORY". I really do. Here is some REALITY.
2010 Casey misses 10 games.
Hoke is a ROOKIE that year.
During that 10 game run we:
Go underfeated.
Beat BOTH superbowl participants in the process
Create turnovers in 9 of the 10 games
Create 3 or more turnovers in 4 of those games
3 or more sacks in most of those games.
Single digits allowed in 4 of the 10 games
Season team results with Casey our a majority of the season?
Leagues number 1 defense in yardage AND scoring
Steelers all time best regular season record
Farriors ONLY career AllPro season....Plays the middle MOST impacted by the nose. Farrior razzes Casey about Hoke getting him that award.
Smiths ONLY career Probowl- (One would think the constant double team Casey reputedly requires would make it HARDER for Smith to achieve w/o Casey)
That would be J.J. Watt. It aint close.
I already made the point that by your logic Kimo is better than Smith, since the guy on HIS side was more productive than Haggins.
How is Woodley (who played next to Smith) REALLY impacted when Smith is gone?
You cant look at the post injury Woodley.
What did Woodley do minus Smith pre-injury?
In the 16 weeks prior to his getting hurt spanning parts of 2010 that playoff and 2011, ALL GAMES Smith missed, WOODLEY AVERAGED NEARLY A SACK A GAME over 16 games (15 sacks).
He had 9 sacks in his 8 games in 2011 prior to injury. That was a STEELER RECORD PACE.
When Woodley was HEALTHY and NOT overweight he played some of his
CAREER BEST FOOTBALL without Smith in the lineup.
BTW the 2010 team played 13 (including the playoff) with Ziggy:
We WENT TO THE SUPPERBOWL
Had not one but TWO DPOY candidates, one won
We had the number one defense in the league
We averaged over two turnovers a game during the games Smith was out
We had 48 sacks and created 35 total turnovers for the regular season
Our defense was FINE (number one) a sack and turnover machine when we had healthy elite linebackers without Casey (2004)
Our defense was FINE (number one) a sack and turnover machine when we had healthy elite linebackers without Smith (2010)
Last season we did not have healthy elite linebackers.
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