You ask any expert, player, OC, coach....They will tell you the Seahawks seondary allows the front 7 to do many different things. It is the same principal we experienced when Ike & Troy were in their prime and Ryan was able to cover the outer thirds. When the back end is leveled you could "tilt" the front end. Until the Steelers get that fixed...Our front 7 won't be playing downhill.
It's talent.
Steelers 2015 Draft???....Go Freak! As in....
1-Bernardrick McKinney MLB Mississippi State 6 ft 5 250 4.5 40 yard dash
We will have to agree to disagree on that.
Many of you are missing the many complexities of football when you sit & watch a game. There is allot more than run or pass the ball into the endzone & try to stop them going on.
When Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas, & Byron Maxewell/Walter Thurmond stay of the field when offenses trot out 21,12, & even 11 personnel...That is ZERO indication of what the front 7 brings to the defense. That is TOTAL confidence in your secondary & LBs can play Cover 1 & Cover 0. That leaves your base guys of Irvin, Wagner, Smith, Bryant, McDaniel, Mebane, & Clemons on the field. That means the offense personnel packages did not dictate your defense & you could play down & distance football. That means the strategic planning of trying to spread them out so you could run just worked in the defenses advantage if you want to run. If you try & pass and test that secondary & LB in coverage...You face a minimum of 4 DL pass rushers. If the DC has great confidence in that secondary, which Dan Quinn does, you send 2 LBs with those 4 DL & force 3 step drops. If the QB tries to go to a 5 step drop & hold the ball he will face pressure up the middle & make errant throws off his back foot. It is a great recipe for a great defense. Only capable with a talented secondary like the Seahawks.
If you would have put Clark, Polamalu, Taylor, & Gay/Allen behind the front 7 in the SB...Manning would have thrown for 5 TDs if the Hawks stayed with the philosophy. Here's the kicker...The Steelers front 7 playing in front of that secondary would have produced similar results to what you saw on SB Sunday. Its like a balance scale in todays NFL. If you compensate one direction for weakness you pay on the other side. The closer you get to balance in base the more productive your defense will be. Right now...Our bigger weakness is in the backend because of age & lack of speed. It was exploited early in the year especially when the Steelers tried to play cover 1 against Brady. The Steelers compensated by going to nickel against offensive personnel groupings (When they shouldn't have to) but that made the defense more suspect to the run...Which was also exploited.
The solution is obvious but not so simple with limited draft possibilities & salary cap. For the starting front 7...Retain Worilds & Hood. Step 1 would be 2 new faces in the secondary at FS & CB. That would improve the 2013 front 7 alone. FA or Draft..Has to be the focus. You do that & plug in a true NT & answer the questions at the ILB opposite Timmons....You could see a defense VERY similar to the Hawks defense running around Hines Field in Black & Gold. The question isn't what to do....But how to do it as it relates to FA ,Draft, or rostered player. If anything, we could all agree that a new face at FS, CB, & NT will be filled in FA/Draft.The ILB spot can't be answered by us because we don't know what they feel about Spence...If they feel Foote is in their plans for 2014...Or if they feel Williams is the answer. I think that answer will come at draft by whom the do or do not pick.
Last edited by JUST-PLAIN-NASTY; 02-05-2014 at 03:04 PM.
I get what you are saying here and I agree to an extent, but the deep cover 1 they can play doesnt come overnight. Pete runs a brilliant scheme, but those big ass corners and a rangy FS like thomas is essential to what they do. The problem is, in order to duplicate that kind of scheme lebeau would have to alter what he does, which is not going to happen.
I believe the steeler have one of the premier DLinemen in the league in Heyward, and they have a top 5 MLB in timmons, but they are seriously lacking elswhere. I think Jones and Cortez are going to be good ones, but seattle did work in building that defense with thomas, sherman, bryant, avril, irvin, chancellor..ect. No way they can keep that together very long
I think hood should be let go, he is terrible.
Worilds needs to be retained. They are in a very awkward spot with defense right now with the guys that were absolute cogs in the 05/08 teams are on their way out or already gone. Its a vicious cycle but one decent defensive draft and they can right the ship. Cant be drafting Bruce Davis's though, need to bring in a few big time hits
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