Could our O-line hurt our D-line?

[SteelTorch]

Could years of practicing against poor O-lineman affect their performance in turn? I know this has been brought up before, but considering how sub-par our O-line has been these past few years, do you suppose our defense's front-seven will suffer because of it?

Granted, they were absolutely dominant in 2008, but in 2009 we saw a slight dropoff, and I'm worried it could be even greater this year. Yes, I know Aaron Smith was out last season, but he's just one player. Or maybe I'm way off base here...

[birtikidis]

Re: Could our O-line hurt our D-line?

you're way off base here.

[SteelTorch]

Re: Could our O-line hurt our D-line?

you're way off base here.

Thanks for clearing that up. :P

[birtikidis]

Re: Could our O-line hurt our D-line?

figured the best answer would be the simple one.

[Discipline of Steel]

Re: Could our O-line hurt our D-line?

When i saw this thread I thought of something different... If our ability to consistently run the ball is inhibited by poor Oline play, we put our D under more stress late in a game. The Dline takes all the beating, so having them on the field for a longer period can definately limit their overall effectiveness. Seems like this occurred to some extent last season.

[SteelTorch]

Re: Could our O-line hurt our D-line?

When i saw this thread I thought of something different... If our ability to consistently run the ball is inhibited by poor Oline play, we put our D under more stress late in a game. The Dline takes all the beating, so having them on the field for a longer period can definately limit their overall effectiveness. Seems like this occurred to some extent last season.

Actually, our time of possession last season was even longer than in 2008. In fact, we were third-highest in the league in that area! I doubt time of possession had anything to do with it.

[Discipline of Steel]

Re: Could our O-line hurt our D-line?

When i saw this thread I thought of something different... If our ability to consistently run the ball is inhibited by poor Oline play, we put our D under more stress late in a game. The Dline takes all the beating, so having them on the field for a longer period can definately limit their overall effectiveness. Seems like this occurred to some extent last season.

Actually, our time of possession last season was even longer than in 2008. In fact, we were third-highest in the league in that area! I doubt time of possession had anything to do with it.

I agree it wasnt TOP...On the other hand, it seemed we couldnt stay on the field late in games and actually lost a few that we should have run into the ground. That certainly put the defense in some ugly situations were they ultimately failed. So if you dont look just at stats, it becomes a valid arguement.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Re: Could our O-line hurt our D-line?

When i saw this thread I thought of something different... If our ability to consistently run the ball is inhibited by poor Oline play, we put our D under more stress late in a game. The Dline takes all the beating, so having them on the field for a longer period can definately limit their overall effectiveness. Seems like this occurred to some extent last season.

Actually, our time of possession last season was even longer than in 2008. In fact, we were third-highest in the league in that area! I doubt time of possession had anything to do with it.

I think our T.O.P. actually increasing could be due, at least in part, to all the kick returns for TD's. We'd score, then kick off, they'd run it back in less than 10 seconds, and then our offense would have the ball again. It happened way too many times last year.

[SteelTorch]

Re: Could our O-line hurt our D-line?

[quote=Discipline of Steel]

When i saw this thread I thought of something different... If our ability to consistently run the ball is inhibited by poor Oline play, we put our D under more stress late in a game. The Dline takes all the beating, so having them on the field for a longer period can definately limit their overall effectiveness. Seems like this occurred to some extent last season.

Actually, our time of possession last season was even longer than in 2008. In fact, we were third-highest in the league in that area! I doubt time of possession had anything to do with it.

I agree it wasnt TOP...On the other hand, it seemed we couldnt stay on the field late in games and actually lost a few that we should have run into the ground. That certainly put the defense in some ugly situations were they ultimately failed. So if you dont look just at stats, it becomes a valid arguement.[/quote:2xxv7ra2]

I don't think so. The ToP is still better no matter how you cut it - and I can think of plenty of games in 2008 where our offense failed to control the ball in the 4th quarter. Trying to rationalize it is simply failing to acknowledge the obvious. Besides, I'd say the opposite was true - the D faltered late in the game, reducing the amount of time the offense had a chance to take the field.

[Oviedo]

Re: Could our O-line hurt our D-line?

How about the simple fact that our defense could not pressure the QB in obvious passing situations and our secondary couldn't cover and tackle. Don't blame the OL for any of that.

We had the same problem in 4-5 very winnable games and no adjustments were ever made on the defensive side of the ball to fix the problems. But let's blame the OL and Arians just for the heck of it.

[SteelCrazy]

Re: Could our O-line hurt our D-line?

Our TOP at the end of games is what hurt, not our overall TOP

[SteelTorch]

Re: Could our O-line hurt our D-line?

How about the simple fact that our defense could not pressure the QB in obvious passing situations and our secondary couldn't cover and tackle. Don't blame the OL for any of that.

We had the same problem in 4-5 very winnable games and no adjustments were ever made on the defensive side of the ball to fix the problems. But let's blame the OL and Arians just for the heck of it.

Oh grow up. Nobody here is saying the defense is free from blame - but if you're willing to say the OL and Arians deserve no criticism, than you're simply delusional.

[phillyesq]

Re: Could our O-line hurt our D-line?

How about the simple fact that our defense could not pressure the QB in obvious passing situations and our secondary couldn't cover and tackle. Don't blame the OL for any of that.

We had the same problem in 4-5 very winnable games and no adjustments were ever made on the defensive side of the ball to fix the problems. But let's blame the OL and Arians just for the heck of it.

The Steelers were second in sacks last year, trailing the Vikings by one sack. I'm not sure that blaming the pass rush makes sense.

The secondary had issues, but the biggest issue may have been simple lack of talent.

[Eddie Spaghetti]

Re: Could our O-line hurt our D-line?

message board guy blaming a HOF player/coach for not adjusting will never not be funny.

i really love internet sometimes.

[skyhawk]

Re: Could our O-line hurt our D-line?

Seriously, having a weak OL to practice against certainly can't help the DL.

I'll take the days when the Steelers had the best Oline in football and in turn year after year they were #1 by far in rush defense.

The problem in those days was not having a QB to fill the final cog in the wheel. O'Donnell did it once, and he wasn't the greatest of all time. And he wasn't enough to beat the Cowboys (although he was enough to give it to them