The Glaring Weaknesses of the 2011 Pittsburgh Steelers...

[Captain Lemming]

Re: The Glaring Weaknesses of the 2011 Pittsburgh Steelers.

Prolly not a season weakness but I thought Timmons was pretty bad today too

Dickson was his man originally on his TD. Blew right by him. Got trashed by leach on a blitz. He needs to beat a RB when he's one on one with him

He doesn't really defend any passes either. He like our DBs. Makes the tackle after allowing the completion

True.

[Steel Life]

Re: The Glaring Weaknesses of the 2011 Pittsburgh Steelers.

Don't let one play skew the way you see Timmons' effort today...he led the team in tackles.

[papillon]

Re: The Glaring Weaknesses of the 2011 Pittsburgh Steelers.

Don't let one play skew the way you see Timmons' effort today...he led the team in tackles.

He's a good young player, today wasn't good day for him. Ray rice smoked him for a TD on a little in and out route. Except for Ike, the defense was non-existent and the offense was not consistent enough to make up for the deficiencies that the defense had.

Pappy

[steelblood]

Re: The Glaring Weaknesses of the 2011 Pittsburgh Steelers.

Plain and simple....

James Farrior.
An inside LB has to be able to hold up at the point of attack. Hold his ground and shed. James Farrior, once great, has become a major liability versus the run. He was blown over, pushed backwards, and engulfed with regualrarity today versus the Ravens run attack.

Bryant McFadden
This guy couldnt cover water if he fell out of a boat. Horrible corner who is going continue to hurt the Steelers.

Aaron Smith
Sorry folks. He is done. Put a fork in him. If you arent going to be able to get after the QB with pressure then you better be able to fill your gaps. He isnt the force he once was and that makes him very unproductive when he is primarily asked to do one thing.

bad word LeBeau.
He continues to go against the strength of the Steelers defense. Send 3 or 4 after the Qb and watch a guy like Flacco stand tall all day long in the pocket and pick your sorry secondary apart. How many times did we see James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley dropping back into coverage today? These are the two premier pass rushers on the team and they are being asked to do what they dont do best more times than not.

Ryan Clark.
A great sure tackler and hard hitter in the open field but a liability in coverage. And that gets magnified when you are asking your other safety to be at or near the LOS or box for a large part of the day.

Hines Ward
Since the Steelers still see him as a first or second option when he clearly doenst have much seperation left in him, this makes him a weakness. He can still make a few plays when things break down in the pocket but when he is a primarary target or first look and he cant get seperation this is causing the offense to not be as good as it could. Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders should both be moved up in the progression chart. They are young play makers who can get that innitial seperation. Innitial seperation isnt what the Steelers are getting from Hines and this is hindering the flow of the passing game.

Now...having said all this....this is only game one. And there is a ton of football left. I am not saying this team isnt going to be good when it is all said and done. But they surely have some glaring weaknesses today.

Well if you are using this one game as the only indicator, then...

Timmons can't cover RBs or TEs
Ben could get a tax deduction for his charitable donations
and
Flacco is a big game QB

But, we know that most of those things probably aren't true.

I suggest we wait a few games before giving up on Farrior and Aaron Smith. They were both horrible, and I am concerned. But, I'm not ready to give up on them.

Regarding McFadden. He was beaten several times today. But, I thought he was in good position on most plays and it took pretty close to perfect passes to beat him.

[Captain Lemming]

Re: The Glaring Weaknesses of the 2011 Pittsburgh Steelers.

Plain and simple....

James Farrior.
An inside LB has to be able to hold up at the point of attack. Hold his ground and shed. James Farrior, once great, has become a major liability versus the run. He was blown over, pushed backwards, and engulfed with regualrarity today versus the Ravens run attack.

Bryant McFadden
This guy couldnt cover water if he fell out of a boat. Horrible corner who is going continue to hurt the Steelers.

Aaron Smith
Sorry folks. He is done. Put a fork in him. If you arent going to be able to get after the QB with pressure then you better be able to fill your gaps. He isnt the force he once was and that makes him very unproductive when he is primarily asked to do one thing.

bad word LeBeau.
He continues to go against the strength of the Steelers defense. Send 3 or 4 after the Qb and watch a guy like Flacco stand tall all day long in the pocket and pick your sorry secondary apart. How many times did we see James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley dropping back into coverage today? These are the two premier pass rushers on the team and they are being asked to do what they dont do best more times than not.

Ryan Clark.
A great sure tackler and hard hitter in the open field but a liability in coverage. And that gets magnified when you are asking your other safety to be at or near the LOS or box for a large part of the day.

Hines Ward
Since the Steelers still see him as a first or second option when he clearly doenst have much seperation left in him, this makes him a weakness. He can still make a few plays when things break down in the pocket but when he is a primarary target or first look and he cant get seperation this is causing the offense to not be as good as it could. Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders should both be moved up in the progression chart. They are young play makers who can get that innitial seperation. Innitial seperation isnt what the Steelers are getting from Hines and this is hindering the flow of the passing game.

Now...having said all this....this is only game one. And there is a ton of football left. I am not saying this team isnt going to be good when it is all said and done. But they surely have some glaring weaknesses today.

Well if you are using this one game as the only indicator, then...

Timmons can't cover RBs or TEs
Ben could get a tax deduction for his charitable donations
and
Flacco is a big game QB

But, we know that most of those things probably aren't true.

I suggest we wait a few games before giving up on Farrior and Aaron Smith. They were both horrible, and I am concerned. But, I'm not ready to give up on them.

Regarding McFadden. He was beaten several times today. But, I thought he was in good position on most plays and it took pretty close to perfect passes to beat him.

Stop being reasonable.
It's boring.

[flippy]

Re: The Glaring Weaknesses of the 2011 Pittsburgh Steelers.

It was an all around horrible effort today. I think 4 guys on defense came to play today - Casey, Ike, BMac, and Clark. Other than Casey, the front 7 was owned by Baltimore's Oline. And I thought Troy was effective because Flacco seemed to throw away from him most of the time.

Casey was throwing around Birk like a sack of potatoes most of the times I noticed him. Ike and BMac were pretty sound in coverage most of the day - in BMac's defense, he was right there in coverage on the couple of plays he gave up. And Clark is what he is. He made a nice play with Foote to prevent a TD pass. Unfortunately that wasn't the spark I was hoping it would be cause the Ravens scored on the next play.

And that next play, Aaron Smith got trucked like I've never seen him blocked before. Every other series it seemed like Smitty was on his back or being thrown around like a rag doll. Not sure what's wrong with him, but I'm worried he might be done.

All in all it was a bad performance on offense. The only player I'd give a passing grade to might be Manny Sanders who had 2 nice 3rd down grabs and a TD on our only scoring drive. He might need to see the field a bit more.

[mshifko]

Re: The Glaring Weaknesses of the 2011 Pittsburgh Steelers.

i agree with flip on aaron smith. i said that in another thread, he was horrible.

i don't think b-mac was as bad as every one else thinks however.

but...our ILB vs. ray rice in coverage was a huge issue, but here is the main issue: we were sending 4 and not getting to flacco, they were sending 4 and getting to ben. take that how you want. that is our glaring weakness.

[Captain Lemming]

Re: The Glaring Weaknesses of the 2011 Pittsburgh Steelers.

And that next play, Aaron Smith got trucked like I've never seen him blocked before. Every other series it seemed like Smitty was on his back or being thrown around like a rag doll. Not sure what's wrong with him, but I'm worried he might be done.

While I have avoided the panic button others are pushing about our defense, yeah I've not seen Smitty get steamrolled like this before. I am worried about whether he might be done as well.

Smitty actually looked really good, very stout at the start of last season before his injury. Maybe he needs game reps to get in playing shape. He is getting older though.

Regardless, worst case scenario Ziggy moves to number one. It was fine last year. I am not worried about the position as a whole.