Lebeau finally tries out what we've been saying all along

[BURGH86STEEL]

Re: Lebeau finally tries out what we've been saying all alon

I'm going to disagree that this is the first time Lebeau has tried out the press defense against the Pats*. He did it a few years back with some success until a young safety, who earlier in the week made a bold prediction, gave up a couple of big plays. You can bet your arse the next time we play them they will start taking shots down the field. We surprised them this time but the next time they will have some new wrinkles to try to beat this D. DL will have to come up with a nice mixture again.

My hats off to BA for the excellent game. He used the Pats* own game plan against them and it frustrated them as much as it usually frustrates us. He said the hell with balance ... we are going to throw, throw and throw some more. We'll mix in a few running plays in just to keep them a little honest.

I agree it wasn't they first time they played press coverage vs the Pats. It did not appear to be exclusively press coverage. It appeared to be more man to man coverage. There were situations were the DB's played off the Pats WR's in what appeared to be man coverage. Troy floating around in space and pressure on Brady appeared to play a huge role. I believe the Steelers changed from mostly zone coverage to man coverage with Troy playing the middle zone reading Brady for most of the game.

Regardless of whatever coverages the Steelers used on defense, the offense did a great job limiting the Pats opportunities by keeping the ball almost 40 minutes. As I stated in another thread, it took a total team effort to deal with Brady and the Pats offense.

I believe Ben's execution of the offense was the difference. Ben took what the defense gave. Did not appear they did much different in terms of formations or play calling. They still ran 5 WR sets, play action fakes for plays down field, same run plays, screens, WR screens, ect.

[SteelerEmpire]

Re: Lebeau finally tries out what we've been saying all alon

I had a feeling that this time around (esp. with Lake now as the DB's coach) he would go man-blitz coverage mostly. And, unless I missed something, I don't even think I saw William Gay get torched as usual. Yep, I'm willing to say the Lake era has now officially arrived ! I mean how long have we've been trying to get LeBeau to run that type of defense before Lake got here ?