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@dlolleyor: #Steelers list Keisel as starting RDE. Have moved Cam Heyward back to LDE. Tuitt backs up Keisel. Thomas backs up Heyward
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Keisel, at his age, will be more effective now that he is not an every down guy. This is a win-win situation for everyone involved!Comment
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150 and 171 yards allowed on the ground thus far.
Can't hurt to bring back a vet while the younger guys learn how to stuff the run.Comment
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CAN KEISEL STABILIZE STEELERS' NICKEL?
Sep 02, 2014
Jim Wexell
Publisher SteelCityInsider.net
Modifications are being made to an alignment that proved to be a preseason embarrassment.
After allowing 7.3 yards per carry while playing 70 percent of the available first-team snaps through the first three preseason games, the Steelers' nickel defense -- seemingly the new base defense -- allowed only two yards on one carry in the finale against Carolina.
The nickel defense overall -- after allowing 507 of the 625 total first-team yards in the first three preseason games -- allowed only 20 of Carolina's 72 first-team yards.
Was there an adjustment?
"Let me take the credit right now," defensive end Brett Keisel said with a laugh. "Everything's good now that I'm back there!"
Keisel, of course, was kidding. But, he was in there, plugged right into the nickel, once as one of three defensive ends on a four-man line.
Keisel added some much-needed heft, but it was only against a Carolina team that used a fullback much of the time.
The Cleveland Browns are expected to use a similarly plodding fullback/two-tight end scheme in Sunday's opener at Heinz Field, so the nickel that panicked Steelers fans in the preseason may not even be tested.
But what if it is? What is the plan if the Browns give chase to the Steelers' preseason defensive nightmare?
"You'll just have to wait and see," said end Cameron Heyward.
Heyward did say that the nickel has been a point of emphasis since the embarrassment at Philadelphia in the third preseason game.
"Yeah. We looked at a lot of things," Heyward said. "We understand we have to play better in nickel situations. People don't want to see us in our base (with a nose tackle). Fine. We're pretty good in a base front. As for the nickel, we have to get better, and we've worked on it.
We're correcting things and making some modifications."
Does Heyward trust in those modifications?
"I trust in everything," he said. "If I don't, I'm in the wrong place. One team, one mind, and we'll go from there."
Keisel, no doubt, will be a key factor in the Steelers' modifications. Against Carolina he even stood up as an inside linebacker in the Steelers' "Rover" defense, and once as a 4-3 end. He brings the hybrid type of end who's fast enough to provide pressure on the quarterback and stout enough to stand up against the run.
Those are the preferred nickel defenders, and now the Steelers have three for the defensive line in Keisel, Heyward and prize rookie Stephon Tuitt.
Mike Tomlin, of course, wouldn't give any hints at his Tuesday press conference.
"We’re sorting through all of those things, so it would be premature to talk about adjustments," Tomlin said.
He was asked to critique Keisel's performance against Carolina, only a week after the soon-to-be 36-year-old re-signed with the team.
"It was above the line," Tomlin said. "I still think we’re just getting a sense of what Brett is capable of from the snap standpoint. That will have a lot to do with his utilization in the game, along with the performance of others. I think that’s just growing organically and I’m not opposed to it growing in any direction. And I’m sure Brett is not opposed to it growing, particularly if it means him playing more than he played last weekend. He’s going to be an asset to us and I just look forward to continuing to watch him round himself into form."
Keisel, being a 13-year veteran in Pittsburgh, clearly understands the importans of "smashing the run," as he calls it, in coordinator Dick LeBeau's defense. Even as the evolving rules make it easier to throw the ball, both the Eagles and New York Giants showed the Steelers what can happen if they defend the pass, and seemingly only the pass. The leaky run defense was a slower but more certain death.
"We're trying some different things right now and working some different guys
together," Keisel said of Monday's practice. "I think some of the problem was a lack of game-planning, and some of it was technique, and some of it was pad level. There are a lot of those things that have to run together for you to be successful. You can say you're in the right gap, but if you're not playing with good technique and pad level you'll get pushed all over the place."
The Steelers were no doubt "pushed all over the place" this preseason. It may have had something to do with a front four utilizing defensive ends as tackles and outside linebackers as ends.
Is there a premium in Pittsburgh right now on true defensive ends?
"Yeah," Keisel said. "You've got to be able to set the edge. You've got to be tough on the edge with all these speed receivers and the new things they're doing with option and stuff like that. So a lot of teams are doing that stuff, and if your edge breaks down, you're in trouble."
The Steelers have witnessed that carnage first hand. They're hoping it's in the rearview mirror.
[URL]http://pit.scout.com/story/1441090-can-keisel-stabilize-steelers-nickel?s=68#/story/1441090-can-keisel-stabilize-steelers-nickel?s=68[/URL]Comment
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He is probably our best DE right now, which is an indictment of LeBeau and Mitchell, quite frankly. It shouldn't take five years to master a system.
Teams around the league get quality play from rookies and young players all the time, but in Pittsburgh, you don't start to shine until your 2nd contract.Comment
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Agree. Cam Heyward was the best DE on the team last year and will be again this year. That said, Keisel looked pretty good from what I saw against Carolina. He is certainly an upgrade over Cam Thomas.
I think you will see a bit of a rotation between Keisel, Tuitt and Thomas. I think Heyward will play more than 90% of the snaps.Comment
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The 2025 Pittsburgh Steeler draft
1.21 - Derrick Harmon, DT, Oregon - Nick Emmanwori, S, S. Carolina
3.83 - Kaleb Johnson, RB, Iowa - DJ Giddens, RB, Kans St
3.123 - Will Howard, QB, OSU
4.156 - JJ Pegues, DT, Ole Miss
5.185 - Clay Webb, OG, Jack St
7.229 - Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins, DT, Georgia
"Football is a physical game, well, it used to be anyways" - Mel BlountComment
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Oh, DGMW, I'm not knocking Keisel, I think having him back can help, but I just think Heyward is better at this point.
Having Keisel here is a big help especially if they alter their nickel defense look and go with 4 D-Linemen across the front instead of 2 DL and 2 LB's. Now, they can go with Cam Thomas and Mclendon as DT's and Heyward, Tuitt/Keisel as DE's instead of Worilds and Jarvis playing the DE.
The main way teams can run against this defense is when offenses go 3 wide. The traditional nickel for Pittsburgh is 2 DL's moving inside to effectively play DT, and the two LB's essentially sliding inside to play DE. In effect, this becomes a 4 man front, and because of the size of the front four, they become waaaay too easy to run the ball on. So teams that line up in 3-wides, can just have the QB check off to a running play, leaving a huge OL to block a now-smallish front four.
If they alter this (as they did vs Carolina at times) by playing 4 actual D Lineman against 3-wides, it becomes much more difficult front to run on. It's exactly what Ben does on O. Line up in 3-wides and then hands it off to Leveon. He often has nice lines to run through in that situation. Tough to defend against.Comment
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Steeler teams featuring stat-driven, me-first, fantasy-football-darling diva types such as Antonio Brown & Le'Veon Bell won no championships.
Super Bowl winning Steeler teams were built around a dynamic, in-your-face defense plus blue-collar, hard-hitting, no-nonsense football players on offense such as Hines Ward & Jerome Bettis.
We don't want Juju & Conner to replace what we lost in Brown & Bell.
We are counting on Juju & Conner to return us to the glory we once had with Hines & The Bus.Comment
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On the Steelers: Defense's dilemma familiar to Keisel
September 16, 2014
By Ed Bouchette / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Brett Keisel was part of a group of talented players put on the Steelers roster in the late 1990s and early 21st century.
Brett Keisel, who turns 36 Friday, carries the wisdom that comes with playing for the Steelers for 13 years and a perspective of their defenses past and present.
He was part of a group of talented players injected into the roster in the late 1990s and early 21st century that became the NFL's dominant defense for a decade.
Before that defense ravaged quarterbacks and forced turnovers and added to the Lombardi Trophy collection, there was one goal above all others: Stop the run.
It mastered that goal, right up until the 2013 season when it all spun apart and the Steelers were gouged on the ground and buried at No. 21 in the NFL rush defense rankings. The trend from last season has continued through the first two games of this one -- the Steelers rank 29th by allowing 170 yards rushing per game and 27th by yielding an average per carry of 5.2.
Perhaps it should be expected. The run defense that ranked first in the NFL four times and no lower than third 10 times over a 12-year span through 2012 got old all at once. Only three starters remain from the NFL's No. 2 run defense from 2012 -- defensive backs Ike Taylor and Troy Polamalu and linebacker Lawrence Timmons; four if you count Keisel, who has not started the first two games but played more than 50 snaps Thursday night in Baltimore.
All those players have been replaced by draft picks and free agents from other teams who can be excused if they do not have the talent or sixth sense of veteran Pro Bowl defenders who played so long with each other.
"I'm not saying we've been spoiled," Keisel said of all those who followed -- and played for -- the Steelers through the years. "There is just a certain level of expectation."
But maybe the bar was set too high too soon for this new era of Steelers defenders?
"Noooo," Keisel answered emphatically. "You should shoot for that."
He motioned toward the Steelers logo woven into the carpet in the locker room.
"That logo means that. That's how it all started with those great '70s teams, and me being able to be part of that greatness coming back is awesome. And it was awesome in the 1990s with Kevin [Greene] and [Greg] Lloyd and those guys.
"There's a certain stigma about Steeler defense. I think the bar needs to be high because much is expected."
Sometimes, that can lead to disappointment, but Keisel and others tend to believe that what happened through the first two games will be corrected. But when?
"It's going to take some time, unfortunately," he said, referring to what it will take for the new generation to reach the domination of the old, if it can. "But we don't have time, we don't have time for this to be a natural progression.
"It needs to happen now. It needs to happen yesterday. So when we come into work, you have to be focused on your job and make sure when you're out there practicing, you are executing your job."
The Steelers have gone through these transitions before. It happened in the late 1980s and early 1990s as they collected players like Lloyd, Greene, Rod Woodson, Carnell Lake and more who would become Blitzburgh. Those players left, and new ones took a few years before they formed the great defenses of this century.
They're trying to do it again.
"It's a new cast of cats, and you have to find a way to get them all headed in the right directions," Keisel said. "You have to know the right calls that people thrive on and the things that they don't thrive on so much, and let them play to the best of their abilities."
Those were qualities that helped the earlier defenses work so well.
"Certain guys in there have certain things that they're great at, and we need to make sure that we're understanding that and putting them in position to win."
Keisel believes, as do others, that "little things" right now are preventing them from a better collective performance. At the moment, there has been some undisciplined individual performances where players are not where they should be, and it allows for big gains.
"The reason a defense is a good defense is they all understand their role and they're all accountable when the ball is being snapped, they're where they're supposed to be," Keisel said. "If one guy slips up, if one guy isn't there, these teams that you're playing against know how to exploit that. And that's happened to us."
The question remains, though, not can they correct those assignment errors, but whether they have enough talent to do so.
[URL]http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/steelers/2014/09/16/On-the-Steelers-Defense-s-dilemma-familiar-to-Keisel/stories/201409160115[/URL]Comment
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