Question for LeBeau Haters....

[SidSmythe]

Hypothetically Speaking.

Lets say the Steelers brought back LaMar Woodley and he was playing at his pre contract levels again and was in shape.
Harrison came back for his last hoorah and was playing like he was 31 again.
Troy was Troy for one last time and Mitchell actually understood what he's suppose to be doing.
Cortez Allen lived up to his contract and McClendon turned into an beast at NT.

Would LeBeau's defense NOT work???

NOW.... if you're going to cop out and say "we don't have the personnel to run this defense" ... can you please enlighten us as to what Defense we do have the personnel to run??

[JoshBroski]

...that's a lot of ifs. And the answer is no. Woodley is a terrible player and has been for quite some time.

[Eich]

I'm not a Lebeau hater. But I'll chime in anyway.

The defensive personnel we have NOW (minus the Beard) was good enough against Indy and against the Rats II. Put the best guys we have NOW on the field, recognize that the secondary is a weakness, play aggressive, blitzburgh-style defense and let the chips fall where they may.

If the offense plays half as good as it did against Indy, this team can beat anyone. The problem is that both sides of the ball seemed to forget how to play aggressive after those two games.

[pittpete]

I love LeBeau.
I hate the fact that this defense has been in a steady decline for the last 3 years.
LeBeau is part of the problem, not part of the solution.

[Slapstick]

Nobody answered the question yet...

[squidkid]

Nobody answered the question yet...

lol....says the guy who always runs and hides from answering anyone elses.

[Slapstick]

lol....says the guy who always runs and hides from answering anyone elses.

Yep. I'm the one who disappears from the board for a week after I'm called out...

No, wait...that's you...

[BradshawsHairdresser]

Hypothetically Speaking.

Lets say the Steelers brought back LaMar Woodley and he was playing at his pre contract levels again and was in shape.
Harrison came back for his last hoorah and was playing like he was 31 again.
Troy was Troy for one last time and Mitchell actually understood what he's suppose to be doing.
Cortez Allen lived up to his contract and McClendon turned into an beast at NT.

Would LeBeau's defense NOT work???

Yeah, with those conditions met, it would probably work...and if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we could have a great little party.

You have to have a defense that works with the players you have, not the players you once had or the players you wish you had. With this bunch of players, the safer, vanilla LeBeau D is just not working. I agree with Eich, in light of this team's known weaknesses, they need to go to an aggressive, attacking defense. Will they get burned sometimes? Yes. But they will also get some turnovers and stop some drives. And have a lot better chance of winning games. IMO.

[feltdizz]

lol....says the guy who always runs and hides from answering anyone elses.

impressive draft board there chief...

oh wait, our draft picks all suck right?

[feltdizz]

Hypothetically Speaking.

Lets say the Steelers brought back LaMar Woodley and he was playing at his pre contract levels again and was in shape.
Harrison came back for his last hoorah and was playing like he was 31 again.
Troy was Troy for one last time and Mitchell actually understood what he's suppose to be doing.
Cortez Allen lived up to his contract and McClendon turned into an beast at NT.

Would LeBeau's defense NOT work???

NOW.... if you're going to cop out and say "we don't have the personnel to run this defense" ... can you please enlighten us as to what Defense we do have the personnel to run??

I'll play along... sure that D would work IF all those things were true.

But since Troy is old, Woodley is gone, Allen sucks and JH isn't his old self and McClendon is hurt... you have to change to scheme.

If I were in charge of this D I would have sprinkled Troy and Ike back into the D instead of giving them back their starting jobs. They are too old and both are liabilities in coverage. I would try to use the attacking scheme we used against Indy and Baltimore but I would also recognize that those 2 hold onto the ball longer than most QB's so I wouldn't be as aggressive. I would blitz the CB's off the edge more often. Gay is pretty good at blitzing off the edge.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Here's a stat I found on ESPN that surprised me:

Meanwhile, the Steelers blitz on 41 percent of opponents' dropbacks, the third-highest rate in the league.

It was from a fantasy football article used as justification from why you shouldn't start Andy Dalton in fantasy this week, but it would appear to be a legit that nonetheless, for all of those who think that LeBeau just sits back in coverage instead of blitzing anymore.

[URL]http://espn.go.com/fantasy/football/story/_/page/TMR141204/matthew-berry-love-hate-list-sleepers-busts-best-starts-sits-fantasy-football-week-14[/URL]

[SidSmythe]

Why is it so hard to get someone to answer a straight up hypothetical??

...and why hasn't anyone suggested the alternative defense that would work with our current personnel??

This isn't a discussion about failure in the draft ... that's obvious and I don't think that's LeBeau's fault either.
We have what we have and I want to know what defense we should be running with our current personnel.

[Slapstick]

I think that a philosophical change to a one gap defensive line might help get younger players in sooner...I don't buy the OLB conversion project argument...players can take time to acclimate to the NFL, period. I like what Seattle does with their Cover 3 scheme...the CBs play a zone, but practically man up on a WR...contest the pass sometimes, don't just tackle after the catch. I also like keeping the secondary on one side of the field instead of moving around all the time.

[pittpete]

How we are covering for a terrible defense.

[URL]http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/2014/12/5/7338505/how-we-are-covering-for-a-terrible-defense[/URL]

[SidSmythe]

I think that a philosophical change to a one gap defensive line might help get younger players in sooner...I don't buy the OLB conversion project argument...players can take time to acclimate to the NFL, period. I like what Seattle does with their Cover 3 scheme...the CBs play a zone, but practically man up on a WR...contest the pass sometimes, don't just tackle after the catch. I also like keeping the secondary on one side of the field instead of moving around all the time.

We don't have the guys to MAN UP and we definitely don't have a Richard Sherman or anyone to FEAR in the Secondary.
We also don't have the pass rushers to even mention Seattle's Defense.