Who's responsible for this defense?

[feltdizz]

I've never said Kenny is blameless, and you might have a point if I were the only one saying they're beating fear of turnovers into him and affecting his play, but many local and even some national analysts are starting to question the same thing.

There are more people on this board who gave up on Kenny after his first start than there are those who defend him blindly. Far more.

I’m the biggest KP fan on the board and this is ridiculous.

Imagine blaming Tomlin for Warren and Najee fumbling because they stressed not fumbling?

All coaches stress not turning the ball over. That doesn’t mean you can’t throw the ball to your players. You really think Tomlin would be upset if Kenny threw 4 TD’s into tight windows?

I’m the biggest Kenny fan on this board but no way do I blame Tomlin for his bad throws. Same with Mitch. See how Mitch played when he came in vs the Bucs? He played like a man that wants his job back. Its not the coaches fault if you are so scared you can’t make good throws and obviously I don’t believe this to be the case with either QB.

Where I blame Tomlin is lack of reps with the 1’s. If you were thinking about needed a spark why the hell didn’t you give KP some reps during those 10 days?

But blaming coaches for the decisions a QB makes like they are being controlled with joysticks is a serious reach.

and why can it just be that KP is a rookie who was thrown into the fire during the hardest part of our schedule?

We scored 20 points AT HALF TIME and you are still trying to blame Tomlin for holding Kenny back.

You were even in the game thread blaming players for dropping passes while others tried to blame Kenny for making the wrong read.

Of course people are going to question what’s wrong because Kenny doesn’t look like his last year at Pitt in his rookie season.

I just think people lack patience. I think its ridiculous to blame anyone for Kenny’s rookie year and IMO he is still looking much better than most rookie QB’s and the criticism by impatient fans is comedy.

He missed on a pass.. is it his tiny hands? His weak arm, his poor footwork?

Kenny throws a perfect pass..

haters: “I still haven’t seen a pass that makes me go wow!”

[flippy]

I’m the biggest KP fan on the board and this is ridiculous.

Imagine blaming Tomlin for Warren and Najee fumbling because they stressed not fumbling?

All coaches stress not turning the ball over. That doesn’t mean you can’t throw the ball to your players. You really think Tomlin would be upset if Kenny threw 4 TD’s into tight windows?

I’m the biggest Kenny fan on this board but no way do I blame Tomlin for his bad throws. Same with Mitch. See how Mitch played when he came in vs the Bucs? He played like a man that wants his job back. Its not the coaches fault if you are so scared you can’t make good throws and obviously I don’t believe this to be the case with either QB.

Where I blame Tomlin is lack of reps with the 1’s. If you were thinking about needed a spark why the hell didn’t you give KP some reps during those 10 days?

But blaming coaches for the decisions a QB makes like they are being controlled with joysticks is a serious reach.

and why can it just be that KP is a rookie who was thrown into the fire during the hardest part of our schedule?

We scored 20 points AT HALF TIME and you are still trying to blame Tomlin for holding Kenny back.

You were even in the game thread blaming players for dropping passes while others tried to blame Kenny for making the wrong read.

Of course people are going to question what’s wrong because Kenny doesn’t look like his last year at Pitt in his rookie season.

I just think people lack patience. I think its ridiculous to blame anyone for Kenny’s rookie year and IMO he is still looking much better than most rookie QB’s and the criticism by impatient fans is comedy.

He missed on a pass.. is it his tiny hands? His weak arm, his poor footwork?

Kenny throws a perfect pass..

haters: “I still haven’t seen a pass that makes me go wow!”

You of all people should remember how frustrating KP was early in his Pitt career at times.

It took a while but there was an eventual switch that flipped for him.

I think having gone thru the Pitt roller coaster with him helps me see him thru a different lens than I would see most rookies. Knowing what he became at Pitt, I still see a lot of that foundation to build upon that’s positive and the mistakes are just dealing with a new level of game speed and decision making imho. I’m not seeing things he can’t overcome and it’s really not so bad.

Where I do think the struggle for some is in looking at his play is trying to compare him to Ben. He’s not Ben. Nothing like him at all really.

And I don’t even think Tomlin/Canada are fudging him up like most seem to think. I think they’re trying to ease him along slowly and find that right fine line between making plays and not making mistakes.

There are flashes of good and there are struggles. But none of this has lowered my expectations for him so far.

[Sword]

To the posters thread. responsibility absolutely falls on the Head Coach first....

[TheRealTazz864]

If only someone had called out Teryl Austin while everybody was lookin' at the low-hangin' fruit, Canada....
SMH... Being a genius is a curse...

[NorthCoast]

FYI, Football Outsiders has the PIT defensive line ranked #10. Where the problem is; 'second level' (i.e. ILB) defense where they are ranked #15. Need ILB upgrade. Overall, the defense is ranked #14.

But here's something interesting; F.O. has a new metric called 'Variance' which is a measure of how much the DVOA (their ranking method) varies from week to week. The defense variance? Ranked 32nd, meaning the defense is wildly varying from game to game. Now, you might expect that with a young team (which the defense is not) but it could also be an indicator of injuries to key players. In either case it makes it really hard to focus one particular thing to correct.

[WindyCitySteel]

I’m the biggest KP fan on the board and this is ridiculous.

Imagine blaming Tomlin for Warren and Najee fumbling because they stressed not fumbling?

All coaches stress not turning the ball over. That doesn’t mean you can’t throw the ball to your players. You really think Tomlin would be upset if Kenny threw 4 TD’s into tight windows?

You're a bigger fan of Tomlin than you are of Kenny, which is why you defend him at any cost. In the NO game you could see Kenny double-clutching and taking sacks in the red zone, he said after he wasn't 100% sure and didn't want to risk turning the ball over and settled for 3. That's Tomlin's philosophy to a T. That's Alex Smith ball. If that's the ceiling you want out of Kenny, he was a wasted pick.

But it's more than just being in KP's head, it's also the design of the offense, with so much short and to the boundaries, no chances of splash/chunk plays, especially with the D sitting on them. And if a ball gets tipped or bounces off a receiver's hands in traffic, there's that much more chance of an INT, which we've seen.

And again, it goes back years. When Ben would fire a 1-yard pass on 3rd and 7 and then turn to the sideline saying WTF with his arms raised, who do you think he was talking to?

Tomlin is an offensive dullard and needs to stay out of that side of the building.

[T.Ferguson]

FYI, Football Outsiders has the PIT defensive line ranked #10. Where the problem is; 'second level' (i.e. ILB) defense where they are ranked #15. Need ILB upgrade. Overall, the defense is ranked #14.

But here's something interesting; F.O. has a new metric called 'Variance' which is a measure of how much the DVOA (their ranking method) varies from week to week. The defense variance? Ranked 32nd, meaning the defense is wildly varying from game to game. Now, you might expect that with a young team (which the defense is not) but it could also be an indicator of injuries to key players. In either case it makes it really hard to focus one particular thing to correct.

I think part of that is how inconsistent the Steelers defense is in general. How many times have the Steelers in recent years scored a TD only to allow the opposing team to easily march down for an answering score? Either TD or FG, it feels like it happens all the time. It's partly because the opposing offense generally goes into a more aggressive play calling mode to counter the score and often times it feels like the Steelers defense goes more soft in these situations.

[NorthCoast]

I think part of that is how inconsistent the Steelers defense is in general. How many times have the Steelers in recent years scored a TD only to allow the opposing team to easily march down for an answering score? Either TD or FG, it feels like it happens all the time. It's partly because the opposing offense generally goes into a more aggressive play calling mode to counter the score and often times it feels like the Steelers defense goes more soft in these situations.

Better in-game adjustments by opponents?

[WindyCitySteel]

I think part of that is how inconsistent the Steelers defense is in general. How many times have the Steelers in recent years scored a TD only to allow the opposing team to easily march down for an answering score? Either TD or FG, it feels like it happens all the time. It's partly because the opposing offense generally goes into a more aggressive play calling mode to counter the score and often times it feels like the Steelers defense goes more soft in these situations.

Better in-game adjustments by opponents?

I notice on a lot of the easy drives they surrender that there is no 90 or 97 on the field, and they just don't have enough depth.

[NorthCoast]

I notice on a lot of the easy drives they surrender that there is no 90 or 97 on the field, and they just don't have enough depth.

Hmmm... so when the highest paid players leave the field and the lowest paid are asked to make plays it's a fail.

[T.Ferguson]

Better in-game adjustments by opponents?

Halftime adjustments definitely favor opposing teams, Steelers coaching staff doesn't seem to believe in adjustments let's be honest here. Or if there are adjustments it's for the worst, see second half of last week's game for the offense.

My whole read of the situation is Tomlin and the defensive staff struggles when teams are desperate for points and/or are aggressively trying to score which is why Tomlin wants low scoring games, it's almost like he doesn't want the Steelers offense scoring a lot of points because of what happens on the other side of the ball when that does happen. This is also why sometimes the defense looks really solid and then looks really bad, even in the same game.

[Sword]

Halftime adjustments definitely favor opposing teams, Steelers coaching staff doesn't seem to believe in adjustments let's be honest here. Or if there are adjustments it's for the worst, see second half of last week's game for the offense.

My whole read of the situation is Tomlin and the defensive staff struggles when teams are desperate for points and/or are aggressively trying to score which is why Tomlin wants low scoring games, it's almost like he doesn't want the Steelers offense scoring a lot of points because of what happens on the other side of the ball when that does happen. This is also why sometimes the defense looks really solid and then looks really bad, even in the same game.

This ^^^^ exactly what I think…..

[BURGH86STEEL]

This ^^^^ exactly what I think…..

Can any fan prove this to be the case? Not think but evidenced based.

[Buzz]

Can any fan prove this to be the case? Not think but evidenced based.

Can any fan prove that it isn't?

[crushedspirit]

The Steelers are the worst team in the league as games go on.