Concerns Continue as Team Can’t Close Out Games
Steelers leading WR Hines Ward said it all about how teams come out to play the Steelers, and about how the team was able to hang on vs the Lions.
“A win is a win. That’s what this business comes down to,” Ward said. “When teams are playing the
Pittsburgh Steelers —we’re the defending champions — they’re going to give their best shot.”
Ward brings up a good point. Teams really do tend to turn it up a notch against the world champs, but I’m not sure how many fingernails I’ll have left if each week we have to sweat out wins like Sunday in Detroit.
The Steelers for the third straight week it seemed like dominated from quarters one to three. They were beating the Lions with what seemed like ease, then all the sudden needed three straight sacks to finally quiet the Lions on their last drive.
So what gives?
The defense seems to have been on the field a lot yesterday, and the fact they have allowed 45 points in the fourth quarter of the last three games says a lot. They are not getting time to relax, and it came out again when the team went 3-and-out on offense when they had a shot to put the game away up 28-20.
Even with that said though, maybe the team found a formula on Sunday. That of course is to blitz the heck out of QB’s until they can’t breathe. It worked against Daunte Culpepper, and trust me – it’ll work vs the Browns Derek Anderson this week too.
There’s still plenty to be concerned about, and the team will keep working hard to try and get the problems reduced, but for the last two weeks – at least they have come in wins instead of losses.
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This post has 4 comments
October 13th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
As if the defense didnt have enough problems, Aaron Smith may miss a lot of time. We all saw what the loss of Smith can do to this defense 2 seasons ago. Listen, it is almost impossible to go a whole season without a team suffering bIG injuries, but 5 games without Troy and who knows how long without Smith could be a disaster in waiting. Should they win Sunday(and they SHOULD) 4-2 is workable. We will get to see Hood play more and if Troy is back we can see if we can put to rest the secondary problems that have been blamed on his absence.The next 2-3 games are going to be very interesting.
October 13th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
I dont think by week 6 teams still play harder against the returning champs. They all have their own issues by now and theyre not gonna give it a little more because were the champs.
October 14th, 2009 at 9:41 am
What happens in the 4th Qtr, Matt, is the marshmallow ‘prevent’ defense. The Steelers have been trying to blitz, but they drop the LBs and corners too deep. Even a candy-arm QB can throw strikes under the zone. Then the receiver is one-on-one with our defender, who is forced to play catch-up because of the scheme. Our LBs are too slow to cover one on one, especially at the end of the game. Result: big YAC. Our blitzing plays right into this weakness of the ‘prevent,’ giving opposing QBs a defender-free zone of 10-15 yards. We must bring the defense up tight and force the QB to throw deep. A Grade A QB will occasionally hit a bomb if we do this, but the ‘prevent’ allows every mediocre QB to pad his stats and possibly pull out a victory with a quick drop, dink-and-dunk passing game. Our sacks are down this year because even our fastest guys can’t get to a QB using a 3-step drop and quick release. It is the antidote for the blitz. More teams are using it, especially late in the game, and LeBeau hasn’t caught up to the change.
On the other hand, only a few top QBs can throw the long bomb accurately with any consistency, and it takes more time to throw deep. If we take away the short routes, the QB must go long, allowing our blitzers more time to get to him. Most times, I’d rather take my chances against the long bomb than give up consistent yardage short.
Of course, right now, we have injured safeties, and LeBeau is trying to protect the less talented backup safeties by going zone and giving up the short completions. He obviously thinks the safeties can’t cover deep. And against a Grade A QB with tall receivers, he’s probably right. But against the Grade B QBs, I’d rather take my chances deep and tighten down on the short routes.
In short, Matt, blitzing alone won’t get it done.
October 14th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Dr.George your right on point once again