Right, but he's not going to miss wide open guys in man either. Why do people just assume that we could somehow magically cover those guys in man whenever the team a.) never plays it; and b.) clearly lacks talent in the secondary?
I know the Pittsburgh Sports Media won't do it but
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Right, but he's not going to miss wide open guys in man either. Why do people just assume that we could somehow magically cover those guys in man whenever the team a.) never plays it; and b.) clearly lacks talent in the secondary?
Because the pats weakness is those WR are not that talented. And if you play tight bump and run it gives the pass rushers a chance to get there. Play soft and even with a blitz you won't get there in time the ball will be out for a 6 or 7 yard gain. Eventually your pass rushers get tired and then you blitz and get caught in a big play. Houston, denver and baltimore have all given you the blue print to beating the pats. Play tight coverage and get pressure. Especially with Gronk out they don't have guys who are good at getting deep. I will take cockrell covering edleman on a deep route over a zone. You likely get beat a few times sure but you are going to get beat all game long in that zone.
I disagree. Brady is definitely a rhythm passer. My god, look at the time he had on that TD pass? You could have had Blount, Woodson, Shell, Polemalu, Darren Perry and Carnell Lake all in their primes in the Steeler DBackfield and Brady still would have found the open man for a TD. Way too much time.
Brady was comfortable. You have to get him uncomfortable. The "bend but don't break" does not work with him, he does not make bad passes or decisions if he is not under duress. So you give up a big play or 2, but you put Brady on his ass, on the ground. Again, look at the 3 times a Steeler came close to Brady. He turtled each time, cowered and ducked for cover. The cumulative affect of that could take his toll and cause Brady to not be comfortable and rush his decisions.
It just doesn't work against him.
You just aren't getting it. Not just you, more than half the people that gave participated in this thread are simply not getting it.
Look, I well understand that in a perfect world, for the most part, you are best served pressuring Brady and rerouting his receivers.
I get that – I promise you I get that part.
...But there's another side to this equation, guys and it is the hard part. It is also the part that you aren't quite grasping.
Believe me, I wish we had Aqib Talib and Chris Harris too. Hell, while we're playing fantasy football, I will take Von Miller too.
Alas, that is not our reality. Rather, our reality is a guy that wasn't good enough to make the freaking Indianapolis Colts, a safety the Raiders couldn't wait to get rid of when they were horrible, and a 38-year-old outside linebacker.
That's our reality. That's who we wanted to leave alone in the secondary with Patriots receivers who "aren't that good" but who somehow have been good enough to help lead that team to a 16 – 2 record.
So you can take the 90% here and the 80% here in the 73.4% here or whatever other fake statistics people want to throw out there and throw them in the trash because they are useless in this discussion if you are not factoring in the other side of the football.
They are only useful if you have the horses to execute what you are proposing. If you don't have said horses, you are making a clearly inexperienced and frankly, incomplete defense that much more vulnerable by repeatedly sending them on suicide missions.
I'm sorry but I'm COMPLETELY against that plan. Maybe you can mix it in occasionally – perhaps more than they did. However, running man coverage as your base coverage – when you never do it – against that particular quarterback is honestly among the craziest suggestions I've ever heard in my life.
Again, please do not misconstrue this as a passionate defense of Keith Butler or Mike Tomlin because that is not my intent. I'm trying to carry this conversation beyond the stupid-ass surface level and point out that we CLEARLY lack talent in our secondary and every single remotely sophisticated Steelers fan on the planet had to have known that going into the season, much less at playoff time.
That's why we drafted defensive backs with our first two picks and that's also why they are both starting as rookies!
Nobody wants to start rookies and you definitely don't want to be starting three and four at a time. However, you do what you have to do and we are so bad back there that we had no alternative but to take the cookies out of the oven before they were baked.
And guess what, guys? We're going to take another defensive back in the first couple rounds of this year's draft too. We have no choice. We're probably going to use our first round draft choice on a safety or on another corner – likely depending on what they really think they have in Senquez Golson, a high round pick from two years ago that has been injured in each of us first to professional seasons.
The Steelers have struggled against every good quarterback they have faced this year. You all saw that, right? Yesterday couldn't have been that much of a shock to you, was it?
I'm just going to exit this endless debate by saying this: It is my sincere belief that this defense – which features seven out of 11 starters that are under the age of 25 – is going to be very, very good. It's best football is definitely still ahead of it.
However, for now, it is very young and very raw all over the field. We did not find that out yesterday, we have known that all season long. Yesterday was just the latest and most graphic reminder of our inexperience and talent deficiencies on our back end.
I don't agree that mass blitzing Tom Brady would have been a wise decision. I do not believe that our defensive backs could've even come close to containing their receivers and I think we would've gotten blown out worse than we did. Other people are free to disagree with me but that does not change my mind at all.
Now, onto the draft and let's go get a safety that can actually cover people, an actual starting caliber NFL corner to play opposite Artie Burns, and maybe let's add a pass rusher to eventually replace the Silverback.
That's not asking for too much from one draft, is it? Three more rookie starters on the defensive side of the football – happens all the time.
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Are you really being serious Doc? You are nuts man, c'mon get real. Before the game Brady had thrown 19 TD's and 0 picks against that "bend do not break" defense. I can't believe you can't see this.
No, what I meant to write was that we should've blitzed on every down and pressured Brady up the middle because Brady doesn't like to get hit and has no idea how to attack a blitz.
I understand that he's going to the Hall of Fame but that's mostly because everyone he plays against doesn't know that you just have to blitz him up the middle and play press man coverage and voila! He's yours for the taking. Someone needs to tell all of those NFL defensive coordinators the news and how incredibly simple stopping Brady really is if you just stop and think about it for a second.
Our deep, talented and experienced secondary would have easily contained their receivers and likely forced all kinds of turnovers because the Patriots' receivers are not that good, and by "not that good" I mean white.
I understand that he's going to the Hall of Fame but that's mostly because everyone he plays against doesn't know that you just have to blitz him up the middle and play press man coverage and voila! He's yours for the taking. Someone needs to tell all of those NFL defensive coordinators the news and how incredibly simple stopping Brady really is if you just stop and think about it for a second.
Our deep, talented and experienced secondary would have easily contained their receivers and likely forced all kinds of turnovers because the Patriots' receivers are not that good, and by "not that good" I mean white.
We had two sacks and rushed him 4 times. The only team (Seahawks) to beat Brady this year had two sacks and rushed him 5 times. We had almost as much pressure as they did by playing "passively". Brady is just on another level and it does not matter how you defend against him, he will pick you apart.
You are being very revolutionary in your analysis - how else to account for the seeming novelty of thinking that coaches would actually tailor their strategies based on the skills and talents of the players that they have. I don't follow the Steelers closely enough to evaluate their defensive strategy, but your points make complete sense.
7 of those 34 were a kickoff return, not against the defense.
And Brock Osweiler turned it over three times, 2 of them deep in his own zone.
Brady threw for under 50% and had two picks.
You have to look at more than just the score.
brady was great but i have never seen receivers so wide open
yeah the scheme sucked but those guys just can't cover well, they were exposed last night because it was the first time the steelers played a good quarterback since early november and that was rookie dak prescott
yeah the scheme sucked but those guys just can't cover well, they were exposed last night because it was the first time the steelers played a good quarterback since early november and that was rookie dak prescott
