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Steelers Defense......What Happened to our STEEL CURTAIN?

Booted said:
The days of defenses putting the fear of God into the other team are gone. Sure we need to play fundamentally better, a lot better but no team fears defense anymore. Goodell made sure of that. No more bone crushing hits to make receivers think twice about going up for the ball. So, if you can't dominate physically, like we used to be able to do, you need to play more soundly. Tomlin/the players ....not getting it done.
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Hell I’m fine with no longer putting the fear in other teams.. I’ll just settle for marginally competent


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The defense slipped the last few years of Lebeau but that was mainly due to lack of talent. There was no pass rush and a secondary made up of late round picks and journeyman free agents.

Now it's different. Dupree has talent. So does Burns, Davis, Watt, Heyward, and Tuitt. Hilton is a good slot CB. That right there is more talent than many teams are working with and their defenses aren't routinely getting lit up.

The Pats have garbage on defense. Their defense is not great but it is generally good enough to win games. They at least make the offense work for points by driving the field or making great plays. Basically, the pats play competent defense simply by having 11 guys do their assignment on each play. You may be able to beat them on a play but they don't just give it to you.

I'm am so sick of watching this defense giving up big play after big play on blown assignments. That's on coaching. You give some slack to a rookie like Edmunds, but we have veterans who make mistakes all the time.

Right now, Watt, Tuitt and Heyward are the only 3 players i trust at all.
 
Ryan Shazier was the glue that held this average/below average defense together. And what did they do after they seen the inpact of losing him? They tried to half *** patch the position.
 
Coryea said:
TJ would make the team, no one said anything about starting, but I agree, he has the hustle and grit

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He would have to beat out better players like Dirt Winston, Loren Toeews and Robin Cole . Sorry these players proved they were winners on the best defense of all time, Watt is a good player on the worst Steeler defense of al time.
 
Who's primarily responsible for this shitshow? Well, by all accounts that would be Defensive Coordinator Keith Butler.

If Tomlin fired Butler today, who would he replace him with? John Mitchell? Porter or Olsavsky? Tom Bradley's run defenses in college, maybe he's up to the task? Someone from outside the org?

Watching these past few games and going back to that pathetic loss to the Jags, it seems something significant needs to be done. Something significant and cathartic that jump starts this defense.
 
Tibs said:
Who's primarily responsible for this shitshow? Well, by all accounts that would be Defensive Coordinator Keith Butler.

If Tomlin fired Butler today, who would he replace him with? John Mitchell? Porter or Olsavsky? Tom Bradley's run defenses in college, maybe he's up to the task? Someone from outside the org?

Watching these past few games and going back to that pathetic loss to the Jags, it seems something significant needs to be done. Something significant and cathartic that jump starts this defense.
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Yes! A big shake up needs to happen on defense.

Two or three players making splash plays are not going to get it done.
I don't even think it's necessarily a talent issue. It's a fundamental and mental issue with the defense.

Smarter and simple playing on the field would do this team and defense wonders.
It's blatantly obvious that the message from Butler and/or Tomlin is not getting across.
 
MTC said:
Yes! A big shake up needs to happen on defense.
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My vote goes for firing Butler and promoting Tom Bradley to the job. He is the only 'outsider' that hasn't come up with Tomlin and the other coaches. I'd give him full autonomy to build this defense to his liking, presumably simplying the schemes so they're not running on and off the field in between plays like crazed chickens. Bradley was DC at Penn State and UCLA and also Asst. Head coach at West Virginia and interim HC at Penn State. It's time for a change. If not Bradley, then find someone else and bring him in. Butler is done, imo. Whatever 'hybrid' system he's concocted, with all the moving parts and constantly changing personel is simply not working.

The only problem with Bradley is the secondary has sucked balls. Would be kind of odd to give him a promotion at this stage. Having said that, I think this D sucks due to the scheme and coaching coming from top down, so maybe Bradley still deserves a shot.
 
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Tibs said:
My vote goes for firing Butler and promoting Tom Bradley to the job. He is the only 'outsider' that hasn't come up with Tomlin and the other coaches. I'd give him full autonomy to build this defense to his liking, presumably simplying the schemes so they're not running on and off the field in between plays like crazed chickens. Bradley was DC at Penn State and UCLA and also Asst. Head coach at West Virginia and interim HC at Penn State. It's time for a change. If not Bradley, then find someone else and bring him in. Butler is done, imo. Whatever 'hybrid' system he's concocted, with all the moving parts and constantly changing personel is simply not working.

The only problem with Bradley is the secondary has sucked balls. Would be kind of odd to give him a promotion at this stage. Having said that, I think this D sucks due to the scheme and coaching coming from top down, so maybe Bradley still deserves a shot.
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That's fine, bur Tomlin is running the defense.

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Coryea said:
That's fine, bur Tomlin is running the defense.
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Well then Rooney/Colbert should demand Tomlin replace Butler with a DC that can run the defense on his own. Whatever Tomlin/Butler have going on is clearly not working.
 
Tibs said:
My vote goes for firing Butler and promoting Tom Bradley to the job. He is the only 'outsider' that hasn't come up with Tomlin and the other coaches. I'd give him full autonomy to build this defense to his liking, presumably simplying the schemes so they're not running on and off the field in between plays like crazed chickens. Bradley was DC at Penn State and UCLA and also Asst. Head coach at West Virginia and interim HC at Penn State. It's time for a change. If not Bradley, then find someone else and bring him in. Butler is done, imo. Whatever 'hybrid' system he's concocted, with all the moving parts and constantly changing personel is simply not working.

The only problem with Bradley is the secondary has sucked balls. Would be kind of odd to give him a promotion at this stage. Having said that, I think this D sucks due to the scheme and coaching coming from top down, so maybe Bradley still deserves a shot.
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The secondary is arguably the weakest position on the team. I am not sure Bradley would be my first option.I think I would be looking outside of the team.
 
For years we've heard how complicated the Steelers defense is. We've heard players repeatedly use the 'miscommunication" excuse to explain complete coverage breakdowns.

Just how confusing can our defense be since the opposing teams have no trouble figuring it out on less than a week of preparation?

Butler/Tomlin have some talent on this defense. But they have done nothing with that talent. Nothing.

This team is embarrassing to watch but nothing will change until the Rooneys have had enough. That likely won't change until we start seeing a lot more empty yellow seats at Hines.
 
I wish we had Gregg Williams. He's done nothing but make every team's D better than it was before he got there. He must be a bit of a dick bag since he moves around so much, but damn he can coach D.
 
butler and tomlin have to scrap this crap 2 DL formation, either use 3-3-5 4-2-5 or 3-4-4 where you take bostic out and have Davis as a ilb and Edmunds at the SS spot.
cant hurt to try using Dupree as a de As well
 
maowv said:
For years we've heard how complicated the Steelers defense is. We've heard players repeatedly use the 'miscommunication" excuse to explain complete coverage breakdowns.

Just how confusing can our defense be since the opposing teams have no trouble figuring it out on less than a week of preparation?

Butler/Tomlin have some talent on this defense. But they have done nothing with that talent. Nothing.

This team is embarrassing to watch but nothing will change until the Rooneys have had enough. That likely won't change until we start seeing a lot more empty yellow seats at Hines.
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Maybe it was just the red shirts standing out on TV but was the visiting crowd pretty big for the first home game of the season? Looked like there were a lot of empty seats as well. Maybe some of the Steeler faithful knew it was going to be a long day and they put their seats up for sale but I have no idea what the mindset of the current crop of ticket holders is. I know if I had season tickets, I'd be damned if I'd sell them to anyone other than someone I know and they would be Steeler fans.
 
JMM said:
Maybe it was just the red shirts standing out on TV but was the visiting crowd pretty big for the first home game of the season? Looked like there were a lot of empty seats as well. Maybe some of the Steeler faithful knew it was going to be a long day and they put their seats up for sale but I have no idea what the mindset of the current crop of ticket holders is. I know if I had season tickets, I'd be damned if I'd sell them to anyone other than someone I know and they would be Steeler fans.
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Yeah, I would never sell tickets to an opposing fan. That's what traitors do.
 
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