Steelers’ defense embarrasses itself against Patriots*

[hawaiiansteeler]

Steelers’ defense embarrasses itself against Patriots

September 10, 2015
by Larry Brown

The NFL regular season began on Thursday night, but the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense was acting like it was still the preseason.

Pittsburgh’s defense committed a bevy of critical mistakes that one would not expect from an NFL team, much less a unit that typically ranks among the league’s best.

On the Patriots’ first touchdown of the game, the Steelers straight up neglected to cover Rob Gronkowski, as if leaving the league’s most potent red-zone threat all alone would not come back to bite them:

http://larrybrownsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/steelers-guard-rob-gronkowski.jpg

The next time the Patriots were down in the red zone, Pittsburgh said, “They already scored on us when we had 11 men on the field, let’s see if they can do it against 10!”

Of course New England scored a touchdown again.

Then in the fourth quarter they continued to have problems against Gronk. They often single-covered him with a linebacker and no safety help, allowing him to burn them.

Gronk finished with five catches for 94 yards and three touchdowns.

Former Ravens coach Brian Billick said it best:

Brian Billick ✔@CoachBillick

Can't recall a Pittsburgh defense this unorganized and undisciplined. Paging Dick LeBeau!

Dick LeBeau was the team’s defensive coordinator from 2004-2014, but the team let him go after last season since the defense had slipped for the second year in a row. Looks like they could still use some guidance from the 78-year-old.

to read rest of article:

http://larrybrownsports.com/football/steelers-defense-embarrassing-gronk-patriots/273389

[Shoes]

So did the TE coach

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13630481/pittsburgh-steelers-assistant-james-daniel-being-investigated-nfl-allegedly-assaulting-patriots-fan

[polamalubeast]

The lack of communication is a big problem......

[lipps83]

So did the TE coach

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13630481/pittsburgh-steelers-assistant-james-daniel-being-investigated-nfl-allegedly-assaulting-patriots-fan

If this is legit get him off the team. There is no reason whatsoever to do that to a fan. I can't stand Pats fans probably more than I can't stand the Pats, but that is uncalled for unless the fan initiated physical contact first. Other than that the fan only has words. If words hurt you that much that you need to physically attack than you are a weak human being and not worthy of working for the Steelers anyway.

[fansince'76]

Can't recall a Pittsburgh defense this unorganized and undisciplined. Paging Dick LeBeau!

Dick LeBeau was the team’s defensive coordinator from 2004-2014, but the team let him go after last season since the defense had slipped for the second year in a row. Looks like they could still use some guidance from the 78-year-old.

Yeah?

The defense allowed a (team record) 55 points against them back in '13 when LeBeau was still in charge.

Think about that a second - all those decades as the laughingstock of the league, and the Steelers had never allowed 55 points to be scored on them until then.

Just sayin'...

[polamalubeast]

Yeah?

The defense allowed a (team record) 55 points against them back in '13 when LeBeau was still in charge.

Think about that a second - all those decades as the laughingstock of the league, and the Steelers had never allowed 55 points to be scored on them until then.

Just sayin'...

It was the time Lebeau leaves, but I never saw the Steelers lacked communication in defense like yesterday or in pre-season under Lebeau.

[fansince'76]

It was the time Lebeau leaves, but I never saw the Steelers lacked communication in defense like yesterday or in pre-season under Lebeau.

Gronk ran around pretty much completely uncovered in 2013 too, except we also got shredded on the ground for almost 200 yards in that game to boot. Fail to see much of a difference. :noidea:

[katmandu]

It was the time Lebeau leaves, but I never saw the Steelers lacked communication in defense like yesterday or in pre-season under Lebeau.Ya know as bad as they played and as bad as all the pre-game press on the defense, we only lost by (7) Points. That in itself is remarkable!

I was quite shocked the Defense didn't get completely blown up by Brady. Only limiting him to (28) Points was something I never expected.

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Gronk ran around pretty much completely uncovered in 2013 too, except we also got shredded on the ground for almost 200 yards in that game to boot. Fail to see much of a difference. :noidea:What's the answer to shut down Gronk in the future ?

[polamalubeast]

Gronk ran around pretty much completely uncovered in 2013 too, except we also got shredded on the ground for almost 200 yards in that game to boot. Fail to see much of a difference. :noidea:

It was just one game.

This year, the Steelers have this problem since the pre-season and that's a big concern ....

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Ya know as bad as they played and as bad as all the pre-game press on the defense, we only lost by (7) Points. That in itself is remarkable!

I was quite shocked the Defense didn't get completely blown up by Brady. Only limiting him to (28) Points was something I never expected.


The Patriots have scored 4 TD in 6 drives before playing conservative ...

The Steelers offense missed too many opportunity for several reasons too

[TD's & Beer]

They sure figured out how to stop Gronk, huh? Schemes don't mean a thing without good players.


Steelers fail to jam Gronk at line of scrimmage, pay the price

http://espn.go.com/blog/pittsburgh-steelers/post/_/id/15214/rob-gronkowski-terrorizes-steelers-defense-with-three-touchdown-night

[steelreserve]

Yeah, our defense came out with a dumb game plan and looked bad doing it.

What killed us just as much as the mental mistakes was the number of mismatches we allowed ourselves to be drawn into. Seemed like almost every passing play, we had a linebacker trying to cover a slot receiver, with another linebacker for backup. So the receiver would make the catch behind one, easily run past the other, and then keep going until one of the DBs got to him. Then on the other side we'd cover a receiver with a DB who would back off 10 yards.

I don't know whether it was a matter of having the wrong personnel on the field or just poor adjustments in the seconds before the snap, but it's like we said "hey, we know you like to use a lot of quick, scripted throws to predetermined spots, so we're going to go ahead and make it easy for you."

Against the Patriots, the nickel needs to be your base defense except in short-yardage situations, and you should ALWAYS have at least one guy rushing unexpectedly instead of the plain-vanilla four-man rush that we love to show them. It's like every time we play this fucking team, we have a brain freeze and boot into safe mode.

[TeeTee]

It was the time Lebeau leaves, but I never saw the Steelers lacked communication in defense like yesterday or in pre-season under Lebeau.

And you never saw LeBeau with that young of a starting unit or that many younger players on the field, which is one of the reason why we didn't.

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They sure figured out how to stop Gronk, huh? Schemes don't mean a thing without good players.


Steelers fail to jam Gronk at line of scrimmage, pay the price

http://espn.go.com/blog/pittsburgh-steelers/post/_/id/15214/rob-gronkowski-terrorizes-steelers-defense-with-three-touchdown-night

I wonder how they feel about talking cocky about stopping Gronk now? I wonder if I had a valid point after all?

[hawaiiansteeler]

how they graded out defensively last night (from Pro Football Focus):

Best:

McLendon +2.0
Mitchell +2.0
McCullers +1.4

Worst:

Golden -1.5
Blake -2.6
Timmons -3.6
Cortez -4.2

[Count Steeler]

Did they add a rule that players are not allow to tackle anymore? Let's start with the fundamentals.

[86WARD]

In a nutshell:

• Tackling was bad - would like to think that could improve, but it's been an ongoing problem.

• Communication - that can be worked on and that can eventually improve. That shouldn't be a problem next week or the coming weeks.

• The coordinator is new, the players are new, they are getting to know each other and the players are trying to get to know each other as well.

As bad as the defense was, I thought there were a few bright spots. Jarvis did some nice things, Dupree looked good except when he had to drop into coverage. They need work, but they weren't as terrible as I thought...

[Count Steeler]

Don't know what the big deal is about Gronk. When is the last time a Steeler defense was able to cover a TE going down a seam? I would say the last 10 years have been pretty consistent in this regard. Unfortunately, the rest of the field usually got covered. Last night just seemed like the secondary was allergic to receivers.

[smokin3000gt]

I'm not going to loose my just mind yet. It was only game 1 and I've seen TB hang more points on much better/experienced defenses later in the season.

[Steelman]

how they graded out defensively last night (from Pro Football Focus):

Best:

McLendon +2.0
Mitchell +2.0
McCullers +1.4

Worst:

Golden -1.5
Blake -2.6
Timmons -3.6
Cortez -4.2

This one surprised me. Looked to me like that rookie center was owning him all night. I don't recall ever seeing the middle of the pocket collapse. Any pressure on Tom came from the edges. Maybe his run defense was OK?

[MrPgh]

The defense needs better players (like not sitting Boykin), but I really think the Steelers needed to go outside the organization for the next defensive coordinator. I think we're finding out why Butler was never a coordinator up to this point.

[Mojouw]

We are not the only team to get Gronked.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/G/GronRo00/gamelog//

Although we do see to be really good at it.

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The defense needs better players (like not sitting Boykin), but I really think the Steelers needed to go outside the organization for the next defensive coordinator. I think we're finding out why Butler was never a coordinator up to this point.

I can potentially agree with outside the organization for the next hire, but the second part is just totally false. I don't feel like Googling it, but Butler turned down at least 3 solid offers to be DC somewhere else over the years.

[MrPgh]

I can potentially agree with outside the organization for the next hire, but the second part is just totally false. I don't feel like Googling it, but Butler turned down at least 3 solid offers to be DC somewhere else over the years.

Are we sure it wasn't the other team turning down Butler? He must have some very low aspirations to wait all that time behind LeBeau.

[Mojouw]

Are we sure it wasn't the other team turning down Butler? He must have some very low aspirations to wait all that time behind LeBeau.

Positive. Butler has always wanted the Steelers job. His last contract even had a clause naming him the DC in waiting to prevent him from leaving for other NFL teams.

[Steeldude]

This mostly has to do with coaching.

[TeeTee]

The defense needs better players (like not sitting Boykin), but I really think the Steelers needed to go outside the organization for the next defensive coordinator. I think we're finding out why Butler was never a coordinator up to this point.

To be fair, he could have entertained DC offers and would have probably landed one, but chose to wait for the DC job in Pgh, and they even paid him more than a LB coach so he would stay until they pushed Dick out. That has been the story all along. I have no reason to question if it were true or not.

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Are we sure it wasn't the other team turning down Butler? He must have some very low aspirations to wait all that time behind LeBeau.

Or he really loves the Rooneys and the organization. I don't think KB even took interviews to other DC openings. Am I wrong?

[Count Steeler]

http://www.steelersdepot.com/2015/06/new-steelers-dc-keith-butler-explains-why-he-turned-down-previous-coaching-jobs/ (http://www.steelersdepot.com/2015/06/new-steelers-dc-keith-butler-explains-why-he-turned-down-previous-coaching-jobs/)


Butler turned down chances to become a defensive coordinator elsewhere, including Indianapolis the year Bruce Arians joined the Colts. The Steelers blocked a few others from hiring him. He revealed that his wife, Janet, wasn’t real happy with him one time when he decided to stay rather than accept another job without telling her first.
“She got mad at me because other people who were interested were going to pay a lot more money and all that stuff. I went ahead and said yeah [to the Steelers] without talking to her first.”

http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/steelers/2015/06/11/Keith-Butler-aims-to-put-his-stamp-on-Steelers-as-new-defensive-coordinator/stories/201506110186

[hawaiiansteeler]

Alex Kozora ‏@Alex_Kozora

Tom Brady is only the second QB ever to complete 75% of his passes and throw 4 TDs against the Steelers. Dan Marino in 1987 is the other.

https://twitter.com/Alex_Kozora

[Steeldude]

Alex Kozora ‏@Alex_Kozora

Tom Brady is only the second QB ever to complete 75% of his passes and throw 4 TDs against the Steelers. Dan Marino in 1987 is the other.

https://twitter.com/Alex_Kozora

But remember, pre-season is never an indicator for what could be. After all, Butler is hiding his secret plays for a later time : )

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http://www.steelersdepot.com/2015/06/new-steelers-dc-keith-butler-explains-why-he-turned-down-previous-coaching-jobs/ (http://www.steelersdepot.com/2015/06/new-steelers-dc-keith-butler-explains-why-he-turned-down-previous-coaching-jobs/)



http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/steelers/2015/06/11/Keith-Butler-aims-to-put-his-stamp-on-Steelers-as-new-defensive-coordinator/stories/201506110186

The day I need to talk to my wife about a job prospect is the day my balls are removed.

[steelcityboyz]

I'm not ready to write Butler off yet. But for Christ sake please let Boykin see some playing time..:crossed:

[Count Steeler]

I'm not ready to write Butler off yet. But for Christ sake please let Boykin see some playing time..:crossed:

If they are keeping him off the field to save a draft pick, WAKE UP!