Shazier-led Steelers defense digs in during long 49ers drives

[stillers4me]

The San Francisco 49ers didn't appear flustered after the Steelers took an early 8-0 lead in the first quarter Sunday. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick marched the offense methodically downfield, setting up first-and-goal at the 10.


The Steelers were in a similar spot at New England in the season opener, and their collective knees buckled.


This time, the defense counter-punched...............



Read more: http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/9116369-74/kaepernick-defense-steelers#ixzz3mMuOfmLD

[TD's & Beer]

Shazier was a GOD!

He took over that game defensively

[Mojouw]

I said last week that this defense's biggest problem was the lack of an impact player/identity.

Ryan Shazier is the new Polamalu. Be interesting to see if Butler builds the gameplan around him the way that Lebeau did for Troy.

[86WARD]

Hopefully he stays healthy. If rather they not build around him as the focal point. When they did that with Troy, the defense was a mess without him...

[fansince'76]

I'd rather they not build around him as the focal point. When they did that with Troy, the defense was a mess without him...

:iagree:

See: 2nd half of 2009 season...

[Edman]

:iagree:

See: 2nd half of 2009 season...

Don't remind me. The Steelers Defense was horrendous without Troy, and it was painful to watch.

Or...Troy from 2011-2014. Bad enough we miss Shazier should he ever get hurt, we'll hate it when he plays for a long time and his skills diminish and becomes a liability. Is it a coincidence that the Lebeau Defense started to stumble off a cliff right around the exact same time Troy stopped being superhuman and wasn't the same impact player he was from 2004-2010?

That was the critical flaw with the Steelers D. When ONE player is what seperates a Defense from being great to barely average, that's not good.

Troy was the glue that made that Defense work and covered up a lot of weaknesses. I don't want that to happen to Shazier and Butler's Defense.

[Rotorhead]

They already are in a sense, the 2 DL and 5 LBs look (while used before sparingly) shows that Butler is game planning to the strengths of the team (LB's). They absolutely dominated in that look. Frankly I think they should go almost exclusively to that aside from goal line situations. Our top Def players are Tuitt, Heyward and out LB's. Want to confuse a QB? How about a front 7 who can all apply pressure and at least 4, maybe 5 that can cover as well? No way to tell who is rushing or covering pre-snap (aside from Tuitt and Heyward are not going to cover).

Besides, I will give up a few years of mediocrity to have several years of absolute domination. Would any of you trade Troy for any other player during his time here? I wouldn't.

[Mojouw]

I feel like we may have slipped the bonds of reality here...

So what we want is an 11 man all-pro filled defense so losing one player won't negatively impact performance? We also want a 35+ point per game offense. And we never want to be in cap trouble.

Did I get everything? C'mon those are mutually exclusive goals. The whole point of building around HOF players is that it allows you to de-prioritize certain position groups and shift those resources to other locations. How the hell does everyone think we afforded the Harrison-Farrior-Timmons-Woodley LB corps? The Steelers scrimped on DBs and OL. Hoped that Ben and Troy would make up for it.

I have no problem building a gameplan around Shazier if he proves to be a truly elite player. I wonder if the Texans are worried about building around JJ Watt? The Seahawks around Sherman? The Broncos around Von Miller? The Packers around Matthews?

[Steelman]

Don't remind me. The Steelers Defense was horrendous without Troy, and it was painful to watch.

Or...Troy from 2011-2014. Bad enough we miss Shazier should he ever get hurt, we'll hate it when he plays for a long time and his skills diminish and becomes a liability. Is it a coincidence that the Lebeau Defense started to stumble off a cliff right around the exact same time Troy stopped being superhuman and wasn't the same impact player he was from 2004-2010?

That was the critical flaw with the Steelers D. When ONE player is what seperates a Defense from being great to barely average, that's not good.

Troy was the glue that made that Defense work and covered up a lot of weaknesses. I don't want that to happen to Shazier and Butler's Defense.

Bbbbut Mr. Tomlin is all about the next man up. He feels good about the people he has on the team and has high expectations to that regard.

:tomlinism:

In all seriousness though, I'm probably wrong but I don't really see Shazier being that Troy-type player as far as the whole scheme being centered around him. Troy was a generational freak and LeBeau fashioned his whole game around Troy freelancing through the system which required system players to keep it level. (Aaron Smith, James Farrior, Ryan Clark, Ike Taylor) Not to take anything away from the really good players we had and what they were able to do, but they all had one thing in common: they played the system extremely well. I think that's why they were always able to overcome the whole "Steelers defense is ancient" stigma basically until Troy could no longer keep up, because while not being particularly fast or explosive, everyone knew what to do and how to do it. Once Troy slowed down and those really good system guys retired or moved, LeBeau wasn't able to replenish with similar players.

I'm seeing Heyward and Tuitt attacking a lot more than Smith and Keisel ever did which seems to indicate a less single-player-centric style of defense. I think it's too early to tell. But even if Shazier is the next Troy and becomes the scheme itself, hell yeah let's do it.

[fansince'76]

So what we want is an 11 man all-pro filled defense so losing one player won't negatively impact performance? We also want a 35+ point per game offense. And we never want to be in cap trouble.

Did I get everything?

Pretty much. :chuckle:

[TeeTee]

Hopefully he stays healthy. If rather they not build around him as the focal point. When they did that with Troy, the defense was a mess without him...

My thoughts exactly. And why? You don't need to build the plan around him, he is in the middle. Just let him play and he will create on his own. Stop the madness of trying to prove how smart you are. Just do what makes sense.