After Further Review Of Week 2.....

[StillCurtains]

Hello Steelersuniverse!!!

I'm new to this forum. I don't come here with the mindset that I'm right on every topic, and I respect all opinions that you may have. I was excited about the much needed win that we had this past Sunday. I truly hope that we can carry that type of intensity and tenacity through the rest of the season rather at home, or the road.

Yet and still, my main concern is the secondary. First at Safety: Who will be our starting SS ad the season progresses, Allen or Thomas? Secondly the Corners. I have seen some rave about how well Blake played in week 2. I just don't see it. Yes he's a tough physical hard tackler. It seems to me that Blake as well as our coaching staff, feel that this toughman persona is the only thing required to start this position.

Is it just me, but isn't EVERYONE on the defense supposed to know how to tackle? Kaepernick is not even close to being a top level quarterback. He had a pedestrian game vs Minnesota, but a career day vs the Steelers. It's not only the yards, but it's also the completion percentage that we give up against quarterbacks. He completed over 70% of his passes.

We have to stop making EVERY quarterback look like a Superbowl MVP! We can't blame having a big lead, because Brady did the same thing in week 1. We can't blame the pass rush because they were excellent in week 2 with 5 sacks!

Blake is not a starter. He's a practice squad player at best. He doesn't have coverage nor ball skills. There was a fade thrown at him in the endzone Sunday, and he was grabbing and was. CLEAR PI then he face guarded through the rest of the play. He can't play the ball.

Yes Boykin gave up a TD to Boldin, but Boldin made illegal contact on him, then he slipped. He was the only player in the secondary that made a play on the ball. That play was the pass breakup in the endzone vs Smith. Every hard hit more times than not, will not separate the receiver from the ball.

If that was Blake instead of Boykin in coverage on that endzone pass to Smith, it would have been a touchdown. It won't matter how hard you hit them, if the ball doesn't come out, it's still a touchdown.
I watched plenty of other games, and see corners getting the defense off the field on 3rd and 5 by breaking up the pass and at times interceptions.

It can be 3rd and 8 for us, but the only way our corners can get our defense off the field is making the tackle before the reach the yard sticks, and even that isn't a guarantee. Boykin is clearly the best corner we have and needs to start. Blake needs to go to the practice squad and have Dorin Grant take his spot on the 53.

I'm not saying that we need ALL WORLD corners, but is it too much to ask for our corners to make the occassional play on the ball, instead of making Glennon the rookie quarterback from Tampa Bay last year look like Joe Montana?

Is anyone with me on this? Please let me know.

[hawaiiansteeler]

nice first post! :thumbsup:

welcome to SU...:drink:

[fansince'76]

Welcome to the board! :drink:

Yes, our secondary is hot garbage and will be the primary cause of our season ending short of a Super Bowl if/when that happens. And it's a shame, because our offense is Super Bowl caliber.

[Count Steeler]

Welcome to the board. I think you are with the rest of Steeler Nation on the concerns about the secondary. That is not an issue that has surfaced this year. It has been a problem for a while now.

What can you do when our DC states in 2014 after the draft, whether by PR statement or actual belief, that our secondary did not need any help? You can't fix a problem if you don't acknowledge that it exists. With this year's draft, at least the Steelers started to address the problem. Sucks that the 2nd round pick is out due to injuries.

[86WARD]

Welcome and I'm with you brother!!

[polamalubeast]

It's early, but at least the run defense and the pass rush is better this year.

The secondary will be the big weakness of the Steelers this year too.

[Butch]

Welcome to the board and great 1st post.

Don't think there is a Steeler fan out there who isn't concerned about the D and the secondary in particular they are definitely our achilles heel. I am just hoping the pass rush and the offense can make up for their flaws. It will be interesting to watch the team this week with us playing a good team and the 1st game back for Bell.

[tube517]

Welcome!


We have to stop making EVERY quarterback look like a Superbowl MVP

Yes!

[Edman]

It's not exactly a secret that the Steelers biggest weakness is their secondary.



Is it just me, but isn't EVERYONE on the defense supposed to know how to tackle? Kaepernick is not even close to being a top level quarterback. He had a pedestrian game vs Minnesota, but a career day vs the Steelers. It's not only the yards, but it's also the completion percentage that we give up against quarterbacks. He completed over 70% of his passes.

Are you putting Tom Brady and Krappernick in the same sentence?

Another statistics Stanley who doesn't pay attention to games and the dynamics that played out in them.

Colin Krappernick is a terrible QB. Week 2 doesn't change anything. Where was his "career day" and "70% completion percentage" when the game was in the balance? The 49ers did absolutely NOTHING until the game was basically over.

Garbage time DOES play a big role. Many mediocre QB's use garbage time to pad their stats so they can create a better image for themselves and argument for why they deserve to get paid big time money, knowing that there are stat nuts out there who aren't football-savvy enough to know that the Quarterback actually sucks. Matt Stafford and Jay Cutler made a living off of stat padding, even though they are mediocre quarterbacks.

What seperates Tom Brady from the Krappernicks of the world is that Tom Brady did his damage throughout the game, not stat-padding in the 4th quarter in a blowout.

Just like last week against the Patriots. If you look at statistics, you might think Ben had a great game, but he didn't. No touchdown passes until the game was basically over. He did suck a lot in the Red Zone and threw a horrible interception when the Steelers actually had a chance, however.

I know the Steelers secondary isn't good, but statistics don't tell everything.

Oh, and welcome to the board.

[StillCurtains]

Appreciate your remarks but....

Ben DID have a good game vs the Pats. Yes the offense as a WHOLE struggled in the redzone. You have to keep in mind that we were in the Defending Superbowl Champs house for the opener short of all of our weapons.
Ben's pick vs the Pats was more to him tryng to make a play as we were running out of time.

The wind also carried Ben's pass allowing it to be picked. Ben didn't have a stat padding game. The Pats simply couldn't stop him. We lost to the Pats mostly due to playcalling and lack of redzone execution. We had the trick play to AB that crushed our momentum. We had the draw play call from 3rd and 6 in the redzone. We also continued to hand the ball to Johnson in the redzone when Williams was killing them.

You're right, Kaepernick does not belong in the same sentence as Brady, but here it is again because our secondary continues to make it possible with ANY quarterback. As much as some would like to believe, he did not have a stat padding game either. San Francisco's strategy was to use long sustained drives to keep our offense off the field in the first half. It failed due to their redzone struggles.

Kaepernick didn't have many attempts in the first half, but his completion percentage was still high.
Look at last year, Glennon and Brian Hoyer had career games against us. Those were not stat padding games.
Tannehill had a career day against us the last time we faced Miami. Our own backup quarterback Gradkowski, had a career day against us on a bad Oakland team.

All I'm trying to say is that there is a pattern here. You have nobody quarterbacks shredding our secondary with career 300 yard games and high completion percentages. I would just like to see our secondary break up or intecept a pass from time to time. The secondary's job is not only to tackle, but to DEFEND THE PASS!!!!


Thanks for your welcome to the board.

[polamalubeast]

Of course, our defense is not good, but without the 75-yard TD to Torrey Smith, Kaerpernick would have had 260 yards on 45 passes attempt, which is very good for a defense.

The completion % can be overrated sometimes.....Yards per attempt is often more important

For Ben against the Patriots, Roethlisberger had a good game, the problem was the playcalling in the red zone....The Steelers have only tried one pass in the end zone before the last drive.

[zulater]

Appreciate your remarks but....

Ben DID have a good game vs the Pats. Yes the offense as a WHOLE struggled in the redzone. You have to keep in mind that we were in the Defending Superbowl Champs house for the opener short of all of our weapons.
Ben's pick vs the Pats was more to him tryng to make a play as we were running out of time.

The wind also carried Ben's pass allowing it to be picked. Ben didn't have a stat padding game. The Pats simply couldn't stop him. We lost to the Pats mostly due to playcalling and lack of redzone execution. We had the trick play to AB that crushed our momentum. We had the draw play call from 3rd and 6 in the redzone. We also continued to hand the ball to Johnson in the redzone when Williams was killing them.

You're right, Kaepernick does not belong in the same sentence as Brady, but here it is again because our secondary continues to make it possible with ANY quarterback. As much as some would like to believe, he did not have a stat padding game either. San Francisco's strategy was to use long sustained drives to keep our offense off the field in the first half. It failed due to their redzone struggles.

Kaepernick didn't have many attempts in the first half, but his completion percentage was still high.
Look at last year, Glennon and Brian Hoyer had career games against us. Those were not stat padding games.
Tannehill had a career day against us the last time we faced Miami. Our own backup quarterback Gradkowski, had a career day against us on a bad Oakland team.

All I'm trying to say is that there is a pattern here. You have nobody quarterbacks shredding our secondary with career 300 yard games and high completion percentages. I would just like to see our secondary break up or intecept a pass from time to time. The secondary's job is not only to tackle, but to DEFEND THE PASS!!!!


Thanks for your welcome to the board.

Don't waste your keystrokes, you'll find anytime we lose Edman will always see it as being primarily Ben's fault. :chuckle:

Welcome to the board. :hatsoff:

Good first post. :salute:

- - - Updated - - -


Of course, our defense is not good, but without the 75-yard TD to Torrey Smith, Kaerpernick would have had 260 yards on 45 passes attempt, which is very good for a defense.

The completion % can be overrated sometimes.....Yards per attempt is often more important

For Ben against the Patriots, Roethlisberger had a good game, the problem was the playcalling in the red zone....The Steelers have only tried one pass in the end zone before the last drive.

That and DHB's inability to get his feet square on what should have been an easy TD going into the half. Even with the questionable play calling, give us the two missed fg's and the td as opposed to the fg going in to the half and that's 10 more points we take into the half. Give us what the offense earned and who knows how that game finishes out?

[fansince'76]

Kaepernick didn't have many attempts in the first half, but his completion percentage was still high.
Look at last year, Glennon and Brian Hoyer had career games against us. Those were not stat padding games.
Tannehill had a career day against us the last time we faced Miami. Our own backup quarterback Gradkowski, had a career day against us on a bad Oakland team.

All I'm trying to say is that there is a pattern here. You have nobody quarterbacks shredding our secondary with career 300 yard games and high completion percentages. I would just like to see our secondary break up or intecept a pass from time to time. The secondary's job is not only to tackle, but to DEFEND THE PASS!!!!
Agreed. I'm SO tired of the "tackle the catch!" mindset. Uh, how about preventing the catch to begin with from time to time?

Hoping it will eventually change under Butler...

[stillers4me]

Agreed. I'm SO tired of the "tackle the catch!" mindset. Uh, how about preventing the catch to begin with from time to time?

Hoping it will eventually change under Butler...

Ding ding ding! We have a winner!

[SteelerFanInStl]

Agreed. I'm SO tired of the "tackle the catch!" mindset. Uh, how about preventing the catch to begin with from time to time?

Hoping it will eventually change under Butler...

Yea, hate it. It seems to me that's all Blake is capable of.

[86WARD]

Agreed. I'm SO tired of the "tackle the catch!" mindset. Uh, how about preventing the catch to begin with from time to time?

Hoping it will eventually change under Butler...

Would be nice...right?

[TeeTee]

335 passing and 55 yards rushing is not a career day, plus they were down 29-3 in the first half, so they were playing desperate (i.e. throwing all the time) to try to catch up. Had it been a close game, Kap wouldn't have put up nearly as many yards in the air.

I agree our secondary is the weakest link on the team, but it's not pure garbage, or, at least, I think it can be good enough. No one ever brings up Gay when ripping on our DBs; he is not just garbage; the guy makes several good plays each game.

Face it, had we not buried them early, we would have given up far less passing yards. They were desperate. Often times when a team has much more passing yards than normal, it is because they are far behind to begin with. That was the case here. 9ers were the ones who looked like scorched earth from our passing game, not the other way around.

[StillCurtains]

335 passing and 55 yards rushing is not a career day, plus they were down 29-3 in the first half, so they were playing desperate (i.e. throwing all the time) to try to catch up. Had it been a close game, Kap wouldn't have put up nearly as many yards in the air.

I agree our secondary is the weakest link on the team, but it's not pure garbage, or, at least, I think it can be good enough. No one ever brings up Gay when ripping on our DBs; he is not just garbage; the guy makes several good plays each game.

Face it, had we not buried them early, we would have given up far less passing yards. They were desperate. Often times when a team has much more passing yards than normal, it is because they are far behind to begin with. That was the case here. 9ers were the ones who looked like scorched earth from our passing game, not the other way around.


Sorry but that's just not true. I do agree about Gay, but Gay should play in the slot where he excels. He doesn't have the speed to play outside. Blake has no business on the field unless its special teams. If Cortez can get his mind together, then he should start on the left side. If not, Cockrell should start there. Then Boykin should start at the right side. They should move Blake to the practice squad and place Doran Grant on the 53. Grant played well in camp and also the preseason and has shown he's better than Blake.

Yes San Francisco was behind and had to throw more and the second half than they would have liked to. The whole point is, they were successful in doing so. I know you would like to believe that the secondary started to play soft after the big lead but that's not true. If the game were closer, they may have thrown the ball less, but still would have been efficient when they chose to. Before they blew the game open, the 49ers were succesful moving to our goaline.

What killed them was not scoring and the redzone, and the fumbles that helped our offense jump on them. To prove that it wasn't just Desparacy. that helped them throw for 335 in a blowout, check Tampa Bay's Glennon, who was a rookie at the time and got their first of 2 wins against us.

You also have Hoyer, who torched us in the comeback in our opener at Heinz last year as we held them off by three, then Hoyer torched us again in Cleveland in the second meeting. That's not being desparate. What that is would be opponents torching us in an area that they know we can't stop. This has gone on longer than I can remember.

[Craic]

Agreed. I'm SO tired of the "tackle the catch!" mindset. Uh, how about preventing the catch to begin with from time to time?

Hoping it will eventually change under Butler...

Yep.

But unfortunately, that's pretty much what we're going to get with zone coverage. Either pop the ball out of the guy's hands, or make sure you tackle him. At least for now.

If we can either get ball hawks in or our guys to start winning challenges for the ball, that might change, but I don't see it happening in the first half of this year for sure.

[StillCurtains]

So to all here at SU....

My point simply is this...
Announcers: Manziel 3rd & Goal from the Pittsburgh 5 yard line.
Announcers: Manziel throws to the ENDZONE, Blake makes the BIG HIT... TOUCHDOWN CLEVELAND!!!!

[Count Steeler]

So to all here at SU....

My point simply is this...
Announcers: Manziel 3rd & Goal from the Pittsburgh 5 yard line.
Announcers: Manziel throws to the ENDZONE, Blake makes the BIG HIT... TOUCHDOWN CLEVELAND!!!!

Need 2 things:

1. DC to change the paradigm that has become the Steelers secondary philosophy. Time to step it up Coach Lake.

2. The athletes that can play the positions. Not just athletically, but also intelligently. Here's looking at you Shamarko.

[BigBen2004]

Man, I personally don't believe the D is getting enough credit. Those two SF touchdowns were in absolute garbage time, when the game was out of reach. When it mattered, the defense shut them down. Completely. On top of that, they came out of halftime with a HUGE lead and continued to shut them down. That is until the fourth quarter when it was a destruction of SF. The 2014 team didn't do that. They got comfortable with big leads and ended up letting the game get way too close, when there was time left to come back. They didn't allow that on Sunday.

On top of that; with what is shaping up to be a very stout D-Line and pass rush, it can mask the weaknesses of the secondary. If they can pressure the QB consistently, they won't have time to throw. And if they do throw, it'll result in turnovers.

Im not one to jump to conclusions so early in the season, but I think that this defense is good enough. With a little more time to work out kinks, they'll be a top 10-15 defense. Which is good enough with a #1 offense.
We'll see. If they can keep the momentum and beat an underwhelming Rams team this Sunday, I'll begin to believe this team is better than last year's.