StillCurtains
10-06-2015, 06:45 PM
Hello again Steeler Fans!
I'm aware that we have had MANY great Steeler defenses. Primarily the Steel Curtain Defense of the 70's. However, with the rule changes that exist in this league starting with those defenses with "The Mel Blount Rule", they were forced to adjust. The way Noll adjusted to this was simple, he looked to his offense! He intelligently knew that those same rules would also favor them offensively, with a rocket arm in Bradshaw, and two of the best WR's in the game in Swann and Stallworth. Noll took advantage of other defenses and went deep, knowing that the defense could no longer win by themselves.
I was too young to witness how good these teams were, but I've seen the flashes through their highlights, and knew what their philosophies were. Fastforward to Cowher's 1994 Defense. This defense is the greatest defense I've witnessed in my time. It was outright NASTY led by Dom Capers the defensive coordinator. Yes, he adopted some of Lebeau's zone blitz concepts who was also on the defensive staff, but Capers had his own twist to it. This was a NASTY, INTIMIDATING, PHYSICAL, BALLHAWKING, AGGRESSIVE STYLE defense.
It was FAR from bend but don't break. Capers had a mixture of man, zone, and off coverages that kept offenses off balance. The plethora of blitzes were amazing as he blitzed all 11. They were young, fast, and attacked. The very best offenses quaked in fear as soon as they stepped on the field. We had the best front 7 in the game, the best pass rush in the game, and also the best secondary in the game.
They were high in sacks, you couldn't run, and you couldn't throw into our secondary. They were a turnover machine in both fumbles and interceptions. This defense was miles better than the 2008 version. The 2008 team led in yards and points allowed, but the true reason was the amount of possessions there were against the 94 Team. Their turnovers and stops gave more possessions to opponents as well as their pedestrian offense.
With Lebeau, he kept his zone blits concepts, but added his twist with Tackle the Catch, forcing teams to be patient with short passes with long sustained drives. The problem is this gives up points allowing teams to get in field goal range easily. It doesn't create many turnovers unless you have a great front seven to cause strip sacks and fumbles or errant throws to the secondary. The corner position's only job is to tackle in run support, and not let plays get behind them.
Troy was truly the only constant player to make plays on the ball in the secondary due to his disguising, and it showed when he wasn't on the field. Taylor was a good corner, but could not be depended on to get a turnover. Townsend and Gay are serviceable, but you could never leave them to cover top level WR's. Let's be realistic.
The problem is that time has changed from this concept, and Lebeau refused to derive from it. You can say his talent dropped off, not true, Lebeau had some say in the players that he wanted to draft. In most cases he would not give the drafted players playing time to develop unless injury or the staff finally pulling the plug on older players.
Well the players don't know the defense? Well it's your job to simplify it to help your players be successful. If his defense is so complicated, it really hasn't been hard for even pedestrian QB's to pick it apart, not even with his best defensive units. Like I said, the league has changed drastically since 2008. Instead of 3,000 yard passers, you are now having 5,000 yard passers. You can no longer use fundementally sound tackling corners to just have tackling abilities. You now need to have some corners with coverage and ball skill abilities.
Some of the aguement is look how many Superbowls Lebeau has won for us! Well firstly as I said, times have changed. You can also look at those Superbowls to see that change of philosophy was progressively evident. Superbowl 40, quick releases to neutralize the pass rush, while allowing receivers to gain yards after the catch was the game plan. The Seahawks shredded this secondary. They Seahawks lost this game simply by shhoting themselves in the foot by boneheaded penalties, but not by the Steeler's defense.
Superbowl 43, Arizona started off trying to run the ball and throwing passes to their backs in the flat. They really didn't challenge the secondary in the first half. Kurt Warner was upset stating that it is not the way you attack their defense. This was the number one defense in the league mind you! The second half, Arizona used Seattle's game plan and took the lead. If they use that game plan from the beginning, we lose.
Superbowl 45, Green Bay used the SAME game plan as Seattle did and Arizona did in the second half. The reason they won is because they did not shoot themselves in the foot with boneheaded penalties as Seattle did, and they used the same game plan as Seattle for the WHOLE game as opposed to Arizona for one half.
You can easily see the downward trend that Lebeau refused to consider. Just 2 years ago he said he was comfortable with what we had in the secondary which made us go the direction we have. Again, talent is not an excuse as he had say in the picks.
You can't state that Lebeau won those Superbowls. That's far from the truth. Cowher had many top defensive units and didn't get it done. The TRUE reason that we won those Superbowls is strictly BEN ROETHLISBERGER. He was the element that was missing for many of those 90's and early 2000's Cowher teams and Lebeau would not have had 2 without him either.
So my hope is that Butler trends more towards the 1994 Style defense and leave the tackle the catch, bend but don't break approach alone. Because if you build and mold your defense in the mold of the 1994 Defense, that is absolute dangerous element to add with Roethlisberger.
I'm aware that we have had MANY great Steeler defenses. Primarily the Steel Curtain Defense of the 70's. However, with the rule changes that exist in this league starting with those defenses with "The Mel Blount Rule", they were forced to adjust. The way Noll adjusted to this was simple, he looked to his offense! He intelligently knew that those same rules would also favor them offensively, with a rocket arm in Bradshaw, and two of the best WR's in the game in Swann and Stallworth. Noll took advantage of other defenses and went deep, knowing that the defense could no longer win by themselves.
I was too young to witness how good these teams were, but I've seen the flashes through their highlights, and knew what their philosophies were. Fastforward to Cowher's 1994 Defense. This defense is the greatest defense I've witnessed in my time. It was outright NASTY led by Dom Capers the defensive coordinator. Yes, he adopted some of Lebeau's zone blitz concepts who was also on the defensive staff, but Capers had his own twist to it. This was a NASTY, INTIMIDATING, PHYSICAL, BALLHAWKING, AGGRESSIVE STYLE defense.
It was FAR from bend but don't break. Capers had a mixture of man, zone, and off coverages that kept offenses off balance. The plethora of blitzes were amazing as he blitzed all 11. They were young, fast, and attacked. The very best offenses quaked in fear as soon as they stepped on the field. We had the best front 7 in the game, the best pass rush in the game, and also the best secondary in the game.
They were high in sacks, you couldn't run, and you couldn't throw into our secondary. They were a turnover machine in both fumbles and interceptions. This defense was miles better than the 2008 version. The 2008 team led in yards and points allowed, but the true reason was the amount of possessions there were against the 94 Team. Their turnovers and stops gave more possessions to opponents as well as their pedestrian offense.
With Lebeau, he kept his zone blits concepts, but added his twist with Tackle the Catch, forcing teams to be patient with short passes with long sustained drives. The problem is this gives up points allowing teams to get in field goal range easily. It doesn't create many turnovers unless you have a great front seven to cause strip sacks and fumbles or errant throws to the secondary. The corner position's only job is to tackle in run support, and not let plays get behind them.
Troy was truly the only constant player to make plays on the ball in the secondary due to his disguising, and it showed when he wasn't on the field. Taylor was a good corner, but could not be depended on to get a turnover. Townsend and Gay are serviceable, but you could never leave them to cover top level WR's. Let's be realistic.
The problem is that time has changed from this concept, and Lebeau refused to derive from it. You can say his talent dropped off, not true, Lebeau had some say in the players that he wanted to draft. In most cases he would not give the drafted players playing time to develop unless injury or the staff finally pulling the plug on older players.
Well the players don't know the defense? Well it's your job to simplify it to help your players be successful. If his defense is so complicated, it really hasn't been hard for even pedestrian QB's to pick it apart, not even with his best defensive units. Like I said, the league has changed drastically since 2008. Instead of 3,000 yard passers, you are now having 5,000 yard passers. You can no longer use fundementally sound tackling corners to just have tackling abilities. You now need to have some corners with coverage and ball skill abilities.
Some of the aguement is look how many Superbowls Lebeau has won for us! Well firstly as I said, times have changed. You can also look at those Superbowls to see that change of philosophy was progressively evident. Superbowl 40, quick releases to neutralize the pass rush, while allowing receivers to gain yards after the catch was the game plan. The Seahawks shredded this secondary. They Seahawks lost this game simply by shhoting themselves in the foot by boneheaded penalties, but not by the Steeler's defense.
Superbowl 43, Arizona started off trying to run the ball and throwing passes to their backs in the flat. They really didn't challenge the secondary in the first half. Kurt Warner was upset stating that it is not the way you attack their defense. This was the number one defense in the league mind you! The second half, Arizona used Seattle's game plan and took the lead. If they use that game plan from the beginning, we lose.
Superbowl 45, Green Bay used the SAME game plan as Seattle did and Arizona did in the second half. The reason they won is because they did not shoot themselves in the foot with boneheaded penalties as Seattle did, and they used the same game plan as Seattle for the WHOLE game as opposed to Arizona for one half.
You can easily see the downward trend that Lebeau refused to consider. Just 2 years ago he said he was comfortable with what we had in the secondary which made us go the direction we have. Again, talent is not an excuse as he had say in the picks.
You can't state that Lebeau won those Superbowls. That's far from the truth. Cowher had many top defensive units and didn't get it done. The TRUE reason that we won those Superbowls is strictly BEN ROETHLISBERGER. He was the element that was missing for many of those 90's and early 2000's Cowher teams and Lebeau would not have had 2 without him either.
So my hope is that Butler trends more towards the 1994 Style defense and leave the tackle the catch, bend but don't break approach alone. Because if you build and mold your defense in the mold of the 1994 Defense, that is absolute dangerous element to add with Roethlisberger.