Steelers intent on returning to era of Blitzburgh

[polamalubeast]

Linebacker James Harrison has been around long enough to realize a great defense isn't built on paper.

“Right now, we'll see where we're at in the first game because many of us didn't play much in the preseason,” Harrison said. “We have an idea, but I feel like we haven't achieved anything yet because achievement isn't anything until you hold up the Lombardi (Trophy).”

The Steelers begin the regular season on “Monday Night Football” at Washington with what could be a prime-time defense. It's a young, seemingly talent-rich unit challenged mostly by its lofty expectations of rekindling the Blitzburgh era.

“I would call this defense complete because we have playmakers at every level,” linebacker Vince Williams said. “It's something you rarely see in the NFL today. We believe we have a great front four, so we'll let those guys go free, then mix it with some blitzes, as well. We have the personnel to do a multitude of things.”

The Steelers went to training camp with the idea of being more aggressive. The plan is to blitz more, but they also are convinced the front can apply pressure on its own.



read more

http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/11115241-74/defense-defensive-heyward

[Steeldude]

Linebacker James Harrison has been around long enough to realize a great defense isn't built on paper.

“Right now, we'll see where we're at in the first game because many of us didn't play much in the preseason,” Harrison said. “We have an idea, but I feel like we haven't achieved anything yet because achievement isn't anything until you hold up the Lombardi (Trophy).”

The Steelers begin the regular season on “Monday Night Football” at Washington with what could be a prime-time defense. It's a young, seemingly talent-rich unit challenged mostly by its lofty expectations of rekindling the Blitzburgh era.

“I would call this defense complete because we have playmakers at every level,” linebacker Vince Williams said. “It's something you rarely see in the NFL today. We believe we have a great front four, so we'll let those guys go free, then mix it with some blitzes, as well. We have the personnel to do a multitude of things.”

The Steelers went to training camp with the idea of being more aggressive. The plan is to blitz more, but they also are convinced the front can apply pressure on its own.



read more

http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/11115241-74/defense-defensive-heyward

If they want to return to Blitzburgh they will need better OLBs. Dupree is up in the air at the moment and Jones is....well Jones. Hopefully Chickillo will turn into a beast.

[86WARD]

If they want to return to Blitzburgh they will need better OLBs. Dupree is up in the air at the moment and Jones is....well Jones. Hopefully Chickillo will turn into a beast.

Was gonna say the exact same thing. I wish they returned to that era. That defense with this offense?!? Wow...

[Mojouw]

Actually, you may be able to go back to a version of bltizburgh w/out changing the OLBs.

Those early 1990's teams had great OLBs to be sure, but they were really causing a great deal of those sacks due to sending 5+ on an actual "blitz" (my #1 pet peeve is when an announcer calls a 4 man rush a blitz!) and often it was the unaccounted for guy that waltzed through unblocked.

What's my point? If Butler starts sending an extra guy from unexpected places and the collection of size/speed freaks the Steelers have collected on defense can stay assignment sound behind it - they could rack up the sacks even with not much at OLB.

[Bluecoat96]

I'm excited to see Heyward/Hargrave/Tuitt unleashed tonight. I think that'll be fun to watch.

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[tube517]

Slightly off topic but Shazier lined up at OLB on 100+ plays last year. I"m sure Butler has something dialed up where Shazier plays some "sneaky" 007/poker formations while Dupree is out.

[steelreserve]

Actually, you may be able to go back to a version of bltizburgh w/out changing the OLBs.

Those early 1990's teams had great OLBs to be sure, but they were really causing a great deal of those sacks due to sending 5+ on an actual "blitz" (my #1 pet peeve is when an announcer calls a 4 man rush a blitz!) and often it was the unaccounted for guy that waltzed through unblocked.

What's my point? If Butler starts sending an extra guy from unexpected places and the collection of size/speed freaks the Steelers have collected on defense can stay assignment sound behind it - they could rack up the sacks even with not much at OLB.


I think that's exactly right. When the defense was really good from about 2004-2011, there was a huge difference from year to year, and even game to game, just based on how aggressive the scheme was. Even though it was exactly the same guys.

Eight guys at the line, with three guys running up right before the snap while four others shift or drop back? Yeah, that confused the hell out of people and got a lot of pressure.

Three down linemen with one OLB all standing in place, everybody else spread out? "OK, here are the four guys rushing, go ahead and try to block them." "lol, OK we will." No pressure, no sacks.

I never understood that. "Crap, our defensive backs can't cover the receivers very well, so to compensate, we need to have our pass rushers sit back and fail to cover the receivers underneath." The equivalent of our 3rd-and-short offense from the same time period. One wide receiver, one running back - wonder what's coming? Parker up the middle, loss of 1 yard. Good job, guys.

Anyway, there's already a huge difference with Butler; we didn't come out in that flat-footed bullshit defense very much last year and it covered up a lot of our other shortcomings. Hopefully if we keep adding better players it'll coalesce into a defense that's actually one to fear.

[Rotorhead]

I think Butler will have a few things up his sleeve this season, including more Shazier involvement. Our DL will be dominant again which will help our OLB's. We are fine at Safety and Cockrell is fine on one side. So really depending on what they do with Burns, Gilbert and Gay our Def should be much improved over last season. Next Draft we need to draft Dupree's opposite in the first (yet again) and we may have a couple more years of dominance and a few good runs at a championship!