Steelers Defensive Coordinator Talks Beating Patriots, Tomlin Involvement In Defense

[polamalubeast]

The guys went in-depth with Butler about a topic that has plagued this team for years, how to beat the New England Patriots and what they’re doing about it, including a focus on man coverage.

“We’re emphasizing it more this year in training camp,” Butler said. “We can’t always play zone, especially against people like the Patriots. You look at the people that beat the Patriots in the past, a lot of them have played man-to-man, I think the last time we beat them… we were playing a lot of man-to-man coverage.”

Another aspect of the defense Butler talked about was Mike Tomlin’s involvement in deciding what they do, which he described by saying, “He’s very involved in our defense in terms of game plan and stuff like that.”

“We have a little meeting we call ‘the hole,’ there’s a little meeting room in the back of our facility that we meet in when we’re building game plans and stuff like that, and Mike is always in there, he’s always involved in that, he’s a big voice in that,” Butler said. “In fact, he has the last say in a lot of things that we do and he has suggestions on the field when we’re playing.”


read more

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2017/08/09/steelers-defensive-coordinator-keith-butler-training-camp/

[Edman]

It's going to take more than Defense to beat the Patriots. It needs a total team effort on both sides of the ball. Dropped passes, red zone failures, and 3 and outs and 9 points through three quarters, are simply not going to cut it. The Offense has to step up too. Field Goal fests may work against Alex Smith and A.J McCarron, but against the Pats, not really.

Case in point, Championship game. New England gets held to three, Steelers offense responds with a 3 and out on a Sammie Coates drop on a 3rd and short deep bomb. Set the tone pretty much for the rest of the game. A Touchdown or even a Field Goal potentially changes the complexity and momentum of that game. Then when they get a touchdown, Boswell misses the extra point. Little bullshit eventually snowballed into a blowout.

There's an underrated factor in why they lose to New England. The Offense hasn't been up to par against the Patriots, and only turned it on when the game is already out of reach.

Butler can trot any defensive scheme he wants, until the Offense can get its shit together, the Steelers will continue to be behind the 8-ball against the Patriots.

[polamalubeast]

As you say, it takes a team effort, but it's the same for our defense.

We will always lose against the Pats as long as our defense forces the pats to only one punt and 0 turnover in the entire game.

[Edman]

We will always lose against the Pats as long as our defense forces the pats to only one punt and 0 turnover in the entire game.

And actually cover his receivers.

And actually put pressure on him.

And actually defend one of Tom Brady passes.

And actually pick him off for once (The Steelers D have not intercepted Brady in over a decade).

[teegre]

It's going to take more than Defense to beat the Patriots. It needs a total team effort on both sides of the ball.

Thank you so much for this entire post.

[steelreserve]

It's going to take more than Defense to beat the Patriots. It needs a total team effort on both sides of the ball. Dropped passes, red zone failures, and 3 and outs and 9 points through three quarters, are simply not going to cut it. The Offense has to step up too. Field Goal fests may work against Alex Smith and A.J McCarron, but against the Pats, not really.

Case in point, Championship game. New England gets held to three, Steelers offense responds with a 3 and out on a Sammie Coates drop on a 3rd and short deep bomb. Set the tone pretty much for the rest of the game. A Touchdown or even a Field Goal potentially changes the complexity and momentum of that game. Then when they get a touchdown, Boswell misses the extra point. Little bullshit eventually snowballed into a blowout.

There's an underrated factor in why they lose to New England. The Offense hasn't been up to par against the Patriots, and only turned it on when the game is already out of reach.

Butler can trot any defensive scheme he wants, until the Offense can get its shit together, the Steelers will continue to be behind the 8-ball against the Patriots.


If you are seriously blaming the offense for that loss instead of the defense, you need to enter rehab for crack addiction immediately. New England scored whenever it wanted; they were in complete control from start to finish because of that. The entire storyline of the game, period.

Moreover, that's the same as it always is when we play New England. The offense has good days, the offense has bad days; the defense reliably gives up 30+ points and we lose.

We're 3-9 in 12 games against the Patriots with Brady, giving up ~34 points per game. The three wins were when we gave up 17, 20, and 10 points. we have not won a scoring contest with them and we are not going to, not now, not ever. Nobody does. You don't beat New England by scoring 50 points while they give up 40. It doesn't happen. Not the way you win. The defense was awful and it needs to be better, hands-down.

[steel striker]

Right the key is pressure on Brady and, limit them to 15-20 points. Then offense just needs to play mistake free no turn overs then the Steelers have a good chance to beat them.

[polamalubeast]

Our offense (like almost every offenses) is never very good when you have no margin for error.

When your defense gives a FG or TD, your offense got the ball around the 20-yard line because of a touchback or a bad return,so it's not easy to score against a solid defense like the Pats.

- - - Updated - - -


Right the key is pressure on Brady and, limit them to 15-20 points. Then offense just needs to play mistake free no turn overs then the Steelers have a good chance to beat them.

If the steelers limits the pats to 20-24 points in 10 drives, I'll be happy.

If pats have only 1 or 2 punt before the game is over, I'll still be upset.

[st33lersguy]

The offense has enough weapons to win if the defense does their job and stood them. If the defense continues to put up the barf inducing crapfests that are the norm, it won't matter who they have at offense, they could add Jerry rice and jim Brown to this offense and they'll still lose

[BlackAndGold]

I'm just excited about more man coverage(especially against NE), I've been wanting more usage of that coverage for years.

[polamalubeast]

I'm just excited about more man coverage(especially against NE), I've been wanting more usage of that coverage for years.


same for me.

[tube517]

“He’s very involved in our defense in terms of game plan and stuff like that.”


B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-but I thought we didn't know what Tomlin does and he's just a cheerleader???? :sarcasm:

[43Hitman]

B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-but I thought we didn't know what Tomlin does and he's just a cheerleader???? :sarcasm:Fake news.....Obviously

[GBMelBlount]

To win this game I think we need to be prepared to score 30 on offense and hold them to less than 30 on D.

If we win the turnover game and get pressure on Brady it can happen.

If I am not mistaken, their offensive line is not the best.

So if I were the defensive coach for the Steelers I would be putting in some serious overtime this year studying tape of the Patriots games.

[Steelermania]

One thing that article proves is that the coaches knew they needed to play man against NE, but they knew they just didn't have the personnel to do it. I think they now believe they have the horses, if they can just stay healthy.

[Edman]

If you are seriously blaming the offense for that loss instead of the defense, you need to enter rehab for crack addiction immediately. New England scored whenever it wanted; they were in complete control from start to finish because of that. The entire storyline of the game, period.

You pretty much made my point for me. NE scored at will. We couldn't. How will stopping NE from scoring mean anything when you can't move the ball or score yourself? SO the Defense doesn't FUBAR and holds them to 20-something. Who cares you can barely scrape 17?

The Offense couldn't generate any momentum and in fact was shut down for the better part of three and a half quarters. That's pretty much forcing the team to fight with one arm.

You're not going to beat the Patriots with 3 and outs, dropping balls and scoring 17 points. Not happening.

The AFCC was a total team loss on both sides of the ball. The Offense is just as big a factor in these losses as the Defense's failure.

[polamalubeast]

The steelers were able to move the ball against the Pats as always.The steelers had 22 first down even if the steelers had no running game.The Drops by our WR have killed the steelers too, but the worst units as is always the case against the Pats was our defense.


4 TD, 3 FG and only one punt in the AFC title game for the pats.It was 4 TD in their first 6 drives in week 1 in 2015.As I already said, if the steelers had scored 30 points or more in this games, the pats would have had more than 50 points like in 2013.


You need to play in defense to win against them.The teams that have beaten the Pats since 2007 have allowed 21 points or less each time.