polamalubeast
10-23-2017, 10:19 AM
It was less than 26 months ago that the Steelers were shredded on Opening Night 2015 in New England. Afterward and for weeks to follow, the team was open about poor on-field communication contributing to their deficiencies.
On Sunday against Cincinnati, those types of gaffes reared their ugly heads again for the Steelers – early in the game. But after a rocky start, the defense clamped down in a big way.
Clearing up the communication issues played a key part in the turnaround.
“We just focused on communication,” linebacker T.J. Watt said of the halftime narrative. “We were back home, it was a loud atmosphere, just trying to get everybody on the same page.
“We had decent amount of ‘checks' this week, and in the first half there was a little bit of miscues of who's going where and what, and I think at halftime we really made an emphasis on us making sure everyone was on the same page – and once we were on the same page, we were doing really great things.”
It wasn't anything overly exotic, but the Steelers made subtle changes at times (flipping their outside linebackers, bringing in different packages at somewhat-unconventional times, “checking” on the fly to different looks, etc.) that could have played a role in confusing the Bengals.
Cincinnati netted 20 yards on their final 23 snaps of the game and one first down over its final seven possessions.
read more
http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/12866804-74/steel-mill-am-communication-the-key-for-steelers-defense
On Sunday against Cincinnati, those types of gaffes reared their ugly heads again for the Steelers – early in the game. But after a rocky start, the defense clamped down in a big way.
Clearing up the communication issues played a key part in the turnaround.
“We just focused on communication,” linebacker T.J. Watt said of the halftime narrative. “We were back home, it was a loud atmosphere, just trying to get everybody on the same page.
“We had decent amount of ‘checks' this week, and in the first half there was a little bit of miscues of who's going where and what, and I think at halftime we really made an emphasis on us making sure everyone was on the same page – and once we were on the same page, we were doing really great things.”
It wasn't anything overly exotic, but the Steelers made subtle changes at times (flipping their outside linebackers, bringing in different packages at somewhat-unconventional times, “checking” on the fly to different looks, etc.) that could have played a role in confusing the Bengals.
Cincinnati netted 20 yards on their final 23 snaps of the game and one first down over its final seven possessions.
read more
http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/12866804-74/steel-mill-am-communication-the-key-for-steelers-defense