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LLT
01-09-2011, 04:04 AM
Collier: If truth be told, defense is best
Sunday, January 09, 2011
By Gene Collier,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Throughout the regal history of professional football in Pittsburgh, a wealth of gifted people have taken the mere opportunity to play defense as an invitation to turn themselves into monuments.

Mean Joe Greene is probably the greatest Steeler ever, but for all his exhaustively documented accomplishments, for all his fully deserved gigantism in the comparative literature of the region, Joe Greene never did what Ziggy Hood has done.

Just as Jack Lambert never did what Nick Eason has done, just as Ernie Holmes nor Big Daddy Lipscomb nor Ernie Stautner ever did what Chris Hoke and Aaron Smith and Brett Keisel and Casey Hampton have done.

This is the new history, and it's a little startling in its import.

The defenders who'll go back to work in earnest this week at 3400 South Water Street are not just the best run stoppers in the NFL as we know it this morning, but the best run stoppers in the history of this franchise.



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11009/1116464-150.stm#ixzz1AWzOxSXr

HometownGal
01-09-2011, 04:47 AM
Our DL has been fiercely intense for a lot of years but I have to say - this season's DL (even without Aaron Smith mind you) really has been phenomenal. Mitchell is an excellent coach and as the article says - the players know exactly what he expects out of them and he knows their strengths. No matter who we face in the playoffs, they are going to have to rely on the pass to get to paydirt and I can only hope our secondary plays as well as they did in the stretch of this season. :thumbsup:

solardave
01-09-2011, 10:19 AM
Great read. Stuff the run and cover well. That's what will win #7. That and playing smashmouth up front on the O-line. The o-line has to play well for us to make it.

Merchant
01-09-2011, 09:45 PM
I thought there would be a significant drop-off in the run-defense when Smith went down. I'm happy to be wrong :thumbsup: