Quote Originally Posted by steelreserve View Post
My thoughts on that can be summed up as: You are right inasmuch as the rules of the game and the style of play have been changing to favor the offense. So every defense has been going through tougher times.

But, the Steelers also seem to have chronic problems with certain stuff for some reason, and we keep "banging our head against the wall" with certain schemes or types of players that do not work out as intended. And we stick with both for YEARS, apparently hoping for things to change on their own, like subpar players suddenly turning into great players, or playing a 3-4 defense with no nose tackle suddenly working as if there was a nose tackle, or having a lack of speed at linebacker and expecting it to work as if there was no lack of speed.

I can't honestly say whether that's a leaguewide problem or not, but it definitely feels as if there are these specific cases where ... there are aspects of defense that are by no means simple or easy, but we make our problems worse instead of better. And we fail in ways that generally turn it into a fatal flaw, that disqualifies you from championship contention, even though the team overall may be pretty talented.
That might be true. I wonder sometimes if we aren't expecting too much from players. Instead of giving them horribly complex assignments, just give them a jersey number and tell them to make sure that guy doesn't catch the ball. Then, when we draft, we draft someone who has the speed and skills to make sure that doesn't happen. Of course, it's going to be more difficult than that since teams have to use multiple schemes, but I do wonder if we couldn't simplify it a bit if nothing else but for our scouting. And, that brings up another issue I wonder about. Is part of the reason we have these problems is because talent isn't there for the taking. Sure, we've had misses in the CB and Safety areas, but in truth, how much of that is because our scouts and coaches have had to adjust what they were looking for? When we change schemes (such moving away from a true fire-blitz defense to a hodge-podge 3-4 where the linemen are now supposed to tackle and players have different assignments), I think we forget about how that affects things like scouting.

All of that said, I'm still not sure if other teams don't have the same problems. Or, if they don't have a different problem that's a continual issue for them because teams like the Steelers have swept up the talent in that area? Like for instance, the D line? Or, the O line? There's only so many NFL quality players, and even fewer on the defensive side of the ball, and even fewer than that who can run with today receivers and against today's QBs.