Originally Posted by
steelreserve
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.