We really should make a press docket for people who are going to bother to talk about the steelers. The problem is that 90% of the people talking about the steelers haven’t watched a game all season.

The Steelers’ storied franchise uses a smashmouth running game to wear down the other team, take the air out of the football, and control the time of possession, while their defense blitzes from all angles to get free shots at the QB. In fact, Troy Polamalu is one of the best blitzing safeties in the business.

Come on, everybody knows that.

It’s all about where they are coming from. The Steelers excel at disguising who is coming on a blitz, and who is dropping into coverage. That is the basis of the zone blitz. To not leave yourself vulnerable to the hot routes while still being able to get to the quarterback from unpredictable locations.

As to what percentage of plays both Woodley and Harrison rush? How often do we bring both those guys and another? I’m just looking for a rough guess as to how often we bring 3,4,5,6??? Anyone care to ballpark it?

i cried for short passes all year against you but realized the safety’s and at least 1 LB were johnny on the spot. the ravens had 3 games to study for you and still could’t get many short passes dumped off. mason, who is one of the best 3r down receivers, never got going in any of those games with a short game. arizona is not going to get it right the first time. not a chance.

That a blitz is when more than just the d-lineman rush the passer. Just my opinion tho

The term blitz is a little tricky to define catagorically but here goes….

A blitz or Dog or Red Dog are terms referring to rushing more than the usual complement of men – meaning those men who have no pass coverage responsibilities. I have seen defensive playbooks which discern between a blitz and a dog. One term or the other is used for 1 or more added rushers. It doesn’t really matter the terminology – the concept is that you are taking any number of added rushers and exposing yourself to a big play as you increase that number.

As the offense technically has 6 eligible receivers, the defense has to defend 5 of them with the 6th being the one throwing the forward pass. 5 men may not catch a pass – usually the 5 OL players we usually think of. I won’t bother explaining the “Tackle Eligible” rule since it still only yields 5 total eligible receivers. The defense needs to defend 5 guys – how they do that depends on whether they play man, man free or some type of zone. The ‘standard’ defense for many years has been the 4-3-4… 4 DL, 3 LB, 4 DB. Assuming those 4 DL rush the QB, one LB can also rush and still provide relatively good and secure pass coverage without giving up a big play/long TD pass.

Man or cover 0 puts 5 D on 5 O in man coverage with 6 rushers. Man free or cover 1 puts 5 D on 5 O with a true free safety who plays “centerfield” and 5 rushers.

Zone coverage is a combination of short and deep zones with 4, 5 or 6 rushers. The most common concept when rushing 5 men is 3 short zone and 3 deep zone pass defenders remaining. A more recent trend has been 4 under with 2 deep and 5 rushers. This is known as Fire Zone coverage – more than 4 rushers, zone coverage but no DL dropping off the LOS into those zones.

Historically, teams always played man coverage – thus they could rush 5 or 6. Teams didn’t use zone until the 1960’s or 70’s in the NFL for the most part. The Steelers of the 70’s used a 2 deep 5 under zone with their great 4 D linemen rushing the QB. Tony Dungy later modified this into what is now known as the Tampa 2 – a 4-3 structure where the two safeties are deep, 2 corners are in the short outside zone (flat), OLB’s are in the inner short zone (curl) and the MLB drops deeper than the OLBs but not as deep as the safeties. He helps keep the TE or a slot receiver from ‘splitting’ the two deep safeties until very late in the play. This helps the D line get to the QB since this area is very hard to throw to, he has to hold the ball longer to get an open receiver.

The 3-4 defense allows for many possible rushers in addition to the 3 DLs. In this defense, you can send two LBs and still have 6 men in coverage – either man or zone. The infamous Zone Blitz adds the complexity and confusion of 3 rushers coming from the LB or DB levels with one or more DL players dropping into a short zone. This really screws up a lot of QBs, especially young ones. The Steelers play both Fire Zone, Zone Blitz and traditional man blitz schemes on any given play. This all adds up to a myriad of possibilities which are disguised until the snap or just after. I won’t bother with the “Exotic” defenses of late – first shown by Belichek in the NFL where you only have 2 or 1 DL player and a gang of LBs and DBs mobbing the line of scrimmage (LOS) with any number dropping off or rushing from many angles.

The Steelers schemes now are generally less complex and varied than some previous years/eras. Remember the Rod Woodson/Carnell Lake era when the corners and safeties were coming from all angles throughout the game? The Steelers have settled more into using less DB blitzes and rely more often on Harrison and Woodley rushing either alone or more recently both of them combined with 2 DL players. This is their version of a 4 man pass rush with others in man/zone combination coverage.

A stunt is when two or more rushers alter their typically straight ahead rush and crisscross with another rusher. They trade rush lanes or ‘gaps’ as they rush. this can be combined with a blitz – creating even more confusion. Some guys call a blitz plus a stunt a “Dog”. “Dogs” were and are color-coded thus the “Red Dog”.

Sorry if I bored some of you – old D Coordinator here…. Coach ‘Franz’

I wondered if people would read it or just think I was a blow-hard and skip over it.

Football is a great game for many reasons. This may help illuminate why some great athletic college players don’t make it in the pros – they can’t digest the info or don’t have the discipline to keep learning and applying the knowledge. HS ball is complicated for a fan to understand, college more so and pro demands much more devotion to study and film than college – it is a job not a sport per say.

Will give more on other topics if people like it. I’m sure there are a few other coaches on this site, at least occassionally.

I predict LeBeau will play coverage early and we will see heavy blitz off and on depending on field position and time in the half. I think he will make Arizona earn it on long drives which is less their fancy and tendency. They can’t allow the Cards to jump out to an early lead by giving up huge plays. Either that or they will bring the house from the start and force them to pick it up. If Warner can get rid of the ball quickly and hit big plays – the Steelers will be in for a long day. I can’t see that happening consistently – the coaches know they have to keep the Cards frustrated, shorten the game and their possession opportunities.

I have noticed that as the games wind down, our defense of the short pass seems to get even better. Perhaps this is due to the depth of the drops that the LBs are taking or the coverages called. Either way, some short passes are not going to kill us.

Arizona is a good screen team but the Steelers will be conscious of it and will have some ‘spy’ assignments to combat them.

We on the other hand are not a good screen team in my humble opinion. The timing is bad and we always seem to throw the screen into a defender who has already beaten the linemen to the point of attack. I hope they work on it and use a screen that’s not on film yet.