steelers pride themselves in playing proper defense…when you make mental mistakes that can hurt u more than physical mistakes.

defense is talented no doubt…but it seems like the pass coverage issues by the safeties and linebackers and 3rd cbs are becoming a severe issue. these arent mistakes that polamalu can fix…

some1 said earlier that it was because dick lebeau wasnt picking exotic blitzes…so that hedoesnt show his hand so early in thet season…thing is that doesnt explain the mistakes you pointed out.

no safety help and imprper lb play by woodley cost us that first down. how many more mistakes do we make on other plays? those mistakes cant all be answered by polamalu. now aaron smith is out.

i think its time for steeler nation to panick. until now many will notice i said we should chill…well not so sure anymore.

i think smith being out is actually not as bad(def not good in anyway). whats worse to me is the utter lack of mental discipline by the defense. do you think its because of hangover? i dunno…i feel like this d has checked itself out. and it shows with these kinds of mistakes. its scary.

good post Blitz as always. I wish the sport networks would break down the games like this instead of just being opinion/gossip spreaders from a bunch of guys that just watch the highlights.

As for the half second, that half second will turn. I know some Steeler fans are worried about the D, but from the games i have got to watch, there were so many times the Steelers were just a half second from the sack. This will change it’s just odds. Though with Smiths injury, I bet the Steelers will hold Woodley back more in run proctection which will cause another round of fears that his sacks are down.

I think it all started in the Super Bowl – where Arizona scored 16 points in the 4th quarter. Offensive coordinators learned from that and are attacking the middle of the field, with or without Troy (Troy played in the Super Bowl). I don’t think they are using Townsend enough in the nickel packages in the 4th quarter and are keeping 4 linebackers in there instead or other less experienced players. Also, if you give any quarterback time to throw, he will find a seam. If they can find a way to get more pressure on the QB, the secondary problems will mostly go away.

I am sure one of the ILB was supposed to drop back; he was the safety help Blitz is talking about. That’s the basic defense in a cover two, the safeties are split to each side and one of the ILB drops back and covers the middle.

One of them was freeze by the play action or forgot its assignment. What is troublesome is this is basic, there is no way that a FB, TE or RB gets behind the ILB only 8 yards after the LOS.

If you watch the last frame the FB has beaten all of them, now there is a huge hole in the middle because the safeties are split. The inability of our LB to drop fast and cover the middle is been attack by offenses since the SB.

So the complete pass is on Woodley, but the YAC is on Farrior or Timmons.

The big question is what’s the problem?

Troy? He would have been split, so no help from him in this play.
The play call? I think it was a perfect call, if the ILB drops to its position there is really not place to go, the two RB where shadow by a LB with help over the top.
Speed? The ILB had 4 second to drop 8 yards, even Farrior has that speed.
Focus? It may explain this play but this is a recurrent problem; again this is basic, not a complex blitz package or anything like that. I just can’t believe focus is always the problem.
New wrinkle by offenses? Yes they are using the unexpected player (The FB in this case) more often and using the skill players as decoys (The RB and TE in this case), but the ILB responsibility is to drop and cover the middle it doesn’t matter who is coming.
Run support? It’s very common that our LB will react to the running play and attack immediately before dropping back to cover the pass. Look at Farrior, he started the play at the 31 yard line and when the pass was completed he was at the 31 yard line. This means he reacted to the play action first and then started to drop.

I believe that the middle is open because our LB are reacting to the possible run and an offensive player (TE, FB, slot WR) is immediately release to gain their back. Farrior has lost a step to compensate and Timmons doesn’t have the experience to react as fast and other teams are attacking this hole very fast.

Be attributed to the unfamiliarity of working with Timmons? Just wondering if all the “he looks a step slow” comments might reflect less instinctual play on his part because he’s still getting used to Timmons? Timmons played on passing downs last year, so the lack of familiarity, if it’s true, probably applies more to first and second downs.

Anyway, with Timmons speed and overall athleticism, we should be seeing an upgrade in our middle linebacker play. The fact that we’re seeing the opposite suggests to me that Timmons, not only Farrior, is part of the problem. The good news is that if the issue is Timmon’s experience, not Farrior’s age, things should improve as the season goes on.