There are many secondary issues, but one way to think of it is that we have replaced:
McFadden with Gay
Gay with Ratliff/Lewis (actually thought it was Ratliff in the dime most of the second half)
Troy with Tyrone
Deshea with older slower Deshea

Overall that’s enough change in the secondary to equal a pretty big drop-off.

It’s a good think Ike is playing out of his mind.

isnt that Ratliff?

I dont think that was Keenan Lewis on that play. It was Keiwan Ratliff and he has been getting beat like a drum as a nickel corner. Lewis wasnt even dressed for that game. If Im wrong, my bad.

Ratliff has been a problem. It was even mentioned in our newspaper today.

I keep looking for him but not finding him, did he change numbers?

Deshea looks like he’s done. He just doesn’t have anything to offer right now. Ratliff had a few good plays this week, but bad ones too. The games before this week I haven’t seen any good ones.

The perfect storm = Aaron Smith out and a weak secondary. Every time Aaron misses time our run defense drops off a lot. Even Troy can’t save the run and pass defense at the same time. As I’ve been saying, our defense is a top defense, even without Troy. But without Troy and Aaron, or without Aaron and Troy at 90% we are in trouble.

is he playing instead of Townsend? You’re right… i haven’t noticed townsend a whole lot— how is he being used?

All i see is two screen shots of one play. The only passing TD they gave up that day. Its pro ball, the other team is going to make plays, especially through the air if they are behind. I watch as much nfl football as i can, and you can find plays like this in every game against every defense. Revis, one of the best DBS in the game right now got beat bad by Ginn last night, just gotta tip your hat to the other team sometimes.

I agree. The thing I don’t like is that he is picking him up fairly close to the line which means he is letting the guy run by him.

If he drops back another five yards, like we see the corners do in the 4th quarter a lot, then they complete the underneath route and pick up 8 — with a broken tackle they get 15.

And I also agree with you that Troy maybe makes a difference here, and maybe not. In theory… no, there is no difference. The Safety isn’t there to double team the guy. In practice, Troy has great ball instincts and sometimes he breaks on that ball early and gets there in time. But you hate to count on that…

Thanks Blitz. This play is a pretty good example of what I believe is ailing our defense in the fourth qrt.
Opposing offenses have had to throw the ball in the 4th, and having Troy out since that has happened has put an onus to our 3rd & 4th cb’s. As these screen shots have shown, eventhough it’s just one play, our nickel and dime packages have had mismatches Vs third and fourth opposing receivers. It is not a coincidence that the opposing team’s primary receiver have not done too much damage. Ike and Gay have handled them very decently. It has been the cast-off (Ratliff) and the old vet (Deshea) being burned.
I beleive that the steelers have a couple of pretty good athletes and corners in Keenan Lewis and Burnett and that the coaches should give them a chance to contribute. Maybe it will happen later in the year much like when McFadden was a rook in ’05 (back then Deshea, who was starting in the base defense, played the slot in the nickel and BMac played opposite Ike, letting him use his coverage skills and not worrying too much for complex zone schemes).
One of these kids has to step up.
Of course having Troy back will get Deshea back to the nickel back he normally plays and that should help getting better coverage for a split second longer, that way our pressure can get there.
 It will be exciting to see how the D trys to improve in this area.

He also completely blew an easy tackle on a Lions running play that let them get a first down. The guy is never where he’s supposed to be on the field.

We would see more of Lewis and even Burnett. Lewis seems to have some potential, but Burnett looked speedy in the pre-season. I think that part of the problem is when you have guys out there in the secondary for 4-6 seconds at the end of the game – play after play – you just need some fresh, speedy legs. Burnett may be that guy.

I also wouldn’t say that our secondary is done. With Troy coming back we have two pro bowl caliber players and two quality starters back there. Where we seem to fall off is in the dime – where our depth looks a bit suspect.

Hard to make any assessment on Secondary because you don’t have coaches tape.

Ike is having a very good season; one of his best: he’s even stopped missing tackles on running backs.

But Clark isn’t helping enough. He’s never been strong in pass coverage, and everybody is enamored of his big hits, while ignoring that he doesn’t wrap his arms on tackles, leading to additional yards. Clark needed to do more in the passing game with Troy out, but he didn’t. All those big hits aren’t what the Steelers need. They need to defense some passes and make clean tackles.

I thought Ratliff would step up this year: he’s been a disappointment.

One knows where to be the other knows how to get there.

I still think that some of these defensive struggles are being overblown, while ignoring the disappearing act of our offense in the 4th quarter. Yes, the defense has clearly slipped, and it does appear that the nickel and dime situations are where they get hurt the most. But, the fact remains that in at least two games this year, the offense gave up points, giving hope to teams that were otherwise dominated. Without those plays, it’s much more likely that the opponents are so beaten down by the 4th quarter that they just give up.

The other issue is that the offense has not been able to move the ball effectively in the 4th quarter, other than the Titans and Chargers games. You can say that the defense should be able to get stops on 3rd and long, and I agree. But at the same time, the offense should be able to get first downs and score points in the 4th quarter against some of these defenses that we’ve faced. Particularly against the Bengals and Lions. In each case, they were dominated on both sides of the ball, but then the Steelers offense and defenses both failed in the clutch. At least last week, the defense did make a stand on the final drive. But, if the offense could have just scored a FG in the 4th, it wouldn’t have come down to that.