SECOND FITZGERALD TD IN SB

by grapes on Sep 16, 2009 3:38 PM EDT

Home sick with bronchitis, so I occupied myself with football thoughts. On the second Fitzgerald touchdown in the SB, was there a blown defensive assignment (if so by whom), or was it just a case of Fitzgerald making an incredible play. Did LeBeau ever say anything? The only reference I heard from Dick after the game was "we were out of position a couple of times". Anybody know?

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In the 2 deep defense both safeties broke to the deep out patterns run by their WRs. This was to keep from giving up the “big play”.

As usual, the idea is have them throw it short and make the tackle. Ike just had a bad angle and just missed tripping yp Fitz’s leg. The ball was on time and in perfect stride, Warner had no pressure to deal with, and the safeties were preventing the big throw.

End result, TD for them. I don’t think anything was wrong from a missed assignment. They get paid too and scored alot of points on alot of people. Give them credit for good recognition and perfect execution.

by SteelerMike on Sep 16, 2009 4:11 PM EDT reply actions

The defense was a 2-deep man-under defense. The CB’s and LB’s had man coverage on the WR’s, TE and RB. The safeties were bascially back there to prevent long TD’s. Ike got beat on an inside route by one of the best WR’s in the game (which happens). Either by poor design or execution, both safeties bit on outside routes and were not in position to tackle Fitz when Ike couldn’t knock the ball away or tackle him.

With the way NFL rules are set up, WR’s are going to get open some of the time in man-on-man coverage. Also, occasionally a WR can make a great catch in double coverage to get a long TD. What is completely preventable, though, is a WR catching a short pass and having no one even close to being in position to tackle him. We went an entire season without letting up any of these types of plays, so they’re obviously preventable; we just made 2 mental mistakes on the same play at the worst possible time.

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by BadMaafala on Sep 16, 2009 4:32 PM EDT reply actions

1 safety bites, we may have been ok.

Both saftey bites….well you saw what happened.

Why Clark and Polamalu chose to go away from the Fitzgerald route I do not know, but i guess it showed our defense was human after all.

We all make mistakes

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by Michael Hewitt on Sep 16, 2009 4:41 PM EDT up reply actions

thank god

if it was a blown assignment. In hindsight it could have been a lot worse if they covered him there and he just picked up a 1st down

by indianasteelers on Sep 16, 2009 8:41 PM EDT reply actions

In my opinion

What I think happened is James Harrison had to cover the middle deep zone. In order for him to get there on time Ike had to jam Fitzgerald, and disrupt the quick slant.

Fitzgerald made a great move, and Ike whiff so James never had time to get to its zone.

I think they where baiting Warner into that throw by breaking the deep safeties to the deep out patterns, and blitzing Timmons to the inside, wile dropping James where the quick slant was supposed to be. For this to worked Ike had to jam and hold the WR enough, obviously that didn’t happen and a huge hole opened in the middle.

by mikemex on Sep 17, 2009 2:15 AM EDT reply actions

Actually I think Casey Hampton might have had the deep zone and Ike was supposed to jam Fitz so Harrison could get in position to jam him a second time so Hampton could get deep. Polamalu and Clark probably we’re spying Warner to make sure he didn’t take off down the field.

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by BadMaafala on Sep 17, 2009 11:25 AM EDT up reply actions