Much has been written about whether or not the Steelers "game-planned" to stop Chip Kelly's offense in their 3rd pre season game. That question misses the point entirely. What makes scoreboards light up during Saturdays in the fall is the fact that good spread offenses force defenses to defend the entire field both horizontally and vertically. If you've been paying attention to Steelers Film Room, you'd know this because it was highlighted here and here.
So, why should the Steelers have to put together a game plan specifically to stop this offense? The Steelers struggled to stop the zone read last year (Raiders? Dolphins?). That should have been covered the first day of OTA's. Moreover, where spread gurus like Chip Kelly really hurt you is that they don't allow you to "cheat" when trying to defend the zone read. They force you to defend the width of the field so you cannot just load the box. If you do load the box, they will just attack the flanks. This play is a perfect illustration of this:
Load the box, then Kelly will just attack the flank. I'm not sure how Jeremy Macklin doesn't score on this play, but the ball was placed on the 6 inch line. Remember the game at Baltimore last year? The Steelers trying to bang the ball from the 3 yard line with two tight ends? That got LeVeon Bell concussed and Fernando Velasco a torn Achilles. Even better, remembered when the Steelers tried earlier that year with David Paulson at tight end? Here Kelly simply attacks the Steelers where they aren't defending.
That then leads to this:
The Steelers still jam the box, but who has cutback? Instead of throwing where the Steelers are not defending, they are running where the Steelers are not defending. To defend the zone read, you have to have someone on the QB, someone on the dive, and someone on cutback. This is just unsound defense. Is this players doing their own thing? I don't know, but I do know that you cannot defend the spread offense like you see on these two plays.
Wonder why Nick Foles had such a good year last year? It's because of passing concepts like this:
This play should look familiar. Neal put it on a t-shirt. Number one runs a snag, number two runs a sail route, and number three runs to the flat. In this play, the curl-flat defender (Ryan Shazier) is put in a bind. If he runs to the flat, you just hit the snag route. The Steelers, however, keep Troy Polamalu down as a flat player, thus allowing Shazier to play the snag. But, as soon as Shazier covers the snag playside, Foles hits Macklin on the drag route. Foles delivers the ball in under 2 seconds.
The Eagles completed this route over and over again. The Steelers, once again, had no answer. William Gay plays this route well, but the defense is out-schemed. Again.
Mike Tomlin summed it up well after the game. The Steelers have to play better and they also have to coach better. I agree 100 percent.