Carnel Lake is steeping down. Says it's so he can spend more time with his family in Cali. Youngest son is going to be a senor. I don't blame him. Why stick around to be the cover for Mike Tomlin. Let Tomlin own what he's done to the defense and specifically the secondary.
I think the beef is there. A lot of money and draft picks have been used on the D line as well. The Steelers are trying primarily to get a pass rush from inside. Pretty easy to let a guy commit to the rush then block drive them laterally. Jags O line did it over and over. Add to it the fact that neither Watt or Duppree can set the edge or shed offensive tackles. This defensive scheme is easy for a good coach to expose if they have a run game and decent QB. I'd like to see Butler have complete control of the defense without Tomlin meddling.
Well, what is crazy is that article about how Tomlin’s defensive gameplan as mentioned by defensive players in the article for that game was to not try and sack the QB but to instead contain Bortles and keep him from running. I am honestly still flabbergasted about that. I posted a link to the article sometime a week or so after that game. Here is the link again: http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/...on-heyward-blake-bortles/stories/201801190182 To recap some of the article: “The Steelers led the NFL in sacks, so why none against the Jaguars? .....The Steelers, meanwhile, played passively on defense....But on many occasions, the Steelers played passive by design......That certainly would help explain why the Steelers, who led the NFL in sacks in the regular season, did not sack Jacksonville quarterback Blake Bortles and only hurried him four times.....The call that came from the sideline was for a controlled rush. It wasn’t an all-out rush to sack Bortles. It was a rush designed to keep the mobile quarterback in the pocket......The coaches designed a game plan that would force Bortles to beat the Steelers as a thrower, not a runner. The game plan was set in motion with the expectation that Bortles would make mistakes, but the inordinate number of mental errors and blown assignments made it too easy for him to make throws and keep the Jaguars offense on schedule.....” Why in the world would you draw up a game plan that relied on our secondary (a huge area of weakness) not blowing assignments (something they have done all season)? Why in the world would you draw up a game plan that took away a team strength, sacking the QB? These mistakes are obviously Tomlin’s mistakes because he draws up the defensive game plan. It is worse than going for a two point conversion against the Jags after a holding penalty in his first playoff matchup against them.
I really believe half of our defenses problems stem from us over compensating for a perceived strength of our opponents.
You mean our coaches overthinking it and play to take away another teams strengths even if it means playing away from our strengths?
Every time I think of Tomlin and defense, I remember the quote, "Paper Tiger". Not sure if Tomlin was with tampa at the time. I just remember the Steelers talking about their defense. I'm sure others on here will be able to clarify or correct, but it always comes into my mind.
Ask Bud Dupree. When you only have ONE pass rusher that is a threat to get to the QB consistently, you can dedicate a TE/RB to help out the strong side with chipping or double-teaming. Also doesn't help when the team you're playing is facing 2nd/3rd and short and doesn't feel the need to throw it anymore than it has to. What a COLOSSAL disappointment he's been this season. The defense only works against the pass when we have TWO OR MORE legitimate threats to get to the QB. Watt LOOKS LIKE he'll become one. Dupree...............got WORSE as the season went along. And MAYBE you could overlook some of it if he were superb in stopping the run or in coverage...........but he isn't good there either. Another workout warrior with all the athleticism in the world, but NOT a wrecking ball...........not a FOOTBALL PLAYER!! Our D won't take that next step, nor will our secondary get any better until we have another solid group of bookends, and a sideline to sideline defender in the middle to replace Shazier. Jarvis Jones and (now looking like) Dupree, coupled with Shazier's tragic injury have killed the rebuilding of this defense. I don't see how at this point its much better next year. It may be STATISTICALLY, but come playoff time.........not sure we'll be able to depend on it like we should. Offense can't start slow next year and expect the defense to carry this team like it did the first half of this past season.
I bet the Raiders felt differently in 1/03. I think it's somewhat of a talent issue. Lynch, Brooks, and Sapp make a difference. The Steelers don't have that caliber of players.
Drafting and personnel assessment at the linebacker and secondary positions has been mostly abysmal for some time now (Watt being an exception, of course). Even still, we led the league in sacks, and Tomlin deliberately designed a game plan to not even try to sack the QB, but rather to contain Bortles’ above average running capabilities, while giving him all the time in the world to pick apart our awful secondary. Not Smart.
Whenever I think of Tomlin and defense, I think of Swiss cheese and hashtags, hence #Fire_Tomlin, seriously, #Fire_Tomlin
