SyN65

Actually the real problem is the guy that drafted all these players and whose ego is too large to admit he needs outside help.

DarrylS

Agree, Spikes is what he is.. and in Mayo's absence has done pretty well. There were some thread last week where folks were annointing Spikes for Canton. People long and pine for Guyton, but he is not very good in coverage either..

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"Being the best doesn't mean you always win. It just means you win more than anyone else".. tweet from Kurt Warner to Tom Brady.

Deus Irae

You do realize that the Patriots were in a deep shell, which was so deep that it prevented the linebackers from being up on the tight end, right?

__________________
"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius

Rob0729

Spikes is definitely not the problem. He is the Ted Johnson of the defense (although the comparison may be a bit premature). Like Johnson, he can excel as a two down LB, but isn't suited to drop into coverage. Unfortunately with Fletcher out and Mayo limited, he was thrust into a coverage role. When the LB corp is at full strength, he is an asset to the team.

ForThoseAboutToRock

To my casual observation, this was the first game I noticed what has caused the more astute to label Spikes as slow. The only tackles he seemed able to make in the passing game were the clean up types, where someone else had caused the runner to stop, or had him in the grasp when Spikes caught up to assist the final moment of the play.

Patspsycho

If you are thinking of the first Steelers drive, that was by design. On the next drive, they put Spikes in man-free over the zone, and Miller was limited to one catch. Spikes broke up two passes to Miller IIRC.

The fact that Spikes had the green dot helmet suggests that BB just doesn't quite see things the same way you do.

ForThoseAboutToRock

So would you say the plan was to limit the ability of the speedy Pit WR's to blow past anyone, thus asking the Steelers to settle for the underneath routes?

I've not seen many games before where an opponent was so ruthlessly patient in just taking the underneath 7 yard gains so effectively all game. They didn't score a lot, but they chewed such an amazing amount of clock that their red zone field goals sufficient.

Bigatrop

I do not agree. Spikes is one of the few players out there that isn't on my list of "biggest defensive issues." My biggest concern at this point is we don't have a big physical SS that can step up to TE passes alone.

In our previous games we focused on stopping a TE with multiple players, but in this game we focused on Wallace and left Miller alone. We simply don't have enough legitimate defensive players to take away more than 1 option from a QB. If we had CB's that could eliminate a WR single-handidly, we would be able to take away TE's and other options. On the same token, if we had a SS that could take away a TE single-handidly, we could focus more of our efforts on helping out our CB's that are in single-coverage.

Moral of the story - Cotchery was right, we don't have enough playmakers on defense. And it will be our undoing this season.

Deus Irae

Yes

Jacksonville playoff game... The Steelers gave the Patriots a taste of their own medicine.

__________________
"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius

dhamz

Spikes isn't a problem. He is what he is - a classic 2 down run stopping ILB who shouldn't play on passing downs. His value is sverely limited by the fact that in 2011 the NFL is a league where run stopping is no longer a 2 down job.

Now that there is no other option but to use him as an every down player against a team whose game plan is to throw 60 passes? Yes that is a problem.