SITE MENU
Registered Members experience this forum ad and noise-free.
CLICK HERE to Register for a free account and login for a smoother ad-free experience. It's easy, and only takes a few moments.The thing is if you look at a team like the Steelers, their defense is much older with six starters who are 30 or older (Keisel, Harrison, Aaron Smith, Casey Hampton, Farrior, and DeShea Townsend) and two starters will be 29 when the season starts (Foote and Ike Taylor) . Yet, I have never heard them called an aging defense and they are much older than the Pats.
The style difference really makes people misunderstand the situations.
I think that it will take time for the media misperception about our D to catch up to reality. But we will always have a mix of veterans and youth. I could see us bringing in Jason Taylor, and Adalius Thomas is over 30. People would focus on them even if the core of the defense was much younger.
There is, however, some truth to the perception that slowing by Bruschi and Harrison hurt us over the past few years since our SB in 2004. I think that is being remedied at last.
I think it is more reputation. The Pats seem to go after older players in free agency. So they are always perceived as older. Most of the Steelers players who are older are either homegrown talent or signed when they were young players so people don't focus on their age.
The funny thing is there were people who questioned when the Pats signed AD to a contract whether you should give that type of contract to a 30 year old LB (not a lot, but there were some out there), but I didn't hear the same questions about James Harrison who is the same age as AD when he signed with the Pats.
Yes, part of it is reputation. But, part of it is how the linebackers play. In Pittsburgh, the linebackers fly around like a bunch of idiots while just trying to cause havoc (Oddly enough, I don't mean this in a bad way). In New England, the linebackers are much more of a read-and-react group. Part of it is that Bruschi has been limited since the stroke, and hasn't been the punishing, blitzing, insane force that he was prior to it. In this defense, if you don't get blitzing from the ILBs, the team looks a lot slower. That's why they still seemed slow last season, even with Mayo and Guyton on the field. Once Thomas went down and teams could focus on Vrabel, it looked even worse because nobody could step up and pressure the quarterback anymore.
You see I personally think the Steelers defense would make age more of an issue because they use physical attributes over brains more than the Patriots.
Once Harrison and Bruschi are gone - Which should be either this year or next,I think the aging Pats defense which is media based talk,will slide away.
It is? I think the opposite is true. Straight-line speed is highly fine tuned and the difference between elite and lumbering isn't that great. In the 40, a difference of 2/10ths of second is the difference between having it and losing it.Quickness is generally lost before straight-line speed.
This isn't baseball. Points allowed is as much a function of the offense as it is the defence. Field position matters.T It finished in the Top Ten and Top Eight in Points Allowed, the only stat that matters. Now for the finishing touches. Time for Dynasty Version 2.0.
Or years especially around draft time we here about the pats aging d and people still say it. Most of the starters are under 30. I really wish people would do some research.