Tomlin already thinking about the Pats

The Raiders and NO are close.

 

What happened to the "More Man coverage" Tomlin promised?

From 2016. Looks like 5% less.

 

That NE number isn't too comforting either...

 

I don't see a problem.

There is nothing wrong playing in a man-centric cover scheme when you have good cover guys like Gilmore, Malcolm, JJ, Rowe, DMC and even Chung when hes close to the LoS

 

Why? It's pretty much what I would expect given the personnel.

 

Because I am not good at reading comprehension. I was thinking that we had a high percentage of zone coverage which given the personnel wouldn't have made much sense. I was flipping the two numbers.

 

Damn i thought the squealers where playing more man coverage this season lol.

 

I am surprise that the Vikings have played more zone considering they have some underrated cornerbacks.

 

havent we seen this story before? Tomlin talks a big game. All the chicken littles saying how the steelers defense is not the same as before, and all the weapons the patriots wont be able to handle..

then, when they face each other tom brady shreds them like its a summertime no pads practice.

Brett hundley just had a career day against that defense. not too worried about tom brady, gronk, cooks, hogan and the RB's

 

If the O line gives brady the time it will be target practice. Our offense's a lot better than theirs! I laughed when nick wright said their personnel's better.

 

You can bet that a transcript or video of the interview Tomlin was dumb enough to do, is hanging or showing in Baltimore, and maybe Cincinnati (if Marvin Lewis is that smart). That's great motivation for them because Tomlin is basically announcing that he doesn't consider them to be any sort of threat.

 

OT: We hardly ever lose power here.

The last time that I remember an extended outage was back in the mid 80's. I remember it because I retraced the circuit back toward the substation (it's within a mile or so) and I found a primary down on a chain link fence right around the corner from here. The fence was bright red and I kept people away until someone could get help.

The time before that was during the blizzard of 78 and the time before that was during the northeast blackout in the mid 60's.

All for a fraction of what my cable bill is. Ditto for the telephones.

 

The real reason for Pittsburgh's lack of man coverage is because they don't have the cornerbacks good enough to run it with proficiency. Artie Burns is probably the most overrated player on their defense and I can't for the life of me fathom exactly why anyone thinks he's an elite player. His ineffectiveness is a large part of their defense's hemorrhaging of big plays in recent weeks, especially since Haden was injured, mostly because he often gets caught looking in the backfield and is easily susceptible to double-moves. It's puzzling that an error-repeater like that has not been benched yet. This further illustrates the difference between Tomlin and Belichick. Burns would have been benched long ago if he was playing in New England.

Moreover, their secondary remains by far their greatest weakness on their defense. The Steelers fixed one of their fatal flaws from last season and that was speed in their front seven. Gone are the days where Lawrence Timmons was tasked with covering Julian Edelman. Watt and Williams along with Shazier have helped them in that area a lot to the point where they are top 5 against short passing attacks. The problem for them is that they're also bottom 10 against deep passing attacks. This will be a major issue against an offense as explosive as New England's is.

Their 78.7 passing rating against is a mirage given the slate of backups and replacement level starters they have gone up against. This is a very burnable secondary with the Patriots' emphasis on deep passing. There are only two defenses in the AFC capable of having any success against this style of Patriots offense, and the Steelers are not one of them. No amount of bravado from Tomlin changes this. The Patriots are a matchup nightmare for them.

 

Thanks for that. Great breakdown. Please jump in the Preview thread that week.

 

Some of those are mixes of both. I think their chart is a bit misleading, just like claiming that NE is playing almost 70% man. There are blends and different responsibilities that aren’t being taken into account.

Also, the idea was for them to address the issue by improving upon their personnel in the secondary, so that they’d be better equipped against a team like NE, which they did by drafting Davis, removing ****rell, and bringing in Wilcox and Haden. Whether it works for them or not will be seen in the next couple of months, but they did address the issue.

 

I agree with what you’re saying with the improvements in the front seven and that is helping their back end. As you claim, they are certainly susceptible and you’re right about Burns being overrated, although I don’t think he’s quite as bad as you’re stating. He’s a more physical tackler who is at the very least, familiar with playing more man coverage, so that alone makes him something of an improvement in my opinion. No doubt about the weaknesses regarding double moves and overreactions to play action.

 

I am not buying their secondary at all. I think the only way to disrupt our offense will be a pass rush of epic proportions. Stafford had 423 yards against that defense and they haven't exactly played great offensive juggernauts in their schedule.

 

Well, that’s what I’m trying to clarify: the difference between “buying into” their secondary and whether or not they took steps to address the man coverage issue. They did makes steps towards improvement, although the hope is that Brady owning them + our versatility on offense will make all of that moot.

I think you’re right that it’s hard to project the level of improvement, since they haven’t played anyone and are missing Haden. I think it’s still a weakness, just not as big of a weakness. The improvement in the front seven helps them very much.

 

Tomlin looks like an elephant sat on his face

 

Fixed it for you.