#1 Defense By Smoke & Mirrors

[Hawaii 5-0]

Originally Posted by teegre

Oh yeah... well.. your mom goes fishing in the frozen foods section of the supermarket.

she's probably looking for my sister...

[teegre]

Originally Posted by Hawaii 5-0

she's probably looking for my sister...

...or my brother-uncle.

[Hawaii 5-0]

Originally Posted by teegre

...or my brother-uncle.

my sister swims after troop ships...

[Hawaii 5-0]

Originally Posted by teegre

...or my brother-uncle.

who is that, Charley?

[fer522]

I can't blame the D for losing the game in fact I think they played one of the best games of the year imho if I'm gonna blame anybody for the loss I'd put it on 1st lefty if he was hurt he should have said something to the coaches and 2nd Tomlin for not being able to see that lefty was hurt I mean he was under throwing receiver Tomlin should've seen that. I like Tomlin but sometimes his too stubborn and doesn't see the big picture IMO

[GoFor7]

Originally Posted by lipps83

Unfortunately that is true. Any slightly negative inference that goes against majority opinion and you are labeled as 'gay', 'not a fan', 'ravens fan', 'collinsworth lover' and so on. It seems most Steelers fans like to feel they are better than fans of other teams, but they are the same. If you don't agree with them, you suck.

You apparently cannot be an objective Steelers fan, must be subjective.

You also get called an Arians' lover too. Oh, and when you imply the defense needs to get turnovers, it's "BOOOOO! YINZ THINK DA STILLER DEFENSE STINKS! BOOOOO!!!! YINZ JUST WANT AIR-HEAD BACK! BOOOOOOO!"

[Hawaii 5-0]

Originally Posted by GoFor7

You also get called an Arians' lover too.

I don't care how mad I ever got at yinz I would never stoop so low as to call yinz something as mean, rude and vile as an Arians lover...

[teegre]

Originally Posted by GoFor7

You also get called an Arians' lover too. Oh, and when you imply the defense needs to get turnovers, it's "BOOOOO! YINZ THINK DA STILLER DEFENSE STINKS! BOOOOO!!!! YINZ JUST WANT AIR-HEAD BACK! BOOOOOOO!"

If someone actually "booed" you for wanting more turnovers, they'd be mistaken. Obviously, everyone wants more turnovers (duh).

But,

1) that's not what you said.

You blamed the Ravens loss on the defense for not getting turnovers.

Those are two completely different statements. The first we all agree with (duh); the second has resulted in the past few pages of this thread.

2) who booed you??? Were you actually booed?... or, did you just misinterpret someone disagreeing with you/providing facts/making a counter-point as someone booing you?

[jiminpa]

Here's the problem, for five years Lebeau was the only actual coach above the position coach level. His defense clearly carried the team to the Superbowl and won it once. Some of the fans on this board are more loyal to our now departed worst OC in the league and his friend BR, and so have had to find a way that every loss was the defense's fault, and they got good at it--so good that they managed to actually convince themselves of what was obviously untrue. So now they go back and hold the defense to the standard of the previous years, even though that wasn't actually good enough then either. Whatever goes wrong, the defense did it. Whatever goes right is credited to BR and Arians. The offense couldn't score 3 points more than they and the special teams gave up--blame the defense, after all they've been doing it at least since Cowher departed.

For the record, I won't complain about "splash plays," but I'd much rather see this team win consistently by design than by luck. The defense smoothers opponents by design, not by a lot of risky big plays. When healthy the offense has the luxury of moving the ball down the field methodically and taking a few lucky shots. I like that.

BTW, Haley's gameplan would have been to utilize the only thing Leftwich does well as a passer, which is throw the ball really hard, but he couldn't do that last Sunday. Batch has never been able to do that, and he isn't even as strong as he used to be. So it is no wonder the offense stalled after the first drive. That is on Tomlin or Colbert, whoever made the decision to stick with two backups too fragile to play a whole game combined. Seems like a Tomlin thing, but I could be wrong about that. Remember I posted last week that it wasn't Byron's delivery I was worried about, but his fragility. I hope the guy we just got is ready to play, because as much as I like Charlie Batch, I doubt he can go a full game either. This time last week, I seriously expected Batch and Leftwich to have both sustained season ending injuries against the purple-browns, (I love that name for them). I have to give Byron credit for being mentally tough, unfortunately, his body is not in line with his mentality.

[ricardisimo]

Originally Posted by GoFor7

Splash plays don't count for points? Well, I guess in reality it isn't always a given they count for points, but they damn well increase a team's chances of getting more points.



Like I said earlier, the Steelers don't think like that. They think possession is more important than scoring and that the offense should babysit the defense. Now if you want the offense to get ahead like that, then they have to stop worrying about time of possession and take more shots down the field. Since the defense can't force turnovers, and since special teams suck, the offense isn't going to get down field on a consistent basis by dinking-and-dunking 80 to 90 yards each drive. Receivers dropping catchable balls don't help either.

They think the offense should babysit the defense? Are you sure you're in the right forum? Whatever. I'm not sure you're in this debate in good faith, so I'm checking out.