The DL dilemma

[lloydwoodson]

I think it will be interesting to see what role Ta'amu plays in the defense next year. He has had a year of practice / learning from Hampton. Hopefully he can anchor the line on running downs.

Ta'amu and McLendon could provide a really nice interior pass rush.

[austinfrench76]

IMO to be talking about the Defense is odd. The DL is a strength. Look at our rankings the past 6 years. 2 1st rounds picks along with some other good young talent is not enough??? The O is the problem and not Todd Haley. I know this isn't a popular opinion but Haley doesn't throw those BS picks that ben threw to end our season against Cincy and Dallas. The players need to play to the level of expectations that the Steelers have. And if anything is wrong it's with Tomlin and some of his head scratching calls!

[steeltheone]

Originally Posted by lloydwoodson

Both Rivers and Romo have better career passer ratings and better td-int ratios than Ben. But they are underwhelming and borderline bad quarterbacks? What does that make Ben?

Romo threw for 4900 yards this season- you think some other teams gave up a couple yards too? Is it a coincidence Ike Taylor didn't play and Lewis was hurt when the Chargers had their big game?

Think before you speak please.

I don't care for Rivers, but i feel sure we would still have 2 more rings if he played in Pittsburgh. Romo , maybe not but he is still good.

[madtowndrunkard]

Originally Posted by maddog78

This is the total non-special teams snaps breakdown of Steeler DL in 2012. If they don't resign Hamp and Keisel to band-aid for one more year, we'd better hope that we switch to more of a one-gap approach. We simply don't have young linemen to play LeBeau's style of 3-4 anymore, otherwise they'd have taken snaps from Keisel and Hampton this year, both of whom noticeably slipped.

Keisel - 939
Hood - 888
Hampton - 497
Heyward - 263
McClendon - 136
Woods - 36
Ta'amu - 0
Fangupo - 0

This idea that Dick Lebeau needs to go so we can change to a 4-3 is just ridiculous.... Once again we were the #1 defense in the league... top 5 any way you slice it. So why would want to abandon what is working? "our guys are getting old!... .TIME to throw everything out the window and start new!" WTF is that? Why ? We've been using this scheme for how many decades now? ...and pretty much every year since...it's been working great... with very few exceptions. Just because few teams can seem to figure out how to dominate with our scheme...doesn't mean we should follow them into the land of mediocrity.

[El-Gonzo Jackson]

Originally Posted by madtowndrunkard

This idea that Dick Lebeau needs to go so we can change to a 4-3 is just ridiculous.... Once again we were the #1 defense in the league... top 5 any way you slice it. So why would want to abandon what is working? "our guys are getting old!... .TIME to throw everything out the window and start new!" WTF is that? Why ? We've been using this scheme for how many decades now? ...and pretty much every year since...it's been working great... with very few exceptions. Just because few teams can seem to figure out how to dominate with our scheme...doesn't mean we should follow them into the land of mediocrity.

Thank you for some solid reasoning.

Somehow the fan base forgets that a 3-4 defense should be about the LB's. Yeah we put a good defense on the field, but need more plays from the 4 guys at LB and less worrying about our D line getting sacks.

Time to find replacements for Foote and Harrison. Hopefully Spence can rehab and start next season.

[kan_t]

Keith Butler is likely LeBeau's successor. I don't see the Steelers changing back to 4-3 anytime soon.

[Hawaii 5-0]

Originally Posted by kan_t

Keith Butler is likely LeBeau's successor. I don't see the Steelers changing back to 4-3 anytime soon.

me neither...

[madtowndrunkard]

Originally Posted by El-Gonzo Jackson

Thank you for some solid reasoning.

Somehow the fan base forgets that a 3-4 defense should be about the LB's. Yeah we put a good defense on the field, but need more plays from the 4 guys at LB and less worrying about our D line getting sacks.

Time to find replacements for Foote and Harrison. Hopefully Spence can rehab and start next season.

It's unbelievable how much complaining and bashing our defense gets... we were #1 in the league in team defense...and have pretty much been in the top 5 for the last 20 years. Imagine if we were consistently ranked #10 or even #15 ? People would go crazy right?

Steeler fans go absolutely nuts when our defense allows a TD drive...and if it's in the 4th quarter - we're the worst defense in the league. God forbid we give up 21 or more points in a game... then 99% of all steeler fans will say the defense killed us... we might have only scored 10 points...but it was our defense that let us down. Everyone seems to forget the fact that typically 25 or more teams teams actually have worse defenses then we do.

Then to add more humor to the craziness that is steeler fan... Big Ben is considered the best QB in the league... 99% will tell you he's at least a top 5 QB at worst....he's the 2nd coming of Brett Favre according to my fellow steeler fans. When Ben's offense struggles to score....it's the fault of the RB, the Oline, or the offensive coordinator. While for a few years I'd agree Arians wasn't excelling at his job...but after a while you have to ask.... Why can't Ben score points more consistently? Typically on any given season our offense is ranked near the middle .... but it's usually the defense that gets the most questions.

Until our defense is ranked in the bottom half of the league... I don't want to read another insane post about getting rid of Dick LeBeau or switching to the 4-3.

[madtowndrunkard]

BTW... as a football fan... why would you even want to move to a 4-3? The 3-4 is so much more fun to watch it's not even funny. Think of all the great pass rushers we've had over the last 20 years.... how friggen awesome was it to watch Greg Lloyd, Kevin Greene, James Harrison, Joey Porter, etc... blast QB's from an outside rush? How Awesome was it to watch James Harrison fake a blitz.....drop into DL's text book zone....and take a pick 6 100 yards for a TD in the GOD DAMN SUPERBOWL!!.... that shit don't happen in a 4-3..... DE's are down lineman... they are no were near as active as our OLB's...playing a 3-4. More athletes/ speed on the field = better football IMO.

[Rick5895]

Injuries have been the main cause for our LB's not playing to par the past couple of seasons, meaning sacks and turnovers are down. We need to get younger at LB and maybe replacing harrison is the answer. That all being said, our DL style is 2 gap and these young guys are struggling with that. they need to learn or get better playing that style, if not our pass defense will still be good, (if we can keep our good young corners) but our run D will not.
This defense, even though is aging, has been our strength. But everytime we lose it's the defenses fault, our defense is fine, Lebeau is fine, my only conern with Lebeau staying is we may very well lose Butler.