Special Teams

[Edman]

Problem with the special teams?

Poor Tackling and overrunning the play too much. The Steelers missed several easy tackles on both Cribbs returns. Again, the fundamentals. Time for Tomlin to practice what he preaches. Time for improvement on the Special Teams. Their hiccups accounted for 14 easy Clowns Points.

[Jman]

Originally Posted by fansince'76

What is really disconcerting is all the emphasis they have supposedly been placing on STs this year.

This is probably the most disappointing thing for me...That so much emphasis was placed on improving STs...

Now granted, they did go out and get Allen Rossum for returns, and he has been pretty good...But the coverage has to improve...

[Atlanta Dan]

Originally Posted by verks36

the good thing is specials teams is one of the areas in football where its not that hard to fix.

Maybe so, but the Steelers have spent most of the last 15 years (except when Bobby April was ST coach until he could not take Cowher any more and left) attempting to make that fix

[Atlanta Dan]

Originally Posted by rbryan

In Madden, Kreider is good for 5 yards everytime you give it to him too. lol

I don't know what happened to Reed, he was kicking a lot deeper in the beginning of the season..

DEA raided his HGH supplier?

[Atlanta Dan]

Originally Posted by Lord Stiller

i cant believe nobody else here observes what happens on kick returns

It is more than individual players - it is a systems breakdown

[Lord Stiller]

http://www.nfl.com/videos?videoId=09000d5d8041be2f

The first big return, Cribbs turns McFadden inside out and Clint misses a tackle

The second return for a TD makes me sick (wasting a perfect kick by Reed getting a squib kick to stop at the goal line)

[GeneralRobinson]

"Shooting a hostage" will probably only work once (referring to Colclough). If that doesn't get a team's attention, then the issues are probably a little deeper. I don't recall the circumstances of Cribbs' first long return in the 2nd quarter, but the TD return had nothing to do with bad special teams coaching. New England constantly uses starting defensive players on ST (Bruschi, Vrabel). I like the accountability being shown by Pittsburgh's defensive players regarding coverage, and, while I'm not sure if that's the solution, it would not surprise me if the coaches employed them on ST. Big picture-wise, I think we're still a year or so away from turning around this unit.

[Lord Stiller]

I just hate the fact that we have this supposed Special Teams Ace or specialist who is our captain and he sucks

Tomlin did a good job weeding out the worthless players that Cowher always kept (Sean Morey, Matt Cushing) but Clint is the last one remaining