Question from a Lions fan

[MooseKnuckle]

yeah, I'm a Lions fan. A real man can admit it. I actually was a Steelers fan as a little boy in the 70's, but lived in Detroit. I obviously chose the wrong team to follow (sobs outloud).

Anyways, congratulations on picking up some more hardware this year. I was pulling for you.

Question is this: Over the years, one of the cool things I liked about the 3/4 defense was that the defensive ends and linebackers were interchangeable, and could flip flop positions. I specifically remember defensive ends moving over to what would be a middle linebacker position on an obvious run stop, such as goaline and 4th and 1. I don't remember a DE being moved to MLB permanently, but rather just for specific situations to plug the run.

Lions fans, bless their hearst, aren't very smart it seems. A handful of morons claim that defensive ends NEVER do this, yet I've watched it. Heck, Woodly was a DE in college,and is now an OLB. My good friend is a diehard Steelers fan living in south Florida. He agred that Steelers DE's have moved to the middle to stop the run.

can you help me remember what DE's have slid over to the middle in certain game situations?

Thanks in advance, and we'll see you in the SB 2010! (sobs again as reality hits him)

[drizze99]

Well, you have to be careful here with terminology because you can add confusion to the argument.

The 3-4 features 3 down lineman and 4 linebackers.

For the Steelers, our Nose Tackle is Hampton and our down lineman (tackles) are Kiesel and Smith. We don't have "defensive ends" per se. We have outside linebackers on each side with 2 inside backers in the middle.

Now, the Steelers can run a bunch of various schemes out it. I have seen them slide Smith and Kiesel towards the middle and have the outside backers put their hands in the dirt (giving the look of defensive ends). I have seen everyone standing at the line except for Hampton. I have see Hampton drop back into coverage (zone).

LeBeau will do anything and everything to confuse the opposing QB.

[HometownGal]

Thought I'd move this into the Steelers forum to get more responses.

[steeltheone]

I'm sure Lebeau has had stunts bringing the outside linebackers through the middle if not this year, in the past.

[drizze99]

Originally Posted by steeltheone

I'm sure Lebeau has had stunts bringing the outside linebackers through the middle if not this year, in the past.

Yep, Woodley did that this year for sure.

[PisnNapalm]

Watching Hampton drop into coverage was hysterical. I love the guy but... He's just not built for coverage. It did mess with the offense big time though.

[El-Gonzo Jackson]

I have been a Steeler fan for 30 years and never seen a DE move back and stand up to play MLB in a run situation. In a goal line situations it is common for a defense to run something called a "Gap-8" which basically puts defenders in each gap.

The gaps are given letter assignments where the gaps on either side of the Center are "A-Gap", the guard-tackle gap "B-gap" and so on.

So in a double TE set, the Steelers usually bring in a spare NT(Chris Hoke) and the NT's are in A-gap, the DE's can be in B-gap and the OLB's can be in C-Gap, with either a LB or DB outside the TE's.

You might be thinking of situations where a OLB like Woodley is on the line and not outside the TE.......but I cant remember them putting a DE as a standup MLB.

[Steely McSmash]

I've never seen DE play in MLB position so far from the line that I can recall. Not sure how that would be better vs the run. those guys need to occupy the o-line so no OL players are putting blocks on the LB corps. If the DE is the MLB, who is on the line?

The steelers do mix up coverages and run 3-3-5 and 2-4-5 nickel packages. I think for the 2-4, the DE are the ones left in the game. This is for long yardage 3rd down situations where the big NT is not needed to clog the run. DE are generally on the line though at least for the snap.

Woodley and many other 3-4 OLB were DE in college. They are typically very athletic but a little light for a 4-3 DE position. They're permanently converted to OLB.

[StainlessStill]

Originally Posted by MooseKnuckle

yeah, I'm a Lions fan. A real man can admit it. I actually was a Steelers fan as a little boy in the 70's, but lived in Detroit. I obviously chose the wrong team to follow (sobs outloud).

Anyways, congratulations on picking up some more hardware this year. I was pulling for you.

Question is this: Over the years, one of the cool things I liked about the 3/4 defense was that the defensive ends and linebackers were interchangeable, and could flip flop positions. I specifically remember defensive ends moving over to what would be a middle linebacker position on an obvious run stop, such as goaline and 4th and 1. I don't remember a DE being moved to MLB permanently, but rather just for specific situations to plug the run.

Lions fans, bless their hearst, aren't very smart it seems. A handful of morons claim that defensive ends NEVER do this, yet I've watched it. Heck, Woodly was a DE in college,and is now an OLB. My good friend is a diehard Steelers fan living in south Florida. He agred that Steelers DE's have moved to the middle to stop the run.

can you help me remember what DE's have slid over to the middle in certain game situations?

Thanks in advance, and we'll see you in the SB 2010! (sobs again as reality hits him)

The Steelers' defense is the most complicated defense in the NFL for a reason. What the 3-4 Defense allows you to do is become creative. There are so many schemes that can come out of the 3-4 it's sickening. When you have a man as your defensive coordinator that invented the zone blitz and likes to bring pressure from all angles, it helps the 3-4 work to perfection.

The 3-4 is set up as 3 down lineman and 4 linebackers. The key in the 3-4 is to disguise because you have 4 linebackers on the field that could rush, blitz, go into coverage or drop zone. You simply DON'T KNOW where the 4th rusher is coming from at all times and the Quarterback MUST figure out where the 4th guy is coming from. (This is where disguising becomes so dominant.)

Now, defense's like the 4-3, you know automatically what 4 are coming, which are the 4 down lineman.. it makes it easier for the Quarterback to determine what their trying to do but obviously different personal is put into place.

In some cases in our system you'll have Hampton (a 3,000 pound nose tackle) drop back and cover one on one, or drop into zone. You'll see guys such as Brett Keisel (DE) drop back and ultimately take an outside linebackers position and rush up the middle or a corner position in a stunt. It's pretty much all scheme and gameplan and whatever is called needs to be performed perfectly in order for it to run it's coarse.

[MasterOfPuppets]

there is no MLB, in a 3-4....there's 2 ILBer's