Inside Linebackers?

[Steeldrama]

I went to bed at halftime last night

Knew how that movie was going to end

Worse than knowing the ending, I just can’t sit through bad defense.

Tomlin’s HISTORIC defense once again shit the bed against an inferior opponent.

Sure, Flacco played great, Jamar Chase IS great, but you know who isn’t even good?

Bengals RB Chase Brown

Dude is nothing remotely special

He and the Bungles running game have been HISTORICALLY bad this year.

Fortunately, I hit rock bottom with Tomlin long ago, but it doesn’t stop me from looking ahead to the future when he’s gone, AND looking back to happier times pre-Tomlin.

Watching the gawd awful front 7 get demolished by a pitiful Bengals OL brought my mind back to the Noll and Cowher teams.

Oh sure they had shit teams too, but I’ll tell you what brotha, those teams could always, ALWAYS find inside linebackers.

The names are historic and require no thought Lambert, Kirkland, Chad Brown etc, but even Noll’s worst teams had high quality players like David Little and Hardy Nickerson. Cowher could pick ‘em. Dug me some pre injury Kendrell Bell.

So why can’t the Tomlin regime find inside linebackers?

Lawerence Timmons was a consolation prize after Tomlin blabbed his way out of getting Darrelle Revis

Sure Shazier was good, but y'all romanticize that dude a little too much for my liking.

Devin Bush just an abortion. Probably my most hated all time Tomlin player.

Anyway,

Last night’s unit of Pat Queen, Payton Wilson, and the Holcomb fella were an EMBARRASSMENT to a franchise that once had a proud lineage of inside linebackers.

Garbage

All of them

Robert Spillane and Elandon Roberts were Joe Average types that look like HOFers compared to last nights scrubs.

The fall of my once beloved Steelers continues

Somebody wake up and fire some people.

[DumlinBumlinStumlin]

Great post

I dream of the days AT

After Tomlin

[shellwagnerblount]

I went to bed at halftime last night

Knew how that movie was going to end

Worse than knowing the ending, I just can’t sit through bad defense.

Tomlin’s HISTORIC defense once again shit the bed against an inferior opponent.

Sure, Flacco played great, Jamar Chase IS great, but you know who isn’t even good?

Bengals RB Chase Brown

Dude is nothing remotely special

He and the Bungles running game have been HISTORICALLY bad this year.

Fortunately, I hit rock bottom with Tomlin long ago, but it doesn’t stop me from looking ahead to the future when he’s gone, AND looking back to happier times pre-Tomlin.

Watching the gawd awful front 7 get demolished by a pitiful Bengals OL brought my mind back to the Noll and Cowher teams.

Oh sure they had shit teams too, but I’ll tell you what brotha, those teams could always, ALWAYS find inside linebackers.

The names are historic and require no thought Lambert, Kirkland, Chad Brown etc, but even Noll’s worst teams had high quality players like David Little and Hardy Nickerson. Cowher could pick ‘em. Dug me some pre injury Kendrell Bell.

So why can’t the Tomlin regime find inside linebackers?

Lawerence Timmons was a consolation prize after Tomlin blabbed his way out of getting Darrelle Revis

Sure Shazier was good, but y'all romanticize that dude a little too much for my liking.

Devin Bush just an abortion. Probably my most hated all time Tomlin player.

Anyway,

Last night’s unit of Pat Queen, Payton Wilson, and the Holcomb fella were an EMBARRASSMENT to a franchise that once had a proud lineage of inside linebackers.

Garbage

All of them

Robert Spillane and Elandon Roberts were Joe Average types that look like HOFers compared to last nights scrubs.

The fall of my once beloved Steelers continues

Somebody wake up and fire some people.

I just got done watching the whole game. Only watched the last quarter last night as I had a lot on my plate yesterday. Could NOT agree more with you drama...I think some of us identify with certain aspects of a team and those LB'ers you mention from the past are the most important to me. That's where the tone is set..that's Steeler identity in my world. Been watching since 1968...The last few years of Tomlin's reign of error have snuffed out any sense of indentification I have with the Steeler brand. It doesn't exist anymore...I might as well be watching some expansion team at this point. I might actually have some excitement about that..new beginnings etc. A few more years of Tomlin ball and the brand might never recover. AT least not for me. Which means exactly nothing in sports world...but there it is...

[Charles Demarr]

Nailed it Drama. I called out both Payton Wilson and Patrick Queen in the game thread last night. Bad angles, terrible coverage, missed tackles, etc.

It kills me because we got vintage A-Rod. The offense was fun to watch, uncle Artie did a nice job in my opinion. We just needed an average performance from our defense to win that game. Yay Tomlin.

[Rod & Wire Mill]

Looked to me like the d was playing with nine guys all night. ILBs were nowhere.

[955876]

I don’t know bout y’all but I like to see my MLBs playing chase to faster WRs over and over.

Jibbs. Always a day late and a dollar short.

And it’s always someone else’s fault.

[955876]

Nailed it Drama. I called out both Payton Wilson and Patrick Queen in the game thread last night. Bad angles, terrible coverage, missed tackles, etc.

It kills me because we got vintage A-Rod. The offense was fun to watch, uncle Artie did a nice job in my opinion. We just needed an average performance from our defense to win that game. Yay Tomlin.

Agreed to all.

Defense is even mediocre last night we win going away.

They scored on what 7 of their last 8 drives?

Pathetic.

Offense fucked up with the turnover early but the (precious) D is what shat the bed the entire end of 1st half and all of 2nd half.

Which says they zeroed in on what we were doing (as they expected) and then exploited the fuck out of it while Jibba Jabber was shown repeatedly on the sidelines with that “I don’t have a clue” look on his smug ass face.

[R_S]

Here's the thing. The ILBs aren't great, but its hard to be good when the guys up front are getting their asses kicked. You think Jack Lambert was stonewalling guards and tackles at the 2nd level? He had asskickers in front of him that were so worring about blocking the likes of Joe Greene that they were more worried about survival than getting to the second level.

[955876]

Here's the thing. The ILBs aren't great, but its hard to be good when the guys up front are getting their asses kicked. You think Jack Lambert was stonewalling guards and tackles at the 2nd level? He had asskickers in front of him that were so worring about blocking the likes of Joe Greene that they were more worried about survival than getting to the second level.

Scam Heyward says you are spoiled and that he deserves to be paid more because he played well last year.

Meanwhile, our D is a joke and he & TJ Flop should be embarrassed

Did that 70s unit ever give up 300 yards rushing in a playoff game? I dunno.

[LakecrestSteeler]

Here's the thing. The ILBs aren't great, but its hard to be good when the guys up front are getting their asses kicked. You think Jack Lambert was stonewalling guards and tackles at the 2nd level? He had asskickers in front of him that were so worring about blocking the likes of Joe Greene that they were more worried about survival than getting to the second level.

Yes sir. It is this team’s schizophrenic philosophy around the nose tackle position. They can’t make up their mind about the 3-4 or 4-3 and they don’t draft for either explicitly ever.


The spine of the offense and the spine of the defense still sucks balls and consequently it is shaped like a jelly fish!

[RealSwiss]

I don’t know bout y’all but I like to see my MLBs playing chase to faster WRs over and over.

Jibbs. Always a day late and a dollar short.

And it’s always someone else’s fault.

The problem is execution not scheme.

[Stillerz Bar]

Here's the thing. The ILBs aren't great, but its hard to be good when the guys up front are getting their asses kicked. You think Jack Lambert was stonewalling guards and tackles at the 2nd level? He had asskickers in front of him that were so worring about blocking the likes of Joe Greene that they were more worried about survival than getting to the second level.

It doesn't have to be just one thing - both can be true. The ILBs can be terrible and the D Line can also be getting trucked. That deadly combo gave us a split in squeakers against the terrible Jets and Bengals where both teams scored 30+. We won when the O got 34 and lost when they ONLY got 31.

This was supposed to be a year when the D carried the load and even a mediocre Offense would result in Ws. Instead the O has been over achieving and the " historic " D is an embarrassment.

[.Kodiak]

The problem is execution not scheme.

The problem is the lack of scheming Tomlin's execution

[langer]

Scheme?

As Herb pointed out, the LBs were confused a lot of the night.

Maybe that was jsut Joe being Joe.

Could be when asked what to do by them Coach T said they'll figure it out like he does everything else.

[RealSwiss]

The problem is execution not scheme.

The problem is the lack of scheming Tomlin's execution

Heh. I'll have to remember that one.

[anpsteel]

I don’t know bout y’all but I like to see my MLBs playing chase to faster WRs over and over.

Jibbs. Always a day late and a dollar short.

And it’s always someone else’s fault.

The problem is execution not scheme.

I don't agree with this-

This scheme has always struggled to do the following

-Stop the run when in passing sub sets. This goes back to Cowher. Teams would spread them out, forcing the Steelers into nickel and gash them with inside runs.

-Stop short to intermediate passing inside the numbers- Unless the team has an all world ILB like Shazier - they have seriously struggled in this regard. IF your scheme is reliant upon a superstar performance by a one of a kind player- your scheme is failing. Not the players.


Edit- for clarification- I am not absolving the current crew of ILBs from the poor performance- but I am suggesting the deficiencies of this scheme are significantly problematic in the areas outlined

[steelmann58]

Don’t know what up with this team on defense

[K_C_]

I agree that Patrick Queen, Cole Holcomb and Payton Wilson aren't Jack Lambert and Levon Kirkland.

That said, the Steelers defense is successful when the pass rush gets home or forces QB's to throw the ball sooner than they want to.

Cincy's o-line gave Flacco ALL FUCKING DAY to throw. Watt had a few pressures but was correct when he said the ball was coming out very quick.

Highsmith is absolutely horrible and Herbig couldn't get near Flacco.

Even run blitzes were being stone walled.

I give props to the Bengals' o-line for absolutely owning the line of scrimmage but folks need to think back to that first quarter.

The Steelers dropped 2 INT's. 2 of 'em. Slay had a pass go right through his fucking hands.

When you play an experienced grizzled veteran like Flacco when he has 2 ALL WORLD WIDE RECEIVERS, you have to play nearly perfect football.

The Steelers had a chance to take serious control of the game in the first quarter and they pissed it away.

Wilson, Holcomb and Queen will be fine going forward but I'm far more worried about the defensive line, if Watt has lost a step and if Highsmith is an utter piece of shit.

[955876]

Don’t know what up with this team on defense

Neither does our HC.

He did nail the “historical” thing though. Historically bad.

[AirRescueFF]

https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/pack ... e-steelers

[Steeldrama]

https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/pack ... e-steelers

Good pull as always AirRescueFF (underrated poster right here).

Really shows weak players executing an even weaker scheme.

Just BRUTAL to watch.

NFL films legend Greg Cosell was on Cowherd yesterday, more singing Flacco's praises, but his breakdown really showed how inept the Steelers' secondary was in that game.

Showed safeties crashing down to stop crossers, leaving Darius Slay all alone to get torched on a go route up the seam by a receiver not named Tee or Jamar.

Jalen Ramsey flailing his arms after allowing easy completions showed me a former ALL-PRO corner frustrated in his play yes, but also the SCHEME.

YOU SUCK, Tomlin!

[zeke5123]

I agree that Patrick Queen, Cole Holcomb and Payton Wilson aren't Jack Lambert and Levon Kirkland.

That said, the Steelers defense is successful when the pass rush gets home or forces QB's to throw the ball sooner than they want to.

Cincy's o-line gave Flacco ALL FUCKING DAY to throw. Watt had a few pressures but was correct when he said the ball was coming out very quick.

Highsmith is absolutely horrible and Herbig couldn't get near Flacco.

Even run blitzes were being stone walled.

I give props to the Bengals' o-line for absolutely owning the line of scrimmage but folks need to think back to that first quarter.

The Steelers dropped 2 INT's. 2 of 'em. Slay had a pass go right through his fucking hands.

When you play an experienced grizzled veteran like Flacco when he has 2 ALL WORLD WIDE RECEIVERS, you have to play nearly perfect football.

The Steelers had a chance to take serious control of the game in the first quarter and they pissed it away.

Wilson, Holcomb and Queen will be fine going forward but I'm far more worried about the defensive line, if Watt has lost a step and if Highsmith is an utter piece of shit.

Flacco did not have all day. He was getting the ball out on average in about 2.3 seconds. No pass rush is getting home that fast. The problem was the secondary was so bad (in part scheme and in part execution) that the pass rush had zero chance to get home.

[K_C_]

I agree that Patrick Queen, Cole Holcomb and Payton Wilson aren't Jack Lambert and Levon Kirkland.

That said, the Steelers defense is successful when the pass rush gets home or forces QB's to throw the ball sooner than they want to.

Cincy's o-line gave Flacco ALL FUCKING DAY to throw. Watt had a few pressures but was correct when he said the ball was coming out very quick.

Highsmith is absolutely horrible and Herbig couldn't get near Flacco.

Even run blitzes were being stone walled.

I give props to the Bengals' o-line for absolutely owning the line of scrimmage but folks need to think back to that first quarter.

The Steelers dropped 2 INT's. 2 of 'em. Slay had a pass go right through his fucking hands.

When you play an experienced grizzled veteran like Flacco when he has 2 ALL WORLD WIDE RECEIVERS, you have to play nearly perfect football.

The Steelers had a chance to take serious control of the game in the first quarter and they pissed it away.

Wilson, Holcomb and Queen will be fine going forward but I'm far more worried about the defensive line, if Watt has lost a step and if Highsmith is an utter piece of shit.

Flacco did not have all day. He was getting the ball out on average in about 2.3 seconds. No pass rush is getting home that fast. The problem was the secondary was so bad (in part scheme and in part execution) that the pass rush had zero chance to get home.

Absolutely Flacco was getting the ball out quick but in the first quarter, the Steelers looked like they were going to run away with the game for 2 reasons. The offense looked dominant and the defense pressured Flacco into making uncharacteristic mistakes. Even after Flacco delivered the ball, he was taking hard fucking hits from Watt, Benton and others.

As I pointed out above, the Steelers dropped 2 INT's. One went right through Slay's arms. That is similar to dropping foul balls in baseball. You drop those, you give hitters another chance to fuck you and with a grizzled vet with plenty left in the tank like Flacco, he's gonna fuck you if you let him up off the canvass and that's exactly what he did. Yesterday in the Vikings/Chargers game, a Vikings DB dropped a pick six on the first drive when Justin Herbert threw the ball right to him. It looked like a TD but on further review, the DB didn't control the ball when he went to the ground and they let Herbert off the hook. Well, you can imagine how the rest of that drive went. Herbert fucked the Vikings and that started a route. When a quality QB makes mistakes, you better take advantage of all of those mistakes, or you'll lose.

From the second quarter on, the Steelers couldn't stop the run and they couldn't get anywhere near Flacco, even when he held the ball and went through his progressions. I mean, he could have had a nice lunch with the time he had to throw because he had the Steelers' defense back on its heels to the point where he could do whatever he wanted to.

[bradshaw2ben]

https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/pack ... e-steelers

Good pull as always AirRescueFF (underrated poster right here).

Really shows weak players executing an even weaker scheme.

Just BRUTAL to watch.

NFL films legend Greg Cosell was on Cowherd yesterday, more singing Flacco's praises, but his breakdown really showed how inept the Steelers' secondary was in that game.

Showed safeties crashing down to stop crossers, leaving Darius Slay all alone to get torched on a go route up the seam by a receiver not named Tee or Jamar.

Jalen Ramsey flailing his arms after allowing easy completions showed me a former ALL-PRO corner frustrated in his play yes, but also the SCHEME.

YOU SUCK, Tomlin!

Yeah, awesome breakdown of the Steelers long-time issue in MOF coverage. After years of watching it, I maintain it is 25% scheme and 75% because of the ILB archetype they continue to favor.

Last year I started separating the Off-Ball LBs into groups: A. for all-around, 3-down backs (Fred Warner/Zach Baun). B. Blitzers who also spy and run to plays (Patrick Queen/Edgerrin Cooper). C. Coverage outliers (Schwesinger/Lavonte David). D. Downhill thumpers (Elandon Roberts/Zaire Franklin). In terms of draft value, I emphasize As and Cs as those are much, much more difficult to find. Bs and Ds are complementary players who may be what you need to go along with a core starter who is A or C.

The Steelers LOVE LOVE LOVE Bs. They would have 5 Bs as long as 2 of them were STs contributors. They overpaid Patrick Queen (B) and play him like he's an A. Shazier is the last A they had and they can't survive their scheme choices with B's in MOF coverage. Holcomb is a decent all arounder; I'm probably still calling him a B with more all-around skills than most Bs. Blitzing is his best skill. Wilson is supposed to be a C, but he's not good enough at coverage... is pretty much a C-ish B. Robinson is/was a D. Roberts was a great D.

The one C they have is Breuner, but it would take the collapse of the American Empire for him to get defensive snaps.