What's wrong with our defense ?

[boogiewithstu2007]

Personally, I think losing Quinn and Norton has derailed this defense ... I have no other explanation... It's baffling how bad our pass coverage is now ... The question is this, what can be done this year ? Will Pete make a bold change ? Is Richards job safe ? I know this much, if nothing is done we're doomed ... No way do we make a serious run if this defense doesn't improve dramatically ... I think a big change is needed or this season is a wash ...

 

[Logicallylethal]

Lack of depth in the secondary have been the biggest issue this year

What made our defense great in previous years was the fact that we had no weakness at any position on the field. We could rely on everyone playing to do their job and the talent will take care of everything.

We have 11 guys playing on the field. All it takes is one person to mess up their assignment or to get beat and the offense wins on that play.

Sherman, Earl, and Kam can play perfectly but if Cary Williams gets torched or if Shead gets beat it doesn't matter at all.

I'm hoping Lane returning and getting back into game shape will help the secondary. I love that Sherman followed Antonio Brown all game. He showed he world once again why he is the best corner in the game. Brown has been demolishing everyone this year when Ben was in there throwing the ball. Sherman held him completely in check. If only Sherman can duplicate himself then we'd be unstoppable.

 

[HaroldSeattle]

Lack of depth in the secondary have been the biggest issue this year

What made our defense great in previous years was the fact that we had no weakness at any position on the field. We could rely on everyone playing to do their job and the talent will take care of everything.

We have 11 guys playing on the field. All it takes is one person to mess up their assignment or to get beat and the offense wins on that play.

Sherman, Earl, and Kam can play perfectly but if Cary Williams gets torched or if Shead gets beat it doesn't matter at all.

I'm hoping Lane returning and getting back into game shape will help the secondary. I love that Sherman followed Antonio Brown all game. He showed he world once again why he is the best corner in the game. Brown has been demolishing everyone this year when Ben was in there throwing the ball. Sherman held him completely in check. If only Sherman can duplicate himself then we'd be unstoppable.

I think your right. Steelers went after Snead/ Baily all night. Going to watch this game again to be sure.

 

[dude82]

It could be any number of things really. First and foremost, the transition from Quinn to Richard clearly isn't going as smoothly as the transition from Bradley to Quinn did. How many times have we seen communication errors, either between the players themselves or between the players and Richard, lead to a blown coverage and a big play for the other team? Too many times.

Another thing that bothers me that ultimately falls on Richard and, depending on how much autonomy he gives his staff, Pete Carroll, is how slow they were to react to the fact that Cary Williams is clearly not a fit for this defensive scheme. I realize that they're not as deep in the defensive backfield as they've been in recent years, and that that, combined with his veteran status, is probably why he got so much rope as he struggled to figure out how to play effectively in this scheme; but for a team looking to get back to a third consecutive Super Bowl, you can't afford to have such a glaring weakness at that position knowing that teams are going to go away from Sherman most of the time already. It's to the point that they've been moving Sherman around a lot more than I think any of us expected them to and while he's still been great, he's been less effective than in the past. They needed to make that switch (Williams to anybody else) weeks ago and not wait until Lane was ready to go. With that said, hopefully Lane was able to knock the rust off this week and can have a more prominent role next week.

The pass rush seems to be hit and miss this year too. It's been frustrating to watch. If they can't fix it, I have a feeling we're going to need more performances from Russell Wilson like we got against Pittsburgh. I'd love to get those performances either way, but I'd like them to come in blowouts; not nail biters.

 

[Banned 10x]

Earl doesn't seem to be right this year either. Maybe he is trying to help Shead or Williams, opposite of Sherman, and that puts him out of position more than normal but I just don't see him involved in plays like past years. He seems to be out of position quite a bit and playing way too deep, these over the middle TE's routes are killing this team. If Heath Miller didn't get hurt he might've had 200 yds receiving.

 

[flyerhawk]

I think that Earl and Kam are not playing to the same level they have in the past. I also think the pass rush has been far too spotty.

 

[Screamin12th]

Tackling, Pass rush and the inability to cover the seam route. These are all huge factors. I am loving how all the talking heads are bashing this defense right now. With the total lack of respect the talking heads are giving the defense i feel it will start to light a fire under their ass, and maybe it gets these guys out of their funk, Maybe. The Skill is there and we see it in flashes but it's not consistent and they seem to not totally trust each other. You even see Earl and Kam jawing at each other even in this game presnap you saw Earl telling Kam to line up here and Kam saying i got it but not lining up where Earl Pointed. Then the play went there -.-.

1. Lack of trust
2. Cant cover TE's
3. Can't cover the seam route
4. To many Chiefs not enough Indians.
5. Bad Tackling
6. Voiding assignments to try and make a play leading to them NOT making the play.

This is a big one, Bennett with his penalties has all ready cost the Hawks 1 game this year, him alone added a loss to the Hawks record. His Greed for stats also cost the Hawks big time in this game also. Watch him play and you see him void lanes to try and get the sack which then allows the QB room to run or step up/ roll out. Bennett is a one man wrecking machine right now to this Defense up front.

 

[dkmightyhammer]

CW was a liability but he's gone. Shead was better but still not great. He got burned a few times. Also, Burley was caught way out of position on a couple of those longer completions. With all that being said, we still have a pretty decent pass defense. I mean yesterday was an anomaly, how often do you see any QB throw 55 passes? It's no wonder they had so many yards because they basically abandoned running the ball at all. Only 58 yards rushing. It's obvious what their game plan was. Throw, throw, throw. This game will knock us down a spot or two in the rankings but we will still be close to a top 5 defense overall I think.

Nice to see Sherman have a spectacular game vs one of the leagues best WR's in the NFL last night too.

 

[JMR]

There are not many -- maybe zero -- teams in the league that have 3 WRs as good as what the Steelers put out there. And if before the game you told me Pittsburgh would throw it 59 times, I'm thinking Antonio Brown is probably having a 200 yard day like he has already a few times this year. He had 54? And we had 4 INTs? Now one of Pittsburgh's other WRs had a monster day, but that's where their depth at that position is a factor. You can't completely shut down everything the other team can do when you're talking about a squad with as much talent as that one.

It was just last week I believe where we were back at #2 in yards and #2 in points given up in the league, right?

 

[Uhsplit]

Lots of mental mistakes. What was Earl thinking when he allowed that guy to get around the edge for a score. That was uncharacteristic and bad football.
A play here a play there has cost us this year.
It was great to see the O take control of the game when it needed to.

 

[boogiewithstu2007]

There are not many -- maybe zero -- teams in the league that have 3 WRs as good as what the Steelers put out there. And if before the game you told me Pittsburgh would throw it 59 times, I'm thinking Antonio Brown is probably having a 200 yard day like he has already a few times this year. He had 54? And we had 4 INTs? Now one of Pittsburgh's other WRs had a monster day, but that's where their depth at that position is a factor. You can't completely shut down everything the other team can do when you're talking about a squad with as much talent as that one.

It was just last week I believe where we were back at #2 in yards and #2 in points given up in the league, right?

It's not just this game.. This is not just because of the Steelers... How many times have we seen guy's out of position this year giving up easy touchdowns ? Something is wrong ... We can be #1 defensively in the league and it does't mean much when your a charity when the game is on the line... Way too many zone coverages that are getting chewed apart... That's why Pitt threw the ball so much, they saw something, they knew

 

[SonnyCID]

It's on the players. It's easy to point at guys getting open and say "it's a bad zone", but in reality, they're not running any more zone than normal. They have been a dominant zone defense for years. And a lot of they openings come from confusion in man defense too. Of course Williams wasn't ready to be an isolated CB, but everyone back there is not playing up to par. The big plays I hold ET accountable, just like I give him much of the credit for not allowing the big play for the past few years. Picking on Richard is low hanging fruit. This defense is exactly the same, and this Personel group should be able to carry any coach in this sysytem considering the experience in it.

 

[Screamin12th]

lets not forget something also people or DT are not playing well. Something this defense has seen for the past 3 to 4 years is solid to great play from our DT's. That is not the case this year. I think Mebane is done and Rubin is a down grade from last years production from that group. The Depth got hurt at the DT position that's is for sure. To many times do i see Olineman blocking on our Linebackers, They just can't keep them clean.

Also after watching the game again i can say with out a doubt if this team would just TACKLE when they have a chance to the Steelers do not get so many yards OR points. So many missed tackles -.-

 

[boogiewithstu2007]

It's on the players. It's easy to point at guys getting open and say "it's a bad zone", but in reality, they're not running any more zone than normal. They have been a dominant zone defense for years. And a lot of they openings come from confusion in man defense too. Of course Williams wasn't ready to be an isolated CB, but everyone back there is not playing up to par. The big plays I hold ET accountable, just like I give him much of the credit for not allowing the big play for the past few years. Picking on Richard is low hanging fruit. This defense is exactly the same, and this Personel group should be able to carry any coach in this sysytem considering the experience in it.

There are some differences, It's tough to say it's all on the players... It's not like we lost that much talent, or all of a sudden Earl can't play anymore, or Kam is a shadow of his former self, or Sherm isn't doing what he does... We did not see this lack of communication or lack of discipline under Quinn... We just didn't ...

 

[Sharkonabicycle]

Harold brought up the best point in a thread I created, has to do with the schemes, which I can't argue with.

I think SOME is the roster too. Kam held out, ET/Sherman had limited training camp due to nagging injuries, Mebane is another year older, etc. Call me crazy, but I wouldn't be surprised next year if Seattle drafts some heavy defense. I think Cable has been brilliant with what he's had to work with honestly.

 

[chf]

We ran zones in the Superbowl year. We just did. The scheme hasn't changed. It's just that offences have had time to look at it, and they're ALL using the same playbook to attack it.

You know, kind of like we did against the Steelers after they started to sell out to stop Rawls.

 

[WizardHawk]

We ran zones in the Superbowl year. We just did. The scheme hasn't changed. It's just that offences have had time to look at it, and they're ALL using the same playbook to attack it.

You know, kind of like we did against the Steelers after they started to sell out to stop Rawls.

We played our zones out of cover 3 in prior years. This year we have been playing a lot of cover 2 and cover 2 (even with Tampa) is not stellar at pass defense. It's designed to keep you from being burned deep. When this defense was good at playing man or zone out of cover 3 they were very tough to move the ball on. Kam isn't going low to help against the run and shallow passing in cover 2 and the zones are wider across the middle which is where QB's are shredding it.

The problem with the defense this year is:
Depth at corner. This is the glaring problem that is flat out killing them. They are getting beat up hard by receivers that Sherman isn't covering.
Depth on the line. The pass rush hasn't been nearly as solid and Bennett/Avril are once again playing too many snaps. They aren't utilizing and/or getting production out of their backups and it shows.
Kam looks lost. Not every down, but he's either been out of position or at least not exploding to the runner the way he has in the past.

It's really hard to blame all of it on KR. He didn't have Maxwell/Browner/Lane to work with on the back end. Still, he plays some part in it.

 

[HaroldSeattle]

Yes Avril and Bennent are playing lots of snaps, the tackles are being rotated much more.



Clark isn't being being used as often as they could use them, I suspect it's because Avril and Bennett are doing such a good job.



I really like to see Clark get more snaps.

It seems obvious that teams are going after the cornerback opposite Sherman and/ or the third slot defender.
As stated by others, there is less quality at CB after Richard Sherman. I'm still not sure Thomas is 100% back , seems just a tad slower this season and less decisive, but that just my observation, could be wrong.

 

[Anointed One]

I think that Earl and Kam are not playing to the same level they have in the past. I also think the pass rush has been far too spotty.

Yeah and it seems like Thomas is missing so many tackles this year as well... Especially in the open field...

 

[Podunkparte]

I really like to see Clark get more snaps.

I agree. Let him have a series or two to get into a groove and work his man. That sack he had on Ben, where he lined up wide and flat out beat the LT with his speed was impressive.