The Pittsburgh Steelers have faced criticism for a variety of defensive issues this year. A couple of good performances have emerged, but for the most part, it’s been a disappointing effort from the unit.
One of the long-standing complaints with this defense is the lack of change over the years. Its basic schemes and lack of adjustments have many confused, including The 33rd Team’s Steve Palazzolo. One play against Chicago last week specifically stood out to him.
“It’s just like, you didn’t have an adjustment to trips or whatever. It’s kind of an archaic play call, right?” Palazzolo asked Wednesday on his Check The Mic podcast. “Teams would attack four verticals with cover 3, where you would have three deep defenders, and it puts a bind on the defense. And you have multiple ways to play it, which aren’t great… And then the Seattle cover 3 comes in, and they say, ‘we’ll have a carrier. We’ll have somebody carry one of the inside verticals.’ You almost never see that in today’s NFL, where it’s just straight cover 3, and there’s no one running with the fourth vertical,” Palazzolo said of the Steelers’ scheme Sunday.
The play Palazzolo is referring to was this strike from Caleb Williams to DJ Moore.
The Steelers are in cover 3, so each corner has their deep third, and Ramsey has the middle of the field. But the Bears have three receivers to the right, which makes this harder to defend. If it were two receivers on each side, it would be easier with Ramsey just reading the quarterback’s eyes. In this situation, James Pierre is now in a difficult situation, and has to try to play both the outside receiver and the slot, as Ramsey also has to worry about the crosser.
What Palazzolo suggests is to have Brandin Echols, whose responsibility is the flat, run with the slot instead. Since that’s not his assignment, he ends up passing the receiver off to Ramsey, but Ramsey is already trying to take away the crosser instead. Having a trailer would help here if you’re expecting four verticals, and it’s not like it’s a new idea.
This isn’t the only time the Steelers were burned over the middle of the field. On this very drive, the Bears ran five plays, all of them being completions of at least 14 yards. Throughout the second half, the Bears were able to capitalize over the middle of the field, no matter what coverage the Steelers were running.
Against the Bills this week, Palazzolo thinks the same could happen.
“I think they’ll be able to run the ball. I think they are equipped to beat this Steelers’ defense over the middle of the field, the way they are,” Palazzolo said.
The Bills have had their ups and downs. But you can’t ever take a team with Josh Allen starting at quarterback lightly. The Steelers have shown an ability to bounce back against top offenses this year, though. They were able to stop both Indianapolis and Cincinnati, two teams that came into those matchups scoring plenty of points.
But the scheme and adjustments are going to have to be better. The execution should, and does, get some blame as well. But in situations like the one above, the defense isn’t being put in a good enough position.
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