Our Defense is Awful..

[grateflday]

everyone relax. Aside from the first preseason game we have been running a very vanilla system.

You will see the D open up in week one with much more pressure.

I hope your right...... last year we were saying similar things about our offense when they didnt score a single TD in the pre-season and look how that turned out.

[CLTPanther]

Vanillia D isn't an excuse for allowing 10+ ypc average.

[teeray]

My hope is that this is a product of them learning a new system and style of defense so they are thinking too much. Once they get more comfortable in their roles and are simply reacting hopefully the team will show the speed I thought they had on that side of the ball.

When that happens I have no idea but it better be soon or else we are going to have a long, long year bc our defense is going to have to carry us at times with us starting a rookie QB.

[Cat'sGrowl]

the steelers rested a lot of their starters on both sides of the ball.

it was nice to see carolina's offense move the ball, but that wasn't the first string defense they were up against.

like i've said in the past, carolina's defense will be the team's achilles this season. the defense didn't look bad when meeks installed a new system...this defense has personell issues, not issues with a new system.

I didn't mean to pie you.

Plug in a couple veteran FA's, add Beason, and we will be fine.

[CatMan72]

Yup, the folks that are worried about Cam need to wake up and get worried about our defense...

If every opponent we face can run the ball down our throat from the opening drive, it won't matter how Cam plays.

We better pray that we can find a few interior d-linemen this weekend that can help us or it's gonna to be a LONG season.

This is where I fault Hurney, with two rookie DT's we should have protected ourselves by bringing in another vet besides Ron Edwards (on the chance that he got hurt) and the moment he got hurt we should have gotten very aggressive about finding another vet (or two) to help.

McClain and Fua may both turn out to be great, but right now they are totally unproven rookies playing a position that takes some time to learn in the NFL.

[PhillyB]

i actually thought the DL looked markedly improved last night. they weren't getting tons of pressure but they weren't getting blown off the ball by ten yards on every snap, either... which is a pretty big improvement.

having beason back will make a world of difference.

[mav1234]

I was worried about Cam because of the fact that our team looked like one that couldn't carry a rookie, both on offense and defense. In past games, not only was our defense not getting other teams off the field, but our offense was handing the ball back very quickly.

Hopefully FA/waiver pickups will help...

[Floppin]

Yeah they looked pretty decent last night, the only big runs they had were to the outside, one of which was because Hardy over pursued to the inside and failed to contain.

[Dpantherman]

Shocking development.

[CatMan72]

i actually thought the DL looked markedly improved last night. they weren't getting tons of pressure but they weren't getting blown off the ball by ten yards on every snap, either... which is a pretty big improvement.

having beason back will make a world of difference.

That's only because Pittsburgh was running mostly outside, so instead of just pushing us back off the ball they were turning us and washing us out of the play. I didn't see one interior defensive lineman get penetration all game.

If the opposing team's center can handle our interior guys 1 on 1 (which they have so far) it will free the guards to get up-field and block Beason, and as good as Beason is he'll tell you that he's going to have trouble fighting through blocks from guys twice he size who get paid to do what they do as well.

[carolinarolls]

I'm not convinced we have seen the aggressive side of our defense yet. I think they have been trying to protect these young corners a little.

Hopefully we still have some clubs in the bag.

[grateflday]

Its a scary thought and not a good thing when we are waiting to see who other teams CUT so that we can pick up some players to improve our defense :eek:

[Chaos]

fwiw, Considine looked like total garbage last night. I will give Dennis Dixon credit though, our defensive pressure did pick up later in the game, but he gets his passes out really quick and didn't have to stand in the pocket long. The underneath was open all night.

[MrBubba]

everyone relax. Aside from the first preseason game we have been running a very vanilla system.

You will see the D open up in week one with much more pressure.

Steelers weren't exactly game planning last night either, and the vanilla excuse isn't a reason to just miss tackles repeatedly. Lots of our guys on D last night were a freaking joke; in terms of being out of position and just whiffing on tackles.