How much longer.......
 

......Are we going to keep going with the same old gameplanning on defense. We should be more aggressive. If we give up a big play, so be it. But it is better to blitz and stunt an offense than to just lay back and let it do anything it wants to you. Any ideas?

I am 100% with you on this one. They need to do something different to be more consistent. hopefully dunta being back will help things out.

Don't count on anything happening. Kubiak doesn't seem to be the type to change anything mid-stream.

I have seen more blitzes, stunts, and fake blitzes this year that previously. I have to admit that the last game was the first time I saw a corner blitz. The 2-3 safety blitzes we have seen are ineffective, as well as any normal LB blitz. And even though Mario and Weaver have come off the line into coverage, bleh, they are mixing it up.

They have run blitzed alot, but it has probably hurt them as much as helped them. I think the biggest issue is poor play from our DT's and all 3 LB's, whether it is gap penetration, containment, coverage, or tackling(ok this is the worst for both).

Because of this the safeties are biting the run more and droping coverage, and it seems like every time they play zone they get beat.

From what we have seen they can blitz 50% of the time and still never get to the QB because line just folds. Its almost like the DL has no idea the LB's are comming.

I don't think vanilla is quite as confusing as Richard Smith thinks it is. O-lines seem to figure out and block our blitzes quite well. You watch a team like Pittsburgh and everywhere they go their guys are getting consistent holes blown open in the opposing O-lines and pass rushers have a clear shot at the QB. How do we get that here?

Exactly my point. OK we have blitzed, but they are so easy to see coming that it is no problem for the opposing offense to block it. Pittsburgh always does a good job of moving in and out, disguising exactly who and when they are going to blitz.

Pittsburgh does a good job of having Troy Polamalu and other athletic OLBs and Safeties.

Richard Smith (and kubiak for choosing and sticking with him) should bear the brunt of our defensive failure. But our lack of effective blitzing is absolutely not a scheme thing. Very rarely do guys come free in the NFL. But a good blitzer beats a RBs block and still gets pressure. For years the Texans have blitzed with Greenwood, Charlie Anderson, CC Brown, etc... These guys run at the block and then pull up short of contact. Notice that our blitzing has been far more effective with a more explosive Zac Diles. Watch Polamalu or Adrian Wilson blitz. Those guys would terrorize QBs in any scheme. In the same way, the Steeler's vaunted scheme would look terrible with Brown, and Earl "bringing the heat."

You can blame Smith (richard) for lots of things, but not our lack of good blitzing. That one falls at the feet of Smith (Rick) who has seen no need to upgrade the worst spot on the team (safety) in any of his 2+ seasons.

Not saying you were one of them , but when Smith tries to incorporate some of the same zone blitz principles that Pitt does, in a 4-3 form, everyone went nuts. Remember the whole Mario standing next to Demeco experiment....or the whole it would be funny if it weren't so painful to watch sight of Weaver dropping into coverage?

The whole point of moving Mario around, have him stand up, occasionally drop into coverage was to disguise things and try and keep the offense off guard. Kubiak defended it by saying it got us off the field a few times when we used it, but it didn't really help generate pressure IMO. If you ask me there are just as many instances of players not getting it done when they had the chance as there are things that you could blame on Smith.

Jump Richard Smith all day for the defense not improving under him. I don't see any problem with criticizing his scheme either, but it holds a little less weight when he's tried some of the things you are criticizing him for already. I'll be shocked if he's still here next year if things keep going this way, but don't fall into the trap of blaming everything on him. There have been many times this year when he made a call that had our defense in a great position to make a big play or get a big stop only to have the players screw it up.

for the record, i liked it when they put mario next to ryans. don't want to see it on a regular basis mind you, but i like the idea of throwing it in there every once in a while to keep the defense guessing.

the interchangeable safety business is wearing pretty thin. i think the idea is nice but requires a little higher caliber of safety than what we have. and probably an upgrade is needed at both for it to really work.

I understand what he's trying to do, but I don't think that's something that we can just throw out there on a whim. If they are going to do something like that I would think it would need to be something they work on quite a bit throughout the week. That might come at the expense of tightening up our base package...whatever that is. That's probably my biggest complaint with Smith. It seems like he tries to take the Defense one way for a few weeks and then gives up on it and tries something else. I thought we would play a lot of man when he came here...then we started playing nothing but zone. He'll zone blitz and then he won't. Some of it is driven by match-ups, but it doesn't seem like he has a clear picture of what he wants to do with this team....that makes the other Smith's job that much harder too. Flexible is good, not having any idea what you are trying to do is bad.

Personally, I'd be a bit reluctant to blitz too if I had safeties like ours. Then again, leave corners out there without a pass rush and the situation will eventually break down too. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we spent this entire draft, top-to-bottom, on D starting with another DE or S. It's frustrating because we have so many pieces in place but at the same time we have great big black holes in our lineup that suck the life out of the team.

I know most everyone has probably picked their sides so far as this conversation goes. John McClain blamed the players on the field. TC blames Richard Smith. And, ultimately, it's probably a little of both.

But, FWIW, Lance Zierlein has said that his dad (OL coach in Pittsburgh) told him that our defense has a tendency to tip it plays, and that they often knew what plays were coming from the defense based on how they were lined up.

So, we might have some players that are horrible at blitzing (re: Morlon Greenwood,) but out DC isn't doing us any favors either.

I get a little bit annoyed when I see Williams run the same D-line stunt 14 times in one game

Good lord man! Rick Smith has been a little busy in changing/UPGRADING personnel since he's been here. The QB, the RB's, WR's, TE's, the O line, the D line, the LB's, and the secondary. With a few exceptions, this ENTIRE team has been upgraded...including the safeties.

We don't have first round picks at safety , but come on dude, the GM is actually putting forth the effort to make complete upgrades.

And if you don't think Polamula isn't coached up and told what to do, you're way wrong. This ordeal lies on our D coordinator's back.

He'll fail at his next gig too.

Read the whole post man! Don't pull out a sentence. I said he is a bad D-Coordinator that can be blamed for a lot (though I think Kubs gets ultimate blame since it is his team and staff).

I also never said Smith (Rick) is doing a bad job. I think he has done very well for us on the whole. I just think he has ignored our single worst position since he got here (safety with OLB just behind). Now I can accept that our priorities are elsewhere. But if I am going to applaud the moves he is making at all of the other needed positions, then I am not going to then turn around and piss and moan when the guys he hasn't upgraded yet can't play.

I'd rather piss and moan that Smith (richard) can't get production out of our D-line where he does have players, or that none of his guys can properly tackle, or that our CBs still never get their head around to find the ball.

These are coaching issues. That our slow and unathletic Safeties and OLBs (the guys who blitz) can't effectively blitz is about personnell.

Richard Smith's evaluation could be wrapped up in that one sentence.

since Rick Smith came in he's drafted Harrison, Barber and picked up free agent Demps. Also drafted Diles, Adibi. Not exactly ignoring. You make good points but this one is kerrrrrplunked.

I don't think you need to use a Top-10 pick (which is where we've been drafting pretty much since Day 1) on a S. However, what I do think this team needs is a fast, intimidating LB (or 2) and I'd love to see them use a high pick (or 2) at LB. Look at the best D's and most if not all have a great LB corp. And most of the time it's the LB that makes the bone-jarring game changing defensive play. Christ, I'd nearly give anything to see someone on this D' knock the snot out of an opposing player. I can't even remember the last time that happend - and I'm not including TJ's hit on Green because that doesn't qualify as a direct hit, IMO. I won't even get into the Richard Smith discussion because everyone not named Kubiak knows he sucks and it's beating a dead horse at this point.

A 6th and 7th round pick, and signing a street free agent in the middle of the season does not equal fixing a problem. Nice use of the word Kerplunked though.

We had the worst safeties in football when he got here and they are still awful after we made no real effort to upgrade.

At OLB we were terrible then added Diles (ufa) and then this year finally adibi. Adibi marks the first time we have spent a resource at either of these positions since signing (foolishly) morlon greenwood years ago. And the guy has barely gotten on the field. When we start getting some talent in these spots our ability to blitz the QB will improve. Kind of like when we got talent at QB we could throw the ball, talent at RB and we could run it, etc...

If we get talent at those spots and still can't blitz I will blame Richard Smith for it. Until then I will blame him for the many problems that are his fault.

Diles was a 7th round draft choice, FTR