DK: Five real ways Tomlin can reignite the defense's fight
As Mike Tomlin astutely acknowledged in his Tuesday press conference of the Steelers' not-so-suddenly disastrous defense, 'The first component is acknowledging it. You really don't get an opportunity to fix it until you face those circumstances again. So, we spent some time acknowledging it. We're going to get back to work.'
Man, good luck with that.
I mean that. Snark-free. And to support it, I'll even offer a handful of wholly unwanted advice in advance of the not-so-small task of revving up some big-time bounceback this weekend against nothing less than the NFL's No. 1 team in the 7-1 Colts.
In ascending order:
5. Make a scarecrow of Jalen Ramsey.
Hear me out. There's no player on this defense who'll concern a quarterback more, whether that's still justified or not. Ramsey's name alone can be a bogeyman in pregame meetings.
So, utilize him as such.
Plant him somewhere in the middle of the field. I don't care if it's as a slot corner, a safety, a 'coverage people' or a literal scarecrow. But make sure it's known to Indianapolis' renowned head coach, Shane Steichen, and everyone on the opposite sideline that this, for the first time in 2025, won't be the day where it's OK to throw over the middle against Pittsburgh.
If other areas are open, big whoop. They've been open all along, anyway. This one's hurt the most, so erase it from existence.
Gotta start somewhere, right?
4. Prioritize the tackle.
This means at all levels but chiefly at linebacker. It's not like anyone's covering anyone, anyway, so might as well boost the tackle/toughness quotient. At the very least, after someone catches the ball, let's see how they like the taste of grass.
This team's 60 missed tackles, of 8.57 per game, are second-most in the NFL. The average of 139.8 yards allowed after a catch, are second-most in the NFL. The average depth of an opponent's passing target is 6.7 yards, a pretty powerful indicator that they don't even need to go deep. They can just fling it to someone nearby and watch them fly off with it.
This can be like Scarecrow II within the plan. This has to happen, or all else remains irrelevant.
3. Set the pins for T.J. Watt.
Some seem comfortable talking about T.J. in the past tense. I'm not there at all, not when talking about an extraordinary athlete who's still so close on the clock to his most recent greatness. Yeah, he's 31, and he's undoubtedly lost a twitchy muscle or two along the way, but I still see one of the NFL's most dangerous defenders ... when he's set up to succeed.
And believe it or not, I'm not solely referring to the move-him-all-over-the-line-like-they-do-with-Myles-Garrett concept, though I'm hardly opposed to that.
My own thought process: T.J.'s always operated at his peak when he's got a teammate raising as much, if not more, hell at the opposite edge. Think Bud Dupree. Think the early, 14-sack version of Alex Highsmith. Think of -- gasp! -- Nick Herbig earlier in this same month.
T.J. can still do damage. Just might need a little more help swinging the big ball.
Which segues sweetly into ...
2. Play Herbig. A ton.
Seriously, stop being stupid. Almost as stupid as I'd seem if I proceeded to elaborate on this.
1. Get this garbage off the field:
I don't mean Darius Slay himself, of course. Great dude. Great career. But that sequence Sunday night, the one that ceded a touchdown to Green Bay's Savion Williams, that can't happen.
Not once, let alone how often it's been seen from this defense's pathetic peripheral tacklers.
What's more, it can't be accepted. Not by Tomlin, who'd replace Slay with Brandin Echols for the final few minutes, though all he'd admit Tuesday was that he was "rolling" people through. Not by locker room leaders like Cam Heyward, who'd strikingly say after the game that the defense was lacking "fight." Not by others in that same secondary.
Problem is, others in that same secondary have done too much of the same.
Bench them. I couldn't care less about schematic consequences. It's not as if the pass defense can rate any lower than the current No. 32 slot.
If that becomes Echols, go for it. He's been abundantly better than Slay, albeit in only 44 percent of the team's snaps, and he'd have steamrollered his grandma in that same scenario up there.
They tried their thing with the been-there-done-that vets. Now try it with people who prefer to carry themselves like Steelers and are still capable of doing so.
Or, on an infinitely larger -- and less plausible -- scale, resign the post, take Teryl Austin along, and let someone else shoot for a first playoff victory in a decade.
THE ASYLUM
DK: Five real ways Tomlin can reignite the defense's fight
As Mike Tomlin astutely acknowledged in his Tuesday press conference of the Steelers' not-so-suddenly disastrous defense, 'The first component is acknowledging it. You really don't get an opportunity to fix it until you face those circumstances again. So, we spent some time acknowledging it. We're going to get back to work.'
Man, good luck with that.
I mean that. Snark-free. And to support it, I'll even offer a handful of wholly unwanted advice in advance of the not-so-small task of revving up some big-time bounceback this weekend against nothing less than the NFL's No. 1 team in the 7-1 Colts.
In ascending order:
5. Make a scarecrow of Jalen Ramsey.
Hear me out. There's no player on this defense who'll concern a quarterback more, whether that's still justified or not. Ramsey's name alone can be a bogeyman in pregame meetings.
So, utilize him as such.
Plant him somewhere in the middle of the field. I don't care if it's as a slot corner, a safety, a 'coverage people' or a literal scarecrow. But make sure it's known to Indianapolis' renowned head coach, Shane Steichen, and everyone on the opposite sideline that this, for the first time in 2025, won't be the day where it's OK to throw over the middle against Pittsburgh.
If other areas are open, big whoop. They've been open all along, anyway. This one's hurt the most, so erase it from existence.
Gotta start somewhere, right?
4. Prioritize the tackle.
This means at all levels but chiefly at linebacker. It's not like anyone's covering anyone, anyway, so might as well boost the tackle/toughness quotient. At the very least, after someone catches the ball, let's see how they like the taste of grass.
This team's 60 missed tackles, of 8.57 per game, are second-most in the NFL. The average of 139.8 yards allowed after a catch, are second-most in the NFL. The average depth of an opponent's passing target is 6.7 yards, a pretty powerful indicator that they don't even need to go deep. They can just fling it to someone nearby and watch them fly off with it.
This can be like Scarecrow II within the plan. This has to happen, or all else remains irrelevant.
3. Set the pins for T.J. Watt.
Some seem comfortable talking about T.J. in the past tense. I'm not there at all, not when talking about an extraordinary athlete who's still so close on the clock to his most recent greatness. Yeah, he's 31, and he's undoubtedly lost a twitchy muscle or two along the way, but I still see one of the NFL's most dangerous defenders ... when he's set up to succeed.
And believe it or not, I'm not solely referring to the move-him-all-over-the-line-like-they-do-with-Myles-Garrett concept, though I'm hardly opposed to that.
My own thought process: T.J.'s always operated at his peak when he's got a teammate raising as much, if not more, hell at the opposite edge. Think Bud Dupree. Think the early, 14-sack version of Alex Highsmith. Think of -- gasp! -- Nick Herbig earlier in this same month.
T.J. can still do damage. Just might need a little more help swinging the big ball.
Which segues sweetly into ...
2. Play Herbig. A ton.
Seriously, stop being stupid. Almost as stupid as I'd seem if I proceeded to elaborate on this.
1. Get this garbage off the field:
I don't mean Darius Slay himself, of course. Great dude. Great career. But that sequence Sunday night, the one that ceded a touchdown to Green Bay's Savion Williams, that can't happen.
Not once, let alone how often it's been seen from this defense's pathetic peripheral tacklers.
What's more, it can't be accepted. Not by Tomlin, who'd replace Slay with Brandin Echols for the final few minutes, though all he'd admit Tuesday was that he was "rolling" people through. Not by locker room leaders like Cam Heyward, who'd strikingly say after the game that the defense was lacking "fight." Not by others in that same secondary.
Problem is, others in that same secondary have done too much of the same.
Bench them. I couldn't care less about schematic consequences. It's not as if the pass defense can rate any lower than the current No. 32 slot.
If that becomes Echols, go for it. He's been abundantly better than Slay, albeit in only 44 percent of the team's snaps, and he'd have steamrollered his grandma in that same scenario up there.
They tried their thing with the been-there-done-that vets. Now try it with people who prefer to carry themselves like Steelers and are still capable of doing so.
Or, on an infinitely larger -- and less plausible -- scale, resign the post, take Teryl Austin along, and let someone else shoot for a first playoff victory in a decade.
Can't just not bring that up, right?
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