Pittsburgh Sports Buzz

Do you see a trend?

Pittsburgh Sports Buzz sees 2 Trends.
1. The Steelers defense suffers when Aaron Smith is out of the lineup
2. The Steelers lose when Aaron Smith is out of the lineup.

Some will argue that the Steelers still stuffed the New Orleans running game. Yes they did, I'll admit that. But let's look at the defense and the opponents game plans a little closer.

Drew Brees hasn't looked this year like he did last year. Maybe that's because New Orleans opponents have been better or maybe he's suffering from that Post Super Bowl hangover. I don't know.

I do know he's got 11 Int's compared to 11 all last year. I also know that the Steelers helped him look like he was that Super Bowl winning quarterback.

Reminiscent of a few years ago, the Steelers defense had several opportunities on 3rd downs to get off the field and they were not able to stop the Saints. This led to a Touchdown one time. Why? This started in the Cleveland game after Smith went out. Colt McCoy, in the second half, had some time to throw the ball. Not a lot, but he had some time and he made the Steelers pay when he threw a TD pass late in the game. The Steelers linebackers were not getting consistent pressure on McCoy in the second half and they weren't getting much on Brees throughout Sunday night's game.

The Steelers 3 Linemen are not there to rush the quarterback and rack up sacks, although they are probably some of the best 3-4 linemen to put pressure on the QB. Sacks are left up to the linebackers. The D linemen, though, are there to stop the run and tie up the O Linemen in order that the linebackers are free to shoot the gaps or go around and get to the quarterback. Yeah, Eason and Hood did a good job with the run last weekend, but they didn't do quite as good when
it came to keeping the O Linemen busy so that Harrison, Woodley, Timmons, and Farrior could get to Brees. The dropoff wasn't as noticeable when Keisel was out, but when both ends go out it is bad news. Hopefully Ziggy will step up and show that he belongs in the best Defense in the league.

The chain reaction of all this goes this way. The Defensive Ends can't tie up the offensive linemen, the offensive linemen are free to take care of the linebackers, little to no pressure is able to be put on the Quarterback, the QB has too much time to throw, the DBs and safeties look bad because they have to stay with the receivers too long. Colt McCoy puts up decent passing numbers against the Steelers and Brees looks like that Super Bowl Quarterback.

That is why the Steelers rely on Aaron Smith so much and why he is crucial to the whole defensive scheme.