I mentioned this in another thread, and thought this might merit some discussion in its own. This whole season it's become abundantly clear Rex is sending the house when our defense faces a 3rd-and-long. The whole league seems to know, we all know, and the opposing team certainly knows because they seem to convert 3rd-and-12 and 3rd-and-16 all the time. Obviously Rex knows what he's doing, he's a great defensive mind, but some adjustments have to made i.e. showing blitz and dropping back into coverage or sending just a safety or a MLB. The only time we stopped Pittsburgh in a 3rd-and-long situation tonight was when we dropped into coverage and only sent 4. They got some yards, yes, but not enough to convert. Maybe sending the house everytime isn't the best of ideas. I dunno, just an observation I'm sure many of you have noticed, too.
Well I did notice once towards the end of the game (one of the last crucial drives) we sent the house on a 3rd and 17 or so and two of the blitzers, one of them being Wilson, was late, it was as if they decided to blitz half way through the play. Would have been 4th down if it was executed properly.
I agree. The bring the house deal is not as effective as last year. I'm sure the odds are still in our favor though and that's why we continue doing it.
It does suck to see but we are kind of in a catch 22 on this. When he doesn't blitz everyone the coverage has been breaking down. I would tend to go with Rex and make the offense beat someone one on one rather quickly than give someone time to find a hole in the zone.
That's why I started the discussion. I usually leave the thread starting to the smarter posters, but the rate at which the opposing teams are converting these types of situations is alarming, to say the least. Not having Leonhard doesn't help. I know our front 4 is less than imposing in the pass rush dept. but, we just haven't sacked the QB in these situations. Imo, I'd like to see them mix it up a little more. Confusion is supposed to be this defense's bread-and-butter.
the coverage breaks down so much because we don't get pressure. It doesn't matter if you have Revis, Deion, and Aso on the same field if the QB has 7 seconds to sit back there and move around he's gonna find someone. notice the jets rarely give up quick completions. it's always QB drops back, sits there for an eternity and eventually finds someone.
Going zone has been killing us too. We get picked apart big time and the holes in the middle of the field are ridiculous. That final Pittsburg (lol) drive was a disaster until they bunched up in the red zone.
I don't have the answer for this, and I know this makes zero fucking sense, but I almost feel more confident in stopping the opposing offense when we're at 3rd-and-5. Weird.
they didn't send the house all the time today which was probably smart. tough game for this defense today - they played a SB QB who did a nice job of being patient and picking them apart. Hats off to Rothlisberger - he is one tough hombre.
I've noticed since the Ravens game that teams seem to leave extra guys in to block on 3rd down when they play against us.
I think we simply don't have the personnel to pull it off... so for this season let's forget about it...
we rarely get any pressure on the qb when we send the house...we cannot penetrate the offensive line. i think the only answer is getting a free agent (prob won't have the money) or drafting a legit pass rusher...
I saw Cromartie blitzing at one point and completely whiff on the tackle. Not the brightest idea sending Cro in when everyone knows he can't tackle anyone. Coleman on the other hand has a lot of speed and usually can strip the ball away..he has done pretty well on blitzes
I'm not opining that we should stop this practice all together, at all, but we should mix it up every now and then. It's ok to bring the house, as long as maybe you show blitz and then drop into coverage or send just a LB or a S, or maybe just play it straight up. Some other posters have said it, we're not getting there in time, because (I'd bet) the other team expects it. We have to be sending the house on 3rd-and-long at least 75 percent of time. Too much, imo.
He has to blitz because we don't have pass rushers who can consistently win their One on One battles. So we have to send more than they can block. Or give the illusion that we do, to confuse blockers We're not going to win if we can't get some sort of pressure on the QB. The dbs can only cover for so long, no matter how good they might be Even tho we had success stopping the Steelers with 3-4 man rushes, there were times where they made plays against it, because we couldn't get to Ben.
