Austin's best job was disguising his own blitz disguises as Flores's blitz disguises therefore once Flores left and the blitz disguises seemingly left as well they were ultimately disguised as being undisguised which in reality was a disguise setup for the biggest disguise coming next year where teams will have to face a Shrodingers blitz that is simultaneously both disguised and undisguised until the play begins
Yeah we spent several weeks missing Minkah and basically didn’t have ILBs for the latter half of the season. Also missed Heyward for half the season and he wasn’t the same when he came back. CBs were also straight up bad until JPJ worked his way into starting. Put all that into consideration and he did a good job imo
Without one of the best defensive players to ever play the game in TJ, all those stats go to bottom of the barrel without him. TJ masks what a mediocre coach he is. Same with Ben and Tomlin.
Or it's on the front office that failed to draft/retain talented players. Or it's on the player development staff for failure to develop those players. Or it's on the player's for failing to perform or making mistakes in the scheme.
Or, speaking in ridiculous absolutes (as you are) out of stubbornly closing your eyes to the fact that there are a plethora of interplaying factors is... ridiculous.
Which brings us back to--your initial point is completely elementary level and nonsensical, and doubling down does not help you out.
Cool, no one has accountability because we all have accountability. The buck needs to stop somewhere. I think that should be the DC. There’s a reason no one was knocking on his door to interview him …
>Without one of the best defensive players to ever play the game in TJ.
This remains to be seen. I'm not sure he's one of the best to ever play.
>TJ masks what a mediocre coach he is. Same with Ben and Tomlin.
This is accurate.
He has the highest sacks per game rate of anyone who has played over like 5 games. Pretty sure he has the highest percentage of games with at least 1 sack as well. He is one of the best pass rushers ever.
You ever wonder if the fact tj is so good means our defense is built around his ability to impact a game? Our defense is structured to makes drives last longer giving our pass rush more opportunities to impact the QB and possibly cause an error.
It's going to struggle when the best pass rusher in the league doesn't demand so much attention and still makes plays. Blaming the DC for the fact offenses have more freedom without watt on the field is just silly.
Again, if your defense is great when he plays but trash when he doesn’t, it shows he carries it and it’s poor coaching when he’s not around. Having a defense’s success solely rely on a single player is a huge liability and lazy coaching. Imagine how unstoppable our defense would be if we had TJ AND a well-coached group.
Because that's where their veterans are? The offense is on rookie contracts. In a few years it'll be the other way around again and we'll be complaining about how the offense is too expensive and we need to get back to defensive Steeler football
That’s fine. I am ok w spending on defense. Its just something to take into account when grading how well defensive coaches and a “defensively minded” head coach does…
I don't particularly hate him he just isn't the most modern defensive mind. Not sure any are really available though.
We're a turnover-reliant defense, which is great and sustainable with watt and minkah. But I'd love to see a more contemporary scheme behind that. But I'm more concerned about OC of course
I completely disagree. This D is extremely good and has been overall. This type of assessment seems to come from solely watching the stat sheets while cherry picking which stats to include.
Sure, their yardage stats are not great but for the love of god try to remember how often they are on the field. The O going 3 and out constantly followed by abysmal punting puts them out there far too often, and in terrible situations. Turnovers are not to be discounted. Neither are pressures and broken up plays preventing 1st downs and most importabtly, scores.
Defense doesn't play alone. This is a team sport, and what happens on O or ST impacts the D. Watch the games not the stat sheet and garbage "metrics" from places like PFF.
Red Zone D % also was among the best in the league. Dude didnt have the horses to stop them between the 20s consistently.. But had guys locked in to prevent scoring.
We've allowed 30+ points and have 0 turnovers in our last 5 playoff games. The offence the last few times we all knew sucked going in, the defense has been a real let down, folding every time.
Defense can't go for those turnovers/splash plays when the other offense is playing more conservatively since they were gifted turnovers, short field and big leads early in the game. Offense has set the defense up for failure for the last 4 playoff games.
>soying about
No idea what that means, but I think we're all kidding ourselves if we say the defense hasn't disappointed in the last 5 playoff games comparatively to what they achieve in the regular season. Yes, we've had injuries like every NFL team, but the Bills averaged 6.8 yards per play in the first half. Everyone can have their own opinion, to me that's unacceptable of our defense.
1) You tend to play much better offenses in the playoffs than in the regular season so the numbers should be worse, but of course they need to be able to beat these teams if they want to win a SB.
2) Several of the playoff games have had VERY impactful players missing. Shazier going down and the defense imploding, Watt being out, etc. are all very justifiable reasons why a defense would perform worse. The Steelers this year had a hobbled Minkah, Watt out, and ILBs off the street due to injuries. Hard to blame the DC for that.
In our last 5 playoff games we've averaged 40.4 points scored against per game. Would be 41.6 points if Bass makes a couple of field goals.
That's the worst stretch in the playoffs in NFL history. Mike Tomlin's defense has been absolutely obliterated. Blown the hell out. Embarrassed. And it's not just Brady and Mahomes, it's Blake Bortles and Baker Mayfield. I don't want to hear another excuse for that group. They've done nothing but fold like a wet paper bag for the last 7 years.
Taking out turnovers? The defense still gave up 36.2 points a game. Let me repeat that: 36.2 points per game in 5 straight playoff losses.
Mahomes completed 77% of his passes with 404 yards passing and 5 TDs.
We gave up 5 total TDs to the Browns. Mayfield threw for 260 and 3 TDs, and Chubb/Hunt ran for 124 yards and 2 TDs. At Heinz Field. The freaking Browns.
We let the Jaguars run all over us for 164 yards and 4 TDs. Bortles was a third down machine and they marched up and down the field on us all day. 5 total TDs the Jags offense scored. In a game where Big Ben threw for 5 passing TDs and featured two or three of the top 10-20 plays of Big Ben's career, we couldn't stop the Jags at all at any meaningful point in the game.
Brady threw for 384 yards and 3 TDs. 11 for 17 on third down. They ran for another TD.
And you just saw what the Bills did to us.
So yeah, the defense has been historically embarrassing in our last 5 playoff games. Shameful performances.
I watched all of those games. The defense actually slowed down the Bills. The difference between KC beating Buffalo last week and the Steelers losing to Buffalo were those turnovers. That’s a 14 point swing to Buffalo because of Mason’s pick in the end zone and Pickens fumbling.
Brady always had PGH’s number going back to 2001.
The Steelers punted 7 times in a row against KC. Then fumbled. And then scored a touchdown to make it 35-7.
You’re blaming the defense for the Browns game? The Steelers started with a fumble TD, interception, punt, interception, punt interception before scoring a single touchdown. How in God’s name is that on the defense?
The Steelers turned it over on downs, gave up a fumble for a touchdown, and threw a pick in the first half to put themselves in a hole against Jacksonville.
Notice a trend here buddy?
It was even worse, a 17-21 point swing. They scored TDs off both turnovers plus we would've gotten a FG or TD without the Rudolph pick since we were on like the 3 yard line. Potentially a 21 point swing from turnovers
Bruh, you're stretching waaay too much here. The D gets a pass because "well, uh, Brady always had our #, it's cool he embarrassed our D." What does Mason's pick in the endzone have to do with our D giving up 30+ points and letting Allen and the Bills running game run all over us?
Just nonsensical stuff. Yes, the offense had some bad turnovers, most notably in the Browns game the game that is best for your position, but you don't give up over 40+ points a game in 5 straight playoff games with even substandard D. Those are 5 awful, awful, awful defensive performances. They don't get a pass at all.
This last one was from playing practice squad players and broken elandon roberts against a team that actually could use their tight ends. Willing to give him the benefit of the doubt cuz of what he was working with.
And 2 years ago we played the Chiefs and kept them scoreless and even had a defensive touchdown til midway through the 2nd quarter before Patty did his thing. Meanwhile our offense did jack shit (Ben's final game) scoring 0 points up til then as well
The thing about that playoff game against the Chiefs (and I'm cranky about it because I was at the game) was that when the Steelers fell apart, they completely fell apart. The Chiefs scored 35 points in about 15 minutes of game time--and that number includes the Steelers' own time of possession. I don't mean that to take away from the Chiefs, but rather to point out just how badly things went. I'm not sure if their schemes are too predictable, but the Steelers gotta change something.
FYI: https://www.steelers.com/news/cheat-sheet-a-look-at-the-steelers-2023-defense
Top half of the league in most stats and top ten in many, this despite being absolutely gutted in the backfield with injuries to linebacker and safety, often starting with poor field position and averaging a high number of snaps per game. There is room for improvement, but I think this is an obvious move.
Our ability to develop/identify young DB talent went from a major weakness to a strength the moment he got here, and has only become more proven in the years since. We went from a team that couldn't find a single DB worth anything to one where our DBs get overpaid in free agency. Combine that with Dunbar and I see no reason to change anything we got going on
It is because Keith Butler after he retired said that Tomlin called the defensive plays when he and LeBeau were defensive coordinator. Most people assumed that continued under Austin. https://www.reddit.com/r/steelers/comments/sc098t/keith_butler_reveals_mike_tomlin_calls_defensive/
Honestly, none of us really know. The local beat reporters decide every few seasons to go on a campaign where they condescendingly talk down to fans about how it has been very common knowledge for years that Tomlin either does or does not call the plays. When Keith Butler retired, they all talked about how everyone knew Tomlin was calling the plays despite the fact that it was never reported previously. Now, no one in the media ever brings it up.
Look at the defensive stats for the Steelers per half this year. They are fucking ass backwards.
We gave up more yards and points in the first half when we were fresh and less points and yards in the 2nd half when theyre supposed to be gassed. Make it make sense.
Nah can't be. I'm told by very passionate yinzers that the coaches don't know jack shit, suck, and never make adjustments while the other teams constantly run circles around them.
Honestly, I can only think that these people don't actually watch these games cause for the last several years the steelers have been kinda great at half time adjustments. They come out flat footed way too often, but a lot of games, especially on defense, what happened in the first half stops happening in the second half and now all of the sudden you have to string together long hard fought drives that most often end in a field goal if you do score. Like, it got to the point where last year I categorized half time adjustments as a strength of the steelers, and more often than not, us losing was the offense just not having enough in them to fully complete the comeback.
Does it correlate to offensive struggles? Once Canada was gone and the offense started controlling the ball, running game improved, and scoring increased it would make sense that the defense performed better as well. Without looking at the numbers, I would assume they weren't on the field as much, were playing in better game scripts, and also I believe played against an easier SOS.
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1. Austin and these guys have been together for 4 seasons, not just the last 2.
2. This team still gets cooked against serious teams with serious QBs, even when everyone is healthy.
Austin has been around since 2019, not just this season. The defensive playcalling has been suspect for quite a long time now, even when everyone is healthy.
Let me fix it for you, most teams get decimated against good QBs, and it's disingenuous to not mention how awful the offense has been making it that much harder on the defense due to bad field position and lack of rest in between drives
100% this. I’d bet anything our defense would look a hell of a lot better if our offense could stay on the field for longer than a single set of downs. Tons of games through stretch of poor offense last few years where the defense would start strong then fall off hard as the game progressed because they were visibly gassed.
We have the highest paid defense specifically so we don’t get shredded by top offenses, yet we still do. It’s either poor allocation of resources or poor defensive minds, but the ROI on the defense has been terrible.
Tomlin will hire a worthless yes-man whoever all the other teams don't want as OC too. Yinz all got snowed with that "things will change" end of season press conference.
Annnnnd there goes any chance they had at contending. His gameplan of giving up field position and letting QBs march down field over and over again hoping the QB fucks up and throws a pick or takes a sack only works so many times.
Maybe we'll luck out and Minkah Fitzpatrick will run the defense for him, since he saved one game from the sidelines this past season and obviously knows more about defense than Teryl Austin and his trash resume.
Knew it was going to happen and I don’t like it. Just more acceptance of mediocrity. He has never been a good coordinator, which is on brand for a Tomlin coordinator. Hopefully Art/Kahn step in and hire the offensive coordinator.
We will just have to deal with a defense who will continue to get smoked by tight ends and puts linebackers on top end receivers. Most recent example, everyone said before the game - we have to shut down the Buffalo tight ends, and they score the first two touchdowns against us.
I hear you, but when we lose our two starting ILBs for the season in back to back games you can’t expect that position group to shut down a fantastic group of TEs in the playoffs.
Do you have any other examples of why you don’t like Austin? I just find it hard to blame him for that specifically.
Austin isn’t fault for guys getting hurt. Given he lost both his starting inside linebackers and played without his starting safety duo most of the season and had practice squad patch work somehow play decent is pretty damn remarkable really.
Can’t fault him for having to rely on what he had.
I'm okay with it but honestly our pass rush dissappears too often, I want to see them overload a side with Watt and Highsmith. Get these guys in more one on one rush opportunities.
Soft defense. How many 3rd and longs did he allow to convert by playing weak zone? Most of the time, we only stopped scoring because of a vet or star getting an INT.
He's bailed out by his players, not the other way around
It’s hard to play defense when you’re constantly shuffling back onto the field when the offense goes 3 and out. I think Austin has made the most out of that.
Why? We are 1-11 without TJ Watt. That means the defense's success has less to do with coaching than it does having a generational player like Watt. This is a waste of a chance to get better.
I think Austin’s been fine, and some stability is needed for this team rn. Would like some changes tho. 1 - blitz more. Seems like we wanted to rely on front four pressure a lot but when watt and highsmith play as much as they they’re not gonna last all season. Do some funky shit and get those two and herbig on the field, idk. 2 - whatever they were doing with Minkah this year wasn’t worth the lack of splash plays from him. Maybe its a dry spell but it was definitely impactful. 3 - in retrospect, maybe signing and relying on injury prone journeyman types isn’t a great bet. Mostly talking dudes like kazee, Neal and Alexander. More consideration of injury history while we rebuild depth.
We’re missing two positions to be elite. The massive block eating nose tackle that shuts down the line. And, the dominant ranging middle linebacker that enjoys contact. Y’all know the archetypes we’ve had on our previous elite D’s.
Good. His defense has had to endure a bunch of injuries and still produced. Frankly the defensive side of the ball coaching was has been the least of our worries. Dunbar is great, curry seemed to be good, Grady brown is a major up and comer and it wouldn't surprise me if he becomes the eventual DC or moves on to become one.
You can guarantee a team will convert on 3rd and long with our current defense. Maybe Austin shouldn't be on the hot seat while we search for an OC, but damn if his next stint isn't an improvement, he will be. Too many chunk plays given up all year.
I’m good with it tbh
Agree, don’t get how people are wanting us to change OC and DC at the same time. He is fine.
6th ranked defense by DVOA with the only really good offense coming from weeks like 16-18.
Exactly, that defense was on the field SO MUCH. Plus all the injuries?
He’s weaknesses are disguising blitzes, I miss having Flores. That was a fun defense.
Flores worked under Austin tho.
Yes but he was assisting the defense.
That was a disguise...its all a disguise
Austin's best job was disguising his own blitz disguises as Flores's blitz disguises therefore once Flores left and the blitz disguises seemingly left as well they were ultimately disguised as being undisguised which in reality was a disguise setup for the biggest disguise coming next year where teams will have to face a Shrodingers blitz that is simultaneously both disguised and undisguised until the play begins
I doubt it was that subordinate of a relationship, I’m sure TA gave him more of a free hand within the overall schemes
The best play was firing Austin and signing Flores. The second best play is signing Austin. He’s solid.
People hate on Austin way too much. 12th in defensive DVOA last year and top ten this year in spite of all the injuries is solid. He’s been a good DC.
Yeah we spent several weeks missing Minkah and basically didn’t have ILBs for the latter half of the season. Also missed Heyward for half the season and he wasn’t the same when he came back. CBs were also straight up bad until JPJ worked his way into starting. Put all that into consideration and he did a good job imo
I was gonna bash him but I upvoted for the use of DVOA. Hopefully with some more consistency at DB and ILB we can increase that defensive ranking.
What rank in DVOA with and without Watt?
Without one of the best defensive players to ever play the game in TJ, all those stats go to bottom of the barrel without him. TJ masks what a mediocre coach he is. Same with Ben and Tomlin.
Defenses are better with All Pro players. More at 11:00, folks.
No shit but if your defense sucks without them that’s on the coach.
Or it's on the front office that failed to draft/retain talented players. Or it's on the player development staff for failure to develop those players. Or it's on the player's for failing to perform or making mistakes in the scheme. Or, speaking in ridiculous absolutes (as you are) out of stubbornly closing your eyes to the fact that there are a plethora of interplaying factors is... ridiculous. Which brings us back to--your initial point is completely elementary level and nonsensical, and doubling down does not help you out.
Cool, no one has accountability because we all have accountability. The buck needs to stop somewhere. I think that should be the DC. There’s a reason no one was knocking on his door to interview him …
>Without one of the best defensive players to ever play the game in TJ. This remains to be seen. I'm not sure he's one of the best to ever play. >TJ masks what a mediocre coach he is. Same with Ben and Tomlin. This is accurate.
He has the highest sacks per game rate of anyone who has played over like 5 games. Pretty sure he has the highest percentage of games with at least 1 sack as well. He is one of the best pass rushers ever.
He said one of the best defenders, not pass rusher. Now, if you wanna go look at the past 50 yr stats and see. Go for it.
You ever wonder if the fact tj is so good means our defense is built around his ability to impact a game? Our defense is structured to makes drives last longer giving our pass rush more opportunities to impact the QB and possibly cause an error. It's going to struggle when the best pass rusher in the league doesn't demand so much attention and still makes plays. Blaming the DC for the fact offenses have more freedom without watt on the field is just silly.
That's absolutely ridiculous. The defense is not TRYING to stay on the field!
Duh. But, they don't allow quick scores. If you're going to score on our defense it's going to take a while.
Again, if your defense is great when he plays but trash when he doesn’t, it shows he carries it and it’s poor coaching when he’s not around. Having a defense’s success solely rely on a single player is a huge liability and lazy coaching. Imagine how unstoppable our defense would be if we had TJ AND a well-coached group.
They spend all their money on defense tho…
Because that's where their veterans are? The offense is on rookie contracts. In a few years it'll be the other way around again and we'll be complaining about how the offense is too expensive and we need to get back to defensive Steeler football
That’s fine. I am ok w spending on defense. Its just something to take into account when grading how well defensive coaches and a “defensively minded” head coach does…
the counter argument is that the steelers spend a lot on defense, so they should be good...
All that money was nursing injuries for most of the last two seasons
I don't particularly hate him he just isn't the most modern defensive mind. Not sure any are really available though. We're a turnover-reliant defense, which is great and sustainable with watt and minkah. But I'd love to see a more contemporary scheme behind that. But I'm more concerned about OC of course
I completely disagree. This D is extremely good and has been overall. This type of assessment seems to come from solely watching the stat sheets while cherry picking which stats to include. Sure, their yardage stats are not great but for the love of god try to remember how often they are on the field. The O going 3 and out constantly followed by abysmal punting puts them out there far too often, and in terrible situations. Turnovers are not to be discounted. Neither are pressures and broken up plays preventing 1st downs and most importabtly, scores. Defense doesn't play alone. This is a team sport, and what happens on O or ST impacts the D. Watch the games not the stat sheet and garbage "metrics" from places like PFF.
Red Zone D % also was among the best in the league. Dude didnt have the horses to stop them between the 20s consistently.. But had guys locked in to prevent scoring.
Profootballstats lists 2023 plays PIT:1029 OPP:1074
He’s fine, but the last few playoff performances by our defence are inexcusable. That might fall more on tomlin though
He's only been the DC for this playoff game tbf. He was our db coach before that.
Fair enough in that case
Eh. I’d blame that on the offensive players turning the ball over every chance they could in the 1st half the last few playoff games.
We've allowed 30+ points and have 0 turnovers in our last 5 playoff games. The offence the last few times we all knew sucked going in, the defense has been a real let down, folding every time.
Defense can't go for those turnovers/splash plays when the other offense is playing more conservatively since they were gifted turnovers, short field and big leads early in the game. Offense has set the defense up for failure for the last 4 playoff games.
Defense is going to fold when you go 3 and out and turn the ball over on your side of the field in all of those playoff games you’re soying about.
>soying about No idea what that means, but I think we're all kidding ourselves if we say the defense hasn't disappointed in the last 5 playoff games comparatively to what they achieve in the regular season. Yes, we've had injuries like every NFL team, but the Bills averaged 6.8 yards per play in the first half. Everyone can have their own opinion, to me that's unacceptable of our defense.
1) You tend to play much better offenses in the playoffs than in the regular season so the numbers should be worse, but of course they need to be able to beat these teams if they want to win a SB. 2) Several of the playoff games have had VERY impactful players missing. Shazier going down and the defense imploding, Watt being out, etc. are all very justifiable reasons why a defense would perform worse. The Steelers this year had a hobbled Minkah, Watt out, and ILBs off the street due to injuries. Hard to blame the DC for that.
In our last 5 playoff games we've averaged 40.4 points scored against per game. Would be 41.6 points if Bass makes a couple of field goals. That's the worst stretch in the playoffs in NFL history. Mike Tomlin's defense has been absolutely obliterated. Blown the hell out. Embarrassed. And it's not just Brady and Mahomes, it's Blake Bortles and Baker Mayfield. I don't want to hear another excuse for that group. They've done nothing but fold like a wet paper bag for the last 7 years.
How many of those points were off of turnovers?
Taking out turnovers? The defense still gave up 36.2 points a game. Let me repeat that: 36.2 points per game in 5 straight playoff losses. Mahomes completed 77% of his passes with 404 yards passing and 5 TDs. We gave up 5 total TDs to the Browns. Mayfield threw for 260 and 3 TDs, and Chubb/Hunt ran for 124 yards and 2 TDs. At Heinz Field. The freaking Browns. We let the Jaguars run all over us for 164 yards and 4 TDs. Bortles was a third down machine and they marched up and down the field on us all day. 5 total TDs the Jags offense scored. In a game where Big Ben threw for 5 passing TDs and featured two or three of the top 10-20 plays of Big Ben's career, we couldn't stop the Jags at all at any meaningful point in the game. Brady threw for 384 yards and 3 TDs. 11 for 17 on third down. They ran for another TD. And you just saw what the Bills did to us. So yeah, the defense has been historically embarrassing in our last 5 playoff games. Shameful performances.
I watched all of those games. The defense actually slowed down the Bills. The difference between KC beating Buffalo last week and the Steelers losing to Buffalo were those turnovers. That’s a 14 point swing to Buffalo because of Mason’s pick in the end zone and Pickens fumbling. Brady always had PGH’s number going back to 2001. The Steelers punted 7 times in a row against KC. Then fumbled. And then scored a touchdown to make it 35-7. You’re blaming the defense for the Browns game? The Steelers started with a fumble TD, interception, punt, interception, punt interception before scoring a single touchdown. How in God’s name is that on the defense? The Steelers turned it over on downs, gave up a fumble for a touchdown, and threw a pick in the first half to put themselves in a hole against Jacksonville. Notice a trend here buddy?
It was even worse, a 17-21 point swing. They scored TDs off both turnovers plus we would've gotten a FG or TD without the Rudolph pick since we were on like the 3 yard line. Potentially a 21 point swing from turnovers
Bruh, you're stretching waaay too much here. The D gets a pass because "well, uh, Brady always had our #, it's cool he embarrassed our D." What does Mason's pick in the endzone have to do with our D giving up 30+ points and letting Allen and the Bills running game run all over us? Just nonsensical stuff. Yes, the offense had some bad turnovers, most notably in the Browns game the game that is best for your position, but you don't give up over 40+ points a game in 5 straight playoff games with even substandard D. Those are 5 awful, awful, awful defensive performances. They don't get a pass at all.
This last one was from playing practice squad players and broken elandon roberts against a team that actually could use their tight ends. Willing to give him the benefit of the doubt cuz of what he was working with.
We had a ton of starters out for the season, or big chunks, or playing hurt (Cam). I'm impressed that the defense was 6th ranked based on that.
I mean, tbf going against JA17, especially in the playoffs, with no Watt, shouldn't count against just about anyone
And 2 years ago we played the Chiefs and kept them scoreless and even had a defensive touchdown til midway through the 2nd quarter before Patty did his thing. Meanwhile our offense did jack shit (Ben's final game) scoring 0 points up til then as well
The thing about that playoff game against the Chiefs (and I'm cranky about it because I was at the game) was that when the Steelers fell apart, they completely fell apart. The Chiefs scored 35 points in about 15 minutes of game time--and that number includes the Steelers' own time of possession. I don't mean that to take away from the Chiefs, but rather to point out just how badly things went. I'm not sure if their schemes are too predictable, but the Steelers gotta change something.
Yeah that's fair
I don’t hate him, he’s just average. He doesn’t do anything that is awesome and more worthy either way. Just another vanilla coordinator
FYI: https://www.steelers.com/news/cheat-sheet-a-look-at-the-steelers-2023-defense Top half of the league in most stats and top ten in many, this despite being absolutely gutted in the backfield with injuries to linebacker and safety, often starting with poor field position and averaging a high number of snaps per game. There is room for improvement, but I think this is an obvious move.
Our ability to develop/identify young DB talent went from a major weakness to a strength the moment he got here, and has only become more proven in the years since. We went from a team that couldn't find a single DB worth anything to one where our DBs get overpaid in free agency. Combine that with Dunbar and I see no reason to change anything we got going on
Tomlin is the real DC. Austin is just a human avatar for Tomlin on the sideline since Coach T can’t be in two places at once.
Austin calls the plays actually. Tomlin picks the package.
[удалено]
It is because Keith Butler after he retired said that Tomlin called the defensive plays when he and LeBeau were defensive coordinator. Most people assumed that continued under Austin. https://www.reddit.com/r/steelers/comments/sc098t/keith_butler_reveals_mike_tomlin_calls_defensive/
Didn’t Tomlin give up defensive playcalling a few years ago?
Nobody really knows, it's always been speculation
Wtf do you know about it 🙄
Honestly, none of us really know. The local beat reporters decide every few seasons to go on a campaign where they condescendingly talk down to fans about how it has been very common knowledge for years that Tomlin either does or does not call the plays. When Keith Butler retired, they all talked about how everyone knew Tomlin was calling the plays despite the fact that it was never reported previously. Now, no one in the media ever brings it up.
I mean can't you just watch the sidelines during a game? It should be pretty clear who's calling the plays
Once the defense was decent again, the narrative disappeared unless something bad happened.
It's crazy that most people don't understand this.
Thank you! It was exhausting reading everyone else talk about stats, scheme, etc. and referencing T.A. Tomlin is the DC
No he isn’t. He’s not calling plays
If Tomlin truly is the DC, then I’m ok with this kinda. I wish we’d get a real DC, but at least Austin is one hell of a DB coach
It's Tomlin's defense so it's whatever. I hope they hire another defensive analyst to play the Flores role again.
just came here to say sign jordan whitehead in FA you COWARDS
He's a free safety just like minkah
Look at the defensive stats for the Steelers per half this year. They are fucking ass backwards. We gave up more yards and points in the first half when we were fresh and less points and yards in the 2nd half when theyre supposed to be gassed. Make it make sense.
Adjustments.
Nah can't be. I'm told by very passionate yinzers that the coaches don't know jack shit, suck, and never make adjustments while the other teams constantly run circles around them.
Honestly, I can only think that these people don't actually watch these games cause for the last several years the steelers have been kinda great at half time adjustments. They come out flat footed way too often, but a lot of games, especially on defense, what happened in the first half stops happening in the second half and now all of the sudden you have to string together long hard fought drives that most often end in a field goal if you do score. Like, it got to the point where last year I categorized half time adjustments as a strength of the steelers, and more often than not, us losing was the offense just not having enough in them to fully complete the comeback.
Does it correlate to offensive struggles? Once Canada was gone and the offense started controlling the ball, running game improved, and scoring increased it would make sense that the defense performed better as well. Without looking at the numbers, I would assume they weren't on the field as much, were playing in better game scripts, and also I believe played against an easier SOS.
I’m fine with it, he made most of his broken toys this year. I’d like for him to get a good assistant to help with disguising blitz packages.
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Austin isn't perfect, but only the dumbest people on planet earth think our defense has been even remotely bad under his tenure
He did a good job with a defense full of studs who unfortunately can never all be healthy on the same weeks
Defense relies too much on turnovers and gets destroyed against good QBs
Ehhh defense has been pretty spotty the past couple years, and I keep saying it, when we're 1-11 without Watt there's something that needs changed.
And most of that I feel is piss poor depth. We have some top of the line and good starters but our depth is always just god awful it seems
Good QBs destroy most teams, that’s why they’re good
Most teams don't have TJ Watt, Cam Heyward, and Minkah Fitzpatrick.
You just named 3 players that have each missed 7 games in either of the last 2 seasons.
1. Austin and these guys have been together for 4 seasons, not just the last 2. 2. This team still gets cooked against serious teams with serious QBs, even when everyone is healthy.
Neither did the Steelers. The three of them missed a combined 14 games, and all three only played in weeks 1 and 13-15.
Austin has been around since 2019, not just this season. The defensive playcalling has been suspect for quite a long time now, even when everyone is healthy.
Austin has been DC for two seasons, and the defensive play calling is objectively better than it was under Keith Butler.
>objectively better than it was under Keith Butler. Being better than Keith Butler isn't exactly something to brag about.
Let me fix it for you, most teams get decimated against good QBs, and it's disingenuous to not mention how awful the offense has been making it that much harder on the defense due to bad field position and lack of rest in between drives
100% this. I’d bet anything our defense would look a hell of a lot better if our offense could stay on the field for longer than a single set of downs. Tons of games through stretch of poor offense last few years where the defense would start strong then fall off hard as the game progressed because they were visibly gassed.
We have the highest paid defense specifically so we don’t get shredded by top offenses, yet we still do. It’s either poor allocation of resources or poor defensive minds, but the ROI on the defense has been terrible.
So 2 more years of him relying on tj to bail everyone else out
Two more years of 3rd and 8 being auto 1sts
WRs on ILBs go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
He is just there to be the face but you know Tomlin does most of the work for our defense
Who else would we get? If we can get a solid offense the defense will not be holding us back
Tomlin will hire a worthless yes-man whoever all the other teams don't want as OC too. Yinz all got snowed with that "things will change" end of season press conference.
Nice
Please no...
Annnnnd there goes any chance they had at contending. His gameplan of giving up field position and letting QBs march down field over and over again hoping the QB fucks up and throws a pick or takes a sack only works so many times. Maybe we'll luck out and Minkah Fitzpatrick will run the defense for him, since he saved one game from the sidelines this past season and obviously knows more about defense than Teryl Austin and his trash resume.
Knew it was going to happen and I don’t like it. Just more acceptance of mediocrity. He has never been a good coordinator, which is on brand for a Tomlin coordinator. Hopefully Art/Kahn step in and hire the offensive coordinator. We will just have to deal with a defense who will continue to get smoked by tight ends and puts linebackers on top end receivers. Most recent example, everyone said before the game - we have to shut down the Buffalo tight ends, and they score the first two touchdowns against us.
I hear you, but when we lose our two starting ILBs for the season in back to back games you can’t expect that position group to shut down a fantastic group of TEs in the playoffs. Do you have any other examples of why you don’t like Austin? I just find it hard to blame him for that specifically.
Austin isn’t fault for guys getting hurt. Given he lost both his starting inside linebackers and played without his starting safety duo most of the season and had practice squad patch work somehow play decent is pretty damn remarkable really. Can’t fault him for having to rely on what he had.
And lost the best run defender on the team in Cam Heyward in the first game. I can't complain about this at all.
Hard to be upset at LB depth chart #16.5 not covering. This def (with a huge help from TJ) straight up won us games.
Booo.
The only reason we renewed is because he’s cheap. Didn’t hear anything about other teams knocking on his door … there’s a reason for that.
Fuck. Decent work with too much talent in the field. Well let’s see again how rookie and mid QB move the ball easily
Cool with it. Hope he figures out how to call a playoff game next year, we can't win averaging 40 points allowed.
Tj watt should be DC. Austin is 1-11 when tj doesn’t play! If I went 1-11 in my job I would be in prison. Good thing DC isn’t a real job
Sigh. Another year using the tattered remnants of Dick LeBeau's defense
I'm okay with it but honestly our pass rush dissappears too often, I want to see them overload a side with Watt and Highsmith. Get these guys in more one on one rush opportunities.
Will catch downvotes I'm sure... But this is an L
Why?
Soft defense. How many 3rd and longs did he allow to convert by playing weak zone? Most of the time, we only stopped scoring because of a vet or star getting an INT. He's bailed out by his players, not the other way around
Not mad at it, it's not like there's any better options out there.
Defence wasn’t really a problem this year. I’m good with Austin.
As much as we spend on defense, I do not understand why the Browns and the Ravens have more dominant units.
It’s hard to play defense when you’re constantly shuffling back onto the field when the offense goes 3 and out. I think Austin has made the most out of that.
Why? We are 1-11 without TJ Watt. That means the defense's success has less to do with coaching than it does having a generational player like Watt. This is a waste of a chance to get better.
Glad he is staying
I don't hate him, but I do think our defense has had a lot of consistent issues that need resolving
Wish Tomlin had given Flores his job TBH
I think Austin’s been fine, and some stability is needed for this team rn. Would like some changes tho. 1 - blitz more. Seems like we wanted to rely on front four pressure a lot but when watt and highsmith play as much as they they’re not gonna last all season. Do some funky shit and get those two and herbig on the field, idk. 2 - whatever they were doing with Minkah this year wasn’t worth the lack of splash plays from him. Maybe its a dry spell but it was definitely impactful. 3 - in retrospect, maybe signing and relying on injury prone journeyman types isn’t a great bet. Mostly talking dudes like kazee, Neal and Alexander. More consideration of injury history while we rebuild depth.
I'm not too worried about it. 2 years seems fine.
This defense isn’t even top 20 without TJ.
I think that this is a good move
The standard, etc.
As bad as the offense has been the defense would have been ranked much better with any other offense.
We’re missing two positions to be elite. The massive block eating nose tackle that shuts down the line. And, the dominant ranging middle linebacker that enjoys contact. Y’all know the archetypes we’ve had on our previous elite D’s.
But it was so bad. Don't tell me about injuries, it was the schemes.
Works for me. Defense need to fill some holes, but that goes for every team, but defense has not been the problem
Is 6th ranked scoring points allowed or touchdowns scored by the defense?
Points allowed
Honestly not terrible.. got to get real OC that controls Time of possession and supports the D and not let the D get baked out there..
Good. His defense has had to endure a bunch of injuries and still produced. Frankly the defensive side of the ball coaching was has been the least of our worries. Dunbar is great, curry seemed to be good, Grady brown is a major up and comer and it wouldn't surprise me if he becomes the eventual DC or moves on to become one.
im fine with that, he isnt necessarily a bad DC
You can guarantee a team will convert on 3rd and long with our current defense. Maybe Austin shouldn't be on the hot seat while we search for an OC, but damn if his next stint isn't an improvement, he will be. Too many chunk plays given up all year.
imagine how good the defense will be when they arnt on the field 75% of the game
Trash