@mudfly said:

I don't have the answers Mud. I'm just gonna think out loud here and hope it doesn't sound like a bunch of noise pollution.

Des Bryant wasn't their guy but he's another big contract we're eating and they're playing him. Like last year, I'm seeing a lot of trouble at the 5 techniques. I'm fine if they want a 2 gap but we gotta get better at pushing the OTs backward to make the RBs belly back when offenses want to run off tackle and sweeps. It's been inconsistent at best IMO. This Cooper they wanted to draft so badly only gets reps when they kick Des Bryant inside. One of things they are either going to learn the hard way or punt their careers away with stupidity is the frequency of subbing their dline during series. I can't say that enough.

K. Williams is talented but he gets injured way too frequently to count on consistently. Starks hasn't played bad at all in my opinion. Whitner leads us in tackles; but unfortunately I think he also leads us in missed tackles. Dansby scores more TDs than Gabriel and graded out good last year. Kirksey shows me some progress. Robertson was showing me a lot of progress especially in 2014 before he got hurt playing well this year. Again, O'Neil was a LBer coach when Alonso was an AFC Defensive Rookie of the Year so I'm not as worried about LBer. Gipson was unhappy with his contract and he's been injured a lot this year. Haden has been injured more this year than any season I can remember. As a team coming from 4-12 when this staff got here - this isn't the type of team that can afford all this and progress.

And Mingo? While I don't see a lot of him out there - he's batted down a pass in the red zone flats 1 week and got our offense the ball at Denver's 39 yard line in OT. When you have a flipper - it's kind of tough to give us a lot of text book tackles in space. OLBers in Pittsburgh traditionally learned watching a Pro Bowl LBer before it was their turn to start and make Pro Bowls. They get a few training camps under their belts and a lot of film study before they're ready to play fast when it's their turn. I can see this type of process for a guy like Orchard.

I'm not sure what the fascination was with Scott Solomon to be honest. Not only that, but the practice squad LBer we showed me a lot better first step instinct than Tank Carder ever has to date. Being a good Special Teamer saved Tank 1 more year.

Last year, I liked Kruger a lot better than the PFF criteria did. This year? He's taking angles at the QB rather than clamping in from the depth of QB drop way too frequently and we're losing contain because of it.Even worse, when he's bellyaching to the press about us being predictable rather than speaking up to a Captain or Coach - I'm disappointed in the accountability of a well paid veteran like that.

That Rams team we just lost to - is either in the 3rd or 4th season of Jeff Fisher. They didn't always rank good vrs the run there either while Chris Long took a few seasons before he started to look like DE he became last year.

We have a 2nd year HC, 2nd year DC and 1st year OC that = inevitable growing pains. Maybe the thing to do is get an experienced DC with hybrid fronts. I don't have the answer.

@tour2ma said:

Good question. The signs are written in a language I don't speak fluently. I wish I had a better answer than I'm about to give here.

There are some examples but not enough. Last year, I loved what our defense looked like vrs Indy, the 2nd half of our opener, the second half of our comeback vrs TN, the 2nd Pittsburgh game, the first Cincy game as we improved from the 4 wins in 2013. In that Indy game, our DBs had about 10k on their legs in that 2nd half our offense had very few first downs and minimal time of possession.

This year, how many times have we seen this secondary? J. Haden, T. WIlliams, D. Whitner, T.Gipson and K. Williams. There's been lots of games we've only seen 2 of the 5, which is important considering the Secondary was what set up a lot Pettine's success as a DC in NY. When the injuries occur, I don't what changes they're making.

Another thing I notice is when our offensive line is flat lining like the Houston game last year - the defensive front also flat lines. We competed in a lot of games last year, but that Houston game wasn't one of them.

Shelton, Solomon, Starks, Kirksey, Whitner, Gilbert, Williams 1, Williams2, Dansby ......and they even got 'their guy' Mingo free....

So, not adjusting scheme?.....or picking the wrong guys?.......hm, dunno......stumped

@flugel said:

I liked what Pettine looked like as NY's DC when he had the best personnel fit for his defense.

IMO, our problem has been getting the personnel fit.

But what are the signs that Pet/O'Neil have adjusted their scheme to fit the defensive players we have?

@tim-couch-pulls-out said:

So did Bill Belichick and we didn't make the playoffs until his 4th or 5th season with a staff that had guys like Nick Saban, Ozzie Newsome and Kirk Frentz (who's 8-0 in the recruiting attraction of the cornfields of Iowa). These start-overs requiring personnel overhauls more compatible with new philosophies never get off the ground if new coaches are only getting 1-2 years because inexperienced owners are knee jerking at inevitable growing pains.

I liked what Pettine looked like as NY's DC when he had the best personnel fit for his defense.

IMO, our problem has been getting the personnel fit. I noticed they brought in a lot of WRs that were 6"3" and taller this offseason in an attempt to improve our red zone targets. The problem was the choices of the person empowered to get those guys. The best football of Hartline and Bowe is in the rear view mirror; and Farmer overpaid for both guys. Vince Mayle wasn't exactly a priority as our 2nd of two 4th round picks with only 2 years of football on his resume. And has anyone signed T. Pryor yet? Okay, so what we did with our analysis of 8 TD receptions from the WR Corps in 2014 is bring in a bunch of taller targets with zero upside.

That leads us to a coaching staff working around why the phuck Bowe is still employed where he's guaranteed the money or not. It's a roster spot that maybe a guy like Lenz could fill? Oh wait, he has heart and soul while Bowe doesn't. Why pay a guy humbled prices that's willing to sweat when Bowe won't break a sweat until it's time to pack his bags? The GOOD news is the catch radius of Gary Barnidge is getting tapped better than it ever has in his career while someone finally decided we might want to play Travis Benjamin a little more.

@medicineman said:

Maybe we can have another bottlegate for him since he called it the best Cleveland game.

I'm hoping they would serve some 32 oz glass bottles this time around.

And Pet handled the QB situation much better once he made his initial decision in pre-season.

@miktoxic said:

coulda shoulda woulda.

palmer goes down again and kiss their season goodbye, and they have much more talent than us, and no he didn't draft them all so...............

wasn't the OP piping the charms of o'brien who looks worse than any coach right now in the NFL?

I like O'Brien.

You think he handled his QB controversy any better than Pettine did last year?

@miktoxic said:

poor art must be rolling around in his piss soaked grave.

@miktoxic said:

That cracked me up!

the closest thing to the perfect coach in the NFL is belichick and someone had to give him a shot. too bad that person is the same that moved the team from cleveland to baltimore.

poor art must be rolling around in his piss soaked grave.

palmer goes down again and kiss their season goodbye, and they have much more talent than us, and no he didn't draft them all so...............

wasn't the OP piping the charms of o'brien who looks worse than any coach right now in the NFL?

@westside-steve said:

He gave up his college head coaching stint at Temple due to Health reasons, but that was back in the late 80's.

@westside-steve said:

Not that I know of.....you might be thinking of Chuck Pagano who is likely to also be unemployed soon.

WSS

@medicineman said:

If we keep changing coaches every other year we will never go anywhere.

I agree wholeheartedly.

But this was an article published today, before our game against the Cardinals, so I felt it was a damn sight more apt topic than "Here is why McCown Sucks".

@diehardbrownsfan said:

Just when you couldn't look like a bigger negative asshole...you outdo yourself again asshat. Tell me again why you're here since you clearly hate everything to do with this team.