Home Steelers 2015 Season The Steelers’ Secondary is a Trainwreck

The Steelers’ Secondary is a Trainwreck

by Steeldad

With all due respect to current flavor of the month Amy Schumer, the real Trainwreck is not her movie – it’s the secondary of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

This unit for the Steelers is not good. They can’t cover and they can’t tackle and last I checked those two things are pretty darn vital if you want to be a good unit. But like a trainwreck we can’t look away. Every time we think we’ve seen one before we see another and we are left shaking our heads. Still, we just can’t help but strain our necks to see the carnage left in the wake of another wide receiver running freely in the secondary.

Can we please stop celebrating how wonderful Antwon Blake is? Not only does he struggle to cover anyone but his tackling style would be included in every “how not to tackle” video seen by young players nationwide. Approaching your target by keeping your arms inside and aiming with a shoulder as if it were a spear is not how to tackle.

Oh sure, when he lays a lick on a guy it looks awesome doesn’t it? The problem is that this happens far less than his missed tackles.

Opposite Blake is Ross Cockrell who must have watched Blake’s instructional video. How many times did Cockrell whiff on tackles along the sideline yesterday? Yet people complain about Pedro Alvarez whiffing too much.

Just as troubling is the fact that both of these guys struggle with zone discipline. Rather than be where they are supposed to they drift and they create massive openings for receivers. Credit the Seahawks for exposing this. They constantly targeted Blake and Cockrell and who wouldn’t? Even the ridiculously bad Phil Simms was picking up on it from the TV booth.

The Steelers’ Will Allen has not played nearly as well as he did prior to his ankle injury. I respect him a great deal for playing hurt but isn’t Rob Golden a better option than a less than 100% Allen? Mike Mitchell looked a lot more like the ‘Mike Mitchell’ we saw last year in the loss to Seattle. His excitement after stopping a player for a ten-yard gain or more continues to just amaze and amuse me to no end.

What doesn’t do anything for me are the continued bad pursuit angles by the secondary and the inability to make a play on the ball without getting lucky. If you watched Seattle’s defensive backs they put on a clinic on how to play the ball. How many times did Martavis Bryant get stripped of a sure reception?

Mike Tomlin and Defensive Coordinator Keith Butler both share blame for the personnel on the field and for the less than stellar play but the guy that will no doubt be the fall guy is Defensive Backs’ Coach Carnell Lake. We must separate our love for Lake as a former Steelers’ player and focus on what he’s done as a coach.

The bottom line is that this secondary has not improved through the season and doesn’t that have to do with coaching? With five games left my advice is to not hurt yourself looking away from this trainwreck.

photo courtesy seattletimes.com

You may also like

5 comments

Ben Anderson November 30, 2015 - 7:24 pm

I wonder if Lake’s criteria for someone playing badly, in order to try Boykin, has been met.

steeldad November 30, 2015 - 7:25 pm

LoL… My gut feeling is they still won’t play him. If he goes out there and does well, can you imagine the “told you so’s” from everyone?

Ben Anderson November 30, 2015 - 8:13 pm

That shower of told you sos will arrive if he goes elsewhere and plays even competently.

Jeffrey Koch November 30, 2015 - 9:49 pm

I was so sick by the end of the game watching Blake try to tackle by hitting them with his shoulder. Last time I check, James Harrison did NOT become a Great player by bumping a player with his shoulder. HEY BLAKE open your arms up and hug someone. I have said this all year, Tomlin needs to suck it up and inset Boykin or we will be watching the playoffs from the outside looking in, OH WAIT, thats what were doing now thanks to Tomlin & Staff…

steeldad November 30, 2015 - 10:34 pm

We’ve beaten the Boykin drum all year Jeffrey with no success. My feeling is very simple; if Boykin plays worse than what we’ve seen I’ll shut up. Keep in mind too that Boykin would likely be a slot CB so replacing Blake might not happen.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.