Can Keith Butler Do What Dick Lebeau Never Could on Thursday Night?

Steelers’ new defensive coordinator Keith Butler likely knows he has some huge shoes to fill in taking over the positions held by Dick Lebeau since 2004.

Butler is definitely not in an enviable position, taking over a very young squad, with some pretty glaring holes all over the roster. Making things worse, Butler’s first test comes against a team that has completely decimated the Steelers’ stop unit in recent history.

All of that being said, if Keith Butler would like to endear himself to Steeler Nation, he could do it pretty quickly if he can figure out a puzzle that Dick Lebeau just never seemed able to.

To be fair, Dick Lebeau did go against his own tendencies and beat Tom Brady and the Patriots in 2011 at Heinz Field. Other than that, Tom Brady made Lebeau’s scheme look like a High School squad. The most recent example coming in 2013 when Brady threw for 432 yards, 4 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions.

Bill Belichick figured out how to beat the Steelers’ defense long before the rest of the NFL caught up. Back when Casey Hampton anchored a defense that nobody ran on, Belichick said to hell with keeping them honest and using a balanced game plan. He’d let Tom drop back 40+ times and take underneath stuff all day long. In Brady’s career, they’ve essentially used that plan every game (although, recently running on them has also become easier).

Let me just say, I’m not feeling very optimistic about Thursday night. Pretty much every offense the Steelers faced in pre-season completely picked them apart. I think that the defense will really struggle to slow down Brady.

That being said, Butler needs to go with an aggressive scheme, and really work to throw the Pats receivers off their timing routes. That’s what Lebeau did the one time he was successful against them.

I think that Butler has some sort of plan that hasn’t been revealed yet.

Cornerback Antwon Blake said this week that he thinks he’s starting on Thursday. That has me thinking that Cortez Allen could be the 3rd corner in the game, which means he’ll play in the slot a lot.

In Cortez Allen’s rookie season, he played a fantastic game against Rob Gronksowski. The hope is that his combo of size and speed can matchup with the all pro tight end.

I guess to put it simply, Keith Butler is greatly outmatched in talent by the Patriots offense, so he has to get creative in finding ways to slow them down. He does have a bit of an advantage, in that the Patriots have never seen any of his stuff before.

I think that he’ll get some more “run support” later in the year, to use a baseball term, when the Steelers get all of their weapons back, but I would throw out everything he’s got in this game. Don’t save it for later in the year.

We’ll see very soon if Butler is up for the task.