Reasons for Steelers Super Bowl drought: Part two

Was the “Zone Blitz” scheme risk, reward, or both?

The simplistic answer is any scheme is inherently risky because, in the NFL, you can’t just sit back and play coverage the entire game, unless you have the Steel Curtain defense at your disposal.  While we were not able to cajole “Mean Joe” Greene out of retirement in 2008, the Steelers did have the number one ranked defense in both Points Against (points scored by the opponents) and Yards (gained by the opponents).

So what is a “zone blitz” scheme?  Since I am not a defensive guru, I will attempt to explain it as I watched it, from a fan’s perspective.  The “zone blitz” is a scheme where a defender whom the opposing offense may not consider a threat to blitz does just that.  When said defender blitzes, another defender occupies the zone that was left vacant by the blitzing defender.

It also is a scheme where the blitzing defender’s zone has to be covered by someone else.  Additionally, there are those designed blitz packages where the “kitchen sink” is sent and the only defenders in coverage are 2 DB’s and a Safety, for example.

The “zone blitz” scheme was quite successful during Coach LeBeau’s reign. During his tenure (2004-2014), the defense would finish with the following rankings in Points Against and Yards:

2004-1st and 1st;

2005-3rd and 4th;

2006-11th and 9th:

2007-2nd and 1st;

2008-1st and 1st;

2009-12th and 5th;

2010-1st and 2nd;

2011-1st and 1st;

2012-6th and 1st;

2013-14th and 13th;

2014-18th and 18th

When you have a top (10) defense in (7) out of (11) years under the same D-coordinator, win one Super Bowl and appear in only one more during that time, I don’t think you can blame the defensive scheme for that.  You can; however, blame, what appeared to me as a fan without any way of knowing what the calls were on defense during a particular game, maybe a lack of creativity in changing up the “blitz” packages. Here’s what I mean by that:

For virtually the entire (11) years that Coach LeBeau was the D-coordinator, the Steelers were in the base “3-4” on first and second downs, then in “Nickel” (5 DB’s) or in “Dime” (6 DB’s) on third down.  The blitzes were creative, for sure, especially when we did the “walk around” type of alignment-one down lineman and everyone else on the front seven walking around so the opposing O-line couldn’t get a bead on who was blitzing.

As the defense got older; however, it seemed to me that the Steelers kept deploying the same blitz packages and expecting the same results.  Quite frankly, in Coach LeBeau’s last two seasons with us (2013 and 2014), it was hard to watch at times as the defense suffered a precipitous drop in playmaking ability. The Steelers finished with back-to-back 8-8 records in 2012 and in 2013.  Although we rebounded in 2014, we lost to the Baltimore Ravens in the Wild Card round 17-30.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Coach LeBeau; I admire him both as a Hall of Fame player and the engineer of some truly stellar defenses during his tenure.  Unfortunately, there were always those moments when we gave up a big play at an inopportune moment.

Although the Steelers ultimately won Super Bowl XLIII, that fourth-quarter TD that Larry Fitzgerald caught on a slant route and split the middle of the defense was truly deflating for me.  James Farrior blitzed, Ike Taylor was late to cover Fitzgerald, it looked like James Harrison was the “trailer” (trailing linebacker) and Ryan Clark and Troy were nowhere to be found until it was too late.  Again, that is my recollection and perspective of the play.

My immediate thought was this: Why did James Farrior blitz and not James Harrison?  Why did Ike take an outside posture on a slant route? Where were Ryan and Troy? Admittedly, I do not know what the call was on that play. For all I know, everyone was where they were supposed to be, but it resulted in a go-ahead TD that made the game closer than it had to be.

The other play I will never forget is the final play against the Denver Broncos in the playoffs following the 2011 season. With the Broncos deep in their own territory, the first play of overtime was an (80) yard TD pass from Tim Tebow to Demaryius Thomas.

All I remember thinking about that play was this: After being down 6-20 at one point, we tied it up only to lose it on a play where we purposely called a “zero coverage” defense; a defense where there was no deep safety? Let’s just call that what it was-a terrible call.  “Cover 1” (single high safety) would have been risky, but it would have been a better call, in hindsight.  So that loss was on the Steelers defense; a defense that finished with the number one ranking in both points allowed and yards surrendered.  How did the Steelers lose that game?  I still can’t reconcile that loss.

So how have we fared post Coaches Arians and LeBeau?