Defense not in the zone in tough loss to Ravens

By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Did success against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots spoil the Steelers pass defense Sunday night against the Baltimore Ravens?

The Steelers tactics on defense Oct. 30 against Brady were hailed for shutting down one of the great passers in NFL history. The Steelers, who usually play plenty of zone defense in the secondary behind Dick LeBeau's famed fire-zone blitzes, did little of that while beating New England, 25-17, and holding Brady to 198 yards passing.

Instead they played more man-to-man, their cornerbacks coming closer to the line of scrimmage opposite the receivers in what is known as "press" coverage.

And, likely under the theory that if it ain't broke, don't fix it, they played a lot of that same defense against Joe Flacco and the Ravens.

Only this time, Flacco torched them. He completed 28 of 47 passes for 300 yards and he converted 14 of 21 third downs, the most conversions in Ravens history.

Despite his success, the Steelers played that defense right up until the bitter end, with corners playing man-to-man press coverage as Baltimore swept downfield from its 8 and moved in for the kill.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11312/1188283-66.stm?cmpid=steelers.xml#ixzz1d5qNTrTD

Oh, I don't know they were in the zone...




the end zone.

Sorry I couldn't resist

I hope the defense took this as a hard lesson. They played well for the majority of the game, they just didn't play well enough on the last drive. All I have to say is- it's going to be scary times when we have Woodley and Harrison back together.