What’s wrong with the Steelers? – Part 2
This is Part 2 of a multi-part series that is intended to identify what went wrong with the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2009 season. If you haven’t read Part 1 yet, please click here.
In Part 1 of this series, we talked about the Steelers’ poor special teams play. Now it’s time to look at the second factor that has led to the Steelers’ apparent collapse.
Factor #2 – Age and conditioning.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin once declared that “Steelers football is 60 minutes”. When you think about it, that was a really good quote. REALLY good. I got all warm and fuzzy when I heard him say it. My chest swelled with pride as I envisioned the Black and Gold giving everything they have until the final whistle blows.
The only problems is that Tomlin’s declaration wasn’t true. Steelers football is not 60 minutes. Steelers football is 45 minutes.
Anyone who has watched the Steelers this season knows that the 4th quarter has been a disaster for the team. Fans got used to being taken to the brink of cardiac arrest during 4th quarters this year. Some even openly declared that they couldn’t bear to watch the Steelers during the 4th quarter because it was too stressful.
This wasn’t just perception. It was fact. The Steelers allowed opponents to score a total of 139 points on them during the first 3 quarters this year. Yet for some odd reason, the Steelers have given up almost as many points (105) in the 4th quarter and overtime. A full 43% of the total points that have been scored against them have occurred AFTER the 3rd quarter.
Statistically speaking, we would expect the team to give up 25% of their points in each quarter. Yet for some reason the Steelers give up 72% more points during the 4th quarter than a natural distribution curve would predict. Why has this been happening?
The most obvious theory would be age. After all, during the off-season we spent quite a bit of time discussing the age of the Steelers defensive front 3. Aaron Smith, Casey Hampton, and Brett Keisel are all over 31 years old. So are their primary back-ups Travis Kirschke, Chris Hoke, and Nick Eason. Rookie Ziggy Hood is the only member of the Steelers front line rotation who is not in the 30+ club.
Linebackers James Harrison and James Farrior are also on the wrong side of 30.
However, age doesn’t seem to be the real problem. Before getting hurt, Aaron Smith was having a very solid season. Brett Keisel is probably having the best season of his career. And James Harrison looks just as dominant as he did last year.
Casey Hampton and James Farrior do look like age may be having an impact. Hampton hasn’t looked dominant in recent years. Be honest, would you rather have Casey Hampton or Shaun Rodgers? Casey Hampton or Haloti Ngata? Yeah, that’s what I thought. That’s probably why the Steelers have not offered Hampton a contract extension.
Perhaps the biggest change can be seen in James Farrior. Farrior seems to have aged in dog years since last season. He consistently misses plays that he used to make. Anytime we see Farrior shadowing a running back in the backfield, we know that something bad is about to happen. Do you remember what happened when Farrior shadowed Ray Rice? Aaaargh!
Steelers LB James Farrior
But age can’t explain why LaMarr Woodley, Lawrence Timmons, Ike Taylor, William Gay, and Ryan Clark don’t seem to be effective in the 4th quarter either. They’re all relatively young players.
Could the problem be conditioning?
After a grueling training camp during his first season as head coach, Mike Tomlin has eased up drastically on the intensity of training camp. Moreover, he routinely excuses veteran players from practice during the week in order to save them for the game. Perhaps this practice isn’t as beneficial as it’s intended to be.
It’s impossible to assign causality for the Steelers’ 4th quarter collapses. However, one thing is very clear. The Steelers are not the same team during the 4th quarter that they are during the first 3 quarters.
Perhaps Dick LeBeau needs to be more liberal in his substitutions in order to give the players more rest so they’ll be fresher during the 4th quarter. Or perhaps the Steelers just need to continue injecting youth into the defense.
Contrary to Mike Tomlin’s assertion, Steelers football is NOT 60 minutes. However, it needs to be. So do something about it, Coach. That’s why you’re paid the big bucks.
(If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment below. Also, please subscribe to our blog by pressing the orange button below. You can also follow us on Facebook or Twitter by clicking the doohickies at the bottom of the right column of this page. Thanks.)
My 2 cents: 4th Quarter defensive collapses are a definite problem but I’m not sure age/conditioning is a factor for anyone other than Farrior.
After having a monster year last year, Farrior has indeed missed some plays in the 4th Quarter. Our primary weakness, however, has been in the secondary where age isn’t an issue (as you point out).
I don’t think the training camp / veteran days off are much of an issue either. They did the same thing last year and it worked well. I think it is needed to preserve the vet’s bodies (and help counter possible effectrs of age).
Conditioning during the year could definitely be an issue but, as fans, there is really no way for us to determine it.
Increased substitutions (or the lack thereof) is something to examine. Does LeBeau have something against making substitutions or is it a sign of a general lack of depth?
For example, in the secondary you can substitute Mundy for Clark or Burnett for Gay…but then they fail to make the plays as well.
1Guys,
Why do we always look at the defense as the problem during a 4th quarter meltdown? If the offense could put games away that should easily be put away then the D could give up some junk yardage and scores here and there.
Our offense has put our defense on the field way too much this year. Conditioned or not you can’t expect a defensive unit for any team to be solid constantly running on the field after 3 and outs over and over. Not much time comes off a clock when you are passing 65-70% of the time.
2I don’t think we are ‘always’ looking at the defense. Criticism of the offense is likely coming.
I do think, however, that we are focusing a bit more on the defense due to the disparity between this year and last year. Last year, the defense regularly shut down opponents in the 4th quarter. Now, we seem to have become a doormat. And we were actually a worse running team last year.
The occasional poor play of the offense can’t be ignored but the defensive lapses can’t be either.
After this series is completed I think we will find that ST, Defense, Offense, and coaching all had a part to play. While we have strengths in all of these units, our weaknesses have overshadowed them over the last 5 games.
3tony has a good point, and I would extend that logic to last season. The defense played way too much last year, in part due to too much passing, and second due to defending short fields after woeful Berger punts. They can’t be asked to play at that level for consecutive seasons without an infusion of new talent. Since they don’t go after free agents, they have to wait for low round players to develop, while other teams are now on the rise, getting the Halls, Reavises, Jenkinses, etc. When’s the last time the Steelers drafted a DB that won a collegiate award? This decline could be a blessing in disguise if it puts them in the middle rounds. We know they can draft, and a better place at the table could provide the chance to load up for the future.
4Tony,
John hit the nail on the head. The offense is going to take their share of the credit. In fact, they are going to take a LOT of the credit. I’m just building up to that. But I definitely plan to talk about the percentage of passes versus runs, the offense’s red zone failures, and Bruce Arians’ play calling.
Trust me, the offense is not going to get off easy.
5I can’t wait, donald! slurp slurp
Hey, one thing I would like to know and maybe you have the video to research it. What is the effectiveness of play calling between Arians and when Ben calls his own plays in no huddle?
Could be very interesting.
6I agree that Farrior has probably hit the wall. Too many times this season I have seen him miss a tackle or fall behind a running back on a pass and get smoked. He has been a great player, but we need to put some youth there. That may be easier said than done. Are we going into the draft looking at the defense, because we need to. We need to add another youngster on the line and we must add a safety. We added some young cornerback’s last year and we need to see what they can do. Arian’s needs to go.
7I’m not sure that tony is still veiwing this article but I will say that the defense is definitely the biggest problem of the team. I know special teams have allowed some game changing instances but Polamalu’s absence has basically taken the mask off of a very weak secondary. We have no elite corners or even above average corners. Everyone wants Ike Taylor to be one of those guys but he’s not. He may have the height and speed to allow him to disrupt an occasional play but he’s not solid. You hear how he does’nt have the hands then get him out there and practice, practice, practice. As for the other corners they dont even deserve mention until the do something that make a QB think before throwing in their direction. Age is a factor because either they’re getting less aggresive or they cant push to get to the QB. How many times have you seen the other defence run in on Ben when they need it? Our defence does not show that same ability especially in the 4th QTR. Sacks happen but when is the last time that you’ve seen any game changing sacks, you know the ones that stop a drive when we really need them? As far as the offense putting games away, are you kidding most teams have been put away in the first half. We have a QB with the top 3 rating, one WR with over a thousand yards and another about to achieve the same and a RB that didn’t start the season but is over 900yds and nocking on 1000. The offense has had it’s problems, bad protection and holding on the ball to long even needing a real pile moving back but they are not the main problem. The offense has done what it can do with it’s shortcomings and have been successful. The offense starts the game with most successful teams and the defense finishes it and our defense is not finishing.
8Fourth quarter collapses have definitely plagued us. One stat I’m surprised you didn’t mention is that in most if not all our losses we have led in the fourth quarter.
I think the bulk of the problem is pass defense. Tyrone Carter can barely go hashmark to hashmark, much less sideline to sideline, and we’re further straining our CB’s by a much weaker pass rush than last year. Neither Harrison nor Woodley has produced as consistently or voluminously as last year, and Harrison has been almost absent since the bye.
9I think that steeler football needs to be looked at hard but NFL new rules makes it harder for players like palamalu and james Harrison who will knock your head off your shoulder. What happen to steeler power running is mendehall all they have for running back. Bring back the BUS
10