I’m really struggling to understand how our Pack could come out and play defense the way they did against the Steelers.
I don’t watch a lot of Steelers games but a couple weeks ago they were on primetime and I knew we were facing them soon so I figured I would watch the game. Almost immediately, I could tell their running backs would give us trouble. Warren especially as he was giving me Aaron Jones vibes.
Here’s what makes no sense to me. Going into the Steelers game, the Steelers offense is known for not being good. But they do have some good running backs. If you’re a defensive coordinator, wouldn’t you go into this game saying, “If we get beat. It’s not going to be on the ground. We’re not going to make it easy on them.” ?
How do you not come out, sell out against the run and cover everything underneath (having nobody covering the underneath checkdowns was also brutal), making Kenny Pickett have to try to beat you deep?
I guess I just don’t get it. Wouldn’t allowing them to constantly run for 5-10 yards, and then when they do pass, allowing another 5-10 yards before we even have a defender in the area be making it the absolute easiest we could possibly make it for a struggling offense to succeed against us?
Does he not specifically plan for the opponent we’re about to face? Is there no strategy? If seems like we trot out the same base nickel defense every week and he just tells our guys good luck.
I understand playing preventative defense against a QB like Mahomes. But how is it not obvious to our coordinator that going into that Steelers game, Warren and the run game was what we had to prioritize stopping first?
I just don’t get it man. What are we doing out there?
TL DR; fire Joe Barry.
Yes. I could definitely see Joe Barry thinking that.
I assume other teams have been prioritizing stopping the run and daring Pickett to have a career game and beat them (sure it’s a possibility but given everything we know, isn’t very likely.)