Re: ESPN 2K11 Rosters by Rickster101
Pittsburgh Steelers:
Defense:As always, the Steelers come into the season with a front seven that produces ridiculous effectiveness against the run and pass through Dick LeBeau's concepts of situational defense and positional confusion. Like Dom Capers and Rex Ryan, LeBeau is never so happy as when he's messing with your head. Lately, he's done less single-down-lineman and moving cow stuff simply because he's got the horses to run a 5-2 set on every down and still beat your brains in with it. Outside linebackers James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley present an unsolvable quandary for opposing offensive tackles. Harrison is a brutally effective pass rusher with underrated pass-reading skills (think of the long interception in Super Bowl XLIII), while Woodley may be the best OLB in the league when it comes to dropping into the flat and seam in one of LeBeau's zone blitzes.
There's some legitimate concern about the age of the interior defense, but it's a tough group with a comprehensive knowledge of what LeBeau wants to do, and Lawrence Timmons is a young force at ILB. Each of these defenses has a wild-card player in the defensive backfield who can do just about anything, and the Steelers' version might be just a hair (ha!) more effective. LeBeau has said that he gives Troy Polamalu more of a green light to freelance based on what he sees than any player he's ever coached, and Polamalu has rewarded him with a career of superlative plays, inevitably mixed with a few mighty whiffs. The Steelers finished first overall in FO's defensive metrics, and there's a reason for that — there isn't anything they don't either do very very, or know how to mask.
Offense: Everyone wants to talk about the Steelers' history of smashmouth … but as Alice In Chains sang long ago, it ain't like that anymore. They'll still run the trap and the two-back mashup, but offensive coordinator Bruce Arians has continued the Ken Whisenhunt tradition of more multi-receiver sets, blocking concepts out of bunch formations, and many more schematic sets designed to spread out a defense. The Steelers ranked fifth last year in frequency of four-receiver formations, went single-back almost 70 percent of the time, and ran bunch/trips sets as often as any team in the league. One idea the Steelers have enjoyed since the Santonio Holmes days is to put Hines Ward and at least one tight end in a bunch to one side, and then have the speed receiver blow up single coverage to the other side. It worked for Holmes, and it's worked for the products of the team's recent factory of downfield targets — Mike Wallace, Emmanuel Sanders, and 2011 preseason star Antonio Brown.
Of course, the epicenter of that offense is Ben Roethlisberger, the owner of a very unique skill set. We may have never seen a quarterback able to handle defensive pressure the way Roethlisberger does — he routinely makes huge clutch throws with defenders draped all over him, which adds to his importance to the team — the Steelers' offensive line has been a major problem for a number of years, and very few quarterbacks could get to three Super Bowls in a career with that kind of pass protection. Roethlisberger understands the offense, and he has the arm to make it go with all the fast kids. Running back Rashard Mendenhall is a productive if unspectacular power/speed back probably too well-known for one killer fumble in the last Super Bowl and a few very unfortunate tweets about Osama Bin Laden.
Pittsburgh Steelers:
Defense:As always, the Steelers come into the season with a front seven that produces ridiculous effectiveness against the run and pass through Dick LeBeau's concepts of situational defense and positional confusion. Like Dom Capers and Rex Ryan, LeBeau is never so happy as when he's messing with your head. Lately, he's done less single-down-lineman and moving cow stuff simply because he's got the horses to run a 5-2 set on every down and still beat your brains in with it. Outside linebackers James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley present an unsolvable quandary for opposing offensive tackles. Harrison is a brutally effective pass rusher with underrated pass-reading skills (think of the long interception in Super Bowl XLIII), while Woodley may be the best OLB in the league when it comes to dropping into the flat and seam in one of LeBeau's zone blitzes.
There's some legitimate concern about the age of the interior defense, but it's a tough group with a comprehensive knowledge of what LeBeau wants to do, and Lawrence Timmons is a young force at ILB. Each of these defenses has a wild-card player in the defensive backfield who can do just about anything, and the Steelers' version might be just a hair (ha!) more effective. LeBeau has said that he gives Troy Polamalu more of a green light to freelance based on what he sees than any player he's ever coached, and Polamalu has rewarded him with a career of superlative plays, inevitably mixed with a few mighty whiffs. The Steelers finished first overall in FO's defensive metrics, and there's a reason for that — there isn't anything they don't either do very very, or know how to mask.
Offense: Everyone wants to talk about the Steelers' history of smashmouth … but as Alice In Chains sang long ago, it ain't like that anymore. They'll still run the trap and the two-back mashup, but offensive coordinator Bruce Arians has continued the Ken Whisenhunt tradition of more multi-receiver sets, blocking concepts out of bunch formations, and many more schematic sets designed to spread out a defense. The Steelers ranked fifth last year in frequency of four-receiver formations, went single-back almost 70 percent of the time, and ran bunch/trips sets as often as any team in the league. One idea the Steelers have enjoyed since the Santonio Holmes days is to put Hines Ward and at least one tight end in a bunch to one side, and then have the speed receiver blow up single coverage to the other side. It worked for Holmes, and it's worked for the products of the team's recent factory of downfield targets — Mike Wallace, Emmanuel Sanders, and 2011 preseason star Antonio Brown.
Of course, the epicenter of that offense is Ben Roethlisberger, the owner of a very unique skill set. We may have never seen a quarterback able to handle defensive pressure the way Roethlisberger does — he routinely makes huge clutch throws with defenders draped all over him, which adds to his importance to the team — the Steelers' offensive line has been a major problem for a number of years, and very few quarterbacks could get to three Super Bowls in a career with that kind of pass protection. Roethlisberger understands the offense, and he has the arm to make it go with all the fast kids. Running back Rashard Mendenhall is a productive if unspectacular power/speed back probably too well-known for one killer fumble in the last Super Bowl and a few very unfortunate tweets about Osama Bin Laden.
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