did mattison hold back a lot of plays for the steelers game?

[Neelson88]

The defensive gameplan weirded me out a little bit this weekend. The past few times we've played the browns it seemed like our pass rushers were having their way with the O-line and Anderson/Quinn/whoever was always on the ground. Do you think mattison was holding back a little bit so that the steelers would have less tape on our defense?

[NCRAVEN]

Anything is possible. To me it looked like the D was playing a little uninspired.

[trailhiker85]

I think some credit is due to Cleveland's O-line; they're pretty good and were clearly well-prepared.

[Beerracuda]

It may be simpler than that. They very well could've scaled back the defense (few pass rushes) so that nobody gets hurt, and we go to Pittsburgh healthy.

[Stealthbirds80]

When a team is confident in their gameplan against that week's opponent (usually only good teams), they most definately look ahead. It's a season long strategy because it's all about film. They do however play to win every week, just some weeks don't take as much effort as others.

[festivus]

Why in the world would our coaches use the same game plan for the Steelers that they do for the Browns? On offense or defense? Or special teams?

Those teams are nothing alike. Count on something different for the Steelers, for sure.

[Carey]

I serious doubt it, We were short on the D-line to begin with dressing 5, then Redding gets knocked out in the 2nd qtr, Pryce goes down and only plays 5 snaps so that leaves Ngata, Gregg and Mckinney add that to the fact that Cleveland has one of the best offensive lines in the league and you can see how they were able to have some success.

[psuasskicker]

I think they mostly just didn't respect Wallace to beat them if they loaded the backfield, so why bother killing yourself to get pressure on him and take a chance that something deep and long happens to hit.

- C -

[Dave Lap]

I didn't notice much pre-snap movement out of our defense against Cleveland. Seemed very vanilla. I don't think it was done to flummox the Steelers by not giving them many looks.

I don't think Mattison would reduce the complexity of our defense one week just to give Pittsburgh less to look at on film. We've been playing them for a lotta years and we know each other pretty well.

[Rxdoxx]

I didn't notice much pre-snap movement out of our defense against Cleveland. Seemed very vanilla. I don't think it was done to flummox the Steelers by not giving them many looks.


Agree

And am concerned by that very lack of movement.

I remember last year and how "average" the D was doing.... then a bye week, players meeting, and when they came back it looked like Rex had returned for a game, it was so much fun to watch. It then settled down and became a great D (without shut-down corners).

I'm not saying we have to Ryanize the D with full blown organized chaos, but organized chaos was a component to our greatness, and it looks as if it has been shelved again during the offseason. (Hi, this is what we look like and you guess which ones of us are coming.... dang how did that 20yd run happen against us?)

If so, that is stupidity. What? do we think we can do just enough to beat the Clowns? Bullshit! bury them! We ended up in a game that was lose-able instead of a high-five laugher.

Oh, were we hiding schemes from Pissburg? Dave Lap covered that also.
Give them as much as you can to worry about, they probably know all of it anyway.

What scares me is that there is someone who thinks his concepts are good enough (like the start of last year) and becomes "complacent" to be inside his own box. If I don't see somethings different being done, we are going to lose the upcoming winable game .... yeah, we are good enough to win, and our schemes are good enough to win, and I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

[Gwaihir]

We are #1 in the NFL in Pass D and 23rd in run D. This is by design. I can not imagine that we don't blitz against the immobile but capable passer Batch. If we do Mattison should be fired! Cody, Ngata, and Gregg will be an awesome front 3. Maybe Kruger can step in a make a difference...NEXT MAN UP!!

I hate to disappoint you, but Mattison doesn't blitz much. That's why we have so few turnovers. He doesn't even run blitz much. The Ravens are playing very Vanilla D right now, sort of like 2000. Bend, don't break, mentality. Rush 4 drop 7 into coverage.

Personally, I can't stand it. I really prefer the pressure D!

[Sua Sponte]

I hate to disappoint you, but Mattison doesn't blitz much. That's why we have so few turnovers. He doesn't even run blitz much. The Ravens are playing very Vanilla D right now, sort of like 2000. Bend, don't break, mentality. Rush 4 drop 7 into coverage.

Personally, I can't stand it. I really prefer the pressure D!

Your right, but minus the turnovers, the 2000 D had the play makers in the secondary to come down with those 3-4 dropped INT's, and also better pass rushers. That will change when Reed comes back, those batted/tipped balls and bad throws will turn into INT's and possibly 6 points.

We have also faced 3 of the (probably) top 7 O-Line's in the league and a lot of Max protect.

So why not drop, most teams expect us to blitz, so when we drop and they have Max protect, there is no where to throw the ball obviously (1st in pass ypg)

[psuasskicker]

You've piqued my curiosity. Now I'm gonna go home tonight and look at the 2009 Football Outsiders data on how many plays we blitzed and look at my first two games I've charted so far.

- C -

[Gwaihir]

It seems to me that Mattisson likes to show Blitz, and then drop back. Just guessing but I bet he sends 5 men 6-8 times a game, and 6+ 1-2. At least that's what it seems like to me.