Why Do You Think This Defense Is Good?

The Steelers have an amazing offense, this is a fact that is inarguable.  Their quarterback is elite, he can even come off the bench, hurt, and torch the opposition for 350 yards. They have two, yes two, elite wide receivers with Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant.  LeVeon Bell may be out by DeAngelo Williams can carry the running attack admirably. The offense, well, I see no issues here.

However, their defense, that’s another story. I’ve read and heard many pundits and wannabee pundits speak of the defense playing well too.  And when I see that, I have to ask, what are you smoking? Seriously, is it some powerful stuff because it’s clearly made you delusional. On what planet is this defense good and on what measure are you defining ‘good’? 

Sure, they’ve come up with a few turnovers the last couple of weeks and yes, I understand that in the points per game category they actually rank 5^th in the NFL right now, allowing 19.1 PPG but I’ll still say this, they are not good and in fact, they are far from it. 

This defense is going to kill this team this season.  They are actually the 29^th ranked defense in terms of yards allowed and 30^th in passing yards allowed. By the way, those numbers are out of 32, so, you do the math there. Spare yourself the math, I’ll just tell you, it sucks. 

Now, be honest with yourself. In a big game, in the playoffs against a good or even great quarterback, do you trust this secondary?  Do you honestly think these cornerbacks are going to be able to step up and prevent the big plays?  If you say yes, you’re a liar, or, you are truly smoking some very potent stuff. 

“Oh, but they bend, they don’t break” you’ll say as your argument.  Really? Against Cleveland? The Browns have won 2 games and they have Johnny Manziel starting as QB now, oh, by the way, he had his career best passing game, torching that secondary you trust for over 370 yards. Good luck against Brady, Luck, Dalton or even this 2015 version of Peyton Manning. I could throw for 200 against these guys. Hell, my 5 year old could throw for 150 against them and he’ll let you know it too. 

So, yes, let’s celebrate the offense but get it right, this defense is the back breaker. It is absurd to ask Big Ben and company to have to drop 30 points a game but that’s what is going to be required.  One off day from the offense and the black and gold are staring down the barrel of a 30 point loss.

Kevin Colbert has had many opportunities to fix this situation over the past several seasons yet he has refused to address the need in the first few rounds of the draft.  There have been plenty of top tier corners available, but he’s stuck with linebackers instead. I like Bud Dupree in particular but somewhere along the line a corner needs to be drafted, this cannot continue to be duct taped together with a hope and a prayer and assumed that it will all turn out well. It’s ignorant and talking about how they’re good is even more ignorant.

I’m warning you, get your expectations in check or you’ll be sorely disappointed in January. Otherwise, keep smoking whatever that stuff is and maybe you’ll wake up next year to a team that actually drafted a corner that can play at a high level.