Interesting Statistic on NFL Live...

[Section446]

They were going over the suspensions of Pat and Kevin Williams. To show their importance to the team they brought up the top four teams when it comes to stopping the run up the middle. They were:
- Vikings: 2.5
- 49ers: 3.0
- Steelers: 3.2
- Giants: 3.2

I imagine we might see more of a running attack like we saw against Washington (x2) this week with Hampton in the middle.

 

[WG5516]

You mean the big lead tosses with the tackles pulling? I love when we run those. Colombo is great at them.

 

[Section446]

You mean the big lead tosses with the tackles pulling? I love when we run those. Colombo is great at them.

Yeah, I'm really starting to like Columbo period.

 

[Boysboy]

They were going over the suspensions of Pat and Kevin Williams. To show their importance to the team they brought up the top four teams when it comes to stopping the run up the middle. They were:
- Vikings: 2.5
- 49ers: 3.0
- Steelers: 3.2
- Giants: 3.2

I imagine we might see more of a running attack like we saw against Washington (x2) this week with Hampton in the middle.

Without Kevin/Pat Williams, Jared Allen is going to command alot of double/triple teams...their pass rush will be shot to **** as well.

 

[EPL0c0]

b/c CHoice has a little more speed, I hope they use him on those tosses a bit more too

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

b/c CHoice has a little more speed, I hope they use him on those tosses a bit more too

I thought Choice last game would have a little more success with those tosses than Barber because he's faster than Barber. But it was the complete opposite. I guess it still takes vision to run those tosses as well as speed and its something Choice doesn't have as of yet.

 

[goliadmike]

You mean the big lead tosses with the tackles pulling? I love when we run those. Colombo is great at them.

I'm not so sure how well those lead tosses against Washington will work against Pitt. In Washington they were stacking their tackles and ends in the middle to stop the inside run. With Pitt playing their ends over our tackles and their outside linebackers playing to the outside of our tackles I think it will be hard for them to run the ball with any consistency inside or out. I can see us calling an audible at the line if Tony sees something in their alignment that might give us an advantage, but I'm not expecting a big day in the run game.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

BTW, what defense does the Steelers run? Its a 3-4 as well correct?

 

[Rack]

BTW, what defense does the Steelers run? Its a 3-4 as well correct?

Correct.

 

[YosemiteSam]

BTW, what defense does the Steelers run? Its a 3-4 as well correct?

Yep, of course the thing a lot of people don't realize is the 3-4 comes in many flavors. Actually, Cowboys fans should know this with Parcells exit and Wade Phillips entrance. Labeau's 3-4 is different from both Wade and Parcells.

If you remember the Cowboys defense of the early 90s, it was a 4-3 but sported LeBeau's zone blitz tactics at times!

 

[Shinywalrus]

I'm not so sure how well those lead tosses against Washington will work against Pitt. In Washington they were stacking their tackles and ends in the middle to stop the inside run. With Pitt playing their ends over our tackles and their outside linebackers playing to the outside of our tackles I think it will be hard for them to run the ball with any consistency inside or out. I can see us calling an audible at the line if Tony sees something in their alignment that might give us an advantage, but I'm not expecting a big day in the run game.

Due to the overpursuit tendencies of an otherwise strong pass-rushing line, Pittsburgh is vulnerable to off-tackle and stretch runs to the left, where their line gives up well over 4 ypc. Right outside runs yield less than 3 ypc, and inside runs yield just about 3 ypc.

There is some misconception about what makes Pittsburgh so efficient in run defense, however - unlike Tennessee, Baltimore and Minnesota, whose schemes and players make their money by stuffing players at or behind the line for losses or preventing the yardage to gain first downs (those three teams are 1st, 2nd and 3rd in that particular category, in fact), Pittsburgh makes its money by preventing long plays.

This is, in fact, a fairly typical characteristic of 3-4 schemes with strong nose tackles - that a runner may indeed slip past the initial line of defense, but run into two clean, unblocked ILBs 2-3 yards downfield. The other teams at the top? San Diego, Arizona and Miami. Still, this is what Pittsburgh does well, and when it comes to preventing conversions via the run, they're in the top 5, so their interior line CAN lock it up...they are typically happy enough, however, to occupy enough blockers to let their LBs and Safeties do the dirty work.

 

[Temo]

Due to the overpursuit tendencies of an otherwise strong pass-rushing line, Pittsburgh is vulnerable to off-tackle and stretch runs to the left, where their line gives up well over 4 ypc. Right outside runs yield less than 3 ypc, and inside runs yield just about 3 ypc.

There is some misconception about what makes Pittsburgh so efficient in run defense, however - unlike Tennessee, Baltimore and Minnesota, whose schemes and players make their money by stuffing players at or behind the line for losses or preventing the yardage to gain first downs (those three teams are 1st, 2nd and 3rd in that particular category, in fact), Pittsburgh makes its money by preventing long plays.

This is, in fact, a fairly typical characteristic of 3-4 schemes with strong nose tackles - that a runner may indeed slip past the initial line of defense, but run into two clean, unblocked ILBs 2-3 yards downfield. The other teams at the top? San Diego, Arizona and Miami. Still, this is what Pittsburgh does well, and when it comes to preventing conversions via the run, they're in the top 5, so their interior line CAN lock it up...they are typically happy enough, however, to occupy enough blockers to let their LBs and Safeties do the dirty work.

Spot on analysis. I was actually looking for numbers to refute you, but all the numbers actually back you up.

According to ALY (an imperfect albeit useful statistic that counts only running yards in the first 10 yards from the line of scrimmage), Pittsburgh is "only" 9th in the league. They're FIRST in the league at limiting RB yardage allowed past 10 yards (only 9% of the total running yardage against them has come in runs past 10 yards from the line of scrimmage).

They are also 19th in stuff rate at 24%. Stuff% is the percentage of runs that result in (on first down) zero or negative gain or (on second through fourth down) less than one-fourth the yards needed for another first down.