The 2010 Pittsburgh Steelers simply weren’t good enough.
I remember talking to my dad less than an hour before the kickoff of Super Bowl XLV and saying that I really believed the Steelers were the better team and that if we played the game 10 times the Steelers would win 6 or 7 times. They just needed to play smart and play physical and they would take care of business.
Of course, we all know how things turned out shortly after that. The Steelers didn’t play like Super Bowl champions and put together one of their sloppiest performances of the season. It doesn’t matter if you believe they beat themselves — they just weren’t good enough.
So why will the 2011 version of the Steelers be any different? They return nearly everybody from last year’s team and Doug Legursky is the only ‘new’ starter on the team. Other teams have splashy offseason additions while the Steelers aging defense gets another year older.
While the team’s roster hasn’t changed, there are still changes the Steelers can and must make in 2011 to win a championship.
Here are 3 things the 2011 Steelers can do to improve over last year:
1. Stay healthy
At this point, this is going to be the biggest key for the Steelers this season and in the foreseeable future. The defense is the oldest in the league. The team’s average age of a starter is 31 years old, which is also the oldest in the league. Injuries to players guys like Ike Taylor, James Harrison, Bryant McFadden and Troy Polmalu are already a concern and we haven’t played a regular season snap yet. One serious injury to any of those guys — especially Polamalu, Taylor or Harrison — could transform the Steelers from a Super Bowl contendor to a borderline playoff team. The defense staying healthy is the single biggest factor in the Steelers success this season.
2. Air it out, Arians
I’m in opposition with the majority of couch QBs in Steeler land. You hear people say a lot that the Steelers need to re-establish the running game. Fans say it. The Rooney’s say it. Players say it. In short, I disagree. The NFL has changed and what worked even 5 years ago might not work now. It’s not 1979 anymore. It’s not 2001 anymore. The Jerome Bettis-type running back doesn’t exist anymore. The league is a passing-first league. The rules make it easier than ever to pass and teams struggle to be really successfull without an elite passing offense. Think about the recent Super Bowl champions: 2010 Packers, 2009 Saints, 2008 Steelers, 2007 Colts. Elite quarterbacks with fast receivers are the only thing that they have in common. As good as the Steelers defense was in 2008, they got shredded by Kurt Warner in the Super Bowl. What won the Steelers the game was Roethlisberger’s arm and Santonio Holmes.
The Steelers have one of the 5-best quarterbacks in the league and arguably the best group of WRs and TEs. Focusing on the running game would be a huge mistake.
3. Adjust the pass defense strategy
The Steelers have struggled to defend against the pass long before Aaron Rodgers embarrassed them this past winter. The gameplan to beat the Steelers and Dick LeBeau has always been the same: spread them out, run quick quotes and get rid of the ball quickly. This works. It has always worked. It’s one thing when an elite QB like Rodgers or Peyton Manning embarrasses the secondary, but we’ve seen lesser QBs like Bruce Gradkowski and Colt McCoy have some success through the air in recent years too.
The Steelers didn’t go out and draft or sign any impact cornerbacks so any improvement will have to come through scheme. This is firmly on Dick LeBeau. Any team with a half decent QB should be throwing the ball 45+ times agains the Steelers. Every rushing attempt against the Steelers does Pittsburgh a big favor. Smart coaching staffs like New England have already figured this out. Maybe the Steelers need to be more aggressive in jamming receivers off the snap. Maybe they need to blitz up the middle more often. Maybe they need to blitz less. I’m all for trying anything and everything because if the Steelers don’t figure out how to stop teams from throwing on them, 2011 is going to look a lot like 2010.
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