Comments on: Foote Stomps Back To Steelers

By: Ron

Ron — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:26:11 +0000

Yes, I did mean Aaron Smith. Daaa. And, no I wouldn’t suggest replacing Woodley or Harrison. I played at WVU under Don Nehlen. I originally started playing at Frostburg State. After a catastrophic knee injury, I transferred to WVU just to go to school. Couldn’t stand not playing, so I walked on. I was one four walk-ons that made it out of 55 who tried. I played inside backer forever, but was moved to strong OLB (not by choice). It kind of screwed up my career to an extent because I had to relearn a new position after being out of ball for 2 years. Trust me – there is a huge difference in playing OLB as opposed to ILB. The strong OLB is normally over the tight end…. but when there is no tight end, it becomes a game of reads, keys, and calls which is hard to master quickly. Plus when you are a walk-on, you are a turd and the coaches don’t give you the time you need. Then I fucked up my knees again after two years of play and decided to graduate……….man the stories I could tell about college football….. not here though.

By: chris

chris — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:49:36 +0000

Ron, being happy to have Foote back doesn’t mean I “worship” him. I just said last season that cutting him was a big mistake. Clearly the Steelers agree by the fact they brought him back…and not for a cheap price. I don’t know about you but I’d rather see Foote on the field during running downs than Timmons or Keyaron Fox.

Who the hell is Aaron Jones? Do you mean Aaron SMITH?

And you’re right, Timmons seems to be more of an OLB skills-wise. So who do you sit, James Harrison or LaMarr Woodley? If he can’t make it as an ILB (which he can’t), I don’t see his value to this team.

Thank you for the insightful comment. You have a very good take on the mechanics of defense. I’d be interested to know which college you played ball at.

By: Ron

Ron — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:39:55 +0000

Chris – What is this…. you worship Foote and his “stomp” ? He is good, but he’s no savior. I theorize that they brought back Foote because of Farrior and not Timmons. Farrior loses so much weight during the season (down to 220) that by the 12th game, he is getting pounded by the fat guys at the line of scrimmage. When I played inside backer (Div I College level), you were taught to contact, scrape and read, disengage, tackle. Albeit, I played in a 4-3, not a 3-4, and I know the level of play in the pros is much different. Without Aaron Jones in there taking blockers off of Farrior, I saw Farrior and Timmons slicing through gaps, sometimes putting themselves out of position. They avoided contact and relied on speed more often than not. When Polamalu was in there, they knew that they had someone watching their back so gap play was less of a risk. Jones and Polamalu are essential keys to the run defense. Even though they did adequately, we weren’t No.1 against the run.

You are so right when you say Timmons was terrible against the run. I watched him get blown off the ball all year. But he is an outside backer not an inside backer. His skills seem to be geared towards outside-in pressure. Maybe they can call up Levon Kirkland and see if he wants to stuff the run for another year. He was an inside backer in the modern Steelers defense.