Losing Jenkins worries me. Because everyone has been talking about we got Matthews but we need someone on the other side to also be a good rusher... what some having realized is we have had it, it's been Jenkins and when healthy he's done GREAT! ... he's just having some problems staying healthy.
But if we lose Jenkins we need to find another pass rusher at DE and/or OLB... some people have been saying it's clearly Neal, but Neal has been more injured than Jenkins, when healthy didn't play as well and some of his injury sounded serious like they might stick with even going into the future. So I'm not sure we can count on him even though he showed great potential.
"Rockmolder" wrote:
Between Capers and Ted Thompson, I have absolutely no anxiety about this issue whatsoever.
"nerdmann" wrote:
Yeah, you're right, because this position not being taken care off for the last 2 years gives me immense confidence.
What I think is this... The position is too weak to actually get a real push from anyone besides Matthews, but too strong to really make it a huge priority. Which means that, if the pieces don't fall exactly in place, we'll be stuck with a list of very low-end starters yet again.
Neal is good, but you can't expect any DE/DT to come in and consistently get pressure off the edge, let alone such an unproven guy like Neal.
We had to come out with some weird formations in the SB. Formations that used all our d-linemen on one side, over the guard and tackle, with Hawk on the other and Matthews in the middle. The kind of packages that can be destroyed by the run. I think that, had the Steelers not have been playing catch-up just about the entire game, we wouldn't have been able to get the pressure necessary to keep them down.
Capers' scheming is great, but it can only do so much. The reason the Steelers are consistently winning with their defense is because of pressure. James Harrison on one side and LaMarr Woodley is as close to being unstoppable as it gets. Then with guys like Keissel, Farrior and Hood who can also generate some push, you have the lay-out for a consistently great defense.
"beast" wrote: