This defense is the real deal

[TheFan]

(09-14-2022, 02:59 AM)Roland Wrote: The problem with the stats that you're quoting is that they could be the result of our defense playing well or their offense playing poorly. How do you judge that?   You eyeball it and then you look at the stats.

The defensive stats - sacks, hurries, tackles for loss, passes defensed, etc - confirm that the Bengals D didn't make a lot of impact plays.  The Steelers offense simply failed to take advantage.  Until the end when it counted.

I'm not saying that they played poorly.  I'm just saying that declaring them "the real deal" or "great" is a stretch after one test against a poor to mediocre offense with few real impact plays to show for it.

If you eye balled it then you would have seen that the Steelers were doing a lot of quick passes, dump offs, sweeps, etc. Those make it hard to get sacks, hurries, and TFL or passes defended. Our defense is never going to be explosive as one like the Steelers because we don't have a player like Watt, Garrett, or Darnold. Ours is always going to be a controlling defense that plays sound football and limits drives/points. 

If you think sacks, hurries, TFL, and the other stuff you mentioned is what makes a defense and the stats I posted isn't that's okay for you. The eye test goes both ways and anyone who watched the games knows all of those were very limited for the defense based on the way the Steelers O was playing. 

Obviously you want both. But like I said to the other poster, I'd rather the defense force six three and outs than give up 3 long drives but get a sack or TFL at some point in them.