Defense staff intact, why?

“Allof the play-calling and stuff is on him, in-game, making adjustment sat the line of scrimmage.I was really in awewith what he was able to do,just watching him managethe game. There were big thirddowns where he would comeup, diagnose the defense,get [them] with a couple of ‘freeze calls’ and then pickthe best play, and then youwatch A.B. split [them] for50 yards. You don’t know whatthe play is until the play is run, literally, because you justsee him at the line of scrimmagemaking calls, different signals.”

Thisoffense will produce withthe team apparently leaningtoward quarterbacks coachRandy Fichtner — who wasbrought down from the pressbox at midseason so Roe th li sb er ger could talk to somebodyduring games — as thenew coordinator.

Butwhat about the defense? Is the staff really going tostay intact? That is what the Post-Gazette’ s Gerry Dulac reported Wednesday—that Tomlintold his defensive assistantsthey will return — withthe caveat that things couldchange, a la Bruce Arians“retiring” after Tomlin assuredhim he’d be back.

Thedefense posted some niceregular-season numbers. Iget that. It ranked fifth overall,first in sacks and seventh inscoring.

Butthe numbers are deceiving.First of all, a full 23 percentof the team’s sacks (13 of56) occurred against the ClevelandBrowns, which meansthey shouldn’t even count.

Secondly,nine of the Steelers’16 opponents finished in thebottom half of the league inscoring.

Theyfaced a lot of bad offensesand a lot of bad quarterbacks.

Plenty of those bad quarter backs still found way to torch themfor big plays. The Steelersallowed more than any teamin the league — eight of atleast 50 yards, 13 of at least 40yards. And that was before BlakeBortles found open targetsall over the field (and ran forfirst downs when he neededto) with the season on theline.

ThisSteelers defense got steamrolledtwice by Leonard Fournette,who seemed to hit arookie wall late in the year onlyto run for 109 yards at HeinzField.

Adefense that used to go wholeseasons without allowinga rushing touchdown allowed14.

Andwhen it came to the biggestgame, Keith Butler’s unitlooked utterly disheveled forthe second year in a row. Blownassignments. No pressure.Zero turnovers, zero sacksand only one play for negativeyards (when Bortles fellon a fumble).

I would de em that unacceptable, despite the glitzy numbersand the fact that losingRyan Shazier, like losing CamHeyward a year earlier, presentedan enormous challenge.

Iwould say we’ve seen two first-roundpicks at outside linebackerfalter badly under thetutelage of Joey Porter. One(Jarvis Jones) was a bust. Theother (Bud Dupree) appearsheaded in that direction.

Porterapparently couldn’t stophis buddy James Harrisonfrom being a disruptive forcemost of the season, either.

Thesecondary, coached by CarnellLake, was victimized forall those big plays.

Whatwill happen next year,when the Steelers likely won’tget so lucky in regard to quarter back injuries and are scheduledto face Tom Brady, MattRyan, Cam Newton, PhilipRivers and Drew Brees — notto mention the great Blake Bortles.

Somethingneeds to be done.Something needs to changeon that side of the ball.

It is on that side of the ball that this franchise made its legendary name.

Art Rooney II, are you listening?