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There’s a very, very interesting point about Dick LeBeau’s defense that unfortunately isn’t available on the internet. The Steelers base defense was installed in 1992 by Bill Cowher, Dom Capers, Dick LeBeau and Marv Lewis. When Capers took the Carolina job, Cowher promoted LeBeau.

When LeBeau left in 1996 Bill Cowher brought in Jim Hasslett, but gave Hasslett a mandate to run LeBeau’s defense. When Hasslett got the Saints job, Cowher turned to Tim Lewis.

Lewis hand joined the Steelers in 1995 as a secondary coach, and seemed like a logical choice.

I remember reading an interview with Lewis, I think it was in Steelers Digest, when he first got hired. In it he admitted, something along the lines of (and to the lawyers out there, this is a quote on memory), “Honestly, the scheme we used here was a mystery to me until the Super Bowl.” So here was a guy who’d played defensive back in the NFL from 1983 until about 1986, and then coached in the college ranks until he got hired by the Steelers in 1995 that took an entire year to master the scheme he was hired to help coach….

I was decidedly not in the “Let LeBeau go” camp, but one legitimate criticism of him was that his system did take too long for younger players to learn.

Quick comment to Homer on the offensive line coaching.

I was never a big fan of Larry Zierlien, although its well documented that Ben held on to the ball, way, way too long in those days. (For what it is worth, Alan Faneca didn’t really like Zierlin’s approach to coaching.)

Kluger was a fan favorite and well liked by his players. Honestly, its hard to say how good of a coach he was because he continually played musical chairs on offensive line.

As for Bicknell, there were a lot of reports about his firing, but I tend to buy Gerry Dulac’s who said he was not effective.

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Nothing new about this. The Steelers had a rather basic defensive scheme in 1972, and it worked well with the great young talent they had. Over the years, it became incredibly complicated. Mike Wagner says the one thing people don’t realize about the Steel Curtain defensive is how complicated the schemes became – and how he might change the assignments five or six times from the defensive huddle to the actual snap of the ball. As the guys meshed into a unit, the coaches added more and more layers to the schemes.

As far as the offensive line is concerned, the Steelers were not well-coached in recent years, and needed work in fundamentals. Munch was a great player, but he is also a great teacher.

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What it means is that it is neither talent or preparation but how you strike the balance. I suspect the vast majority of practitioners and fans haven’t even gotten that far in their thinking yet let alone figure out the art of putting it in practice

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