It’s common when you think of the Steelers to think of Linebackers made infamous over the years in “Blitzburgh”, but that really came about after Noll retired and Bill Cowher took over, bringing in Dom Capers and Dick LeBeau.

In the “Steel Curtain” era, though there were some scary linebackers (how about that vampire Jack Lambert?), the core of the team makeup was in having the right type of players on the line, and fast safeties.

Noll ran a base Tampa 2 defense (though it wasn’t called that yet, it was just a Cover 2 Zone with Noll pushing his middle linebackers to drop deeper, Tony Dungy played in this system and later helped Monte Kiffin invent what we now call the Tampa 2 from it). Noll very rarely blitzed and when he did it was typically a run blitz, looking to stuff up the middle of the line and force runners to bounce outside on first down.

Second down was almost always a basic Tampa 2 coverage, and third down alternated between the Tampa 2 and Cover 2 Man coverages.

The key to Noll’s success in Pittsburgh, was having 4 down linemen who could create pressure without needing a 5th person blitzing, linebackers who excelled in coverage with speed and football awareness, and fast safeties who could close on target receivers across large spans of grass.

Since the cornerbacks spent as much time playing run support as they did in coverage underneath, big physical corners who were heavy hitters really topped off the defense and elevated it to the next level.

Personnel matching in Maximum Football for running the Steel Curtain defense:
NT (DT #1) = Pass Rush Specialist archetype (Mean Joe Greene)
DT #2 = Big body Run Stopper (Ernie Holmes)
DE #1 & #2 = Big body Edge Rushers (L.C. Greenwood & Dwight White)
*Note: The higher the tackling (TAK) and block shedding (BKS) the better for your linemen

Linebackers (all 3) = tall Coverage linebackers with good speed (SPD) and high defensive IQ (DIQ), as well as higher Man (MDF) and Zone (ZDF) coverage (Jack Ham, Jack Lambert, Andy Russell)

Cornerbacks = Balanced big body corners with high tackle (TAK) and block shedding (BKS) to get off of receivers and attack the ball carrier on running plays. Zone (ZDF) is the more important coverage for them but having a fair to high Man (MDF) will help shutdown routes when you do switch to Cover 2 Man plays. (Mel Blount & J.T. Thomas)

Safeties = Ballhawk archetypes with Speed (SPD) and Acceleration (ACC) are crucial for this defense to shine. They’re always going to be in zone (ZDF) coverages, even in your Cover 2 Man plays, so don’t worry about their man coverage numbers. They’re also your last line of defense against the pass so high defensive IQ (DIQ) and strong tackling (TAK) are a must as well. Like I said up above, the core of this defense is the line and the safeties, you can’t have mediocre players here. (Mike Wagner, Donnie Shell, and Glen Edwards)

Defensive Playbook to use:
The 4-3 Zone Defensive playbook is the best, in my humble opinion, playbook for running this scheme.

Favorite plays: (recommended to add to favorites at game start)
4-3 & Nickel Formations:

• Cover 2 Zone Blitz Weak (1st downs)
• Cover 2 Man (3rd downs)
• Cover 2 Tampa (2nd downs, but also mixed in at times on 1st and 3rd downs)
• Cover 2 Zone Blitz Strong (1st downs)
• Cover 2 Flats Zone (replaces Tampa 2 inside the red zone)
• Cover 2 Zone Sidelines (used in 2 minute drills or when opponent is hammering you on the edges)
• Cover 4 Max Zone (used against obvious passing situations)

Concepts for the scheme:
First downs: Both the Cover 2 Zone Blitz Weak and Cover 2 Zone Blitz Strong are Fire blitzes that do a good job of cluttering up the middle and forcing ball carriers to bounce outside where your linebackers/dropping DE/cornerbacks will be waiting in their underneath zones to attack. Now and then mix in Cover 2 Tampa, and even Cover 4 Max Zone against an opponent who tends to throw on first downs to catch them trying to exploit your first down run blitzing.

Second downs: Almost always Cover 2 Tampa. In short yardage second downs where you anticipate your opponent running you can use either the Cover 2 Zone Blitz Weak or Cover 2 Zone Blitz Strong but beware, second and short is the perfect (play action) passing down so blitzing runs the risk of getting yourself caught with your pants down.

Third (and fourth) downs: Cover 2 Man is the go-to play here, but don’t be afraid to mix in the Cover 2 Tampa now and then as well to keep your opponent guessing. Also using either the Cover 2 Zone Blitz Weak or Cover 2 Zone Blitz Strong in very short yardage situations where you highly anticipate a run play can throw your opponent off, but again it can be risky so you have to use your common sense and read the situation.

Red Zone: Replace the Cover 2 Tampa with Cover 2 Flats Zone on passing downs. There’s less field behind the defense in the red zone so this will keep your middle linebacker closer to the line for run support and protects against TE’s and RB’s slipping out into the flats.

2 Minute Drills and Prevent Situations: Mix in the Cover 2 Zone Sidelines and the Cover 4 Max Zone with the Cover 2 Tampa to better protect against sideline and deep throws. *Note: When running the Cover 2 Zone Sidelines read the situation and when it makes sense hotroute your MLB from his set Hook Curl to a Deep Zone, making the play more of a Tampa 2 with strong focus on the sidelines. It will leave a gap in the middle underneath but defend better against big chunk plays.

Final Thoughts:
If it seems like this is a very rigid and perhaps even predictable defensive scheme, that’s because it is. Chuck Noll’s approach to football was “it’s all about fundamental execution”. He didn’t seek to confuse or surprise his opponent, simply to out-execute them. It was all about being disciplined, each player just doing their job, and being patient. When you put that all together good things will happen.

This is a fun defensive scheme to run. It isn’t flashy blitzing and requires a “bend but don’t break” mentality, but if you have the right personnel in place for it then you’ll find it a winning and opportunistic defense snagging picks more frequently than you might expect.

Chuck Noll won four Super Bowls in 6 years running this scheme, let me know how well you do with it if you implement it in your game!