This paper examines the effect of Troy Polamalus absence on the Steelers defense in comparison to when he has played. It also describes the woes that the defense has gone through particularly this year when Polamalu has not played due to an injury in his left knee. The effect of Polamalus absence to the whole team is also described in this paper while the last part summarizes the importance of team sport in ensuring that impressive outcomes are achieved.
Who is Troy Polamalu
Troy Polamalu is a defensive player with the Steelers as number 43 and taking position SS. The 28 years old player has had a successful history as a football player from his college years and he has had seven experiences with the National Football League as from 2003 when he was drafted into the NFL by the Steelers. In 2004, he took the position of the starting strong safety. He is considered to be among the top NFLs safeties and has been in the Pro Bowls as from 2005 to 2009. In 2005 and 2008 he was first-team All-Pro selection. In 2005, he was appointed to the Associated Press as well as the Pro Football Weekly All-NFL team earning himself spots on the Sports Illustrated, Sporting News and PFWPFWA All-Pro teams. In 2007, Polamalu signed a 5-year contract with the Steelers after being named to the teams 75th Season All-Time Team (Steelers, para 1). These and more achievements describe Polamalu during and before his time in the NFL and particularly in the Steelers defense.
Effects of Polamalus absence
The first injury that caused Polamalu to miss a game was encountered in 2006 in November 26 at Baltimore. Before then, he had accomplished much more so in his defensive position. In 2003 for example when he first entered into the Steelers pass defense, Polamalu was credited with 3 passes defensed and had 29 total tackles of which 16 of them were solo tackles. In their game against Cincinnati, he played 54 defensive snaps sack and had his first career sack. His second career sack was registered on December 21 in 2003 which led to a Steelerss TD (Steelers, para 4).
The importance of having Polamalu has been registered this year and has been felt more by the defense. In the game between the Steelers and the Oakland Raiders, the Steelers lost 27-23 to Oakland Raiders and the defense was much to blame. The folding of the defense in the fourth quarter is something termed as inexcusable. Of particular attention was the inability to pass a simple call from the sidelines in the whole group of eleven defenders. The cost of the miscommunication has been costly enough to the Steelers as they continued to lose. Just a fortnight before the game against the Oakland Raiders, another defense miscommunication occurred again with Chris Chambers of Kansas City making a 61-yard catch during overtime. The defense would for instance blitz from both sides when they were expected to blitz from one side. One stands to wonder whether the absence of Polamau is creating more and more confusion among the Steelers defense. It became too hard for the whole of the defense to get the call from sideliners making the fans loose morale and feel disappointed with the whole team. Probably the presence of Polamalu would have changed things as this is a sign of panic to the whole defense may be out of the realization that the defenses strong is absent. The defense is blamed of inability to finish the games and no wonder they have lost five games consecutively. The team members complained of their shortcomings as Deshea Townsend who is a cornerback said As a defense, you want to be dominant. And the way to be dominating is that - when your team needs you to finish. And were not doing that right now (Frank, para 10).One wonders at what has happened to the once top ranked defense. Remember that the Steelers were the top-ranked defenders in NFL in 2007 as they had yielded only 266.4 yards in each game with Tomlin as the coach.
Polamalus absence has been felt by the team as the team has continued to have record losses. It is unimaginable considering that the Steelers are the defending Super Bowl champions. As they played with the Oakland Raiders which they lost 27-24, the Steelers were having the fourth consecutive loss with the defense to blame in most of the games. This years loss is the longest consecutive loss in six seasons. In the fourth quarter, the Steelers found themselves unable to hold several leads without Polamalu their strong safety. Remember that on December 10, the Steelers poor performance continued with their loss to the AFC-worst Browns where they went down 13-6 making the team stand at 6-7 for now. With only three games to go, there is no doubt that the team is not likely to recover. Moreover, the return of Polamalu is not expected soon meaning that the defense will remain weak and the losses will continue. Since 1999, the Steelers have never lost six games in a row and therefore the current situation places them as the second Super Bowl champion to go down five games consecutively in the sequence preceding the championship win. The presence of Polamalu is associated with wins in this season as the three games he played before injury were wins as compared to the five consecutive losses that the Steelers have had since his injury. It is therefore no doubt that Polamalu is a great factor in the Steelers victory (Tyson, para 13-17).
In sports, team spirit is very vital for any achievement to come by. This is demonstrated by the losses versus victories experienced by the Steelers with and without the presence of Polamalu. Of importance to team work in sports is that the going down of one strong figure in the team leads to frustrations amongst the remaining members in the team leading to massive failure of the whole team.
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