Offenses are built around confusing defenses, and vice versa, in football.
But often times, it's difficult to confuse defenses in the NFL, where the players are experienced and have seen nearly everything under the sun in terms of plays and schemes.
The Steelers have had issues with their communication on defense, drawing 12-men on the field penalties several times this season and looking lost in coverage at other times.
Enter a Falcons offense that will challenge a defense more than most with three explosive receivers -- including NFL yardage leader Julio Jones -- a solid running game and a veteran quarterback in Matt Ryan.
Against this team, any confusion on the defense will surely and quickly lead to seven points.
Clearing up those issues for the Steelers has been something they have worked on all offseason since losing defensive play caller Ryan Shazier last December. Vince Williams took over those play calling duties after Shazier was lost last season and in the early part of this year.
But Williams is dealing with a hamstring injury suffered in last Sunday's 26-14 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
And instead of simply plugging in one player to replace Williams, it likely will be a combination of Tyler Matakevich, L.J. Fort, Matthew Thomas and even corner Cameron Sutton, as well.
Apparently, it takes a village to replace an inside linebacker.
"We have some guys here who can play," defensive coordinator Keith Butler said Thursday after Williams missed his second consecutive day of practice. "We're going to put them on the field and see what they can do. We need to find out, anyway, about them. I think we'll be OK."
The problem for the Steelers isn't just replacing Williams, who had missed just one defensive snap this season and leads the Steelers with 30 tackles, it's replacing his knowledge of the system.
Because he's the team's play caller on defense and an every-down linebacker, staying on the field in the nickel, dime and quarters packages, they've leaned on him a lot. The only time he had left the field this season was for the one play the Steelers ran in the opener in Cleveland in which they used their dollar package with seven defensive backs.
Now, those four could be mixed and matched with newcomer Jon Bostic, a free agent signing in the offseason brought in to help offset the loss of Ryan Shazier.
Pro Football Focus has Bostic graded as its No. 10 linebacker in the league. Certainly that is judgmental and might not be a completely correct assessment of his play, but Bostic has 29 tackles, two sacks and two passes defended.
"He's doing a good job for us," said defensive coordinator Keith Butler. "He's still learning in terms of what we're trying to get out of the defense, but he's doing a good job for us, thus far."
At this point, nobody seems to know who will have the helmet with the speakers in it -- designated by a green dot -- to allow communications with the sideline. Each team is allowed to have two guys on offense and defense with that equipment.
It could be Bostic, who was brought in as a free agent from Indianapolis because he's an excellent communicator. But thus far this season, he has left the field in dime and quarter situations, giving way to another defensive back.
Safety Sean Davis also is on the field full-time, but said he hasn't been approached yet.
"No, not me," Davis told me. "I think it's going to be Dirty Red (Matakevich). He's Vince's backup."
But if the Steelers don't plan on having Matakevich as Williams' full-time replacement, it might make things a little more confusing. And for a defense that has admittedly had communication problems already, more confusion doesn't sound like a welcome proposition.
"What you've got to do, is whoever has got the green dot, when you can communicate with them and when you can't, can you give them hand signs? It can be confusing at times," Butler said. "As coaches, we've got to make it less confusing if we can."
"We coaches need to give our guys a chance to communicate and get in the right defense every time. Either we have to simplify it a little bit or we've got to communicate better. We've got to do a little bit of both."
Matakevich would welcome that opportunity, but given that he could be a guy taken off the field when the Steelers opt out of their base 3-4, instead going to their sub packages to match up with Atlanta's passing game, that might not work, either.
"All the communication is the same, even though you're bringing in more guys, different guys," Matakevich said. "We're meeting a lot, all the guys who are going to be on the field, so that communication with people we haven't maybe done that with is there.
"We've got to practice and prepare like (Williams) is not going to go. Obviously, you hope he does, but we've got to be ready. We've just got to go out there and execute, that's what it comes down to. There's no magic potion you can take to fix it. Do your job. We need all 11 guys. That's how football is."
