PIT vs. NE

[LostInTheCrowd]

Who do you think will win this weekend? And Why?

[LostInTheCrowd]

I live in Pittsburgh so this might be a bit bias. Pittsburgh has the best defense in the league so I think as long as they can hold Dillon to short carries and force Brady to make more passes they can win. They need to stay in Brady's face and make him make mistakes. In the end I think that Pats will win. Sadly.

[yeat182]

the pats will win because they are the best team in the league. i wouldn't be surprised if the steelers won, they have had a great year, but i just don't see the pats losing in an AFC championship game against a team they are seeing for the second time and a rookie QB. plus, Dillion and Branch are going to be playing in this game, which they weren't last time.

[BrandNew20]

I'll be rooting for the patriots, but I think whoever wins this game, barring a serious choke, should easily win the Super Bowl.

[FinchBulldog2]

The Pats are gonna spank Rothlisburger all day. He won't be able to deal with it.

[still_life]

Steelers. They'll be able to run the ball. Duce is healthy and going to get more carries than he did last week. Roethlisberger will have a better game than last week. Burress on anyone in that secondary is a mismatch. Ben doesn't have to win this game, the running game and defense does. On defense, they'll shut down the run like always and try making Brady beat them. He couldn't do it before, I can't see him doing it now. It'll be close, but the only way I see NE winning is if they get their fluke TDs like last time on special teams. That's the only way the Jets were able to score on them.

[still_life]

It'd be nice if the refs call a fair game too. Because you know NE loves to get away with stuff

"Game tense at New England 6, Indianapolis 3, the Flying Elvii faced third-and-3 on the Colts 38. Fullback Patrick Pass ran a flare into the flat, crossing behind receiver Deion Branch. Indianapolis corner Nick Harper was covering Pass. As Harper passed Branch, the latter shoved Harper in the back, sending him sprawling; Pass was then undefended and made a 14-yard catch that positioned the Patriots for the touchdown that broke open the game. This play was team spirit on Branch's part -- he shoved a defender not to get himself open, but to get his teammate open. The play was also illegal, but no flag flew."

"Last year in the Indianapolis at New England playoff game, the Patriots were never flagged for pass interference or offensive holding, usually the most-damaging penalties. The Flying Elvii are good, but as yours truly wrote at the time, "Are we supposed to believe no New England offensive lineman ever held and no New England defensive back ever interfered?" On Sunday, the Patriots were never flagged for offensive holding or pass interference, though called once for defensive holding; the Colts were hit with two offensive holding and one defensive pass-interference penalties. Several times New England blockers wrapped their arms around Dwight Freeney; no flag flew, and the Patriots were spared a drive-killing sack or major penalty. There's no doubt the best team won on Sunday. But rules are rules, and ought to be enforced for New England the same way they are for everyone else."

[the rog]

it's pretty hard to call holding on a player defending dwight freeney, if their arms were ever "wrapped around him" it was because he spun between them.

jesus christ you're a crybaby.

[TENSOR123]

i think the Pats will win this easily. Brady can handle the playoffs very well, Ben struggled last week with the Jets, whose defense isn't nearly as good as New England's.

[still_life]

it's pretty hard to call holding on a player defending dwight freeney, if their arms were ever "wrapped around him" it was because he spun between them.

jesus christ you're a crybaby.

Did you not see the quotes around that? I didn't say that. It was in this week's Tuesday Morning Quarterback. Don't act like the refs seem to love NE, especially in the playoffs.

i think the Pats will win this easily. Brady can handle the playoffs very well, Ben struggled last week with the Jets, whose defense isn't nearly as good as New England's.

Neither team does not win this easily, especially NE. This game isn't about Ben, get that through your head. It's going to be about if NE is physical enough to stop the run game of the Steelers. And the Jets defense has been just as good as NE's. Especially on the run, and the Steelers put up almost 200 on them. Washington had arguably the best rush defense in the league, and Bettis had 100 on them. Try naming a team that shut down Pittsburgh's running game since Bettis became the starter.

[aminorthreat55]

New England will win.

[selftitled85]

Steelers. They'll be able to run the ball. Duce is healthy and going to get more carries than he did last week. Roethlisberger will have a better game than last week. Burress on anyone in that secondary is a mismatch. Ben doesn't have to win this game, the running game and defense does. On defense, they'll shut down the run like always and try making Brady beat them. He couldn't do it before, I can't see him doing it now. It'll be close, but the only way I see NE winning is if they get their fluke TDs like last time on special teams. That's the only way the Jets were able to score on them.


just like how stokley, harrison, and wayne all had mismatches against the pats dbs. right. pats are gonna win this. there awesome is healthier and in the playoffs no one plays with a cooler head than brady.

[still_life]

Stokley had a talent mismatch, supposedly. This is a height mismatch they can't prevent. The NE defenders aren't going to grow 6 inches by Sunday's game. They took advantage of Randall Gay right away last time, they need to do it again.

there awesome is healthier

English? Brady is going to have to win this game on his own against the #1 defense. Let's see if he stays in the game unlike last time.

[selftitled85]

Stokley had a talent mismatch, supposedly. This is a height mismatch they can't prevent. The NE defenders aren't going to grow 6 inches by Sunday's game. They took advantage of Randall Gay right away last time, they need to do it again.



English? Brady is going to have to win this game on his own against the #1 defense. Let's see if he stays in the game unlike last time.


yeah my bad im retarded on the second part. i meant to say "there offense is healthier"

[still_life]

Yeah, but how is that going to change the game? You can't run on the Steelers, and NE doesn't have a receiving threat. Old Willie Williams played a fantastic game for Pitt and he covered Santana Moss most of the game. I think he can take on anyone from NE one on one.

[Chemical Love]

team: new england

reason: last sunday

[the rog]

Yeah, but how is that going to change the game? You can't run on the Steelers, and NE doesn't have a receiving threat. Old Willie Williams played a fantastic game for Pitt and he covered Santana Moss most of the game. I think he can take on anyone from NE one on one.


they don't have a receiving threat? are you freaking kidding me? the patriots have a corps of 6 or 7 receivers, routinely 10 or more players will catch a ball in any given game, this is why no one puts up marvin harrison or randy moss type numbers. this versatility is also what keeps opposing defenses guessing, rather than allowing the best DBs to be put on the best receivers, everyone is equally talented, there are bound to be mismatches when david givens has a linebacker on him.

[NetNerdsRevenge]

I dont understand why everyone (not just this board) is jumping on the NE bandwagon. Its not like stopping Manning is new to them. I hope no one forgets pittsburgh has the best record and its for a reason

Never the less, it'll be a great game. I trust Belichick to come up with something.

[TENSOR123]

Neither team does not win this easily, especially NE. This game isn't about Ben, get that through your head. It's going to be about if NE is physical enough to stop the run game of the Steelers. And the Jets defense has been just as good as NE's. Especially on the run, and the Steelers put up almost 200 on them. Washington had arguably the best rush defense in the league, and Bettis had 100 on them. Try naming a team that shut down Pittsburgh's running game since Bettis became the starter.

the chances of them winning by fully depending on their run game to get their points on the board are not too good.

[yeat182]

Yeah, but how is that going to change the game? You can't run on the Steelers, and NE doesn't have a receiving threat. Old Willie Williams played a fantastic game for Pitt and he covered Santana Moss most of the game. I think he can take on anyone from NE one on one.

you can run on the steelers as well as they can run the pats.

[still_life]

they don't have a receiving threat? are you freaking kidding me? the patriots have a corps of 6 or 7 receivers, routinely 10 or more players will catch a ball in any given game

Exactly why they don't have a receiving threat. He can throw to some wide open nobody for a 5 yard gain, but there won't be any big plays in the passing game.

I dont understand why everyone (not just this board) is jumping on the NE bandwagon.

Because of ridiculous people on ESPN influencing everyone's opinion. Like who wants to hear Sean Salisbury, a guy who's biggest accomplishment is starting 4 consecutive games, try to show what makes Roethlisberger good or bad? The filler between the games this week is more awful than usual. I can't even stand to put ESPN on anymore. All I hear this week is Patriots best team in NFL history, Brady a lock for Canton, and Cowher's a bad coach. It's crap.

the chances of them winning by fully depending on their run game to get their points on the board are not too good.

Considering they've done that all year, I think their chances are fine. All Ben has to do is make a few plays every game like he always does, and let the running game take over.

you can run on the steelers as well as they can run the pats.

Who has run on the Steelers this year?

[yeat182]

Who has run on the Steelers this year?

tiki barber, jamal lewis and taylor, larry johnson, fred taylor., rudi johnson, curtis martin, willis mcgahee...

[still_life]

We didn't even play Larry Johnson. And my god, some of those names, you call 30 yards running on someone? Or 70 yards? That's not an effective running game. It's all about the 100 mark, and only Rudi did that in week 4. Dillon's going to get stuffed and it's just not going to work for them.

[yeat182]

We didn't even play Larry Johnson. And my god, some of those names, you call 30 yards running on someone? Or 70 yards? That's not an effective running game. It's all about the 100 mark, and only Rudi did that in week 4. Dillon's going to get stuffed and it's just not going to work for them.

yeah my bad about larry johnson, i was thinking about the rudi before i went to the stats but i got the name mixed up...anyway, 100 yards doesn't matter, its about sucessfully moving the ball, which they all did.

[the rog]

i just think it's funny that when we're talking about brady, you'll completely debunk when people say things about him having 4th quarter comebacks/winning drives (including, let me note 2 in the superbowl and more than a few in the playoffs) but you're more than willing to pull out the stat that rothlisberger had 6 of those types of drives/comebacks this season, and you talk about it as if it's big ben's accomplishment, but with brady it's suddenly either the fact that he has a good O-line or the fact that the defenses he was playing sucked.

i'm just saying, you look at the steelers, and down the line they ran close games against
the bengals, giants, and jaguars.

and what was more important than the patriots losing that embarassing game to the dolphins (which was theirs to win but they gave it away in the closing seconds) was the decisive victory against the jets the next week (which was one of their most dominant games of the year.) [they held the jets runners (combined) to 46 yards and were +4 on turnover ratio] being able to bounce back like that is what makes them a great team.

you know what though. instead of basically everyone banging their head against a wall with you, who completely to my surprise turned out to be a steelers fan (calling them "we" etc. even though i could've sworn you were manning's buttboy) how about we just wait until 10 oclock sunday night and see who was right.

how about we make an agreement, whoever, at the end of the game, has more points on the board will be deemed the better team and we won't have either side whining "but my guy was held" or "but my ass itches" or anything like that. sound good? okay i like that idea.

[still_life]

yeah my bad about larry johnson, i was thinking about the rudi before i went to the stats but i got the name mixed up...anyway, 100 yards doesn't matter, its about sucessfully moving the ball, which they all did.

How was any of those running games successful? Did their offenses score a lot of points? No. Did they gain a lot of rushing yards total? No. Did they win the game? No.

[still_life]

i just think it's funny that when we're talking about brady, you'll completely debunk when people say things about him having 4th quarter comebacks/winning drives (including, let me note 2 in the superbowl and more than a few in the playoffs) but you're more than willing to pull out the stat that rothlisberger had 6 of those types of drives/comebacks this season, and you talk about it as if it's big ben's accomplishment, but with brady it's suddenly either the fact that he has a good O-line or the fact that the defenses he was playing sucked.

Those Superbowl drives were short and they just set up field goals. If he drove them the distance for a TD that'd be different. He did what any good QB can do in their sleep. As a matter of fact, I sat back and watched the SB highlights again from the 2001 game against the Rams tonight. All but 2 of his passes were little screens or dumps that the RB did a lot of work on to get yards. He had one nice pass to Troy Brown, who then got more yards on his own, then a typical medium pass to a wide open TE. That was it. You act like he drove them 98 yards like Elway. Roethlisberger deserves credit for his 6 game-winning drives, because he's a rookie. They're never supposed to do things like that. They're supposed to fail in those situations. And you can't tell me that Jacksonville wasn't amazing to watch.

i'm just saying, you look at the steelers, and down the line they ran close games against
the bengals, giants, and jaguars.

Bengals weren't that bad this year. They finished .500 and had some close games. They were moving the ball very well against NE too, but they had some dumb turnovers. That team has a good offense shaping up. The Giants game, like I said, that was the worst game for the defense this year. They tried to blitz all game and were leaving guys wide open. Still won. And are you trying to say the Jaguars are a weak team? They are a playoff caliber team, but the AFC was too good this year. Watch out next year. They also led that game the whole time except for a minute and a half. Losing to Miami (hmm, a team Big Ben beat in a hurricane in his first ever start) on national TV is worse than any of those games.

how about we make an agreement, whoever, at the end of the game, has more points on the board will be deemed the better team and we won't have either side whining "but my guy was held" or "but my ass itches" or anything like that. sound good? okay i like that idea.

No, I'll talk about the game any way I want to no matter who wins. You can especially guarantee that if NE wins by only getting fluke scores like blocked FG TDs, punt TDs, etc. or getting bullshit calls in their favor. But fine, if it's a good, close game like it should be, then there shouldn't be a problem.

[yeat182]

How was any of those running games successful? Did their offenses score a lot of points? No. Did they gain a lot of rushing yards total? No. Did they win the game? No.

they succesfully ran the ball. that is how it was successful.

[yeat182]

No, I'll talk about the game any way I want to no matter who wins. You can especially guarantee that if NE wins by only getting fluke scores like blocked FG TDs, punt TDs, etc. or getting bullshit calls in their favor. But fine, if it's a good, close game like it should be, then there shouldn't be a problem.

funny, the only way the steelers can win is if the other team misses 2 game winning field goals in the last minute...

[still_life]

they succesfully ran the ball. that is how it was successful.

How is under 80 yards, and bad yard/carry averages successful? And they only allowed 8 rushing TDs in 17 games. How is any of this successful?

funny, the only way the steelers can win is if the other team misses 2 game winning field goals in the last minute...

Yeah, because gaining 400 yards of offense, shutting down the league's top rusher, holding an offense to 3 points, multiple sacks, 1 INT, etc. means they didn't play good enough to win right?

[yeat182]

How is under 80 yards, and bad yard/carry averages successful? And they only allowed 8 rushing TDs in 17 games. How is any of this successful?

look at yards per attempt, number of attempts, and look at how many yards other backs on the team gained and it speaks for itself.



Yeah, because gaining 400 yards of offense, shutting down the league's top rusher, holding an offense to 3 points, multiple sacks, 1 INT, etc. means they didn't play good enough to win right?

yeah, pretty much. they are lucky to even be taking the field on sunday.

[still_life]

look at yards per attempt, number of attempts, and look at how many yards other backs on the team gained and it speaks for itself.

That they're the #1 defense and toughest against the run? Yeah, the numbers do speak for that. Teams have not had success running the ball, and NE will just be another one to add to the list. Though they might get a shitload of tries if the weather is as bad as they say.

yeah, pretty much. they are lucky to even be taking the field on sunday.

Why, because they completely dominated a team that was lucky to be in this game or the playoffs period? Or because they beat a team that was lucky to even be in the situation to win at the end?

[the rog]

when tom brady was doing that stuff in 2001-2002, he was essentially a rookie, you realize. before drew bledsoe got hurt he'd taken all of 6 or so snaps as a professional. to me, that makes his super bowl run all the more important. it's not like he's donovan mcnabb who's been in the pros for a long time, and that year, he also had a number of come from behind victories.

[the rog]

Why, because they completely dominated a team that was lucky to be in this game or the playoffs period? Or because they beat a team that was lucky to even be in the situation to win at the end?

i despise the way that you talk about INTs returned for TDs as if they're "luck." no, INTs are the result of a skilled defense, it requires a very good DB to get an incredibly amazing read on the ball. Do you know how hard it is to see the QB's eyes from 15 yards away? also, you refer to special teams TDs as "luck" that's such bullshit it's unbelievable.

[still_life]

when tom brady was doing that stuff in 2001-2002, he was essentially a rookie, you realize. before drew bledsoe got hurt he'd taken all of 6 or so snaps as a professional. to me, that makes his super bowl run all the more important. it's not like he's donovan mcnabb who's been in the pros for a long time, and that year, he also had a number of come from behind victories.

There's no such thing as "essentially a rookie". The whole time he wasn't on the field playing, he was practicing and learning the offense. Roethlisberger is a true rookie that wasn't even expecting to play much this year, and especially not so soon. And don't bring up McNabb, because he's been just a step above average all these seasons until he got TO.

i despise the way that you talk about INTs returned for TDs as if they're "luck." no, INTs are the result of a skilled defense, it requires a very good DB to get an incredibly amazing read on the ball. Do you know how hard it is to see the QB's eyes from 15 yards away? also, you refer to special teams TDs as "luck" that's such bullshit it's unbelievable.

Your other Patriot loving boyfriend tried saying the same thing about Deshea's TD against NE this year. Even if the receiver would have been standing there, Deshea jumped the route and would have picked it off regardless. The only difference is that receiver might have been able to tackle him before he got to the endzone. Those picks in the NE game were not made with incredible skill. They were poorly underthrown and overthrown passes by Ben. A 5th string CB could have picked that off if his hands are decent.

A Dante Hall special teams TD is skill, not luck (though in 2003 you see quite a few block in the back no calls on his TDs). Santana Moss running straight down the field untouched wasn't due to his great cuts or moves, it was luck. The Steelers had it covered, but they just fucked up. That's the only way the Jets could score on them. They haven't scored an offensive TD in 3 straight games against them.

[still_life]

Instead of being all over NE's balls this week, no one's even mentioning Tom Brady's lack of success in Heinz Field. He did nothing here in 2001, and his ass got knocked out before halftime. Then of course this year the Steelers showed what happens when Brady tries to win a game on his own, passing.

[yeat182]

Why, because they completely dominated a team that was lucky to be in this game or the playoffs period? Or because they beat a team that was lucky to even be in the situation to win at the end?


exactly what part of that game did they dominate?

[yeat182]

A Dante Hall special teams TD is skill, not luck (though in 2003 you see quite a few block in the back no calls on his TDs). Santana Moss running straight down the field untouched wasn't due to his great cuts or moves, it was luck. The Steelers had it covered, but they just fucked up. That's the only way the Jets could score on them. They haven't scored an offensive TD in 3 straight games against them.

funny how you claim that the pats win in 2001 against the steelers was lucky because they got 2 special teams TD's...why don't you get your story straight? on the one hand you say the jets were lucky to even be playing last sunday, yet don't acknowlege the same thing about the steelers.

[still_life]

exactly what part of that game did they dominate?

Offense, defense, and at least the kicking aspect of special teams, time of possession. So almost everything. Did you even watch this game? The Steelers moved the ball up and down the field. They only stopped themselves with 2 poor throws and a rare, unbelieveable Bettis fumble. The defense gave the Jets hardly anything.

funny how you claim that the pats win in 2001 against the steelers was lucky because they got 2 special teams TD's...why don't you get your story straight? on the one hand you say the jets were lucky to even be playing last sunday, yet don't acknowlege the same thing about the steelers.

The Jets were lucky to be playing Saturday, and lucky to be playing the previous Saturday. Pittsburgh didn't have to beat Buffalo. They could have taken it easy that game. If they did, Buffalo would have been in, Jets out. Then of course the Jets gave SD many chances to win that game, and just got out of it in OT. 14 out of 17 of their points against Pitt came from two guys running straight down the field, untouched. That never happened this year, which is why it should be considered luck.

btw, Tom Brady's career passer rating in Heinz Field - a very modest 76.3