Next On The List: The Patriots

[SteelerEmpire]

Flacco broke the curse of him and the Ravens not beating Ben and the Steelers, so lets see if this team shows up as "steel soilders" and come to battle and beat Brady and the Patriots.

LeBeau redesigned the secondaries strategy "after" the loss to the Pats last season, so we'll see if the D can shut down Brady (the Cowgirls basically did, and at the Pats house) and if Ben and the offense will have LeBeau's back. Coach Lake is in there now too, so that's a difference. Now, with this team being 3td in it's division, this game does count.

[Edman]

Tom Brady is Tom Brady. He'll have his success and will put up points.

What I'm more concerned about is how the Steelers Offense fares against the Patriots Defense. What people forget is how pathetic our offense was against the Pats D last year. They didn't do anything against them until the game was well in hand. The Patriots Defense is pretty subpar. There is no excuse to not have success against them.

I still hold onto that belief that the Steelers will have their day against the Metrosexual, maybe this is the day.

These next three games are season defining for the Steelers are they are against their biggest nemeses and two AFC contenders. The Ravens even jump started the "Steelers are done" talk in Week 1. Don't overlook the Bengals either, especially in their place. Real rough stretch of games coming up.

[JayC]

expect high scoring from the pats. gonna need our offense to keep up with the pats to have any chance

[Moose]

I think the Offense is going to have to score at least 35 pts. to win this game. Their defense is good, but not that good. Our Defense is going to have to have their "A" game and put the mad rush on Marsha.

[BigNastyDefense]

It's all about getting pressure on Brady, if we can do that then we can win this game.

[pepsyman1]

This game reminds me of the early nineties when we used to really struggle playing against Jim Kelly and the Bills. We could shut down most of the league but the Bills used to give us fits. Then a Monday night match up against the Bills came up and Dom Capers through all caution to the wind and we blitzed Kelly from every conceivable angle possible. (I think Rod Woodson came from behind the Gatorade cooler on one!..lol) We didn't blitz every play, but we faked many blitzes and all the blitzes we did have were from unexpected places. Kelly spent most of the evening bouncing off the turf. We did much better against them consistently after that game and beat them in the playoffs on the way to Cowher's first Superbowl (friggin Neil O'Donnell...lol) I hope LeBeau takes a similar approach to this game. We don't have to blitz every play, BUT I think we need to make them believe the THREAT of the blitz is there every play. We need to get to Marsha at all costs, otherwise he's gonna drop another 30+ point game on us.

[Moose]

LOL pepsyman1 !! OMG, I remember that series also, I remember the look on Kelly's face constantly looking around, left/right, not knowing what the hell was going to happen....like the deer in the headlight look. Pure shell shocked...so to speak. At times it was simply, hike the ball and throw fast--just to get rid of the thing. LOL. That's exactly what has to happen. Keep Marsha guessing and nervous, not to mention being in Heinz field and having sooooo much noise he will have to constantly be changing counts and " false starts" happening. The fans will have to definitely be in this game big time !!

[suitanim]

A) Pressure
B) More man-to-man

That's it. Brady rips up our zone. The Pats WR's don't really scare me. I think yesterday's play by Ike (much more physical and intimidating) was foreshadowing for what we'll see next week.

Fuck the Pats, by the way. Gayest team in the NFL.

[venom]

The Pats coming off a bye is big - alot of pressure on Brady is big

[Count Steeler]

Let's plan to put up 49 points. If we lose, oh well. But I don't think the Pats* will win this week. Should be an explosive, very high scoring affair. The over under should be at about 80, in my opinion.

[T&B fan]

need to see a lot of dirt on Brady , she no like to get hit . the cowgirls and browns did a walk around D till just before the snap , Tommy boy has less time to see whats coming at him ,

[zulater]

If we lose the battle of turnovers we'll lose this game by a bunch.

[pepsyman1]

LOL pepsyman1 !! OMG, I remember that series also, I remember the look on Kelly's face constantly looking around, left/right, not knowing what the hell was going to happen....like the deer in the headlight look. Pure shell shocked...so to speak. At times it was simply, hike the ball and throw fast--just to get rid of the thing. LOL. That's exactly what has to happen. Keep Marsha guessing and nervous, not to mention being in Heinz field and having sooooo much noise he will have to constantly be changing counts and " false starts" happening. The fans will have to definitely be in this game big time !!

Moose, I remember watching this game in a sports bar/restaurant that my friends dragged me to when I wanted to just stay home and watch the game (I live outside Philly in New Jersey). I made them pay for it...I was fully decked out with jersey and terrible towels and made as much noise as I could on every sack. Lol. I still vividly remember Woodson coming off the blind side corner on one blitz spool fast it looked like Kelly had been hit by a top fuel funny car! Great game plan that night out of Capers. I hope LeBeau does something out of the norm this week to crank it up!

[steeldevil]

Pats* suck.

[Dino 6 Rings]

If we lose the battle of turnovers we'll lose this game by a bunch.

Yep, by a big Bunch.

Brady always gets fired up to play the Steelers too, "we've played against better safeties" yeah, I still remember that little dig after he torched that jackass out of Syracuse that was playing for an injured Troy a couple years back.

Wallace won't be open deep, that's a fact, the Pats will take that option away. Also, they will bracket Miller cause he's Ben's safety valve. This means that the under guys, Brown and Ward will need to and must have a huge day. Also, our running game will need to be effective from the first snap. The Patriots take away what you do best, currently, we function as a Pass first team that passes to run the ball. The Patriots are going to do everything in their power to take away the pass early. I think this is a game where we can Run to open up the pass as they will most likely open in a Nickle or Dime against our passing attack.

On defense...simple. put Ike one on one on Welker and put Troy over the TE's in a bracket. If Welker beats Ike one on one all game, we lose, so be it. But don't let that little shit run around open on those damn slant passes all freaking day long. Cover him with our best guy at corner. And Blitz the shit out of Brady. Attack him and never ever ever drop into a deep zone with a 3 man rush. I swear to God if I see more than 2 plays where we rush 3 guys or heaven help me, Less than 3, I'm going to drive up to the Burgh and punch Mike Tomlin in the face for allowing that game plan to get put on his desk. And I might punch Bruce for the heck of it. I can't punch Coach Dad, he's just untouchable physically, but I might call him some choice names too.

[tihmtahm]

Pats are coming off a bye week... They'll be prepared.

[Chidi29]

Pats have Brady and Belichick... They'll be prepared.

Fixed your post.

[Chidi29]

And we can't forget about Ernie Adams.

[LLT]

The Pats* are dead last in total Pass Defense..allowing 322 yards a game and 8.5 yards a play. They are the #8 ranked Run Defense. In fact...the pass defense for New England is so bad it actually drops them down into the #32 overall defensive slot.

We dont need to try anything fancy...this is a game in which we can win if we stay away from a shoot out and instead choose to "manage" the game. Its a know fact that if we keep Marsha's head on a swivel...his performance will take a dive. Blitz the QB...Jam the recievers...and manage the game.

[Merchant]

I'm not buying this whole "we're gonna have to win it in a shoot-out." If the Cowboys D was able to contain them why can't ours?

[Edman]

I'm not buying this whole "we're gonna have to win it in a shoot-out." If the Cowboys D was able to contain them why can't ours?

Firstly, Difference between the philosophies of the Coordinators. The Ryan Brothers play aggressive 3-4 Defense against the Pats with Man coverage and exotic blitzing. Whenever I watch Brady against them, he is rarely ever comfortable. Lebeau has notoriously played passive Defense against the Pats and it has constantly failed. Calling up standard 3-4 man rushes and dropping guys back in a zone, basically inviting Brady to sit back there, eat a sandwich, and rip the Defense another new asshole.

You may as well put up a big neon sign that says: "Go ahead, embarrass us for another game". The Patriots O is pretty much built to eat up the zone cushion.

[BigNastyDefense]

Firstly, Difference between the philosophies of the Coordinators. The Ryan Brothers play aggressive 3-4 Defense against the Pats with Man coverage and exotic blitzing. Whenever I watch Brady against them, he is rarely ever comfortable. Lebeau has notoriously played passive Defense against the Pats and it has constantly failed. Calling up standard 3-4 man rushes and dropping guys back in a zone, basically inviting Brady to sit back there, eat a sandwich, and rip the Defense another new asshole.

You may as well put up a big neon sign that says: "Go ahead, embarrass us for another game". The Patriots O is pretty much built to eat up the zone cushion.

I think this time around, the Steelers change things up and play aggressive against them this time around. I think we're going to blitz Brady and make him eat a turf sandwich.

[tube517]

This game reminds me of the early nineties when we used to really struggle playing against Jim Kelly and the Bills. We could shut down most of the league but the Bills used to give us fits. Then a Monday night match up against the Bills came up and Dom Capers through all caution to the wind and we blitzed Kelly from every conceivable angle possible. (I think Rod Woodson came from behind the Gatorade cooler on one!..lol) We didn't blitz every play, but we faked many blitzes and all the blitzes we did have were from unexpected places. Kelly spent most of the evening bouncing off the turf. We did much better against them consistently after that game and beat them in the playoffs on the way to Cowher's first Superbowl (friggin Neil O'Donnell...lol) I hope LeBeau takes a similar approach to this game. We don't have to blitz every play, BUT I think we need to make them believe the THREAT of the blitz is there every play. We need to get to Marsha at all costs, otherwise he's gonna drop another 30+ point game on us.

I was so happy after that game. I remember that one as well. I was so sick of the Bills