stillers4me
01-04-2015, 10:56 AM
One football team kicked the other team’s collective fanny.
The Nation can cry out and complain and call for firings, releases and mass exorcisms, and no doubt a vocal percentage will do precisely that. But the underlying principle of all that occurred in the Steelers’ 30-17 (http://www.steelers.com/video-and-audio/videos/HIGHLIGHTS-Steelers-vs-Ravens-Wild-Card-Game/c3cbdeda-756e-471d-9143-98f1b633fa79) loss to the Ravens in the AFC wild-card playoff Saturday night at Heinz Field could be summed up with this single sentence spoken by Kelvin Beachum: “Kudos to them. They did a good job. They came in here and won in a hostile environment.”
Or, maybe better yet, this one from Joe Flacco in the visitors’ room: “You have to play these games to win. You can’t play not to lose. You have to go out there and let everything go. These games are all extra. You can’t worry about the outcome. Play aggressive football. Don’t have a conscience.”
That’s kind of how it looked, too, didn’t it?
Both ends of it, I mean.
The Steelers, despite the momentum of a month of triumphs and the AFC North title, suddenly were the team very much “living in their fears,” to borrow Mike Tomlin’s pet phrase when he insists he’ll never do any such thing. They coached passively, with the predictably sad return of all Todd Haley’s Sideways ‘N Screens R Us nonsense in Le’Veon Bell’s absence, or Antonio Brown touching the football only four times in the first three quarters because — gasp — the Ravens might double-team him, or the equally predictable lack of Dick LeBeau’s blitzing because — gasp — Flacco might throw it so far that no one will be able to ‘tackle the catch.’ They coached to their fears............
Read more (freebie today from Dejan)........ http://dkonpittsburghsports.com/
The Nation can cry out and complain and call for firings, releases and mass exorcisms, and no doubt a vocal percentage will do precisely that. But the underlying principle of all that occurred in the Steelers’ 30-17 (http://www.steelers.com/video-and-audio/videos/HIGHLIGHTS-Steelers-vs-Ravens-Wild-Card-Game/c3cbdeda-756e-471d-9143-98f1b633fa79) loss to the Ravens in the AFC wild-card playoff Saturday night at Heinz Field could be summed up with this single sentence spoken by Kelvin Beachum: “Kudos to them. They did a good job. They came in here and won in a hostile environment.”
Or, maybe better yet, this one from Joe Flacco in the visitors’ room: “You have to play these games to win. You can’t play not to lose. You have to go out there and let everything go. These games are all extra. You can’t worry about the outcome. Play aggressive football. Don’t have a conscience.”
That’s kind of how it looked, too, didn’t it?
Both ends of it, I mean.
The Steelers, despite the momentum of a month of triumphs and the AFC North title, suddenly were the team very much “living in their fears,” to borrow Mike Tomlin’s pet phrase when he insists he’ll never do any such thing. They coached passively, with the predictably sad return of all Todd Haley’s Sideways ‘N Screens R Us nonsense in Le’Veon Bell’s absence, or Antonio Brown touching the football only four times in the first three quarters because — gasp — the Ravens might double-team him, or the equally predictable lack of Dick LeBeau’s blitzing because — gasp — Flacco might throw it so far that no one will be able to ‘tackle the catch.’ They coached to their fears............
Read more (freebie today from Dejan)........ http://dkonpittsburghsports.com/