Page 5 of 5 FirstFirst ... 345
Results 121 to 126 of 126

Thread: Key to Beating Patriots?

  1. #121
    Senior Member Array title="Shoes has a reputation beyond repute"> Shoes's Avatar

    Join Date
    May 2010
    Gender
    Posts
    11,632

    Re: Key to Beating Patriots?

    The key is in their hand. Make room for SB trophy #7! Its going to happen.

  2. #122
    Up The IRONS! GO STEELERS Array title="Iron Steeler has a reputation beyond repute"> Iron Steeler's Avatar

    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Gender
    Posts
    2,111

    Re: Key to Beating Patriots?

    Quote Originally Posted by teegre View Post
    Which brings us full circle back to steelreserve’s post...
    Hahaha this little string of thread is hilarious.

  3. #123
    Senior Member Array title="Mojouw has a reputation beyond repute"> Mojouw's Avatar

    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Wisconsin
    Gender
    Posts
    20,179

    Re: Key to Beating Patriots?

    Pretty simple and without Shazier it never happens:

    1. Stop the Pats RBs. More so than even Gronk, these guys are what the Pats use to create issues for a defense. They stretch teams horizontally to open seams for Gronk, Cooks, and Hogan downfield. Just when you get tired of that, they hammer you with power running. Shazier's speed and quick identification abilities would have gone a long way to neutralizing this. Fort, Spence, VW, and Moats just can't do the same things on the field. This will be a massive task for Butler to scheme his way out of. I suspect that he isn't up to it.

    2. Deal with multiple vertical routes to the same side of the field. The Pats love to run off safeties and corners with Cooks and Hogan and then hit you with Gronk in behind that. Communication in the secondary is the only chance of dealing with this. With Sutton and Haden likely rotating out there and a newly minted dime defense post-Shazier injury -- I don't feel very good about there not being at least a handful of breakdowns that lead to chunk plays.

    3. Bunch formations to beat man coverage or even zone-man. The Pats have been running these out there to stop teams from lining up and bullying their Non-Gronkowski receivers at the line. Steelers fans should be familiar with the power of these kinds of formations as the Steelers have been killing teams with that triple stack for years. Again, communication and coordination in the coverage units will be a key. Butler should be able to "solve" this one as it is a puzzle the Steelers should be familiar with.

    So 2 out of 3, I do not think that the Steelers are currently well positioned to deal with. I simply do not think the Shazier injury can be over-stated. He was the only player on the roster that was integral to every defensive formation (base and ALL sub packages). Many of the things that the Steelers ran seemed to lean on Shazier's skill set to make them work. I just don't think that a one week crash course for Moats and Spence (FWIW I believe Spence got a ton of snaps against the Ravens in a desperate attempt to get him back up to speed rather than the Steelers simply hating on LJ Fort. Fort got the crunch time snaps. Something to think about moving forward!) with Fort in the wings is going to cut it. This is going to be a trial and error process over the rest of the season for Butler and company to figure out what they can and can not make work.

    Bottom line - Week 15 Steelers are not set-up to beat the Pats. Play off Steelers in an AFCCG -- yes, if Butler does work.

  4. #124
    ® Array title="Steeldude "> Steeldude's Avatar

    Join Date
    May 2010
    Posts
    6,374

    Re: Key to Beating Patriots?

    The Steelers will most likely need to put up 42+ points to win. I can't see that defense stopping Brady.
    Hater = Realist

  5. #125
    Senior Member Array title="pczach has a reputation beyond repute"> pczach's Avatar

    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Gender
    Posts
    8,849

    Re: Key to Beating Patriots?

    The dream scenario would be for the offense to score on their first six possessions with at least three touchdowns. Jump on them early and just keep attacking all game. DO NOT take the foot off the gas!

    It would be great for our offense to dominate them all day long and make them play desperately. Hit Brady as much and as hard as possible so that memory is fresh in his head for next time.

  6. #126
    Senior Member Array title="Mojouw has a reputation beyond repute"> Mojouw's Avatar

    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Wisconsin
    Gender
    Posts
    20,179

    Re: Key to Beating Patriots?

    The more I think about this game - and I've thought about it far too much for something I have absolutely no control over - the key is the LB play from both defenses. That is the big obvious weak spot for both teams. While both offenses go about it differently, they can both put up points on anyone.

    But when both the Steelers and the Pats have been exposed on defense it has been largely because of poor LB play.

    This is such a complex game to work through and predict because both teams are really good and do a ton of things well. But it might just be as simple as whoever gets the better play from their LB unit comes out on top.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •