I think I now know what Dick will do. After having "Dick Do" in my head for the past few days, I tried to find the best picture I could of a "DickDue". I think this one suffices. DOesn't he look like Jim "The Anvil" Neidheart from the glory days of the WWF? Anyway, after reading a bunch of opinions, I'm not sure enough credence has been given to muscling their receivers at the line of scrimmage in an effort to disrupt Kurt's timing. Everything they seem to do is 3 step drops and him blindly throwing the ball through a window. I think maybe we need to time these things perfectly....every so often in an obvious passing situation (read every down) knock their heads off on the line while sending our normal four. Maybe have six DBs in when we do this and have cover two while we try to knock them off the line. I don't know....I'm not an X,O guy at all. I just think if you're playing a timing offense you have to make them drop a pancake every once in a while. Also, I'm not sure these guys have ever faced the hitters we have back there. Maybe in the first quarter we can play off of them if we pin them deep and give them some room to make some underneath catches....then hit'em with our missiles. Another thing I thought of is the element of surprise. Nobody gets to Warner on blitzes. Maybe we don't blitz a single time until their first critical drive of the game, even if it's not until the third quarter. Let their linemen think we won't be coming all day...then unleash the hounds as they're back on their heels for a series. I think on offense, we do nothing different. They aren't good enough on defense that we have to change anything. I start running Parker and don't stop him until they do. Then, we can start throwing on first down to keep them guessing. I honestly can't see them stopping our offense, but I've only seen about five of their games this year. I don't think they can put up more than 24 points on the league's best defense. I think we'll put up 27. That's my score 27-24.....and I think Warner will have the ball in his hands with a chance to win the game late. In grand fashion, we'll force a turnover and the game will end with us kneeling.
4 comments:
I've been talking to a couple of folks who are big football fans (in general). I mentioned to them that I'm a little nervous about the game, and their reaction has always been the same: Don't be.
The consensus that I'm hearing is that there's a lot of overblown talk about the Cards, and that they aren't used to smashmouth football (and I'm paraphrasing quite a bit here). They're predicting that after the first good, solid hit, that the Cards will be taken out of their rhythm and fold.
A former coworker of mine who works at ESPN has already congratulated Pgh for their "6th championship."
I don't know. The game still has to be played, Whiz and Grimm know that we're coming to get them and will be prepared. But if it's wet conditions, I think that favors the Steelers (since it could hinder the pass). Bah, enough thinking. My prediction: Steelers 28, Cards 20.
Anybody counting this game as a win on Friday afternoon is foolhardy. I don't even count Browns games as wins on Friday afternoon and we've beat them what, 10 times in a row??
I'm not making a prediction because, as Mike Tomlin might say, "Predictions don't mean shit."
I will offer you this little bit of insight from the deepest depths of my analytical mind. Ken Whisenhunt's M.O.
Remember back in January of '06 when Whiz was our OC? We ran Bettis and Parker at every team all season long. And in the playoffs, what did we do? We opened it up. Passed on first down consistently. And with teams putting 7 & 8 in the box to stop the run our guys came open all the time.
So this year during the regular season the Cards pass to run ratio was about 2:1. In other words they pass twice as much as they run EXCEPT...
In 3 playoffs games they've run the ball 100 times and passed it only 92. Very balanced. And it's the same sort of about-face Whisenhunt did with the Steelers in the playoff run of '06.
I'm just pointing this out to those who care about the game. It's something to watch for. It's not really Xs and Os.
And I'll put all the BS we've been hearing all week into perspective end this reply by quoting Mean Joe Greene from yesterday, "Stats are for losers."
Whiz is too smart to think he can run on us. I think warner is gunning. They can't win running theball unless we turn it over three times abd they get a 10 point lead.
You give Whiz too much credit, although he deserves some.
Depends on what I said in the Dick Do article. Fat Casey and Foote in the game, Cards will wing it. Fat Casey and Foote on the sidelines, they'll run it.
The question then becomes a game of cat and mouse between Whiz/Grimm/Haley and Le Beau/Tomlin. And the truth will be told by whether we can stop the pass with Hampton & Foote in the game and whether we can stop the run with them out. So it comes down to execution after all.
And of course the normal things that upset the apple cart such as turnovers and kick returns.
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