Well, it certainly would have helped to have Troy Polamalu in the lineup today as the deep middle of the field got mauled, but every team has injuries this time and year and you have to overcome them. If you want to take the glass half full approach, you could say that at worst - this game could only change our playoff seed from 3 to 4 and if we beat Jacksonville next week, we'll still probably end up being the 3 seed and this game didn't affect our season too much. If you want to take the glass half empty approach, you would say that mentally, if we have to face the Patriots again in the playoffs, it will be in our heads that we got beat by more than 2 TDs. If you need to spin it in your head again to the full side.....maybe you can convince yourself that we played it close for 39 minutes and had our heart ripped out by the double lateral that maybe Troy could have covered. Of course, the half empty glass is screaming that they threw on almost every down and we didn't sack Brady once. It was a great gameplan by the Pats. Our defense is super aggressive and the second the first play-action stayed in Brady's hands....I knew it was a TD from the length of time it took to develop at that point. You just have to wonder if the double lateral play was only put in the gameplan because of Anthony Smith? Also, for Christmas, could somebody please get Ike Taylor a pair of hands that aren't made of granite? Thank You. The first half was very exciting to watch and I enjoyed it tremendously. The second....."meh". Ten years ago this loss would have bothered me a lot more than it did today. My glass is still half full. Smith was a hair away from knocking that ball down. What if he did? Football is a game of inches and momentum. It can change on a dime. Congrats to the Pats, see you in the playoffs.
8 comments:
Hey bud... can you learn to use some paragraphs?
My drunken eyes can't take such a 'wall of words'!
It's like trying to scale a typographical cliff with my eyeballs....
The glass is half full but...
The Cleveland Browns are breathing down our necks only 1 game back. I know we beat them twice but if they don't lose in Buffalo next weekend it's going to real interesting to see if we can even win the division!
If we shit the bed again next week (a very real possibility since we traditionally do not play well vs. Jacksonville), and if Baltimore pulls out an effort like they had against the Pats on us in the finale, we could limp home (or into the playoffs) at 1-3 in our last 4 games.
I think we can beat St. Louis and Baltimore for sure, possibly even Jacksonville. But you never know about this team... the lost to the Jets. How full was the glass that day?
Isn't my paragraph structure magnificent?
it seems that the editor here changes daily for hitting enter. some days it puts in the HTML new line and sometimes it doesn't. if it only bothers a patriots fan, i'm not going to look into fixing it!
also - dog - i agree completely. we could win out or limp home into a wildcard! i happen to believe we will change our luck against jacksonville this week playing at home.
Yes, another good game. The first half was certainly exciting. The Pats haven't allowed anyone to score against them on the first possession, but the Steelers blew that one for them.
Unfortunately, I missed the lateral to Moss and then back to Brady - just read about it in the Globe. I wouldn't be surprised if it was thrown in there for "Mr. Guarantee" (as the papers are calling him here). Brady seemed to want to rub it in his face after that one TD.
Yes, let's hope they meet up again in the playoffs...I always enjoy a good game.
And now that the Pats survived the Steelers, I do predict that they will blow the perfect season on a less-worthy team, like, oh I dunno, the Dolphins?
Oh, and I too have noticed the weird paragraph formatting that blogger does...sometimes I get lots of spacing between my lines and sometimes it's a little tighter.
Man, I miss Troy!
I agree, the first half was good, we had a glass half full.
But the Patriots drained it during the second half.
We got caught with our pants down too many times.
Seemed like every time Brady made a play I was saying "Damn, why cant we do that?"
I'm a little more optimistic guys. I think the Steelers can win the rest of their regular season games. Sure Jacksonville has played us tough in the past, but we're at home and I feel we will rise to the occasion after the Pats debacle. Tomlin will have the team ready Sunday. Count on it!
Troy being out definitely made a difference yesterday and New England took full advantage of it which is what a great team does;-) Despite the loss I saw some good points in the game. Willie ran well and we moved the ball against the Pats. Just couldn't cash it in which you have do against New England. FG's will do you no good because no one is going to shut the Pats offense down completely for four quarters. You just try to MAINTAIN them because they simply have so many weapons. The only way to beat New England is to match them punch-for-punch throughout the game. When they score you must immediately match it otherwise it will turn into a blowout in a matter of minutes. Both Philly and Baltimore did it sucessfully before Feeley made the killer INT mistake and Baltimore called the timeout.
To me the Pats defense is overrated. And they are old. But... the offensive is so explosive that they don't need to have a great defense!
It makes me laugh that everyone is already handing the Super Bowl trophy to New England. No one is talking about Indy and they are world champs and quietly winning games without all their starters. If they can get healthy at the right time, I got a feeling the chip on their shoulder is going to work for their benefit.
Quite honestly I feel the Steelers are still a year or two away from winning the big one. We're still missing some key ingredients that will hopefully be addressed during the off-season. It always amazes me that the Steelers never bring in known free agents. Look at how the Pats brought in Moss, Welker, Stallworth, and Thomas and the huge difference those guys have made. How can they afford it? Who is the last well-known player the Steelers got through free agency? Duce? Open up the wallet Rooney's!
JT is right. Jacksonville has always played us tough. And they won the game the last time they visited Pittsburgh too. But Tommy Maddox isn't playing QB anymore. Remember that horrid pick-6 he threw to end that game?
The Patriot game should be chalked up as a learning experience. The Jags game is much more important in the overall scheme of things anyway.
I'm waiting for that "Epiphany" moment. Perhaps this Sunday?
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