Five reasons the Patriots will lose to the Steelers
Yes, I said it. Its been said other places as well, but the Steelers are going to win this Sunday against the undefeated New England Patriots (apparently a lot of people agree, as an ESPN poll conducted last night had 45% of America picking the Steelers to win, even though they are 10 point underdogs).
Now before everybody accuses me of band-jumping or illogical thinking (I am from Pittsburgh, by the way, so of course I expect the Steelers to win), I ask that you hear me out.
So why will the Steelers win? Let’s run down the list.
1. The Steelers have a great running game.
Going into this week, the Steelers are ranked 3rd in the NFL with 138.3 yards per game. So,
what’s the big deal about that? Well, for one, if you’re running the ball effectively, you can keep the very dangerous Patriots offense off of the field. Obviously, its hard for them to score if they don’t have the ball, right? right. If the Steelers time of possession is high on Sunday, then barring some fluke plays, we should be sitting pretty. Effectively running the ball is how that goal will be accomplished. For those asking if the Steelers can run on the Patriots? See Willis McGahee last week.
2. The Steelers have the best defense in the NFL.
Why have the Patriots struggled in the past two weeks? Because they’ve played against two physical defenses, the Eagles and the Ravens. Both of these defenses managed to get fairly consistent pressure on Brady, which lead to the Patriots offense getting off the field a lot faster (and more often). Let it be said now; the Steelers defense is better than the Ravens and Eagles defenses. The Steelers defense ranks first in points per game, yards allowed, and passing yards (they rank second behind the Vikings in rushing yards allowed). As said in the first point, if the other team’s offense has the ball, the Patriots prolific offense cannot put points on the board. This Sunday, look for the Steelers zone blitz to put pressure on Brady, forcing him to throw the ball on short, preventing the long plays to Moss and Stallworth down the field.
3. The Patriots are 12-0.
There is a reason why only the ’72 Dolphins have gone undefeated through a whole season…It is hard. NFL teams are playing 16 games a year. Regardless of how good you are, the laws of probability are against you winning all of your games. On top of that? as you get into the later weeks, the pressure starts to mount; winning games becomes more and more difficult (look at the last two games, the Patriots were heavy favorites and had to escape with victories). At some point, the pressure will become too much. I’m guessing that time will be sometime on Sunday afternoon.
4. The Patriots running game is…Oh wait! they don’t really have one.
The Patriots having the 8th ranked rushing attack in the league is the most misleading statistic in the NFL this year. The Patriots running game is non-existent. If you’re picking up rushing yards in the second half of games after you’re already beating a team by 30 points, you aren’t really showing me anything. Half of the Patriots rushing comes from a bubble screen that ends up being a lateral anyway. You will need a rushing attack of some sort to beat the Steelers, because if you running game isn’t effective, we will either blitz often, or put 8 guys into the secondary, and as mentioned earlier, in my second point, our defense is pretty effective.
5. Former Miami Dolphins RB Mercury Morris.
Good Lord. My television almost broke when I heard him rapping on ESPN (who heard that and said “Man! we need to get that on sportscenter!”). I think the Patriots will lose on purpose this week, just so Mercury Morris won’t have to come back on Sportscenter and make me hate myself, my TV, and everyone at ESPN.
Mercury Morris is busting phat dope rhymes here.
So, there you have it. Look for the Steelers to win. 24-21.
Juiced Sports Blog: RJ’s NFL Picks, Week 14
This entry was posted on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 7:42 pm and is filed under Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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Mercury Morris has managed to make a ton of folks who can’t stand Boston-area sports fans pray that the Patriots run the table so that they don’t ever have to hear from him again. I happen to like both teams, but Morris has managed to become one of the most despised people in sports in just over a week. Congrats!
Oh, I guess five reasons weren’t enough to win. Better luck next time! (I’m not a New England fan, I’m a Baltimore fan. We are RIVALS!)
@ Chris.
Man you guys got hosed against the Patriots! If I was Bart Scott I would have taken that flag, and shoved it straight up that refs a%^! The refs could not have made it any more obvious they were calling crap calls so the Patriots could continue that game winning drive!
@ Emmett..
I was really pulling for your Steelers yesterday.. Im not sure I would have called the 4th and goal RB play with Ward.. while creative.. I would have spread the defense and used play action, if nothing was open.. let Big Ben run!!
@Ick
Yeah, I don’t like that Ward play either. We either need to use play action, or even if we just run with Davenport. That wasn’t the time for gadget plays, basically.