hines not being out there is hurting as evidenced by that play by sanders and reed missing the field goal not a huge surprised he was pretty wobbly on that first kick too
Steelers *should* still make the playoffs still, but this is about what I expected... except I did think we'd at least get to hit Brady on occasion. Luckily there aren't many teams in the league that can do this pass first, second, and third down for 4 quarters. What chances for picks and fumbles the Steelers had, they didn't take advantage of. The loss of the 2nd OT was a bit of a death knell.
Damn Miami lost both QBs for the season so they are thinking about working out get this... Spoiler http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/11/14/report-fins-to-work-out-jamarcus-russell/
So a weird thing: - Saints lose by a big margin against Cleveland, and next week they win against Pittsburgh in Sunday Night. - Patriots lose by a big margin against Cleveland, and next week they win against Pittsburgh in Sunday Night.
Well, that sucked. Personally, I'm a little baffled over Pittsburgh's gameplan coming into this one. You're playing a team that's extremely average (at best) against the run yet you make no effort at all to establish a ground game? Instead, you let a meager 10-0 first/second quarter lead trick yourself into thinking you need to go with your playing-from-behind playbook as opposed to getting the ground game going, chewing up the clock and keeping Brady off of the field. Yeah, that would be mistake number one. Mistake number two would be the defense's inability to adjust to NE's offensive gameplan. If you have a QB throwing 6-7 yard passes and screens all night, you absolutely CANNOT and DO NOT need to play your DB's 10 yards off of the WR's thereby giving them room to operate and get all those easy catches. Also, if you're facing a team that's attempting a rush 1/4 or 1/5 offensive plays you would think there's little need to fall for the play action stuff and fakes yet Brady was able to sell them whenever he wanted. Furthermore, not recognizing the 6'7" Gronkowski vs. 5'10" William Gay mistmatch was beyond costly. Bottom line: there's absolutely no silver lining in this loss for Pittsburgh. Not only did they get humiliated on their home turf in the national spotlight, but Belichick also showed the rest of the leauge how to beat them. Quick passes, three step drops, easy stuff over the middle of the field. Toss in a run in there every once in a while to keep them honest. That type of dink-and-dunk stuff basically negates all the pressure the Steelers are notorious for bringing and clearly kept Brady from being touched all night. Collinsworth pretty much summed it up: the Steelers want you to line up and get nasty -- and when they face a team like New England that doesn't want to do that they don't really know how to respond. Moving forward the Steelers absolutely MUST address their offensive line issues. Belichick badly exposed how weak Ben's injury-plagued right side is. Move some guys around, shuffle it up....whatever. You need balance on your line otherwise your running plays become quite predictable all going to the stronger side like they did tonight.
I'm not that worried about other teams replicating that offense. That dink/dunk from Brady has torched the Steelers year after year. If other offensive coordinators didn't realize that passing was the way to go vs. the steelers, then I apparently need a career change. The silver lining is that there are few quarterbacks in the league that can do that consistently. I was assuming Mendenhal was dinged up, because they put in Mewelde really early. If he wasn't hurt, then it was Arians being Arians. William Gay gets beaten every week. Lets not use the height disadvantage as an excuse for his awfulness.
I'm surprised the Cowboys put it together yesterday...same players, different coach...better attitude or a conspiracy to get rid of Wade...only time will tell... F'n Texans...
Buffalo wins a close one and finally gets their win. (-1) Fail -- Falcons dominated the Ravens. (-1) Colts handle Bengals as expected. (+1) Jets in the dying seconds of overtime. (+1) Go Bears? (-1) Moss this, Moss that. Dan Carpenter FTW. (+1) David Garrard delivered for fantasy owners. And Texans snatch defeat from the jaws of victory yet again. (-1) Hey, at least the Panthers put up a fight. (+1) Dallas finally shows up to an NFL game? (-1) I said upset special, but even I didn't anticipate the 28-0 start. (+1) And they drop this one in OT. (-1) (+1) I was wrong. I still think the Pats have weaknesses, but Belichick is a great coach and I can't hate. (-1) Wow... batting .500 again. Might as well toss a coin. Dangit.
