Pittsburgh

If the Pats are going to lose during the regular season, it's going to be this week. If/when they get by the Steelers they won't lose at home to the Jets or Dolphins nor at the Giants on Dec. 29th. The problem seems to be that things are stacked against them this week and they've got a good chance to lose, at least that's what 'people' say.

What exactly is 'stacked' against the Pats this week? Well, an ESPN article gives 33 reasons why the Pats will lose to the Steelers. 33. Peter King of SI picks the Steelers 27-20 and gives 5 reasons of his own. There is another article on SI explaining why the Steelers will win. This is the NFL and the Pats are certainly not going to make excuses. However, it is difficult for a team to play a tough Sunday nighter and win the following week. It is hard enough to play a tough Monday nighter and win the following week. How about a team (the Pats) that plays Sunday night, Sunday night and Monday night in a row? I don't think there are statistics for that, because I don't think that has ever happened before and it certainly doesn't help the Pats any. But you won't hear that from the Pats likeyou would if this was the Colts.

Fear not though, loyal Pats fans. This is the kind of game that the Pats have usually won under the Belichick Brady regime. The game where things were stacked against them and they hadn't been playing well and 'people' expected them to lose. In the second game of the 2003 season after losing the Lawyer Milloy game at Buffalo 31-0, going into defending NFC champ Philly and losing Rosie Colvin for the year on the second snap of the game. The result was a 31-10 Pats win. In the 9th game of 2004 after the loss at Pittsburgh that broke the 21 game win streak, playing at St Louis' greatest show on turf. The result was a Pats 40-22 win and a subsequent 6 game win streak. In the 10th game of 2005 after a Monday Night loss to Indy dropped the Pats to 4-4, playing at Miami (then 5-4 and pretty good). The result was a 23-16 Pats win, IN Miami.

So let Pittsburgh run it's collecive mouth all week. Let all the experts explain to you why the Pats are going to lose this week. And Let everyone tell you that Pittsburgh's D is #1 overall and #1 against the run and #1 against the Pass and #1 in points allowed.

I'll tell you that Pittsburgh's secondary is not as good as Philly's nor Baltimore's and that the Brady will eat them alive on Sunday. How about a reason why the Steelers D is over-rated at #1? They've played games against offenses ranked 24th, 28th, 29th, 31st and 32nd. I'll also tell you that Pittsburgh stinks on the road. They lost @ Arizona, @ the Jets @ a weak Denver team. Pittsburgh only beat Miami 3-0 last week, how good can they be? Experts will tell you that Pittsburgh beat Baltimore 38-7 and the Pats struggled against Baltimore. Pittsburgh was at home. Baltimore fumbled the ball 3 times leading to scoring drives of 20 yds and a TD, 36 yds and a TD, 44 yds and a TD. Pitt's longest scoring drive of the day was 50 yds. Boller also through an INT for a Pitt TD. Do you think the Pats would have scored 38 on Baltimore under those circumstances?

So that's it. I don't want to hear any more doubt from anyone about this week's game. The Patriots are going to win and they are going to win big. No mercy, just running up the score.

Patriots 41
Steelers 16