mesoslo

The steelers seem to lose against teams that they cant establish the run on, well except for basement dweller like the bengals.

I was skimming through box scores and I noticed that when ever the patriots loose, the opponent would have +95 yards rushing. Well except for the lost to the colts due to the penalty by thomas and the drop pass by gaffney, the colts only had 47 yards rushing.

Now, a few weeks back against the Jets, who is ranked 3rd best in rush defense the patriots put up about 125 yards rushing. Even though the Steelers are 1st at rush defense, I think the patriots can still rush productively and move the chains especially on key situations and convert on 3rd downs. Mean while,the patriots sit about 10th-12th in rush defense, so Iam guessing the steelers probally wont be able to establish the run against the patriots, this might prevent the steelers from converting 3rd downs and move the chains, or even lead to Ben Rottenburger to throw picks.

Looking back on the patriots lost against the colts, the patriots racked up about 130 yards rushing but still end up loosing, more of it due to the penalty on thomas and the drop by gaffney, so as long as Cassel can put up about +200 yards passing, just like against the colts, and the patriots can establish the run +120 yards rushing just like against the colts, and hoping that the patriots WR dont get butter fingers and drop balls, the patriots will most likely come out with a win.

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ClosingTime

Pats will not be able to run. They rarely even try and that's when they acutally had a couple decent running backs. Whether the Steelers can run remais a mystery. Parker is hurting as is the OL. They struggled to run against the lowly Bengals.

Pats have a decent rush defense and are probably better than the numbers suggest due to having to cover for a weak secondary.

This really comes down to Cassel vs Ben. Steelers have the better D and Ben, while not having a great year, has still proven he can get it done. For all the hype after playing two good games, Cassel is an unproven commodity.

JoeSixPat

Although I see where you're going with this, the notion that the Steelers "can't win" against the Patriots isn't going to appease anyone.

That's an excellent defense they have and if the Patriots have half as many yards and half as many points on Sunday I'll view that as a pretty significant accomplishment by our offense.

The Steelers Offense isn't exactly lighting it up but with their defense they won't really need to either. Bottom line is that Cassell and the Patriots offense are facing one of their biggest tests this Sunday and will have their work cut out for them, regardless of whether the Steelers can run.

Frankly, if I were the Steelers OC, this is one game where I'd probably favor the pass over the run, taking advantage of a injury plagued secondary, making the running game that less relevant.

NJPatsfan26

Well said. I have a feeling that this game will be closer then we think. I just hope that we can keep the momentum running and continue our campaign of winning!!

PATSYLICIOUS

Having no run game might be a blesing when you go against our defense.

Miami couldn't run last week and they had no real problems scoring.

ctpatsfan77

The only problem with this analysis is that the Patriots often won't even really bother to try (see 2007 v. Pittsburgh, 2006 @ Minnesota).

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MrTibbs

Sounds good but when your QB has 11 td passes, 11 picks and has been sacked almost 40 times that might not be the best way to attack any team let alone the Patriots even with a weak secondary.

fgssand

Hey Closing Time, always nice to hear from you - I do hope all is well.

Have you been watching our young phenom lately?? At this point, he is really close to being just what yuo say he is now - a proven commodity.

Will be very interesting to see how he fares against this edition of the Steel curtain.

If NE can spread you guys out once again and he (and the "O" line) can handle the rush, you may be in for trouble. Then again, we can't stop passers on third down or any down over the middle, so, this game may end up being higher scoring than most think.

Should be fun.....

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Triggerfish

The running game wasn't exactly pretty against Cincy, but the Steelers were able to get over 120 yards and 2 TDs on the ground in that game. Obviously Parker is still hurting, the weather was ugly, and Cincy seems to have improved a bit against the run (allowing only 68 yards rushing to Philly and the Jags the previous 2 weeks). I actually hope they go with Moore against you this week. He's been filling in admirably, and Parker just isn't himself yet. Take away his speed to the outside, and he's just an average RB at best, mostly due to his small stature.

Should be a great game this week though. Can't wait.

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mgteich

The poster seems to think we have a great advantage when we depend on our secondary. ??????????????????