stinkypete

I don't believe the Patriots would have been able to play Pittsburgh any better than Baltimore did. The Steelers are a better team than the Patriots in 2008, period. Wasn't the late November butt whooping proof enough of that?

I think we would have been able to beat Baltimore in a round 1 matchup at home, but the Steelers are a bad matchup for us this year.

Look at all of the Patriots games this year against the big AFC contenders: Indy, San Diego and Pittsburgh. This team was good, but clearly not in the same league as the class of the conference. Brady was the difference, IMO. No offense to Cassel, I think he is a top 10 QB, but he is not great. Great QB's beat teams like Pittsburgh.

PATRIOTSFANINPA

You could say the same as in 2001 - The Steelers were far and clear the AFCs best team until they hit the wall against NE who was clearly less talented across the board at that time and had lost 5 regular season games before that AFC title clash,but everything just came into synch in that game - Any given sunday as they say

Maybe our team just has what it takes to knock the black and gold out of the playoffs,no matter who really has the better talent

Until I see Pittsburgh actually send a Belichick team home in the playoffs I will feel that way - its a mystique

signbabybrady

OH I am dreaming you got that right....but I wasn't saying we would be in Tampa just that I would have liked a second chance at them because we pissed away the first match-up. And who knows as we have gotten the better of them in Pitt maybe we could have been going to Tampa.

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HEY BRO! WHAT UP?

The entire AFC got a break when Tom Brady went down. The only reason the Steelers are in the superbowl is because of Bernard Pollard. No way the Steelers beat the Pats with a healthy Tom Brady. The Steelers schemes do not fool Brady.

Topher

Kind of on the same idea:

While Pitt is a great team, they did benefit from the Ravens having beat the Titans (thus avoiding the Titans and getting the AFC championship at home). They will also get to play a Cardinals team in the Super Bowl that was mediocre during the regular season (although they admittadly played well against Carolina, essentially their one big test of the post season).

The same thing happened for Indy 2 years ago when the Pats knocked off San Diego.

I know it happens all the time (Pats got the same benefit during the 96 super bowl run), but the years the Pats won it all (and even the year they lost to Indy) they've never got that benefit / always had to play the top teams, and many times on the road.

Not taking anything away from other teams, but it just makes you appreciate even more what those past Pats teams did.

BoTown

If only the Patriots didn't fade heading into halftime and lose the game, they would have had the #2 seed instead of Pittsburgh. That one game was the difference between a first round bye and not making the playoffs at all.

Incredibly, emphatically frustrating.

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Patsfanin Philly

18-15 loss to Indy, one dropped pass away from potential victory might disagree........Pats were in Indy's league
I'll cede you Pittsburgh and SD played their Super Bowl versus NE and for once, they showed up....Could they do it a second time had they met in the playoffs? Not likely especially since Matt Cassel developed by leaps and bounds after that game......

Deus Irae

Oddly enough, for all the problems with the defense and with Brady going down, one could make the argument that the biggest blow to the Patriots' Super Bowl chances this year was Moss' dropping that would-be touchdown against the Steelers.

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"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius

PATSYLICIOUS

They could never get past us and they know it. But for me it's whatever, let them enjoy their junior titles. Consider their path to a pending ring this year - 8-8, 11-5, and 9-7 teams. The other thing that sucks is the refs pretty much handed them the win against Seattle in '05 or else I could've seen them losing that game. They also took out Palmer in order to get past Cincy.

It's really annoying especially when I live in western PA and have to deal with their fans on a regular but on the other hand they've had so many great teams since the early 90's coming inches away and so far only 1 ring to show for it in that whole run. We've only had elite talent since '03 yet have 3 rings in half the time so we're still very blessed in comparison. But still PLEASE Arizona PLEASE beat those towel waiving jerks!

PATRIOTSFANINPA

You think YOU got it tough out there? - HAH!!

I live 2 hours north of Philly and there are EQUAL amount of azzwipe fans for the Steelers and Eagles in my area - This year was purely unbearable and the worst may be yet to come!