Anyone else think that the Steelers would have beat us this year?

Last weeks loss to Denver left me with a feeling of lost opportunity. At the time I felt that if we had won that game we could have handled the Steelers at home and beat whomever in the superbowl.
However after watching the Steelers the last two weeks I think that beating the Steelers at home would not have been easy for the following reasons.
1. Typically in a Steeler-Patriot game you could count on Bill Cohwer playing into the Pats strength when it came to offensive play calling. Run first straight into the line then repeat again. This was usually ineffective againts our run defense. This year in the playoffs the Steelers have been throwing first down and keeping defenses guessing. This has led to early leads which in turn plays to the Steelers strength which is power running clock control and pressuring a quaterback who is playing catch up. In short the Steelers coaching staff is doing a better job positioning their team to suceed.
2. A healthy and more experienced Big Ben as compared to last year has made a huge difference. Last year he was running on fumes in the playoffs and it showed. Rodney Harrison took advantage of his inexperience last year. This year might have been different without Harrison and with the better playcalling and Ben's veterens status.
3. Emotion is overated but the Steelers are certainly hungry this year and it shows. Last year we had a healthy Cory Dillon lusting after his first championship. Now the Steelers have the whole win one for the bus thing going for them.
In short maybe we would have won but it is by no means a sure thing and for me that lessens the dissapointment of losing to the Broncos. Personally I hope the Steelers crush the Seahawks and players like Bettis,Ward,Faneca,Hampton, and the Steelers fans get their championship. Go AFC

Still think PATs would have beat them in a close game.
If PATs had beaten Denver their confidence would have been sky high.
PATs front 7 are awesome and that secondary is coming around.
Plus BB has Cowher's number and PATs would have had the 12th man.

Sorry I can't root for the Steelers. No Way.

Still think there was an extra little intensional twist in there that tore up
Carson Palmer's knee.
Porter is a big mouth.

Go Hawks! (even though I hate to see the Walrus win it )

I think the players I mentioned deserve a title and besides they beat the Colt's for us. I can't tell you how bad I would feel if the Colt's won the Superbowl it would make me sick.

I think the Steelers could have beaten the Pats.

After seeing them continually pressure Plummer, what do you think they would have done against our O Line-Brady might have gotten killed.

pepper03 said:

I think the Steelers could have beaten the Pats.

After seeing them continually pressure Plummer, what do you think they would have done against our O Line-Brady might have gotten killed.

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I think Brady can deliver the ball quickly far better than Plummer... and that patented New England screen pass (the one where Tom spins around before throwing it) would have been effective.

I'll be rooting for Pittsburgh, I have to admit, for all sorts of rather silly reasons. I don't like Matt Hasselbeck or his prissy wife from 'the View'. I absolutely hate the Seahawks uniforms, which are the ugliest thing I've ever seen. And Pittsburgh beat both the Colts and the Broncos, pleasing me both emotionally and financially (they were my biggest NFL bet of the year yesterday).

I think the way our D was playing at the end of the year, we would have beaten anyone unless we committed an excess of turnovers.

OldEnglandPatriot said:

I think Brady can deliver the ball quickly far better than Plummer... and that patented New England screen pass (the one where Tom spins around before throwing it) would have been effective.

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I disagree. What I saw when the Pats played Denver was Brady being constantly under pressure, and Denver not getting much if any on Big Ben yesterday.

I think the Steelers would have been all over Brady yesterday-no matter how good he is at getting rid of it quickly, I think the OLine would have cost the Pats the game.

well

Julius said:

I think the players I mentioned deserve a title and besides they beat the Colt's for us. I can't tell you how bad I would feel if the Colt's won the Superbowl it would make me sick.

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I agree, i would be sick for the next 2 weeks had the dolts made it to the superbowl--while we shot ourselves in the foot in denver. I do think however that we would have beaten the stillers at home. We would have stopped their run (or really slowed it down) and i don't think that big ben could beat us if it was all on him! It would have been a great game though---good luck to the stillers though, they deserve it!

pepper03 said:

I disagree. What I saw when the Pats played Denver was Brady being constantly under pressure, and Denver not getting much if any on Big Ben yesterday.

I think the Steelers would have been all over Brady yesterday-no matter how good he is at getting rid of it quickly, I think the OLine would have cost the Pats the game.

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Oh you're quite right, Tom was under pressure in that game. But we still managed to move the ball very effectively for long periods, arguably far more so than Denver managed against us.

However, I didn't mean to imply that I thought a Patriots win over Pittsburgh would have been a certainty. I think the Steelers would have stood every chance of beating us. Their performance yesterday impressed me enormously... I expected them to win, but not quite so comprehensively.

I honestly think we were the best team in the league at the end of the season and would have won yesterday and in two weeks. However, Pittsburgh played well enough that I can just take the season for what it was and move on because I'll never know - unlike if the Broncos had smacked the Steelers then I'd have known for sure we'd have advanced.

OldEnglandPatriot said:

I think Brady can deliver the ball quickly far better than Plummer... and that patented New England screen pass (the one where Tom spins around before throwing it) would have been effective.

I'll be rooting for Pittsburgh, I have to admit, for all sorts of rather silly reasons. I don't like Matt Hasselbeck or his prissy wife from 'the View'. I absolutely hate the Seahawks uniforms, which are the ugliest thing I've ever seen. And Pittsburgh beat both the Colts and the Broncos, pleasing me both emotionally and financially (they were my biggest NFL bet of the year yesterday).

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I'm pretty sure that's his sister in law. She's married to Tim Hasslebeck.

Not sure who I'll be rooting for in this game. Both teams have played well, and it should be a good game. I think there are pretty good stories on both sides, at least better than if the colts were there. We'll be back next year anyways.

Hats off to PITT

I agree with aj that our defense would have done better agains PITT than the others. However, I have no reason to believe that our patchwork, inexperienced OL would have been able to defend Brady against the relentless PITT defensive attack. But, we would have been at home, and we certainly have risen to the task before.

Personally, I think it does not focus us properly to think we are better than the team that just demolished the #1 #2 and #3 seeds. I don't think that it's so, and I think we should focus on all that we need to do so that we could reasonably expect to destroy all the other teams in the playoffs, as PITT has done.

This playoff run is an improvement over their 15-1 season and playoff last year. We will have to improve a lot to expect to be better than them in 2006 (and we will!)

OldEnglandPatriot said:

I think Brady can deliver the ball quickly far better than Plummer... and that patented New England screen pass (the one where Tom spins around before throwing it) would have been effective.

I'll be rooting for Pittsburgh, I have to admit, for all sorts of rather silly reasons. I don't like Matt Hasselbeck or his prissy wife from 'the View'. I absolutely hate the Seahawks uniforms, which are the ugliest thing I've ever seen. And Pittsburgh beat both the Colts and the Broncos, pleasing me both emotionally and financially (they were my biggest NFL bet of the year yesterday).

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I have to agree with you on that one... Kicking the @$$ of the Dolts and Browncos make me root for them.

I believe the Pats should have played better than the Browncos or the Dolts against Pittsburgh.

Regardless of how the Steelers came out, the Pats would have adjusted, which is something that the Broncos and Colts do not do as well as the Pats. The Pats defense would have shut the run down, and gotten to Rothlisberger, at least I think they would have. Despite this, I think this would have been one hell of a game and I am not sure who would win. The Steelers are more well rounded then last year, and the Pats offensive line and running game just isn't as good. These were the two best teams (I would include Seattle in that assessment if they give Pitttsburgh a game) and I am not sure who would win. But I would take the Pats at home in the playoffs no matter who they are playing!

which way does the wind blow

maxhagen said:

I have to agree with you on that one... Kicking the @$$ of the Dolts and Browncos make me root for them.

I believe the Pats should have played better than the Browncos or the Dolts against Pittsburgh.

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sure the steelers could win a game fom us even w/only 2 turnovers. patriots are a better team, and cowher could give the game away at any moment. belichick understands steelers, so i think we'd win maybe 7 out of ten times.

the "feeling of lost opportunity" i had post-boinkos comes from my assessment that our boys DID thoroughly beat boinkos on line of scrimmage and elsewhere, and would have won the game by 7 points without champ bailey and troy's drop. leave in the other 3 turnover and patriots win the game.

I definately think the Steelers could have beaten the Pats yesterday.

And to be honest, the last couple of weeks the Steelers just look like they would refuse to lose to anybody. Even in the Pats win over the Jags, they did not play as well as the Steelers did in either of the Steelers last two games.

The fact that they made Manning look like such a little princess alone is enough for me to root for them in the SB.

They have a QB who is a team player like ours. I think very highly of Bettis and Ward.

I think it is a great organization. Hats off to them.

And I hope they win the SB!

In the end, I believe the best team from the AFC is in the SB. It is hard to judge the Seahawks based on the fact that they play in the NFC. But they look good too!

Sometimes you have to face reality, as much as we love our Pats, the way Pitts was playing yesterday, I don't think there's any team in the league that could've stopped them. We may be able to shut down their run, but Big Ben would definitely destroy our secondary.

BelichickFan said:

I honestly think we were the best team in the league at the end of the season and would have won yesterday and in two weeks. However, Pittsburgh played well enough that I can just take the season for what it was and move on because I'll never know - unlike if the Broncos had smacked the Steelers then I'd have known for sure we'd have advanced.

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Are you really being honest??????

Why didn't you win then????????

i think that the eventual game Pit @ Ne in the AFC Championship could have been a real fight.

who was going to win ? very difficult.

i say: 50-50.

it would have been difficult to beat the Steelers that we have seen @ IND and yesterday @ DEN but still i think we could have had the 50% of the possibilties to win.

now i anyway hope for a SEA win.

Why, Jake-- WHY did you wait until YESTERDAY to revert to your old form?? Why couldn't it have been LAST WEEK??

Yeah I think the Pats would have defeated the Steelers... just because I *have* to believe.

Now that the Steelers are in the SB, I hope they win it. I've never been a Mike Holmgren fan. I can't stand the Seahawks weird pewter colored uniforms or whatever they call it. Steve Largent was one of our Congressmen for a while, so of course that's gonna sour my feelings about the Seahawks.

Plus, I'll generally prefer AFC teams over NFC teams.