Did Patriots Flip Steelers Out Of Playoffs?

Did Patriots Flip Steelers Out Of Playoffs?

Bob George

There were definitely some puzzling moments on Sunday during the Patriots loss to the Jets.

Continue reading...

So the Pats are afraid to face Pitt in the playoffs, eh?

Post season record for Steelers/Pats

Patriots: 3
Steelers: 1.

Scoreboard.

Pittsburgh blew their chance, only they are to blame. 2 losses to a terrible Baltimore team, one of them with Mallett coming off a couch to beat them.

Th3Birdman said:

So the Pats are afraid to face Pitt in the playoffs, eh?

Post season record for Steelers/Pats

Patriots: 3
Steelers: 1.

Scoreboard.

Click to expand...

The last time they met was 2005

These teams are effectively 0-0

And while this may NOT have been the team trying to orchestrate the playoff picture, as Bob George points out, it was pretty apparent to most of us that the Patriots did in fact allow themselves to lose in 2005 in order to face an opponent where there was a better matchup

In addition to the coin flip (and I could actually buy Belichick's rationale if he felt the D could prevent a TD so Brady would only need to get a FG to tie or win) he notes the odd final 2 minutes of the first half where at any other time the Patriots would use that time more effectively

Add to that keeping Amendola and Edleman out of this suggest that Belichick was zen with dropping this game, especially if the Ravens pulled out a win (better to give his injured guys an extra day off against a team fighting for something, but use the Fins game as a pre-bye tune up game for returning players - effectively going closer to full strength against a lesser opponent)

So there's a number of strategic reasons why Belichick COULD indeed have opted to strategically set up the playoffs - just as he did in 2005.

He'll never admit it and there will be no proof - but as I've seen the Colts purposefully lose to Suck for Luck (with not even a whiff of investigation from Goodell) it's not a stretch to think that Belichick would give himself any advantage he could going into the playoffs as well

This is silly. Everyone who has provided any first-hand insight into Belichick confirms he worries about his team and not about what other teams are doing. Now, if this game truly provided ABSOLUTELY no advantage whatsoever, that would be different, but why would we have banged up guys out there to begin with? Belichick would not give up any advantage to his team, especially HFA, for fear that he might have to meet up with a team later in the playoffs, a team that had just lost to one of the worst teams in football.

I think people have really overrated the squealers. Explosive offense at times but their defense's very poor.

Fitting a 4th and 9 pass down the seam to Gronk is a strange move for a team trying to lose.

This theory is insane

Typical mediots overthinking themselves.

They just didn't play as aggresive as usual, and lost..

I think the conservative might have had to do with injuries..

There was a point where the zjets were teeing off and maybe BB felt too much risk for a phantom line protecting Brady..

I think he wanted to win.. Just didn't pull out the stops..

I don't think BB intentionally threw the game to avoid the Steelers (or for any other reason for that matter)...too many intangibles involved for me to believe that.

But, I do think this is a case where we might have to keep several possibly contradictory ideas in our heads at the same time.

I do think it's not out of the question that he decided that of the two remaining games the odds were longer of winning yesterday's than next week's.

So, in that context, he did not push anyone out on to the field if he could have played but also could have benefited from a week off.

He also played the game conservatively at the end of both halves to protect Brady (especially when Vollmer was carted off) and with the decision on the OT coin toss to give Brady one chance to take the Pats 35 or so yards, assuming the D got a stop inside the Jets' 30...didn't work out the way he hoped, but if it had, the decision would now be part of the "Legend of Belichick."

That said, he also took his shots aggressively when they presented themselves (the fourth and nine pass to Gronk being an example).

He wasn't trying to throw the game, but, IMO, he was playing to "win if he could" this week, while keeping as many piece of the puzzle as possible as optimal as possible for next week.

Concussion Protocol said:

Fitting a 4th and 9 pass down the seam to Gronk is a strange move for a team trying to lose.

This theory is insane

Click to expand...

Look at the name of the author...

This is one of the silliest theories I've heard about bb.

Lets be generous and entertain the idea that bb would risk losing the 1 seed to avoid facing a team. WHY would he choose to let the jets, a team that has historically held brady in check and given us close games, over a team that brady completely OWNS.

The teams that have mostly given us trouble in the playoffs are the ones with stout fronts that can pressure brady with 4 or less, not a high flying passing offense. Pittsburgh and their zone blitzing never have success against him or even slow him down aside from two meetings, out of nine.

Typical passive aggressive media bashing of the pats/ballwashing of the Steelers.