So what's the new narrative going to be?

[luuked]

Quite honestly, if Jules, Dola, Hightower, Vollmer & Co. come back healthy for the playoffs and can actually contribute then I rather play the Jets than the Steelers. The Jets are pretty consistent in what they are, whereas the Steelers can be very hot and look unstoppable one day and then **** the bed the other day.

If we are able to open up our playbook somewhat fully again I don't think the Jets will be able to hang with us over a full game. Especially if S. Jackson can built on what he showed today in limited snaps. His 2-3 bursts of 5 yards were very encouraging.

 

[Dillon46]

Yup if you wanna be the man you got to beat the man. Anyone remember the last time a team won a championship in the NFL not because they were the best team, but because all the good teams were beaten for them? I sure don't.

The 2006 Indianapolis Colts...........

 

[Brady2Moss]

The 2006 Indianapolis Colts...........

They beat us, we were the best team in the AFC that year. They definitely cheated to win with their crowd noise and turned up heat. But they beat us.

 

[deters]

I fear our OL more than any team we might face in the playoffs, so long as we have edelman, dola and all other dinged up pieces back and healthy.

 

[Dillon46]

They beat us, we were the best team in the AFC that year. They definitely cheated to win with their crowd noise and turned up heat. But they beat us.

They did, but they had a cake-walk afterwards............2005 Steelers added to the list as well

 

[Brady2Moss]

They did, but they had a cake-walk afterwards............2005 Steelers added to the list as well

I didn't mean that every team plays their hardest opponent in the final game, the point was in the 3 or 4 games it takes to win a championship you end up playing the best. No one gets 3 or 4 cake walks because the other teams were taken out for them.

 

[Dillon46]

I didn't mean that every team plays their hardest opponent in the final game, the point was in the 3 or 4 games it takes to win a championship you end up playing the best. No one gets 3 or 4 cake walks because the other teams were taken out for them.

I agree, you have to play your best and beat the best. No doubt about it

I just remember that those 2 teams had a lot of help from the "Football Gods" and "BS Calls" which is fair to say. Manning had an anomaly and didn't choke for once in the P.O.......

You could argue that we had luck facing the Colts last year in the AFC Championship because the Baltimore Ravens gave us all we could handle.

 

[supafly]

Yup if you wanna be the man you got to beat the man. Anyone remember the last time a team won a championship in the NFL not because they were the best team, but because all the good teams were beaten for them? I sure don't.

Are you serious?

Just off the top of my head I can think of 2010 when N.England was 14-2 and lost, thus opening the door for an easy Pittsburgh path to the SB.

2009 would be another example of the Ravens upsetting us and leaving a bunch of scrubs for Indy to get through. Actually, both of these years prove the point when you have to beat a Mark Sanchez led Jets team in the AFCCG.

2008 may be another example for the Steelers, since a hot 11-5 team was left out of the playoffs in N.England, as was 2005 when Pittsburgh cruised to the SB when we went to Denver and lost.

Hell, one can argue that things set up pretty nicely for us, having to beat a #6 seed Ravens team, then being able to avoid a rematch with either Denver or Cincy, since the lowly 4th seeded Colts upset them out at Mile High.

 

[supafly]

Ryan Mallett 28-41, 1 TD 0 INT

What is this supposed to mean? That the Steelers suck because they allowed 20 points (exactly their average which had them at #11 defensive scoring-wise)? Their offense let them down, failing to score 30+ for the first time in 7 straight games.

Pittsburgh clearly lost the game yesterday because the Ravens defense is familiar with them and they came to play. The Steelers also made some questionable decisions like going for it on 4th instead of kicking the easy FG, and also gave the Ravens shortened fields by turning the ball over twice.

For what it's worth, I watched the post game show here in Pittsburgh, and their announcers and callers had the exact same thing to say about us. Losing 3/5, having a poor defense, totally different team than last year's "tough" team, no running game, bad OL protection, etc. Many callers said we were likely to lose the first postseason game. The bottom line is that it can be tough to win a divisional game on the road, and sometimes your offense doesn't look too good. We saw it down the stretch last season as well.

 

[supafly]

The team that actually worries me the most is KC. They have won 9 in a row and I remember the last time we played them....yikes !

That was at Arrowhead stadium on MNF. It was also a time when they were trying to break the record for loudest stadium ever. That game had disaster written all over it.

 

[nabwong]

The only team that we'll not be favorites against is Arizona. I think if we have our WRs back, we should be able to throw on any team. The problem now is Brady is forced to hold on to ball longer thus exposing the rookie OL.