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

[shakadave]

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.

This is how I see it, too. Patriots 24 Steelers 20.

 

[Sean Pa Patriot]

Here is what I think... No way, we own the Stillers,. Here was the difference with us and the Broncos

1 We have tom brady. they have jake plummer
2 we have Bill Belichick .. they have miks shanahan


Point is , we gave the denver game away, shame on us, but we would have beaten the stillers...

 

[flutie2phelan]

Here's about 29 other opinions ... on the same topic, yesterday:

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/showthread.php?t=30189

 

[stcjones]

Had we not shot ourselves in the foot.....

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

in Denver last week and won that game........I see the Pats winning the AFC championship in Foxboro.......Not to say it would have been easy......Steelers are a good team.....I just don't see them beating us at home....after we had beaten Denver.....that is all.....I'm pulling for the hawks!!!

 

[patriotsrule]

I think the Steelers proved beyond a shadow of a doubt they are the best team in the AFC after beating the top three seeds. The Pats got dominated in early December by the Chiefs - a team that didn't even make the playoffs -and they had all their players for that game. The bottom line is New England showed us nothing throught the season that would make us believe they could do what the Steelers accomplished over the past three weeks. While I despise them, the Steelers are deserving AFC Champions and it just wasn't our year. To say the Patriots are the best team in football is a crock. Why? Because they killed the Bucs? I say they fought like hell, it wasn't meant to be this year, the Steelers went out and pretty much dominated three good teams and it's time for us to focus on 2006 and another run at the title. JUst my opinion.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

i don't know who woulda won, but it was the game that the conference and all NFL fans deserved...but we can't escape the truth of what happened in Denver...

 

[TruthSeeker]

I think we would have lost the game vs the Steelers. The Steelers got on a roll late in the season, and have been playing great for about a month and a half. They would have had more momentum than us (We took the Dolphin game off, and most of the second half of the Jet game). Their defense is better than ours, and Roethlisberger isn't the same rookie QB that he was last year. Don't forget, 2 of the 5 Steeler losses were without him, and one was his first game back (The Indy game, and they learned from that loss, as well as the AFCCG loss). Roethlisberger is showing that he is a great young QB, and if they win, he will be the youngest QB ever to win a SB. They also added a great weapon to their offense, TE Heath Miller, and they are using him correctly, a deadly red zone weapon, as well as a sneaky player who seems to get open all the time.

I just think that the Steelers have hit their stride at the right time (now), and the Pats hit their peak in the Tampa Bay game. Not disregarding what they did to Jacksonville, but also the Pats might have taken what they did to Jacksonville, and thought that all they had to do was just show up in Denver to win.

Hopefully everything meshes for the new and old Pats come December next year, and hopefully next year at this time we are talking about our opponent in SB XLI.

 

[Patriot Missile]

i don't know who woulda won, but it was the game that the conference and all NFL fans deserved...but we can't escape the truth of what happened in Denver...

My feelings exactly.

So be it,if Pittsburgh wins they are the champs. Hats off to them.