Just stopping back in to say congrats on the victory.
Thoughts on the game:
Defensively for Pitt, what can you say? New England's coaching staff is the best in the league at putting a laser focus on a team's defensive vulnerabilities. Our secondary couldn't process the route concepts being thrown at them, and our back end inexperience showed. I certainly wish the tackling had been better.
The Bell injury was impactful I'm sure, but mostly just served to underscore the season-long problem with Pittsburgh's offense--namely, their receiving threats outside of Brown don't scare anyone. It's tough to get *too* upset about all the drops and mistakes, since under normal circumstances these guys would still be deep reserves or practice squad guys, not starters in an AFCCG. (This will be a major offseason concern, since the injured/suspended players--Bryant, Wheaton and Green--are all question marks to return IMO.) I actually thought Ben threw the ball really well...but with Bell out and NE predictably bracketing Brown, this becomes a somewhat punchless offense, one that's incapable of matching NE score-for-score.
So basically, disappointing result for the Steelers...but not unexpected, since all of the feared matchup issues were on full display. Realistically, this is probably about as far as this particular group could advance; New England's just a better team.
Good luck in the SB. Should be a very interesting matchup as Atlanta has some bona fide "Greatest Show On Turf" stuff going on. But I'm confident BB&Co, with 2 full weeks of prep, can figure out ways to stop them.
Till next year,
lillloyd