Pittsburgh Steelers:

“Because of what Paul Brown and Jim Brown did for professional football in that city. It has a special place in my heart.”

Week 7 features a highly anticipated game between two of the NFL’s best teams. The New England Patriots travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers in a battle for supremacy in the AFC. Although the game is being played at Heinz Field, some Vegas handicappers have determined that the Patriots are a formidable enough team to negate the hometown advantage at Heinz Field.

The Pats and Miami have split the season series the past 3 years.So with the wait before the game tomorrow, here are some interesting numbers to pore over.

One of the more intriguing positional battles this year will be at center between Bryan Stork and David Andrews. This will be a competition to monitor.

These five players will, unfairly or not be under the most pressure to produce or find themselves moving on from the team.

While much has been made about the Pats inability to develop wide receivers, the interior pass rushing presence has been missing for quite some time.

Brady was signed through the 2017 season and was set to make $10 million in 2017 and $9 million this year. His salary cap hit of $15 million will most certainly come down now as a result.

What the Patriots would really like is an upgrade at the RCB position and move Ryan into the slot. Bill Belichick loves his veterans on the defense and would like to bring in a veteran presence and allow the others to compete and sort out the rest.

Mayo was taken with the 10th pick of the 2008 NFL Draft and immediately paid dividends. He was the Defensive Rookie of the Year and a 2-time Pro-Bowler but he was much more than that.

Now the team has to decide whether to bring back Chandler who also battled injuries last season for a second go around and cover his cap hit of $3 million-dollars or cut him for a savings of $2.05 million.

The team needs some youth, size and speed on the outside. Not necessarily a deep threat, that everyone clamors for, since that isn’t their offense. But someone who can stretch the field horizontally as well as vertically and has the size to go up and grab those contested throws.

Given the injuries to the offensive line and then losing both starters (Dion Lewis, LaGarrette Blount) to IR during the season doomed the Pats running game in 2015. Truth be told, they ran the ball very poorly overall for most of the season and it was a major reason for their failure in the AFC Championship Game.

“It’s a craft,” Brown said of playing corner. “You gotta be able to study and be a student of the game. It’s not just about athletic ability anymore.

For most of the season the topic of conversation in regards to the New England Patriots has centered on the performance of the offensive line. While that unit has at times deserved scrutiny, the return of Sebastian Vollmer has seemed to have stabilized the group. Overlooked has been what may be the real Achilles heel for this squad as they battle the Denver Broncos on Sunday: the team’s third down defense.

Brady in the postseason has faced the #1 defense three times, all of them on the road. The Patriots are 3-0 in those games and in all three instances went on to win the Super Bowl