Foxborough Fiasco
December 10, 2007
The guarantee on my transmission didn’t work out so well either. Although if you are not Anthony Smith and still thought the Steelers were going to beat the Patriots, then you haven’t been paying attention.
The Steelers have not been able to win outside of their division or on the road. They are 5-0 against the AFC North and 7-0 at home. That means they are 4-4 outside the division and 2-4 on the road. So why did anyone think that going on the road, outside the division, against the best team in football this year, and maybe in any year, would bring different results?
The only surprising thing was that the number one defense in football played so poorly. When they held New England to 3-and-outs on 3 of the Patriots first five possessions, it looked like they had a chance and certainly did, trailing by just 4 at the half. But when the dust cleared at Gillette Stadium, it was anything but a close shave. The Steelers as always shut down the run and by the second quarter, the Patriots just gave up on it. With a one dimesnional offense, they put up three dimensional numbers. Tom Brady and company amassed 421 total yards, 399 through the air. That’s a torching. Maybe things would have been different had Troy Polamalu been healthy. But maybe they wouldn’t.
Jacksonville comes to town Sunday and that won’t be a picnic. The Jags always seem to give the Steelers fits and they are one of the few teams that can match the Steelers physically. But it is at Heinz Field and the Steelers are the only team in the league besides the Patriots to be undfeated at home. How they rebound will go a long way toward determining their playoff outlook. Right now, an optimist would point out that regular season results don’t mean that much. In 2005, the Steelers beat the Patriots badly in the regular season but lost the AFC Championship game to them at home. A year later they lost badly in Indianapolis in the regular season but returned there to eliminate them in the playoffs. Make what you will of that. But those Steelers could win on the road. And those Steelers didn’t lose to the Jets.
