Steelers vs. Bengals Review

That was just a big pile of steaming crap. I don't understand how we can commit 5 turnovers at home. I further don't understand how we can commit 5 turnovers at home and still only lose by 8. I guess the short answer is that the defense has been playing out of their minds all season. It's just that they can't hold up late in games when the offense has yet again put them in a position to lose.

But, we did learn a few things yesterday. Three, to be exact:

1. Coclough is never, ever, ever, ever, and I mean never to return a punt again. I understand that Cowher likes to go with veterans, but Holmes has three years of punt returning experience from college. Coclough has only (prior to this season) returned punts in the pre-season. AND WHERE THE HELL IS WILLIE REID?!?!?!?!?
2. We miss Jerome Bettis more than I thought we would. And, if you look above, we miss Randle-El more than I thought we would. But, you could tell that Cowher was looking to take a 24-21 lead early in the 4th quarter by crossing his arms and running 11 out of 12 plays and watching the Bungles defenders go down on one knee and suck wind because they knew they couldn't stop us. But, we were missing our closer. Verron Haynes is one hell of a 3rd down back, but he's no closer. Once he fumbled, that was that. AND WHERE THE HELL ARE DUCE AND NAJEH?!?!?!??!
3. This is going to sound as dumb as it looks, but... Aside from the 5 turnovers, we played a pretty flawless game. The offense looked crisp, the defense was absolutely mauling Carson Palmer for most of the game, and we were crushing them in an almost obscene fashion on both sides of the line of scrimmage. And then the Coclough fumble. And then the Haynes fumble. And then we had to completely alter our game plan.

And, I think that someone needs to pull Ken Whisenhunt aside and say the following:

Ken, buddy, I think there's a concept that you're failing to grasp here. The game plan that you lay out, it's for the entire game. No, not just the first quarter. Not just until something bad happens (the Wilson no-catch in the Jax game, the INT in the red zone yesterday). The WHOLE ENTIRE FREAKIN' GAME!!!!! Ya got that? Go ask Dick LeBeau about it. He understands. He's been doing this for a long time.

But here's something to cheer everyone up for the rest of the season. I know it doesn't seem like there's a rest of the season after the stinker that we had yesterday, but there is. There are, indeed, at least 13 games left to play.

1. Most of our issues thus far this season have been on special teams. We have a bye week to fix that.
2. We have a bye week to sit and stew on this one. I guarantee everyone's so pissed for San Diego that at least six guys on defense go out and kill a horse.
3. Ben will not throw three dumb interceptions like that again. And, law of averages says that he'll have to throw a touchdown pass eventually.
4. We're not committing 5 turnovers in a game again any time soon.

So, relax. Have a beer or something. It's not the end of the world and it's far from the end of the season. Like coach says, it's a marathon not a sprint.

Steelers vs. Bengals Preview

Okay, I'm moving this weekend, so I'm going to try to keep this as short as possible (though I'm not sure it's going to work). The good news is that it's the Bengals and we're all familiar with how to beat them.

Really, it all depends on what team shows up for the Bengals and what team shows up for the Steelers. Will it be the Bungles team that showed up for the first game and playoff game of last season? Or will it be the Bengals that thoroughly kicked hell out of us last December?

Will it be the Steelers team from December to February? Or the Steelers team that got hell kicked out of it last December? Or the one that took a huge dump in the bed on Monday?

Whichever team shows up for both sides, there are two keys to beating the Bengals:

1. We need to have early success running the ball.
2. We need to make sure they have early success running the ball.

We Have Early Success Running the Ball:

Well, this one's pretty obvious. If we don't have early success and they are sharp on offense right out of the gate, we're looking at a 21-3 deficit midway through the second quarter and Cowher will get that, accountant-who-woke-up-next-to-a-dead-hooker look on his face. Then he'll start to gamble too much. And Ben will start throwing passes that make his fourth quarter decisions from Monday look downright prudent.

We beat the Bengals by establishing tempo, keeping the game close, and waiting for them to screw up. That's how it's been for years. If we can't establish tempo early, they jump to a big lead, and start calling plays from the Wyche era just for kicks because they know they'll work, we're dead in the water.

They Have Early Success Running the Ball:

Is anyone old like me and remember playing the very first football games on computers. I'm not talking about Madden '93. I'm talking about the old school ones that were running on 286s with 1 MB of memory (if that). The game was set up like a drive chart. If you were on defense, you had three run defenses you could call (Run Left, Run Right, Run Middle) and three pass defenses (Pass Left, Pass Right, Pass Middle). Same for the offense.

If you were on offense and called Run Left and the computer called Run Left on defense, you got crushed. If they called Pass Right, you got a huge gain.

Now, for as much as football analysts make and as much as every piece of film is broken down and dissected and re-analyzed and beaten to death... it's really as simple as calling Pass Left when they call Pass Left. And, even if you call Pass Left and they call Pass Right, you still keep it to a minimal gain because you still called Pass Something.

We need to call Pass Something on defense the entire first quarter. Rudi Johnson is a hell of a back, but Marvin Lewis and his teammates don't realize that (unlike millions of happy Fantasy Football players).

Watch for it. We keep playing pass, Palmer keeps checking down to a run, and Johnson keeps gashing us for easy yards. After they kick their second field goal of the first quarter, one of the announcers will say, "If the Steelers keep letting the Bengals run like this, they'll take it all day." Only trouble is that they won't. Marvin Lewis has too much talent in the passing game to run for very long. He knows that, eventually, he'll have to pass, since we're getting touchdowns running the ball and he's getting field goals. He's like a gambler that likes to play big but takes it easy for a few hands. If he wins those hands, he doesn't see it as winning $30,000, he sees it as losing $90,000. When he starts betting big, we'll be ready.

The alternative to this strategy is to play Run Something on defense. They come out, check to a pass, run playaction, and complete a 67 yard play to Chris Henry. Only this time, Kimo doesn't bust Palmer's knee. We go down 14-0 early and the Dead Hooker face comes out. And the game's over. So, I'm thinking we should keep calling Pass Something until they decide to pass.

Overall:

I think we win. I really do. I just don't see us losing to the Bengals yet. I have no information or analysis to back that up, I just think that after we laid that stinkbomb in front of a national audience, we're going to be angry and focused and make the Bengals pay for it.

Complaints Department:

1. I don't want anyone talking about how Troy's injury affected Monday's game. THE DEFENSE ONLY LET UP NINE FREAKIN' POINTS!!!! If we had bad game on defense, I could see it. Since we didn't, I don't.

2. I'm tired of people calling the quick returns to action of Palmer and Culpepper "miraculous." People have been blowing out their cruciate ligaments for thousands of years. Medicine found a way to fix it faster. Carson and Daunte were dilligent with their rehab schedule. Dr. James Andrews, their surgeon, is the world's best when dealing with sports injuries (he pioneered the "Tommy John" surgery). And, they probably took some HGH.

At NO POINT did Dr. James Andrews say a novina, lay his hands on their knees, and scream to the heavens, "Dear Lord, our father, I beseech thee. Heal this man's knee!" Culpepper didn't hold a Loaves and Fishes banquet for the Dolphins this offseason. Palmer had a Cornhole Invitational and didn't walk across the Ohio to get there. He took a car.

How can something that's the direct result of scientific research be considered "miraculous"? Ah, well. I guess I'll just go back in my cave and plot the demise of John Scopes' grandkids.

Steelers vs. Jaguars Review

Overall:

Weidman, my good friend and Steelers confidant, has officially declared that we needed to lose this game. We had had too much good fortune over the last nine games to not experience a huge letdown at some point. And, we should thank our lucky stars that it was this week and not the Cincy game. Though, of course, I would prefer that the loss came outside our conference, but outside our division is good enough.

Offense:

We just laid an absolute egg on this one. I'd like to blame the line (since we only had 4 or 5 yards rushing and Ben was pressured and sacked repeatedly), but I have to blame Ben and the coaching staff on this one. It seemed as though they had a good game plan on the first drive. Play action, runs to the outside, throwing the ball aggressively down the field. Then, when Cedrick Wilson dropped/fumbled/didn't catch/couldn't be challenged/whatever the ball, it seemed like we went away from that strategy entirely. Listen. We're the Steelers! Play action will work at all times unless we're down by 17 or more in the 4th quarter. Should've kept with it. Should've kept running to the outside. But, we didn't.

Instead, hubris took over, we thought we could run between the tackles on anybody (never mind the fact that their starting end was out and their DTs have a combined weight of 1,353 pounds). And, the calls in the passing game were horrid.

Half-hearted screens, bunch formations for no reason (usually, you throw to an underneath receiver on the loaded side or take advantage of the one-on-one match-up on the weak side), and unispired routes (didn't look like there was any rhyme or reason to where the receivers were going).

But, a lot of the blame has to land on Ben. He missed a wide open Hines early in the game for a sure touchdown. He looked lost for most of the second and third quarter, and pretty much catatonic by the fourth. He missed receivers high, low, leading, and behind. AND HOW MANY TIMES DID HE THROW AWAY FROM THE BLITZ ON A HOT READ?!?!?!? I counted six times in the fourth quarter before I threw up in my mouth a little. If two guys are coming from the right side and you have two guys over there, what does that tell you about that side of the field? Possibly that it's empty? Or, at the very least, has two fewer guys on that side? And, it wasn't that the Jaguars were rolling coverage to the blitz side, because there were plenty of dudes on the other side. So, unless they had 13 or 14 players on the field, Ben made the wrong read. And it looked like Santonio Holmes was reading page 84 of the playbook and Ben was somewhere in the glossary for the entire second half.

But, like I said, needed to get the loss out of the way. Hopefully everyone comes to work with focus and intensity this week. We're going to need it against the Bengals.

Defense:

I have one complaint about the defense/special teams. When our offense couldn't find the end zone with GPS, a native guide, and a 38-piece string quartet playing Inna Gadda Da Vida, the defense or the return team needed either to score or create a turnover that would plop the offense into the red zone.

And, we didn't really change our game plan from last week, it's just that their guys blocked our guys better than Miami did. When we needed a big play, LeBeau sent 38 guys up the middle, which is the perfect way to attack Leftwich, and had a great deal of success. Bring more than they can block and bring it up the middle. He looked like a six year-old that lost his parents in the mall.

One other complaint about the defense, which ultimately was too exhausted by the end of the game to stop Jacksonville. They didn't get off the field on third down. I can understand late in the game. They'd been out there for 86 minutes or whatever Jacksonville's time of possession was. But, early in the game and into the third quarter, we continually pinned them inside their 20. If we force a three and out in any of those situations, we have a shot of actually crossing midfield and, dare I say it SCORING! But, Jax would get 2 or 3 first downs, and drive just far enough downfield to pin us inside our 10. And then we'd go three and out. You can only lose the field position battle for so long before you lose the game.

Again, a tremendous effort by the defense. But, as always, the difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.

What to Do From Here:

Gotta move on. As they say in the tow truck business, a wreck is something you put behind you. At least Del Rio has class. At least he took a knee when he could've very easily made it 16-0. At least it wasn't in our division.

We got that first loss out of the way. Cincy's coming up and they look freakin' tough. Then again, they always look tough against the Division II-A teams of the league. The hated Ravens are 2-0. So are the Bengals. Gotta win next week to keep pace.

That's all I have to say about that.

Steelers vs. Jaguars Preview

First things first. I'm sick and tired of football pundits referring the Jacksonville's victory on Sunday as an "upset." The Jaguars were favored by three. Last season, the Jags finished 12-4 (better than the Champs!), made the playoffs, and were the only team to beat both Super Bowl participants. They did this in the superior of the two conferences and really played the Patriots tighter than the 28-3 Wild Card game would indicate. The 'Boys finished 9-7 in a weaker conference.

Granted, Jacksonville lost Jimmy Smith and the Cowboys added TO and the drunken kicker (who did not play), but YOU'VE GOT TO BE FREAKIN' KIDDING ME! How can a team that's playing at home, that made the playoffs last year in the better of the two conferences be seen as upsetting a non-playoff team from a weaker conference that was playing on the road? When they were favored? Comeback win, yes. Upset? No.

Now, there are three teams in the AFC that scare the hell out of me. Indy, New England, and... you guessed it! Jacksonville. The reason for this is not that I think they're as good as accomplished as the other two teams on the list, but that they match up against the Steelers exceptionally well. They even beat us when they were an expansion team. And they kept beating us when we were playing like an expansion team. And they kept things close when we were coming back into the swing of things and they were sucking. The reason for this is that they've always been a tough, physical team that could match our intensity and was always able to run on us and stop our running game.

This year is no different.

When the Steelers Have the Ball:

Too Many Big Dudes Here. Go Around!

Marcus Stroud and John Henderson, the two massive defensive tackles for the Jaguars average about 8'6" and 498 pounds apiece. They're so big, even if they had the athletic ability of a quadrapelegic with a bad neck, they'd still take up space in the middle and give MLB Mike Peterson the ability to make plays.

Last season, we didn't have to worry about these guys as much because Tommy was in the game and we knew we weren't going to try to run the ball, instead opting to throw the ball like crazy and hope no one realized that Tommy always targeted the guy that was triple covered. In 2004, we had Deuce Staley and Jerome Bettis. Not really the two best guys to gain a bunch of yards bouncing the ball to the outside.

This year, we have Fast Willie. And I hope we take full advantage of that. And, brace yourselves, I'm going to suggest that we run the ball to the outside out of a two tight end formation. And that we run at the man that's replacing Reggie Hayward. And that we never, ever, ever, try to run a dive or an off-guard, but instead run a lot of off-tackles, sweeps, and counters. And, since we're going to be running to the outside and Stroud and Henderson are going to be occupying a lot of our linemen, we need to come out in two tight end sets. Marvell Smith and Max Starks can handle the ends one-on-one. That leaves Hartings, Simmons, and Faneca to take care of Stroud and Henderson. Hopefully, that'll be enough. When we do run inside, we need to run counters and cut-backs so that Mike Peterson gets caught up in the garbage overpursuing the ballcarrier and has to re-direct himself around the massive bodies of his two DTs.

Cowher mentioned this week that Jacksonville's run defense creates a lot of "3 yards and a cloud of dust" situations and that the Steelers need to "hope they can break some big 8 and 9 yard plays." Yes. BIG EIGHT AND NINE YARD PLAYS. While I don't think the situation is that dire, I do think that we're going to have one hell of a time running on this defense. And, any time we have trouble running, we have trouble scoring.

Keep Using Health, Get the Ball Out Fast:

In the two tight end set, the only real pass catching threat we'll have is Heath. And we need to use him. Especially off of playaction early in the game. I'm sure that Jax coach Jack Del Rio is so focused on stopping the run that he's turning it into a mantra and/or chant during practices. He probably screams it out during sex. That being the case, the Jaguar defenders are going to come out fired up to match the Steelers' intensity. Remember what happened when the Colts had the same mindset in the Divisional Round? I hope Ken Whisenhunt does.

While I don't think we should be as pass happy in the early going this time around, I do think we need to find some way to loosten Jacksonville's defense up. And Heath is the best way to do that. And Hines. And Holmes. And, God willing, Cedrick Wilson. Early in the game, we need to throw deep to Wilson and Heath off playaction and throw quick passes to Hines and Holmes. One thing I noticed about Jacksonville's secondary over the weekend: They can't tackle to save their lives. But, they can cover in man-to-man and zone situations. Therefore, we need to get the ball in the hands of our receivers quickly and cleanly and watch them make plays against the noodle-armed Jacksonville DBs.

By the way, whether Batch or Ben plays, it doesn't change our strategy.

When the Jaguars Have the Ball:

If Henderson and Stroud are big for DTs, all the skill position guys on the Jacksonville offensive are GIGANTIC. Now that tiny little Jimmy Smith has retired, the first three Jax receivers average 6'4 1/2". That's freakin' big. That's HUGE. Luckily, we're not playing this in some dude's back yard. I think that we'll be fine if we can keep Leftwich from tossing up too many jump balls. We need to confuse him with zone coverages and pressure him into making bad decisions. If he has time to sit back in the pocket and do math ("Wait. Matt Jones is 6'6" and the guy covering him is 5'10". Jones has a 37" vertical jump. If I throw the ball so that it lands in his area at 11' above the field, there's no way the CB is going to get it."), we're screwed.

We need to get in his face, disguise our coverages, and hit him hard, trying to make him pay for that long-ass wind-up of his. He can be forced into making mistakes, it just doesn't happen very often. So, Leftwich isn't going to hand this game to us (like, say, Tommy handed Jax the game last year), we're going to have to win it.

And Fred Taylor is like that crazy looking guy at the end of the bar. 98 pounds soaking wet, old, ragged, strung out. Looks like nothing. But he keeps mumbling to himself. And you never know what the right mix of crazy and tequila will bring out of him. In a fair fight, you could take him easily. But, you never know. He could rush 11 times for 8 yards or blow up for 215 yards on 23 carries and three touchdowns. I'm just not sure. We just need to hope and pray that the Fred Taylor we've come to know and love over the years will be the Fred Taylor that shows up on Monday night.

Overall:

I still think we win this game. It's going to be close. It's not going to be easy. But, for whatever reason, I don't think that Jacksonville has what it takes to take the game from us late. If we give it away by, oh, say, fumbling a snap at their one yard line, they'll take the game from us. I just can't see them taking it by force.

Leftwich is still too young, the receivers are still too raw, and a defense can't stop us with two massive DTs and a speedy MLB alone.

Steelers vs. Dolphins Review

Well, we won. And that's what matters. And Charlie Batch threw not one, not two, but three touchdown passes. Which was something that I was not expecting. And the Dolphins are in serious, serious trouble this year if they continue to play as badly as they did on Thursday. Serious trouble.

First of all, Culpepper looked more like the guy that had started 3 games in the last five years. He looked hesitant, lost, and threw a few too many 48' sliders to wide open receivers on third down. And, he threw a couple of decidedly idiotic picks. And was generally ineffective. And, even though he attempted 38,158 passes, he only ended up with 262 yards and 100 of those were on plays where our secondary experienced a gigantic brain fart.

Really, take away the two big plays by Wes Welker (how many dumbasses are going to add him to their fantasy teams on Tuesday?) and the big play by Booker and what did the Dolphins do? Answer: They rushed for 38 yards and committed two turnovers. And their defense is old. And slow. And small. And completely overmatched. And no amount of gameplanning on the part of Nick Saban is going to cure that. Young players (like what Bellichick has had to work with the last couple of years) are at least fast and teachable. Zach Thomas has never had to learn anything. He's just been able to read, react, and close. How many times did he look like a lost rookie without the benefit of speed and youth on his side during Thursday's game? Five times by my count. The most damning of which was the long touchdown to Heath Miller.

And, really, how many members of Miami's secondary could you pick out of a line-up? Just terrible. It's Will Allen and a bunch of dudes that are hoping no one notices they suck.

I will, however, say this in their defense: The offense will get better. I didn't know until I watched the game that the Dolphins are still running Scott Linehan's offense. Yes, that Scott Linehan. The one who got the head coaching job in St. Louis. Mularky is calling plays from someone else's offense. I can therefore understand that it didn't look as though they had a plan or any idea how to call the right play in the right situation on Thursday. It's like trying to walk using someone else's body. Not good. But, they will adjust. That just takes time. Next year (probably by mid-season), they'll be on the same page. They'll still be trying to dig themselves out of the giant hole their defense dug them, but they'll be explosive.

Now for the Steelers. We won. That's great. It's good to get a win at home with your back-up QB against a team many have picked to win a division in your conference (however misguided they might be). We overcome the mental lapses (about as kind as I can phrase that) on defense (Booker and Welker's can-and-runs for 100 yards), special teams (pretty much every play on special teams, but especially the long punt return), and offense (most notably the botched snap at the one). And, since we won and he threw three TDs, I can forgive Charlie for the goal line snafu. Really, I can. Especially since he's not starting the next game for us. If he were, I'd be nervous. Once we get the regular starter taking snaps from the regular center, all that will be worked out. Really don't have anything bad to say about the offense.

Don't have anything really bad to say about the defense, either. There were the mental lapses, but they did hold a very talented Miami offense to 17 points. They mixed things up, brought a lot of pressure, and closed the game out when they needed to. It's just that, moving forward, we can't have those brain farts against good teams. The Patriots would've won that game. As would the Jaguars. Or any team with a half decent defense and the good sense to remember to cover Heath Miller. And not throw the ball right to Joey Porter.

And the special teams need to get their act together. It's the first game of the season, so these lapses and mistakes are to be expected. They just need to get fixed. Soon. Before other teams are no longer committing the same type of mistakes and they make us pay for it. From about game 4 on, can't be doing that stuff. Not at all. And especially in the playoffs.

Pittsburgh Vs. Miami Preview

Well, God has gone and done something kinda weird to us to start the season. So there's that. Ben's out recovering from his apendectomy and Batch will start the season for the defending champs. And, I gotta say, I'm still not that nervous. Miami's defense no longer scares me. Strange as it may sound, it's their offense that scares me.

When the Steelers Have the Ball:

Pass to Run:

Now, I really believe that we can do whatever we want on offense. I truly believe this. There was once a time when the Dolphins had a top 10 defense every year and they beat you with their speed and athleticism, not their size. That was 5 years ago. Since that point, they've gotten rid of Patrick Surtain and Sam Madison and replaced them with some bunch of kids. The kids are fast and athletic, don't get me wrong, but they're no replacement for the veterans the Dolphins lost.

And, while they used to be small, fast, and athletic, they're now all old. Which makes them slow. And still small. And lacking in the secondary. Now, since Ben's out, the Dolphins are going to stack the line of scrimmage and try to stop the run. Since they have a seriously undermanned secondary (name one of the guys that starts for them... I'm still waiting... okay), and Batch isn't that much worse in the passing game than Ben, I say we come out slinging the ball. But we've gotta be smart about it.

Short and Medium, Not Long:

Nick Saban is no fool. He knows that his secondary is young, inexperienced, and, well... bad. So he's going to send them back into the longest, deepest zones he can manage and hope that we try to hit a home run on every play. One guy jams the receiver at the line of scrimmage, slowing the short route, the safeties play deep. The linebackers control the middle of the field in the short-to-intermediate zones. So there's really only one hole in the defense: Medium range routes (10 to 15 yards) to the inside and outside. After all, if this defense sounds familiar, it's the same one Bellichick uses against us. And that has worked pretty well, since we're constantly trying to throw deep against their understaffed secondary and there are already guys sitting in those zones. So we throw short to get them to come in, but there are already guys in those zones. By the time we figure out that we should throw 10-15 yards downfield, we're down 41-27.

So, we should start throwing medium range passes right off the bat. When they adjust to that and go into a more classic Cover 2, we run like hell. Right over those small, old guys.

Duce is Loose:

Staley has been demoted. Everyone has lost confidence in him. It's him against the world. I'd like to see what he does in this situation, whether he folds or rises to the occasion. Put him in there a few snaps with the first team against their first team with real gameplanning and see what happens.

This has nothing to do with the fact that Duce is on my Fantasy team.

When the Dolphins Have the Ball:

Hey, uh, Daunte... how's that knee?

It's dirty, I know. But the man has looked a little tentative putting weight on his knee all pre-season. He blew out three ligaments last year. We need to sign Kimo to a one game deal. Take Culpepper out.

Down, Not Sub-Package:

1st and 2nd down, Casey Hampton is in the game. Regardless of what type of offense they deploy. A lot of teams have been able to run on us with a great deal of success by getting into 3 and 4 receiver sets, spreading us out, and running right at Chris Hoke and the smaller personnel in the Dime and Nickel packages. When Hampton's in there, teams are unable to run on us as easily out of 3 and 4 receiver sets. However, 3rd and more than 4, Hoke should be in there.

Out of a straight run formation vs. our straight run defense, Ronnie Brown will not be able to gouge us for lots and lots of yardage. The only way they're going to be able to run effectively against us is if they spread us out and we remove Hampton from the equation.

Beat Them at Their Own Game:

They're going to throw deep. A lot. Culpepper does that better than pretty much everyone and they have a bunch of receivers that run the deep routes well.

And a guy by the name of Mike Mularky is calling the plays for them. So there's that. The man likes to throw deep. He likes to run the ball. And he likes to run some trick plays. And we're really familiar with him, since Whisenhunt studied under him for two years before he started calling the plays for the Steelers.

Stay in deep zones. Watch for quick hitches and screen passes. Stop the really short stuff and the really long stuff and hope the pass rush gets to the QB before he sees that the medium stuff is open. And, while we're getting to the QB, go for the knees.

Overall:

I'm not being a homer when I say that we're either going to blow them out or they're going to blow us out. Either their offense will hit on a few big plays early and our offense will struggle early with Batch at the helm or we'll hit on big plays early and they'll struggle.

I just don't see a close game. Even with Batch in there. And, I don't think that the QB for us was going to make the difference in this game, so having Charlie in there instead of Ben isn't a big deal for me.

It's going to come down to our defense stopping their offense. Can we keep them from getting tons of easy yards on the ground against our nickel and dime packages? Can we stop them from completing deep passes on us and hitting some big plays? Can we slow down all the weapons they have on offense?

If the answer to all of those is "yes," then we win. Easy. If the answer is "no," we lose. Bad.