A Few More Things...

I realized that, in my drug-addled haze, I forgot to mention a number of things in the last post. Also, I'm starting to get caught up in all the hype and I'm beginning to convince myself that the Steelers have a shot.

They can win if...

1. They can get the ball to Willie and Heath in the passing game. No linebacker for New England (don't know if I mentioned this at all, but they're old and slow) can keep up with Willie in space. No safety for the Patriots can cover Heath. Especially Rodney Harrison.
2. Haggans and Harrison have big games. I alluded to this in the last post, but this is really what it comes down to on defense. This is what it always comes down to on defense. Foote and Farrior need to be involved on blitzes, but Haggans and Harrison are the two guys that absolutely need to come through. If we can get Brady to hear footsteps, he'll start patting the ball with his left had and skipping his feet. Once he starts with that, we've got him. We just need to keep bringing heat.
3. The Patriots stay arrogant. Against the hated Ravens, they were positively begging New England to run and they didn't. If the Patriots keep lining up and throwing, we definitely have a chance. If we can pressure Brady. As a side bar, we need to make like Baltimore and completely ignore play fakes from Brady. They're not going to run, we shouldn't get sucked in, and it takes longer for a playaction pass to develop, simply because you have to fake the ball to the running back. Ignore that and you have more time to get to Brady.
4. Run the ball at will. Get big gains on first and second down. Run the ball against a 10 man front when they know we're going to run it. Baltimore couldn't do it and you saw the results.
5. We force three turnovers and don't give any up.
6. Along those lines, NO FREAKIN' DUMB INTERCEPTIONS. In both the Eagles and hated Ravens game, the quarterback tried to do too much and threw a dumb-ass interception late in the game that gave the Patriots a chance. I can really see Ben doing this.
7. Trust the defense. Seriously. I trust them now. I don't think they'll implode like Baltimore and Philly did.
8. Even though we're supposed to run the ball, we need to throw more on first and second down to set up the pass. Nothing crazy like coming out no-huddle with five wide receivers, but we need to throw the ball on first and second down.
9. Don't crack, don't break down, keep our composure.
10. We keep with tradition. We've always played to the level of our opponents. We've lost on the road to crappy teams because we took them lightly. No way that's going to happen here. We're bringing our Big Boy Pads on Sunday. And, much as I love Cowher, I think that Tomlin's going to be a better big-game coach. He's better at coming up with a unique game plan for each game, especially on defense. He's better at adjusting on the fly. He's still got a lot to learn about when to challenge or not challenge a play, when to use his timeouts, and game management, but that's all pretty simple. He'll have them ready to go.

But, Anthony Smith went and guaranteed a victory. The good news is that no one seems to know who he is, so no one cares. At least ostensibly. However, you can't tell me that that doesn't really piss off each and every player on the Patriots just a little bit.

Which is all we need. A pissed off Patriots team. Great.

We're so fucked.