| hatmoza said: Yeah. WTF happened to NE in the second half of the season? |
People mistook their big wins over the Jets (54-13), Panthers (24-6), Browns (45-7), and Falcons (25-0) as meaning the Patriots were Super Bowl bound for some reason. The combined record of those teams is 24 W 44 L. New England had 5 games against playoff teams this season and won 2 of them. They lost to Tampa Bay, Dallas, and Buffalo, while beating the Titans and Buffalo once in ridiculous weather conditions that nerfed Buffalo's offense. Their 2nd and 3rd meetings with Buffalo proved that the Pats were never on the Bills level.
| hatmoza said: Same as what I said about the Eagles. As far as I'm concered, Steelers put up a zero on the board. That offense is pathetic. |
Cry me a river about Steelers opponents with Covid. The Steelers entire 2020 season was derailed by their opponents not being able to contain Covid outbreaks on their rosters.
2020 Regular Season Schedule 2020 Actual Schedule
Sept. 14 at NY Giants, 7:15 p.m. Sept. 14 Steelers 26 at NY Giants 16
Sept. 20 vs. Denver, 1:00 p.m. Sept. 20 Steelers 26 vs. Denver 21
Sept. 27 vs. Houston, 1:00 p.m. Sept. 27 Steelers 28 vs. Houston 21
Oct. 4 at Tennessee, 1:00 p.m. Game postponed by Titans Covid outbreak
Oct. 11 vs. Philadelphia, 1:00 p.m. Oct. 11 Steelers 38 vs. Philadelphia 29
Oct. 18 vs. Cleveland, 1:00 p.m. Oct. 18 Steelers 38 vs. Cleveland 7
Oct. 25 at Baltimore, 1:00 p.m. Oct. 25 Steelers 27 at Tennessee 24
BYE Nov 1 Steelers 28 at Baltimore 24
Nov. 8 at Dallas, 4:25 p.m. Nov. 8 Steelers 24 at Dallas 19
Nov. 15 vs. Cincinnati, 1:00 p.m. Nov. 15 Steelers 36 vs. Cincinnati 10
Nov. 22 at Jacksonville, 1:00 p.m. Nov. 22 Steelers 27 at Jacksonville 3
Nov. 26 vs. Baltimore, 8:20 p.m. Dec. 2 Steelers 19 vs. Baltimore 14
Dec. 6 vs. Washington, 1:00 p.m. Dec. 6 Steelers 17 vs. Washington 23
Dec. 13 at Buffalo, 8:20 p.m. Dec. 13 Steelers 26 at Buffalo 15
Dec. 21 at Cincinnati, 8:15 p.m. Dec. 21 Steelers 27 at Cincinnati 17
Dec. 27 vs. Indianapolis, 1:00 p.m. Dec. 27 Steelers 28 vs. Indianapolis 24
Jan. 3 at Cleveland, 1:00 p.m. Jan. 3 Steelers 22 at Cleveland 24
The Steelers lost their mid-season Nov 1 Bye week, because the Titans could not field a team to play against them on Oct 4. They had to take their week off in Week 4 of the NFL season. So early in the season, that no other NFL teams were originally scheduled to be off that weekend.
Then, the Steelers Nov 26 game against the Baltimore Ravens was postponed 3 times due to a Ravens Covid outbreak moving the game from November 26 to December 2. This resulted in Pittsburgh having a 3 day off week before having to get back on the field against Washington on Dec 6. What a coincidence that's the exact moment the Steelers undefeated season completely unraveled. So, again, cry me a river about Pittsburgh "benefitting" from opponents having Covid the following year.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh lost JuJu Smith-Schuster for the entire season in Week 5. He had 97 catches on 128 targets for 831 yards and 9 TD's last year. You don't think that created a hole in Pittsburgh's offense? You don't think the Steelers had any high profile inactives in any games this year? The NFL's sack leader T.J. Watt was out due to injury on both 9/26 vs Cincinnati and 11/21 at Chargers. Both losses. You don't think the Steelers could have used some pressure on Justin Herbert in a game which Pittsburgh scored 37 points but gave up 41? You don't think they could have used their best cover man Minkah Fitzpatrick either, who also missed the Chargers game? You don't think Big Ben would have beaten the Detroit Lions in a game the Steelers had to settle for a tie without him?
Every team in the NFL catches opponents with injuries, or in this era with Covid inactives. Let's not cherry pick instances to say the Steelers somehow lucked their way into a winning record this year while playing a Top 10 Strength of Schedule.
One other thing that bugs me is this fixation on the Steelers offensive regression, but no one talks about the way in which the Mike Tomlin defensively-led Steelers has exited the post season in the Steelers last 3 playoff appearances:
| 2021 Playoffs | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WildCard | Sun | January 16, 2022 | boxscore | L | @ | Kansas City Chiefs | 21 | 42 |
| 2020 Playoffs | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WildCard | Sun | January 10, 2021 | boxscore | L | Cleveland Browns | 37 | 48 |
| 2017 Playoffs | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Sun | January 14, 2018 | boxscore | L | Jacksonville Jaguars | 42 | 45 |
But sure, let's blame the offense for not averaging over 45 points per game.
I'll finish this rant by saying there are worse ways to go out then Ben (29 of 44, 215 yards, 2 TD's, 0 Ints) did last night. Dan Marino ended his career in a 62-7 playoff loss against Jacksonville with an 11 of 25 for 95 yards with 1 TD and 2 Int's stat line. Jacksonville led 38-0 before Marino's first completion of the game, and he ended up getting pulled from the game after 1 series in the 2nd half.
I wasn't expecting anything good in last night's game, but the Steelers surprised me by containing Patrick Maholmes and the KC offense for over 1.5 quarters, and actually having a 7-0 lead with 6 minutes to go before halftime. To my pleasant surprise, I got to watch almost an entire half of football before feeling like my team was out of the game. Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there. Even so, as badly as they got beat, the Patriots 30 point loss to Buffalo was worse. New England didn't score a single point until they were down 26-0. Anyway, now the Steelers will spend the rest of the postseason in the same positiion the Cleveland Browns are:
