Pre-game for Pats-Steelers

First, let's raise a glass to Matt Ryan and not-so-dirty-birds in Atlanta, for beating our friends from Baltimore the other night. 60 excellent minutes of football; no one was cheated. Joe Flacco may not be as complete as we thought. The arm strength and accuracy are there; the borderline mobility is there; but that guy just isn't stepping up and dominating like he should be.

Anyway.

As far as us playing the Pats: it all comes down to defense. New England is known for trading away players at their highest level of production for draft picks, and let me tell you, those draft picks have been spent on defense.

Vince Wilfork, the pro-bowl NT is the only member of the unit to hail from the Super Bowl cheat teams of the early 2000s. He's still very good. Casey Hampton good. Short, fat dude who can just eat up space and make a tackle while he has someone riding him. The potential weakness of the Pats' line is to either side of Wilfork. Gerard Warren was a fuckup from the early years of the expansion era Browns; really a bad 4-3 DE, probably an equally mediocre 3-4 end. On the other side is Brandon Deaderick, who was a 7th round pick from this year. He's had early success this season, and I imagine he gets included in pass rushing packages, much like Brett Keisel does. Only thing that makes me wonder about him is his age and experience. Seems a little like beginners luck.

The linebacking corps. is excellent. The two middle backers are the best in the game, and they're fucking young. Jared Mayo and Brandon Spikes live to eat up running backs. I say the way to approach them is the same as what we used to have to do against Ray Lewis: run right at them. They're more than capable of dropping into coverage and picking passes if we let them. The only way they look bad is if they get tired. Best way to tire them is to make them work. Send Mendy right up the gut.

The NE corners and safeties are half excellent, half piece-meal. They mostly make their tackles, and when they don't, that's when the Pats lose. Kind of like our situation.

The joy for me, in watching a game like this, is comparing pass-defenses. Watch us stack 1-5s and 2-4s at the line, and watch the Pats bring off center 3-3s, or 3 man fronts made entire of linebackers for dime situations.

As far as offense goes, let's just take the ball away from them. Tom Brady doesn't miss his targets, and his targets are very good at slipping under the big hit. That means you either need to kill Brady right before he throws the ball, or you have to be there before the ball gets to the receiver. As much as I love to see Brady hurt and on the ground, I love it even more when we're returning his pansy ass 80 yard bombs for six points.

Watch out for their rookie TE, Aaron Hernandez. Dude can play.