Steelers 2017 AFC Favorite

[Sugar]

if's and butt's etc.......

there are a lot of reasons why the pats have dominated us - but the two main ones are brady and bellichick. they aren't going anywhere. that doesn't mean it's a lost cause - and with a healthy team there's certainly a good chance we can beat them at heinz next season.

I agree that we aren't a lost cause. But it's going to take something special. IMO, a few of our SB winning teams would not have beaten this NE team even without Gronk, who should be back next year. The Steelers should have a really good team with a high powered offense and a defense coming into it's own (Cam Heyward coming back helps too). They should be one of the teams considered on the top tier, but NE should be the favorites, IMO, until somebody shows that they can be taken down outside of a fluke.

[SanAntonioSteelerFan]

I agree that we aren't a lost cause. But it's going to take something special. IMO, a few of our SB winning teams would not have beaten this NE team even without Gronk, who should be back next year. The Steelers should have a really good team with a high powered offense and a defense coming into it's own (Cam Heyward coming back helps too). They should be one of the teams considered on the top tier, but NE should be the favorites, IMO, until somebody shows that they can be taken down outside of a fluke.

Good points, well-made, IMO.

If this were a real war, and our coaches were generals, they would be sitting down and planning for the coming decisive epic battle, and throw every possible resource at their disposal into that. What are the enemy's advantages ... how do we minimize them? Weaknesses ... how do we exploit them? And all that would include contingency planning, for what to do if the initial game plan goes all wrong.

I just didn't look to me like they did these things much for the conference championship this past year.

[Shawn]

If the Steelers had done this versus the Pats, it may have been a one score game at the end. Hopefully we see that next time we see them. That said, the zone D could have been a lot better, too. Everytime they play the Pats they all stop doing their job and play really bad zone. With better execution they may have forced a few more punts. That's the main difference--if NE plays zone the whole game, it works, because they almost unfailingly trust each other and do their jobs. Our D fell apart, showed nontrust in each other and didn't do their jobs.

There are some weakness with a mix man/zone scheme. But, against Brady, you need a bit of both. You need to disrupt timing and you need to be able to double down on specific areas he is targeting. The only way to do this is with this type of scheme.