Week 13 - Nov. 30 @ New England

[aj_law]

:pooponu:  

[DCSteelers]

Anyone hear if McFadden is set to return for this game?

I'd prefer to have McFadden and Gay out there for speed against Welker... and have Ike shadow Moss with safety help.

Lebeau may be successful with bring pressure, but with Welker underneath, that could be dangerous.

[jonzr]

It figures that Matty is catching on fire now with two 400+ yard games in a row.  Of course, they only won one of those ...

But no way he goes off like that next Sunday.

[aj_law]

Kind of a big game this week, eh?

[DCSteelers]

Not life or death, but a win we really need.

A must win is in Balty about 3 weeks from now.

[otismalibu]

Not life or death, but a win we really need.

I think it's damn near life or death. Can't be losing AFC games to other teams who might be in the wild card hunt.

If we have to split the next two, we'd be better off losing to the Cowboys.

Three in a row would put all this talk to bed. 

[Finnegans Wake]

Pats, unlike us, have picked up their level of play lately.  We just seem to be spinning our wheels.  And the problem is, we should annihilate Matt Cassell and that ancient D, but it looks like yet another fucking Patriots-Steelers shitfest, with them trotting out the gameplan of passing about 100 times in a row, and us being unable to do a damned about it.  I was much more confident about our chances about a month ago, but frankly now I'm pretty worried. 

[jonzr]

They're gonna have to get consistent pressure with the front 5 and cover with the rest.  I haven't seen NE play this season, are they going with a lot of 4 & 5 wrs? 

I imagine LeBeau will be determined to not allow another 400+ week for young Matt Camel.

[aj_law]

They're gonna have to get consistent pressure with the front 5 and cover with the rest.  I haven't seen NE play this season, are they going with a lot of 4 & 5 wrs? 

I imagine LeBeau will be determined to not allow another 400+ week for young Matt Camel.

I've watched 2 or 3 of their games and I'd say at this point of the season, their doesn't appear to be much difference between the offense they were running for Brady to the offense their marching out there for Cassandra. 

IIRC, this past week against the Fins, they threw something like 15 out of their first 17 plays and were in shotgun most of the time.  Cassandra was pretty accurate and made good decisions, but he's easily flustered.  He doesn't like to get hit so getting pressure is key (obv).  I'd feel much more comfortable in this one if McFadden and Townsend were available.  Those guys are going to test the secondary and I'd be pretty surprised if Pittsburgh holds them to less than 300 yards passing because that's pretty much all they do.  Pittsburgh should be able to maintain that #1 against the rush stat after this week because any rushing they do seems to be done purely to give their WRs a breather. 

I'm also interested to see if Matt Light gets suspended for that little skirmish he had with Channing Crowder.  Even if he does, I'd expect them to appeal so he could play in this game and then accept the ruling afterwards as their schedule gets much easier after this week (@ SEA; @ OAK; vs. ZONA; @ BUF).

Really, this is a must win game and as I've mentioned on a coupla other threads/message boards, the next 3 games are huge.

If Pittsburgh expects to be considered among the best the Conference has to offer and most importantly, a legit playoff contender, they need to go 2-1 over the next three, at a minimum. 

ATM, they control their own destiny.  A one game lead in the division and with a win against Balty in three weeks, the tiebreaker over them.  They can't let up now and they definitely can't stumble against a NE team that will likely be in the playoff wildcard mix too.

It's simple, really.

Win.  Just win.

They win, they don't have to worry about what anybody else is doing.  Those teams will have to worry about Pittsburgh is doing.

Time to man up and show the rest of the league what they've got.

Multiple looks.  Mix things up.  Pressure.  Execute.  And, punch them in the fucking mouth.

[jonzr]

They win, they don't have to worry about what anybody else is doing.  Those teams will have to worry about Pittsburgh is doing.

Time to man up and show the rest of the league what they've got.

Multiple looks.  Mix things up.  Pressure.  Execute.  And, punch them in the fucking mouth.

Exactly.  They're in a great position and can stay there if they take care of bidess.  But if NE is running their usual pass-happy offense then the db injuries are a pretty big concern.  Maybe they'll be able to get a good mix of coverage and pressure from the base D - might be a good time to start Timmons for his range in the middle.