well I'm hoping Ben and Co. pull their collective heads out of their asses and start playing some football here.

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Steve

They may have lost Fournette...That probably should help Pitt a lot.

Sure looks like PITT has settled down.

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The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

nope.

As a Patriots fan I'm incredibly torn right now. Root for Pittsburgh and you're hoping for the team that SHOULD have beaten the Pats earlier in the year after losing Brown early in the game. Root for Jacksonville and you're hoping for the team with the best front 7 in the NFL and a fearsome pass rush, the exact recipe for beating Brady and the Patriots.

The Patriots have had the Steelers number for years and years, too, but wouldn't you want to see the team with almost no offense?

That said this Jacksonville defense has me really questioning all of it. Pick 6 now too...

Pittsburg is screwing the pooch big time. And 'Trash' Bortles makes the pass when he needs to.

Apparently Big Ben only throws td's on 4th down now

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Ryan

Turn out the lights the parties over (for Pittsburgh)

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Just Triing
Triathlete since 9:56:39 AM EST Aug 20, 2006.
Be kind English is my 2nd language. My primary language is Dave it's a unique evolution of English.

That was fucking atrocious. No one laid a hand on Bortles, by my count, all game. No hurries, no sacks, nothing. The defense was non-existent. And the play calling--two critical fourth downs blown, one with a five yard backward pitch when 6 inches was needed, the other with a scramble pass. Pats fans might remember last year's AFC championship game when we did exactly the same thing (no QB sneak), and on the very next possession when Brady faced the same situation and ran a QB sneak around midfield, just for emphasis. You don't want it bad enough, well guess who does, was the message. Roethlisberger just said postgame he's all for it, but it's not his call.

Then a bungled onside kick with two and a half minutes and three timeouts? Why not kick it deep? It gave them the opportunity to go up by two scores, which of course they did almost immediately. And then the clock management in the final minute was just the icing on the cake. Literally wasted the remainder of the game. They should have kicked the field goal as soon as they were in comfortable range with the clock stopped (40ish seconds) then gone for the onside kick with time to work the field if they recovered it.

Just atrocious. It sucks to lose, but it's infuriating when you have that much talent and just seem hellbent on undermining every opportunity to win. Tomlin and Haley need to pack their shit.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

I'm not confident for next week. The Jags can definitely create a huge upset especially if they continue with pressure on center as they did today.

Did you miss the part where the Jags gave up 42 points;)

Oh I sure didn't but this team still has me worried. I think they have a real shot.

This. As a Pats fan, we lost two superbowls to the Giants on matchups; they had the best front 4 in football. If you can get consistent pressure with your front four you can beat the Patriots. You start having to blitz and Brady picks you apart.

The Pats didn't actually look that good against the Titans. On paper the Titans were the worst team in the playoffs, the Patriots win was about what should have been expected.
Should be a good AFC championship game.

I know there was a wink in there but the Pittsburgh offense and their strengths are very different from the Pats. Roethlisberger is surprisingly elusive and an absolute house to take down, the pressure up the middle isn't quite as big a deal against him. Bell bounces outside, he always requires defenses to stay honest. With Brady he generally likes sliding in the pocket, that middle pressure is when he starts getting happy feet/seeing ghosts. I think Lewis and White have been great in giving him outlets and as strange as it is talking about a 40 year old quarterback I think he's more elusive than he had been in 5 or even 10 years ago.

But I still worry, and really the biggest concern is Brady taking that one shot he can't take, then it's season over regardless...much higher chance of that against the Jags than the Steelers imo.

We'll see, but I'm not confident at all going into this game.