Stillers Hold On, Refs Terrible
Written by Mark Harris on January 15th, 2006
Whew, the collective Pittsburgh nation has finally exhaled after one of the weirest quarters of football in recent memory. first of all, the refs in the game were terrible, beyond terrible, awful. They should lose their pay for the day, because it would’ve been better if they had not even shown up. Anyway, we won so yay! On to Denver. Yoi! Double Yoi even.
15
PM
Bill Cower should be fired. Quarterback sneak, anyone?
15
PM
Go celebrate with some Arns n’at.
15
PM
Doesn’t matter. Denver’s defense is much better than Indy’s, and if they could beat up Tom Brady, arguably the best playoff quarterback in recent history, then Roethlisberger won’t direct that offense one bit.
Sorry, Steeler nation, Denver’s going to the Super Bowl!
15
PM
Stillers = pittsburgh slang for Steelers. Also Rob Lee, umm, we shut down Payton Manning today. Payton Manning, so let’s cut the talk about how awesome the Broncos are. I am not saying the Steelers are going to win, though I think they are better than even odds, but I do think that if we’re going to compare who shut down who. Shutting down Peyton Manning, at home. is better than Brady, on the road, any day.
16
AM
Alright, let’s talk about a few things:
1. Brady is a bit more successful in the playoffs than Manning (see Brady’s record against Manning in the playoffs).
2. The Pittsburgh defense matches up quite well against the Colts b/c Manning is a pocket passer, similary to the Broncos against Brady. However, comparing Roethlisberger agianst an attacking defense with a STELLAR secondary like Denver (unlike Indy with three rookies, one second year, and one third year) to Plummer, who isn’t a pocket passer will mean their blitz packages are less successful against Denver.
3. Denver is a short yardage pass team, which lends itself well to beating blitz packages, too. Plummer needs only go deep a few times. In contract, Indy is a big play team that prefers to go downfield first and then hit the outlets if nothing else is open.
4. Denver has been getting no respect all season by anybody - and this game is probably going to be no different. The intangibles are in Denver’s favor.
The Bus had a good run, but he won’t run well in Mile High…
16
AM
Oh yes…
5. Let’s not forget the Broncos defense is much quicker than the Colts were, and the game is in Denver (and year in, year out Denver is one of the best conditioned teams in the NFL simply because of the altitude).
16
AM
I was reading an article today on ESPN, sorry for the no link, which basically calls the Broncos a “Pretender” that has no prayer of makign the super bowl. Again I am not nearly as confident as you are in my team, but I think this will all be answered in a week. So I guess here commence the week o’ trash talking.
16
AM
The Wojchewoski article? Yeah, I read that two…which basically say everything the ESPN experts DIDN’T say about the game (that Denver had the game handed to them). Salisbury, Burman, Jackson…they’ll all say the same thing about the game:
1. Denver was more physical, they caused FOUR of the FIVE turnovers by pounding New England,
2. Denver took care of business when they were given opportunities.
Can’t fault them for that. Wojchewoski’s never written a postiive article about the Broncos…
Damn, I love football!
16
PM
Mark, you were at my house still watching this game 10 minutes before this post went up. How did you post it so fast?
16
AM
Funny how it’s acceptable to bitch about the officiating when you’re the victim, but not when you’re the recipient, of the bad calls.