Dec 16, 2017 5 min read

For the Steelers, their best defense is offense.

The New England Patriots probably won’t be in a very good mood Sunday after looking a lot more like the Miami Dolphins than the Patriots Monday night. They’ve rarely lost two games in a row since coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady got together and, if you’re rooting for the Steelers, then you probably shouldn’t expect Brady to put up another 59.1 passer rating.

Based on his success against the Steelers, there’s a really good chance that he’ll double that.

Belichick discovered a long time ago that the way to win in the NFL is to have receivers who can run crisp, quick, short-to-intermediate pass routes and a quarterback who can get rid of the ball in less than three seconds.

It’s amazing that more coaches haven’t caught on.

Defenders aren’t allowed to touch a receiver five yards beyond the line of scrimmage. So, have them run seven- and eight-yard slants, mix in some screen passes, get a decent running back who can catch and dink and then dunk your opponent to death.

Recently, they added a pretty good tight end. Maybe you’ve heard of him. Everybody calls him Gronk.

Brady is good at stepping up in the pocket and finding an extra second to throw but your dining room table has more mobility outside the pocket than he does.

The only way to beat the Patriots is to pressure Brady up the middle, knock him around whenever possible and play good man-to-man defense. The Steelers’ coaching staff either realized that their defense isn’t very good at doing either of those things or they’re really, really stubborn because they’ve tried to beat New England with a zone defense.

Maybe the approach will be the same. Especially if cornerback Joe Haden, who was listed as questionable, can’t play. In the four games he’s been out since he broke his leg in Indianapolis, the Steelers have given up more than 100 more passing yards per game and 10 plays of 30 yards or more.

The bigger question might be, can a defense that let Jay Cutler go 25 of 38 for 263 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions and a 112 passer rating, expect to keep Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers’ offense under 400 yards and 40 points?

I don’t think so.

Brady has never played a better game than Roethlisberger played last week against the Ravens. The numbers were ridiculous but it was how he got those numbers. There was the usual dinking and dunking but he’s never thrown the ball better downfield.

I don’t subscribe to the media majority who say Brady is the undisputed greatest quarterback of all time, but there’s no denying he’s great.

I also don’t think the Patriots have won any more games with him at quarterback than they would have won with Roethlisberger.

There is nobody in the NFL playing better than Roethlisberger right now and it says here that he is the more dangerous quarterback playing at Heinz Field today.

Forget defense.

Final score: Steelers 37 Patriots 31.

If it’s raining, all bets are off. You’re on your own.

• The Winter baseball meetings can be fun for fans of teams in the top-10 TV markets. They can look forward to their team getting better by shopping for free agents or making a big trade. New York Yankees fans got Giancarlo Stanton and his 59 home runs. St. Louis Cardinals fans, who don’t live in a top-10 market but root for a top-10 revenue team, got Marcel Ozuna and his 37 home runs and gold glove.

Pirates fans got heated-up rumors about their two best players, Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole, being traded as part of another five-year plan.

You’ll be happy to know that it was a good week for your good friends, the Nutting family. Every major league owner will be getting a $50 million payment after MLB sold streaming giant BAMtech to Disney.

• It’ll be sad to see an old friend go away at the end of this month. KQV Radio is going off the air. It’s been a part of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania media since 1919, the last 42 years as an all-news station.

It’s where I got my start in Pittsburgh back in 1977 and KQV’s alumni include Stan Savran, Sam Nover, the late Marvin “Goose” Goslin, my brother Paul, Beano Cook and Eric Hagman. The Penguins games were carried by KQV in the late 1970s, when there were only 15 or 20 Penguins games televised.

A young disc jockey, who called himself Jeff Christie, also worked there in the early ’70s. He’s still on the radio today and goes by his real name – Rush Limbaugh.

KQV introduced rock ‘n’ roll to Western Pa. baby boomers. It was the station you were tuned to when your parents yelled at you to turn that awful music off.

KQV disc jockey Chuck Brinkman introduced the Beatles at Civic Arena in 1964.

It’s not a good time for AM radio and the people at KQV had to know this was coming. Why is it that bad news about your job always seems to come right before Christmas?

Good luck to all the people at 1410 KQV who fought the good fight to the end.