Steelers to face Patriots in an elite matchup
Steelers inside linebacker Ryan Shazier will look to create havoc for Patriots quarterback Tom Brady tonight in the AFC Championship game.
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is sacked by Steelers outside linebackers Jarvis Jones, left, and Anthony Chickillo during the teams’ regular season matchup.
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Tom Brady has widely been proclaimed as the greatest quarterback of all time, thanks to six Super Bowl appearances and four wins.
Head coach Bill Belichick gets similar mention when the topic of the best coaches in NFL history is brought up.
The New England Patriots will be playing in their sixth consecutive AFC Championship game today and 11th since Brady burst onto the scene in 2001 at Gillette Stadium.
Standing in the way of a seventh trip to the Super Bowl for that duo – and a record-breaking ninth trip overall – are the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Steelers are decided underdogs against the football machine that is the Patriots.
But that hasn’t affected their confidence. The Steelers have won nine consecutive games to rebound from a 4-5 start to the season and eliminated Kansas City in one of the loudest and most hostile environments in the NFL.
The Steelers also gained a degree of confidence from a meeting with New England earlier this season. Though the Steelers lost that Oct. 23 game, 27-16, at Heinz Field, Pittsburgh played without quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and trailed 20-16 early in the fourth quarter.
“We’ve faced this team already,” said Steelers defensive end Stephon Tuitt. “We got to see their best shot at us without us having our full team. Definitely, that’s taken into consideration. Secondly, we gave them 100 yards in rushing, too. They had a chance to have a balanced offense against us. We can’t let them have that twice. We’re going to be much better against the run. We have to make them be a one-dimensional team. We have to make Brady throw the ball 40 to 50 times. We have to make him make more decisions.”
It might seem foolhardy to want Brady to throw the ball, but the Steelers saw what happens when you permit the Patriots to be balanced in that first meeting. Brady was 19 of 26 for 222 yards and two touchdowns, and LeGarrette Blount had 24 carries for 127 yards.
“We have to win and smash the run,” said Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler. “It’s always the same formula: we smash the run, try to put them in position to throw the ball and try to put pressure on Brady.”
Butler also is aware of the Steelers’ failures to do that over the years. He’s been on the Steelers’ coaching staff since 2003. He’s seen Brady beat the Steelers.
A lot.
Brady is 7-2 against the Steelers and has never lost to them at Gillette Stadium. He’s thrown 24 touchdown passes against just three interceptions, averaging 314 yards per game.
The Steelers’ defense has changed.
While Brady’s quick release and precision passing were seemingly built to handle former defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau’s version of the zone blitz defense, the Steelers have tweaked things in recent seasons under Butler, at the behest of head coach Mike Tomlin.
Pittsburgh plays more Cover-2, with its two safeties deep, and has its corners press the receivers at the line of scrimmage more than in the past. The Steelers also don’t blitz as much.
And the Steelers have added fast, young players to help combat quick-throwing offenses.
On offensive, the Steelers will continue to lean on running back Le’Veon Bell, who has carried 59 times in Pittsburgh’s first two playoff games for 337 yards, breaking the team single-game postseason rushing record in both.
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who is 0-1 against the Patriots in the postseason, having lost 41-27 as a rookie in the AFC Championship in 2004, challenged Bell before the playoffs to carry the team.
“Ben obviously knows the things that I do well, how I can help this team, so obviously he can look to me,” said Bell, who has 1,172 yards rushing in his last eight starts. “(He) just really told me to be the same player I’ve been all year, the same player I’ve been all season. He told me, obviously, not to think about it too much, not to do too much, not to do not enough – just go out there and compete like I usually do. Everything kind of came naturally to me. That’s what’s been happening so far.”
The Steelers want to remind the world that the Patriots aren’t the only team that has a pedigree.
A win by the Steelers would give Pittsburgh its ninth appearance in the Super Bowl, so a record is going to be set one way or another.
“We have the trophies out there,” said Roethlisberger, referring to Pittsburgh’s six Super Bowl titles.
The Steelers won’t be intimidated by New England’s mystique.
They know once the whistle is blown, past playoff wins or failures won’t matter. They have one goal: win a Super Bowl, and New England is in the way.
“Everything up to now is a waste if we don’t hold a Lombardi (Trophy) at the end of it,” said Steelers linebacker James Harrison.
The Patriots will be without tight end Rob Gronkowski, who has eight touchdown catches in five games against the Steelers. … Brady is 23-9 in the postseason but has lost three of the past four AFC Championships in which he has played. … The Steelers are 2-0 in the AFC Championship under Tomlin. … The Steelers’ 36 playoff wins are the most in NFL history. New England has 30. … The Patriots were plus-12 in turnover ratio during the regular season as Brady threw just two interceptions. The Steelers were plus-5. … The Steelers are making their 16th appearance in the AFC Championship. They are 8-7 in the previous 15. … Brown has 100 yards receiving in four consecutive playoff games, matching Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald for the most in league history.