This time the Pittsburgh Steelers backed up words with actions. Anthony Smith's words, that is, and everyone else's actions. Baited by reporters during the week, Smith guaranteed that the Steelers would beat the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium — just as he did before last year's 34-13 defeat. The official gamebook shows that Smith, a reserve safety, made one tackle in the game, on special teams. It also shows that the Steelers clobbered the Pats 33-10.
"We heard a lot of talk about it being a rivalry," noted Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin after the game. "But it can't be much of a rivalry until you win some. That's what we talked about coming up here."
Rivalry or not, this was a major statement by the Steelers. These may not be the Tom Brady-led Patriots of a year ago, but New England still boasted a 7-4 record coming into the game and a quarterback who had thrown for over 400 yards in back-to-back games. Only four other signal callers have managed that feat in the history of the NFL, and none of them is named Brady.
The Steelers hadn't won in Foxborough since 1997, and more than one knowing glance was exchanged among their fans in attendance when Ben Roethlisberger was picked off by Mike Vrabel on just the fourth play of the game. Three plays later the Patriots had their first touchdown. It seemed inevitable that, sooner or later, more would follow.
But for the Patriots, further touchdowns simply never materialised. "I think we are a kind of nicely boring team," noted Pittsburgh defensive end Aaron Smith (not to be confused with Anthony) after the game, but the only predictable thing about the Steelers this season is the ferocity of their play on defence. After holding Patriots to just 267 yards of total offence yesterday, Pittsburgh have now held every opponent this year to under 300 yards. Since the 1970 merger only the 1974 Rams, who went 14 games, have managed a longer streak from the start of a season.
If defence wins championships then the Steelers are certainly in a good spot — boasting, as they do, the league's top-ranked defence for total yards, passing yards, rushing yards and scoring. Contrary to the old mantra, however, it also won them the game yesterday — forcing five turnovers and five sacks whilst restricting the Patriots to a miserable third-down conversion rate of just one in 13 attempts.
Certainly the win leaves the Steelers in a strong position in the AFC — giving them a one-game lead over the New York Jets in the race for the conference's No2 seed. The Baltimore Ravens, also one game back, will offer them no respite in the AFC North, however, and the Steelers' next three games are against the Dallas Cowboys (also 8-4), Ravens and Tennessee Titans (11-1).
For the Patriots there is now little room for error at 7-5, even if the Jets' defeat to the Denver Broncos means the AFC East remains open. If nothing else the nature of their loss yesterday should at least silence those pundits who have speculated they might be better off trading the injured Brady away at the end of the season and retaining the much cheaper Matt Cassel as their starter.
Cassel has done well as a starter and may well go on to have a solid career in this league. Tom Brady, however, he is not — and the rest of the AFC is grateful for it.
Three and out
Plaxico Burress may have shot himself in the leg this week, but the New York Giants simply continue to blow everybody else away. Their 23-7 road win against the Washington Redskins yesterday was emphatic. How did they ever lose to Cleveland? Washington may need to sweep the rest of their games to make the playoffs — not a great place to be given that they travel to Baltimore next weekend.
Peyton Manning completed 15 of 21 passes for just 125 yards and two interceptions against the Cleveland Browns, yet the Indianapolis Colts found a way to win. They haven't always been convincing, but they have won five straight, and with home games against the Cincinnati Bengals and Detroit Lions next up, they should be able to sew up a wildcard spot.
The San Diego Chargers can finally be ruled out of the playoff race after losing 22-16 to the Atlanta Falcons. Whilst others seem to be inclined to blame — admittedly horrible — refereeing calls or injuries, I'm inclined to blame head coach Norv Turner, who has taken this team that was 14-2 in 2006 and reduced them to one that is 4-8 in 2008. For all that he is an excellent offensive coordinator, Turner now has a head coaching record of 73-95 across three different teams. Retaining him next season would be a mistake for a team that is still talented, but has a limited window in which to make a run.
Pick Six
I won't be sending out any prizes this week, as nobody called all six games correctly in our predictions competition. In fact nobody even got five. Well done to Grafhamboy, who moves top of our overall standings with 13, and to each of Drsocialpolicy, Nostradamus, WVUgeordie, hobbes78 and Bananagrabber, who led the weekly standings with four each.
Grafhamboy 13, Allout 12, drsocialpolicy 12, Paolo Bandini 12, amswong 11, hobbes78 11, UMDstudent 11, cubemonkey 10, thatch 10, Topcat1977 10, Yubeingfunny 10, francaise 9, lighthed 9, participationworks 9, ECFC 8, fishfingers15 8, Anschlusstreffer 7, MacMillings 7, MattR 7, Mike Adamson 7, timthemonkey 7, wildfrontear 7, Bananagrabber 6, jonb76 6, jpnmcgann 6, Nostradamus 6, ondukuta 6, Secondrow5 6, SoCalifornication 6, theDN 6, tompll 6, WVUgeordie 6, Avirax 5, colonelmarlit 5, DogManStar 5, donwendyagain 5, DowFC 5, lacey101 5, redskin 5, cyionic 4, davidsl 3, emmet50 3, horne94 3, MinimumBacklift 3
