I feel good about this game too. The pats are not a great team. They are winning mainly because they make few mistakes which means you have to beat them by making plays, not by tricking them. With the way the current NFL is all schemed up with alleged "genius" coaches, few teams focus on execution. They focus on scheme and splash plays.
Plus they cheat.
They Pats have had the steelers number because over the last 10 years or so, they have been too scheme reliant. That's why the offense under Arians and Haley struggled so much in the redzone. Because redzone is about fundamentals. It's about blocking and running a sharp route and making a quick read. It's harder to trick a defense when they only have 10 yards to defend.
Same with the steeler defense. If the scheme didn't get a free rusher, they weren't getting pressure.
The Pats were winning because they could pick up the steelers blitzes and on defense, they were big and physical and controlled the steeler OL. The steeler secondary had nobody who could cover man and few playmakers.
Those are the major changes made over the past 2 years for the steelers. They have become a more honest run game, with good blocking and not just because the defense is afraid of the pass and conceding the run.
On defense, they now have playmakers at all 3 levels. The front 7 is physical and fast. Much better suited to defend short passes. They have coverage guys now.
This steeler team is better able to win games by blocking and tackling, by winning on routes and making contested catches. By actually covering WRs and not hoping scheme confuses the QB, by winning 1 on 1 matchups in pass rush.
In short, i think the steelers have gone back to being a good football team and not a schemed up collection of individual playmakers.
With the Pats OL troubles, the Steelers should be able to control the line and pressure Brady, particularly up the middle. Brady is a below average QB when pressured.
I do feel good about this game, but the Pats do cheat and it's home so it could go either way.
