sixxswine said:
The Steelers were given the win thanks to Doug Brien choking twice!
I'm sure he'll be looking for work come training camp. Man, The Jest had The Steelers on the run & just couldn't put 'em away! Why they took a knee on 3rd down is beyond me. I would have pushed forward & given the kicker some more space to work with... Who knows it could have resulted in a first down?!
ATL on the other hand rolled on & over the Rams! The Eagles or The Vikings will have their hands full next week....
I look fowrad to the games on Sunday!
I still like the Colts & am pulling for the Vikings.
I only give about 25% of the blame of the missed kicks on Brien. He'll be on the team next year. The Jets scored no offensive touchdowns and got scared to move the ball in closer to help Brien. In it's four years of use, there has never been a 50 + yard field goal made in Heinz Field. It is simply a tough place to make a field goal and The Jets didn't give Brien the best shot. Trust me when I say I am not being easy on Brien because I was certainly all over Chris Brown and his awful performance as a Steeler, but it's a well known fact, Heinz field is the absolute worst field for kickers. The Jets OC/HC blew that game, not the kicker.
As far as The Steeler performance, they gave up a total of 0 points defensively. The Jets returned a punt and an interception for TDs plus an early FG. Rookie Ben Roethlisberger played like... well a rookie, but they survived for a shot against the reghning champs. Ben was 18-22 against The Patriots in their first meeting and in fact played even worse against the Jets the first time around. I still like The Steelers chances.
The thrashing Atlanta gave The Rams wasn't much of a surprise to me. As I stated before, I am an oldschool guy who likes running the ball and playing good defense. The Falcons excel at both of those and they handled the Rams easily by doing just that.
The thrashing New England handed to Indy DID surprise me. I expected James to get a good bit of carries early to open up Peyton's play-action passing, but the soft receivers couldn't get physical enough with the NE defense yet again.
The Eagles/Minnesota game was similar to the Falcons/Rams. They didn't deserve to be in the play-offs (due to a considerably weaker NFC compared to the AFC) and got manhandled by one of the two real NFC contendors.
Bryant