Bumped from the Diaries. With this piece from resident sage, steeler lifer, the Patriots game has been put to rest. -Blitz-

Disappointing, interesting, revealing ... and, in a bizarre way, reassuring. Those are the four words that sum up my view of the loss to the Patriots.

Disappointing ... of course. The Steelers wasted a good half of football by following it up with their worst half of the year, letting the Patriots off the hook in a winable game. As blitzburgh noted, the failure to convert third-down on their last FG drive of the first half contributed to a potential seven-point swing in the scoreboard. Even at 13-17 we were still in the game. It didn't become unlikely to win until we punted for the second time of the second half, and non-winable until we failed on fourth and goal.

Interesting ... always when you see your team measured against the best. Always, when you get a chance to see Brady's mind at work. He processes information and executes plays within a system that makes offensive production seem ridiculously easy. It's an offense that is arguably the best of all time. They did not have a significant negative play on offense in the entire game.

Revealing ... always when you clearly see weaknesses and can better evaluate your personnel and coaching philosophy. Casey Hampton, for example, is great against any team that needs to run the football ... which is just about every other team in the NFL. He will be of huge importance against Jacksonville. Against New England, he is almost totally useless. Anthony Smith and Tyrone Carter are what they are ... backup safeties who can be picked on. Farrior is slowing down, Haggans is wearing some kind of camo outfit that makes him invisible, Holmes is not yet a great receiver, Faneca is eminently replaceable, The OC and DC and  HC often fail to make adjustments during a game.

For example, the play calling on short yardage in two key situations reflected the perception prior to the game of the team struggling to run the ball in short-yardage situations. Yet during the game, Davenport was effective in short yardage, Parker was full of juice and Ben had run the ball effectively. Ergo, you change your preconceived notions and instead of resorting to pre-planned situational passes and trick plays, pound the ball behind Smith and perhaps Starks lined up outside Smith, or at worst give Ben an opportunity to roll out. What you DONT do on 4th and goal is run laterally with a WR taking an inside handoff close to the line of scrimmage, where any one of four or five potential play-killiing blocking failures can happen.

On defense, it became obvious that NE had no intention of running the ball. So GIVE them the run. Take out your run-stopping NT. IGNORE play-action. FORGET an inside pass rush with LBs crossing around a mass of interior linemen. Play wide defensive fronts. Overload the outside pass rush with a DB. Drop nine back in coverage once in a while.  Keep EVERY receiver in front of you. Let THEM run time off the clock while the game is close. But no. As creative as the Steelers can sometimes be in their blitzing schemes, we continued to play STEELER defense rather than a defense adjusted to stop a team that plays the game in a way no one else does.

And how is all this reassuring. For one thing, we won't play the Patriots again unless it's a playoff game, and we have learned more about playing against the Patriots then they have learned about us. If there is a second meeting, it will be a closer game and possibly a differently result.  More importantly, we continued to show improvement in run blocking and running. FWP had his best game of the year. His legs are clearly live. We showed some adjustments in run selection, getting him to the edges. We got him involved in the passing game. Ben was willing to run. The OL had a very good run-blocking game and relatively few pass protection breakdowns. Simmons had a good game (again) and Smith bounced back.  Our basic coverage of kicks and punts, overall, was good. Punt cover has been excellent for several weeks, minus the one poor punt in OT vs. the Jets. We have made some play-calling adjustments to account for OL weaknesses. I'm not sure I would agree with datruth that those areas will inevitably kill us in a playoff game. Not saying they couldn't, but I'm seeing improvement that reflects Tomlin's approach to internal problem-solving being a process of hard work, diligence and faith in your players. This is the Steeler way and it will work.

The Jacksonville game is a must  win, in my books. It's the last home game. It's against a good team. We need to reassert confidence in the ability to execute a winning game-plan against a quality opponent. A loss could contribute to us ending up as the sixth-seeded playoff team.  And that, my friends, would not set up a good playoff scenario for a team stumbling over its own feet the final month of the season. But I'm confident of a win because smash-mouth physical football will bring out the best in our defense, especially at home, and Ben will outplay Garrard.

A question for the crowd regarding the status of Woodley's injury. If he's healthy, he's a guy who can help make a difference immediately, even if it's only for a dozen snaps a game.