Anthony Smith Not The Only One Who Thinks Steelers Will Win This Sunday

ESPN Page 2 Columnist, David Fleming, who has written a book titled 'Breaker Boys: The NFL's Greatest Team and the Stolen 1925 Championship' about the 1925 Pottsville, PA professional football squad, joins Anthony Smith and other Steelers faithful who believe the Steelers will end the Patriots incredible run in 2007. Fleming is clearly a Steelers fan and knowledgable about the Steelers organization, past and present, and his most recent column lays out 33 reasons why the Steelers will win this Sunday. Some are superflous and wholly unrelated to this week's game, some are relevant and potentially prescient. I'll include a few of each, beginning with:

Good point, pencil in the first score for the Steelers? Ha, nice anecdote, but we'll need more than that. This is actually a very relevant point. The Steelers have a 'never-back-down' attitude on defense that most certainly will not be intimidated by the Patriots high-octane offensive attack. Very important that we throw the first punch on Sunday at the Patriots O-Line and Randy Moss as well. Not sure what this has to do with Sunday's game at all, but what they hey, it's always a good time to recognize Dermontti Dawson and his dominance in the trenches for more than a decade in the Steel City. Good to know. If we can limit the big play TD connection from Brady to Moss, perhaps we'll be able to force several FGs on several Patriots' drives. Hooray irrelevant historical data! In all seriousness though, there are plenty of holdovers from the 2004 Steelers, and the important thing about Fleming's point is that this group knows they've done it before, so why not again? We'll finish with this, which I plan to address in more detail later. But leaving aside Cowher, this game provides Arians and Tomlin the perfect opportunity to show they're able to dial up the unexpected. Of course, this isn't the playoffs, so don't expect us to empty the bag of tricks entirely, but it has been mentioned before that perhaps Tomlin should leave the offense on the field on 4th and short situations any time the Steelers are across mid-field. We're the 2nd best 3rd down team in the league, so data suggests we might just be ok picking up 4th downs as well, no? Point is, we can't be conservative and just hope the Patriots don't make the plays necessary to win it. We've got to take advatange of every opportunity available to control our own destiny this Sunday, because if there is one absolute certainty heading into the game, it's that Tom Brady will snatch victory from the jaws of defeat just about every time he's given a chance.