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The Road to Glendale: NFL Playoffs discussion
December 24, 2014 at 7:35 pm
So, like, I'm a Steelers homer 100%, and a lot has been made of the fact that Pittsburgh plays down to the level of bad competition, and they lose to teams they have no business losing to.
What is overlooked, however, is that the Steelers are virtually perfect against winning teams (and the two NFC South teams that are still in the playoff hunt). The only loss to a winning team so far is their loss to Baltimore in Week 2. Their record against quality opposition is 7-1, pending the Cincinnati game on Sunday.
I don't know about you, but I know which of these trends is more important when all you play from here on out are playoff teams...
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RE: The Road to Glendale: NFL Playoffs discussion
December 24, 2014 at 7:45 pm
The Steelers are definitely a playoff-worthy team, particularly if they beat the Bengals this weekend - Cincinnati looks very good and Pittsburgh will has their work cut out for them.
How 'bout a shout out for Seattle? After starting 3-3, I thought my team was done, but with a win against the Rams on Sunday, the number one NFC seed is all all but locked up. Home field advantage throughout the playoffs? That's a phrase that's not in any Seahawks fan's vocabulary - particularly not in back to back seasons. Trouble is, the Rams are the only NFC west team to beat Seattle this season. Thankfully we're at home for the regular season finale.
I know Cards fans would love to have a home field Super Bowl, but they're not playing well going into the playoffs and it would not surprise me to see them lose to the 49ers this weekend.
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RE: The Road to Glendale: NFL Playoffs discussion
December 24, 2014 at 8:02 pm
The defense is a sieve. The killer B's can't score enough against a balanced team to stay in it. Best case scenario is that the Steelers get the third seed. They can't get a first round bye.
I had typed up a whole scenario, but even I was having a hard time visualizing, so I googled it and found this:
![[Image: All_Seeding_Combinations_for_the_AFC_Bas...mgur.0.png]](https://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ScD_fZ3hqp0TLlsuhPkjGy0K-J8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2873754/All_Seeding_Combinations_for_the_AFC_Based_on_the_Outcomes_of_Week_17_Games_-_Imgur.0.png)
So the best thing for the Steelers is to win this week, lock up #3, and have KC, CLE, and HOU win so we play Houston at home. With Case Keenum or some other scrub off the street at the helm. If we lose, we're playing the Colts in Indy.
"There remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking." ~Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great
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RE: The Road to Glendale: NFL Playoffs discussion
December 24, 2014 at 8:04 pm
The Seahawks just finished what I assumed was going to be a brutal five-game stretch. They were 6-4 at the time, and I figured that if they went 3-2 in those games and beat the Rams, they'd be 10-6 and have a shot at a playoff slot. The five-game stretch WAS brutal, but for the 'Hawks opponents instead.
They have incentive to beat St Louis: not only would winning that game give them a great shot at the one seed, but the Rams beat them 28-26 in a game where they humiliated them twice on special teams, including the supreme embarrassment of tricking them into covering the wrong guy on a punt, leading to a 90-yard TD. I think they had this game circled on the calendar no matter what happened in the interim, and having the opportunity to lock up home field advantage is the icing on the cake.
If they can do that, I am hopeful that they can win a second straight title. Hope Marshawn has another 'quake or two left in him.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
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RE: The Road to Glendale: NFL Playoffs discussion
December 24, 2014 at 8:09 pm
No comment.
I can't remember where this verse is from, I think it got removed from canon:
"I don't hang around with mostly men because I'm gay. It's because men are better than women. Better trained, better equipped...better. Just better! I'm not gay."
For context, this is the previous verse:
"Hi Jesus" -robvalue
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RE: The Road to Glendale: NFL Playoffs discussion
December 24, 2014 at 8:11 pm
(This post was last modified: December 24, 2014 at 8:13 pm by Jackalope.)
Tonus, indeed that was a brutal stretch. I cringed when I saw how the back end of the season looked - Seattle has, to put it mildly, not tended to close out seasons strongly in the past. Stacking up 5 out of 6 division games at the end was sadistic. Oh, and lets throw in Philly while we're at it. Fuuuuuuck.
Wait, we won 'em all, and to boot none were even close? These are not the Seahawks I know.
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RE: The Road to Glendale: NFL Playoffs discussion
December 24, 2014 at 8:13 pm
(December 24, 2014 at 8:02 pm)SteelCurtain Wrote: So the best thing for the Steelers is to win this week, lock up #3, and have KC, CLE, and HOU win so we play Houston at home. With Case Keenum or some other scrub off the street at the helm. If we lose, we're playing the Colts in Indy.
Given how the Steelers play against guys like Mike Glennon and Zach Mettenberger, wouldn't you almost prefer Luck to Keenum?
I'm not afraid of the Colts. Pitt beat them in Indy in 2005, and Luck is no Peyton.
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RE: The Road to Glendale: NFL Playoffs discussion
December 24, 2014 at 8:56 pm
(December 24, 2014 at 8:13 pm)Ryantology (╯°◊°)╯︵ ══╬ Wrote: I'm not afraid of the Colts. Pitt beat them in Indy in 2005, and Luck is no Peyton. And this defense is no 2005 defense. That front 7 was epic. Aaron Smith, Casey Hampton, Kimo von Oelhoffen, Joey Porter, James Farrior, Larry Foote, and Clark Haggans. The back end had an effective Troy, Chris Hope to let him do the dirty, and Deshea and Ike, young and effective.
And that game earlier this year was a prime example of what I am talking about. Luck TORCHED this defense. Manhandled them. 400 yards. 3 TDs. It took a record 6 TDs and 522 yards out of Ben and a hundy out of Bell to beat him. You think that's happening again? I don't. I'd MUCH rather Case Keenum.
"There remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking." ~Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great
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RE: The Road to Glendale: NFL Playoffs discussion
December 24, 2014 at 9:50 pm
(This post was last modified: December 24, 2014 at 9:53 pm by Ryantology.)
(December 24, 2014 at 8:56 pm)SteelCurtain Wrote: (December 24, 2014 at 8:13 pm)Ryantology (╯°◊°)╯︵ ══╬ Wrote: I'm not afraid of the Colts. Pitt beat them in Indy in 2005, and Luck is no Peyton. And this defense is no 2005 defense. That front 7 was epic. Aaron Smith, Casey Hampton, Kimo von Oelhoffen, Joey Porter, James Farrior, Larry Foote, and Clark Haggans. The back end had an effective Troy, Chris Hope to let him do the dirty, and Deshea and Ike, young and effective.
And that game earlier this year was a prime example of what I am talking about. Luck TORCHED this defense. Manhandled them. 400 yards. 3 TDs. It took a record 6 TDs and 522 yards out of Ben and a hundy out of Bell to beat him. You think that's happening again? I don't. I'd MUCH rather Case Keenum.
Remember their defense? I think even I caught a TD off Ben that day. And look what Tony Romo just did to them. They were never even in that game. So yes, I think a repeat of our dominant offensive performance is entirely in the realm of possibility in a rematch with the Colts.
No, the Colts are absolutely the better matchup for the 2014 Steelers, because the Colts defense is worse than our defense, and our offense is better than theirs. Pittsburgh scored 21 more points against the Colts D than the Texans D.
That plays to our strength. This year's Steelers will win if its 20th ranked defense that can hold back good offenses just enough for our #2 ranked offense to outrun them. That works much better against the Colts' paper D than it does against the likes of J. J. Watt. And, we played both teams at home, so you can see which one was more of a contest.
This Steeler offense is good enough to win a shootout, and if we go anywhere, it will be the Bs carrying us there. Give me the D Ben torched like a fat doob over the one that can slow down this offense. The Indy matchup is much more favorable to the way Pitt is playing right now.
Something to bear in mind: the Saints (who have the only better offense in the NFL than Pittsburgh's) are the only team since Halloween which put up more than 24 points against our defense.
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RE: The Road to Glendale: NFL Playoffs discussion
December 24, 2014 at 11:19 pm
I'm a Bengals fan so I'm hoping the last game's fourth quarter still hurts enough to be meaningful motivation. Although both teams are in, I think the Bengals/Steelers game will be the most physical game this weekend. Could be a classic if both teams can keep from turning the ball over (looking at you Hill/Dalton). If the Steelers stuff the run, we're fucked.
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