Heard the announcers say Patriots always beat Steelers because they spread that Steelers Defense out wide and then pick them apart. So Patriots always beat Steelers.....Meanwhile Steelers always beat Bengals. Many times we can't score. Whatever our game plan is, it's not working.

Some teams just match up better against others. Ravens can barely beat us on a down year. Other than that we dominate them even when they are "good". Yet they dominate the Steelers for the most part. It's interesting how that works.

The Steelers play a zone on defense dropping linebackers into coverage. Spreading them out is a recipe to beat them as WR's and TE's should be able to exploit the coverage.

IF the QB doesn't get sacked. Brady's line played well and he did great stepping up to avoid Harrison on the outside.

(01-25-2017, 10:30 AM)jj22 Wrote: Some teams just match up better against others. Ravens can barely beat us on a down year. Other than that we dominate them even when they are "good". Yet they dominate the Steelers for the most part. It's interesting how that works.

true statement right here. That is why the common opponent stat is a bit misleading. Well said by you jj22. 

(01-25-2017, 08:38 AM)kevin Wrote: Heard the announcers say Patriots always beat Steelers because they spread that Steelers Defense out wide and then pick them apart. So Patriots always beat Steelers.....Meanwhile Steelers always beat Bengals. Many times we can't score. Whatever our game plan is, it's not working.

What is this 'game plan' stuff that you speak of? Sounds like more of this made up journalistic stuff to me.

(01-25-2017, 05:08 PM)R3stangs Wrote: What is this 'game plan' stuff that you speak of? Sounds like more of this made up journalistic stuff to me.

Out of the last 12 times Patriots have played Steelers the Patriots have won almost all the time.  YET out of the last 12 times Bengals have played Steelers the Steelers have won almost all the time. ....SO, If the Patriots know how to spread out and pick apart Steelers defense, What is WRONG WITH OUR GAME PLAN against Steelers.   ..For example the Patriots don't seem to care if they get one rushing yard against Steelers. Meanwhile we try to keep running into their 4 linebackers up in the run D box as we do not spread them out.  So I'm not talking one or two games.  I'm talking Patriots owning Steelers last dozen games yet Steelers owning Bengals last dozen games or more. 

I can see the match up thing over a few games, but not this many games, this many years. If the Patriots show us the blueprint for beating Steelers, why don't we use it.

To me, it all boils down to coaching and preparation. Enough said.

When I read the title of this thread, I thought you were introducing an NFL version of Rock, Paper, Scissors. I was really excited till I opened it and was reminded how bad we suck!

(01-25-2017, 08:04 PM)kevin Wrote: Out of the last 12 times Patriots have played Steelers the Patriots have won almost all the time.  YET out of the last 12 times Bengals have played Steelers the Steelers have won almost all the time. ....SO, If the Patriots know how to spread out and pick apart Steelers defense, What is WRONG WITH OUR GAME PLAN against Steelers.   ..For example the Patriots don't seem to care if they get one rushing yard against Steelers. Meanwhile we try to keep running into their 4 linebackers up in the run D box as we do not spread them out.  So I'm not talking one or two games.  I'm talking Patriots owning Steelers last dozen games yet Steelers owning Bengals last dozen games or more. 

I can see the match up thing over a few games, but not this many games, this many years.  If the Patriots show us the blueprint for beating Steelers, why don't we use it.

Patriots showed teams for years how to beat Manning. And nobody listened (in the regular season). We have the players, and we have the coaches to copy a game plan. We don't have the culture to pull it off.

I never been this down about the discipline of the team. Part of it is on the Coaches, part of it is a couple players, but we never grew into the poise of some of the playoff teams we saw this postseason. Not even close really. We were the wildcard weekend team that got blew out in games nobody remembers. This after a run of 5 straight. Long way to go. There's no Championship (or playoff win obviously) until this team gets mentally tough. The roster as is isn't likely to flip the switch now.

Pats go out and execute a gameplan. Simple most of the time. Poised. Bengals, never can really get on the same page in big moments to even copy what the Patriots do.

(01-25-2017, 10:10 PM)jj22 Wrote: Patriots showed teams for years how to beat Manning. And nobody listened (in the regular season). We have the players, and we have the coaches to copy a game plan. We don't have the culture to pull it off.

I never been this down about the discipline of the team. Part of it is on the Coaches, part of it is a couple players, but we never grew into the poise of some of the playoff teams we saw this postseason. Not even close really. We were the wildcard weekend team that got blew out in games nobody remembers. This after a run of 5 straight. Long way to go. There's no Championship (or playoff win obviously) until this team gets mentally tough. The roster as is isn't likely to flip the switch now.

Pats go out and execute a gameplan. Simple most of the time. Poised. Bengals, never can really get on the same page in big moments to even copy what the Patriots do.

Spot on brother !!

Until the culture here is changed, the results will remain the same. We simply do not have the discipline, moxy, unity etc. to pull it off in crunch time.

This is a team divided in so very many ways. We have no central vision, no true leader. Mike Brown meddles in everything, Paul Alexander is running his show. Marvin comes out and shoots the DC down in public. The OC doesn't have a clue what he's doing and just uses Hue's playbook.

It's a total cluster $%^#

When I watched the Steelers/Pats game the thing that really stood out to me was the pass protection.  Those same exact zone blitzes that gave Dalton hardly any chance to throw were picked up perfectly over and over again.  I was in awe of just how efficient that o-line was at walling off the pressure and allowing Brady ample time to throw.  Another thing that stood out as a major difference to me was the frequency of passes early in the game.  The Bengals seemed to try to establish the run in order to open up the pass when they played the Steelers, lining up in obvious running formations and getting stuffed, where the Pats decided to make them find an answer to the pass first.  

(01-25-2017, 05:08 PM)R3stangs Wrote: What is this 'game plan' stuff that you speak of? Sounds like more of this made up journalistic stuff to me.

Exactly! Anything about "game plans" is nothing more than fake news. Teams don't need a game plan. They need to make plays, take care of the football, execute, do their job, make plays, make more plays, and do all the same things we've heard ad nauseum since 2003....