NFL Playoff Thread

Who's Thomas?

 

He's the guy on the sidelines who was doubting.

 

I wonder to what extent Pittsburgh blows up its defense during the offseason. Warren Sapp said in Week 1 they were old and tired.

 

And from that point they only proceeded to be the #1 defense in the entire NFL. Warren Sapp nailed it!

 

Did that unit look like a real No. 1 to you? They were sucking wind in the second quarter.

 

I actually remember it as a play to start a 49ers-Cowboys NFC title game, but I'm not fighting a Texas deathmatch over it, and too lazy to google it. Anybody else?

 

Outside of a couple of switches on the DL, it should look the same.

This was the #1 defense in football (passing and points against) before the game. That happened after Sapp's comment.

 

They lost two players on the DL from the start of the game, were down a starter in the secondary and were playing in high altitude.

Next year, the Steelers will be fine.

 

Montana did win two Super Bowls (and Super Bowl MVPs) without him. So while Rice certainly helped, he wasn't doing too shabby before Rice's arrival.

 

If it's the one I'm thinking of, it was against the Giants in the 1986 playoffs, only when Rice was running all alone toward the end zone, he fumbled off his knee and the Giants recovered. Final score Giants 49, 49ers 3.

 

They were terrible yesterday, but that defense did lead the NFL in points allowed and yardage this season. You don't blow up a defense that does that because of one bad game, no matter how bad that game was.

Honestly, the primary culprit was a guy who isn't going anywhere -- Ike Taylor. They do not have a better option and most of this season, they didn't need one. He was brutal yesterday, but had been his usual solid self this season. As I mentioned earlier, the problem with Taylor is when he is bad, he is horrendous. They won two Super Bowls and made it to a third with him as their top cornerback.

It is kind of foolish to judge the Steelers' defense based on one game. They played the entire game Sunday without Ryan Clark, the leading tackler and perhaps enough of a veteran not to bite on the play-action fake as badly as Ryan Mundy did on the winning touchdown. Then they lost their top two defensive linemen to injury by the end of the Broncos' second possession. LaMarr Woodley was once again hobbled by a hamstring that wasn't going to heal properly until he had a full offseason of rest.

Do they need some help? Sure. They could use an upgrade at cornerback. They need to continue to invest in the defensive line and find at least one long-term answer at inside linebacker. But to say that unit needs to be blown up after one bad effort while missing three starters and having their best pass rusher play like a shell of his normal self due to injury is pretty foolish.

 

Exactly. Montana played half of his career without Rice and he was already a great quarterback. I'm amazed at just how many people don't realize that.