NFL Playoff Thread

I think the "Packers give up too many passing yards" is overblown.

A few things should be taken into consideration...

The Packers led the NFL in interceptions and had far more than any other team.

Also, when a team is as dominant as the Packers have been this year, they're going to force teams to throw against them.

 

From what I've seen of the Packers, they NEED those INTs to get their defense off the field. If they don't get the INTs in the playoffs, they could be in trouble.

 

We've been talking about that. As I mentioned earlier, he was cleared to play medically last time the Steelers went to Denver, but Tomlin decided that it wasn't worth the risk and held him out.

No Mendenhall. No Clark. No way I believe Woodley is going to play unless I see it happen. At the very least, Denver is going to be right in the game Sunday.

 

If Woodley plays, he won't be close to 100 percent. And that's a fact SJ Steeler Nation should realize won't change however far Pittsburgh goes.

More than anything Sunday, I'm curious how the offensive line will hold up against Miller, Dumervil and the rest of the Denver pass rush. Given how the line has played and how much Rapistberger loves to hold onto the ball, he might be on a stretcher by halftime.

 

Tough to say. They fell apart late in San Francisco, but the protection has been decent otherwise of late.

I agree with you regarding Woodley, which is a huge reason why their sack total is way down.

 

Pittsburgh will pop the Broncos like a zit.
Look how Tebow has performed against teams with decent to good defensive lines.
This game won't be close.

 

It's not like I expect the Broncos to win in a shootout, but their defense is good enough to make it close and the Steelers' defense has been pushed around a few times this season, especially since they had to replace Woodley with Worilds, who isn't nearly as physical.

 

Yes.. This will be another 13-9 game.

 

Do you honestly think a seasoned, veteran playoff team is afraid of the Denver Tebows.
Please, let's be serious.
Run the tape from the last two weeks.
Look for a single NFL-caliber pass from Tebow.
In BUF, at least in the first half, and probably for the entire game, every pass was high, and it's only because the Bills were crowding the box and going light in the defensive backfield that the Bronco receivers were open enough to make catches.
Part of Tebow's problem is that he doesn't have NFL-caliber receivers, as far as I can tell.
No one is fast or physical or elusive.
But the biggest problem is that Tebow is just not accurate enough, or making enough good decisions. It looked like the Bills and Chief defenders figured out who the primary receiver was by watching Tebow's eyes, and knew they didn't need to cover anyone else because he just wasn't throwing anywhere else, period.
In this copycat NFL, every defensive coordinator learns by watching what the other guys do to defend against particular people, and it won't take long to shut Tebow down completely.
I think in two or three years Tebow will be the head coach at some Christian prep school, and his name will be the answer to trivia questions.
The Steelers should crush this team.

 

And they should have crushed the Browns twice. And the Colts. And the Chiefs. The Steelers have let inferior teams hang around quite a few times this season.

Denver should have some success running the ball. Plenty of other opponents have run the ball on Pittsburgh and some of the misdirection stuff with Tebow might give the Steelers problems. Hell, Seneca Wallace gave the Steelers problems with his legs yesterday. Take away Clark and maybe the Broncos do a little more offensively than you might expect.

Throw in the uncertainty at running back and Roethlisberger's occasional brain fart or sack/fumble while holding the ball too long and I don't see this one as easy for Pittsburgh at all.

 

I've seen quite a bit of the Packers this year and had their defense on my fantasy team (nobody cares!!!), so I've paid quite a bit of attention to their D and it really is not good.

Clay Mathews even said a couple of weeks ago that when you have a QB as good as Rodgers, the defense can afford to make a couple mistakes. And they have made plenty.

But that's the thing, they DO have Rodgers and they do have that offense. If an opponent has the ball trailing by three with two or three minutes to play, I don't like the Packers' chances to get a stop. But someone's going to have to get to that position first and Rodgers will make that very difficult on anybody.

 

If anyone can decode Tebow, it's Dick LeBeau.