John’s Well-Educated Guesses: Patriots vs Steelers– Recap

I’m not angry, just disappointed

You’re telling me that we got a free tuddy on a broken play to Hogan, We get two interceptions (winning the turnover battle) and Tom Brady has the ball at the end of the game for a two minute drill…and we lose?  I’m not used to this.

I think we have to face facts that this is not a road team.  That will make life difficult in the playoffs…playing on the road.  Seems kind of late in the season to look so sluggish. 

Good news is that a lot of these issues can be fixed.  If anyone can get it together it’s the Patriots.  In Bill We Trust.  Just need to put together a good 60 minutes of football and we can beat anyone.

Prediction:  No mistakes – I think the Pats will have no turnovers and no head-scratchers.  Not saying there will be 0 penalties or 0 sacks, but they will limit the mental mistakes and play good situational football.  We all know that “Oh Shit” moment when we see it, and I think we avoid it on Sunday.

Result:  I tried to will this to happen.  I really did.  Does a million penalties count?  Multiple dropped balls?  A terrible TB interception in the Red Zone?  I’d say all of the above and more.  Just a lot of sloppiness that is not normally characteristic of the Patriots.  I don’t think we have played a complete game all season and keep waiting for it to happen.  (Maybe the first Miami game was good but I was drinking Goldschlager during that one so it’s hazy at best.)

Prediction:  Run Defense shows up – After getting killed by Miami on the ground, I think the run defense will get its groove back.  I predicted the Minnesota running backs would combine for less than 100 yards on the ground and nailed it.  I’m making that same call here.

Result:  This did not happen either.  Samuels ran for like 142 by himself (more on that below).  As for the run defense, and the defense as a whole, they just look….disinterested.  No one is making plays on standard runs.  We are not swarming to the ball, it just looks so vanilla.  This troubles me greatly.

Prediction:  Jaylen Samuels scores 2 times – As I mentioned, Conner is probably out and my fantasy playoff opponent picked up Samuels.  He gets to slot him at TE which is the biggest load of shit ever.  He already had Damien Williams (RB for the Chiefs) go off for 27 points…WTF, who starts a third stringer in the semi-finals??!!  Anyway, seeing as my life sucks, I think Samuels will have a huge day catching the football out of the backfield and will put the nail in my fantasy coffin.  (We’ll get ‘em next year).

Result:  So we made a converted Tight End look like Ladanian Tomlinson in his prime.  I just don’t get it.  It didn’t matter if it was a stretch run or up the gut.  We got gashed all day.  (I did win my fantasy match-up btw.  Samuels went for 18.2 but I rose above it.)

Prediction:  Pats win 28-21 – Steelers are never out of it with the personnel they have on offense.  I just think the Pats have a sense of urgency and a desire to avenge last week’s debacle.  Let’s focus on situational football and stay healthy.  The rest will take care of itself.

Result:  17-10 L.  We go back to finish the season for two games in Foxborough.  It still looks like we will win the AFC East, but we need more mojo if we want to make a run.  Crazier things have happened, lets just not lose to the Bills or Jets plz.