Dr. Tyler; Captain America

Pittsburgh -- 17 Arizona @ Detroit (3.5) Atlanta @ Tampa Bay (3.5) (3.5) Buffalo @ Miami Carolina @ New Orleans (1.5) Cincinnati @ Baltimore (7.5) Houston @ NY Jets (3.5) (7.5) Minnesota @ Chicago (7.5) New England @ Cleveland San Francisco @ St. Louis (10.5) Tennessee @ Indianapolis (10.5) Denver @ San Diego (3.5) Kansas City @ Oakland (3.5) Green Bay @ Philadelphia (6.5) NY Giants @ Washington (1.5) (4.5) Pittsburgh @ Jacksonville Dallas @ Seattle (8.5)

The reason they can run the ball, though, is because Ben can throw the ball. Thus, they can't put 8-9 in the box.

It also discourages people from buying our T-bonds, which means we have to raise interest rates.

The Foriegner belt reigns supreme!

Good luck getting a job when you prostituted yourself on national TV to sell a candy bar, Ivana.

And by all means, it's your God-given right to do that. We're just using our other mediums to get other types of discussion going.

The reason I blog is because I have quite a few large article-type posts I would like to make. However, ninety percent of them would become muddled down with semantics and partisan baiting if posted on this board in particular.

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But hey, he came up with the color codes!

Good to see Pitt trashing local PA teams.

I know, I'm just pitching for him

Not to mention the fact that they're not a power running team.

The problem being that the Giants have no offensive line and Tiki has done his "arguably the league's best running back this year" routine against inferior competition. And Dallas scoring 21 on them is actually working against your argument. The problem is that their other opponents have been the likes of Chicago and Detroit. That's not their fault, nor is the NFC East's weakness. They're playing as well as they need to in order to win. But the stat is simply worthless when you consider their competition.

Okay, 27 and 31. But the point is that, as Mad Dog said, scoring defense is an incredibly overrated stat when you play in the NFC East.

27-3. Can't remember what the Browns' score was, but they also ran all over them and took them to OT in a high scoring game.

The entire front seven is undersized. See: how quickly they got winded when facing the Steelers. It's a fundamental flaw in how the personnel was assembled, as was stated earlier in the thread. They're built for speed, not to play against a running team like the Steelers. See how easily Kearse is blown off the ball in running plays? See how their DL and LBs looked like they were on roller skates against the Tubby Tailback? They aren't big enough up front to deal with a running team. Plain and simple. Both NE and Pittsburgh from the AFC, and possibly GB and ATL in the NFC will run all over Philly.

If you're going to argue that New England's loss to Pittsburgh was solely because of injuries, at least give the Steelers the same benefit of the doubt for the last few games. Their injury list is absurd. All of the following have missed significant time (if not the whole season) this year (significant injuries to key positions in bold) RG K. Simmons WR P. Burress RB D. Staley RB V. Haynes FB D. Krieder Backup FB M. Cushing TE J. Riemersma QB T. Maddox QB C. Batch MLB K. Bell CB C. Scott NT C. Hampton LDE K. von Oelhoffen (probably out this week) Backup DE B. Kiesel Backup FS M. Logan I give Philly all the credit in the world for being 10-1 at this point, but to blame their one loss on the shoulders of one player -- especially when the team they faced was injury laden and did it anyways -- is absurd. They've got fundamental flaws in their front seven that need to be addressed somehow before they make any type of run. And when Pittsburgh gets healthy, I don't think any team in the league -- including New England -- can stop them.

You're missing the whole point of why Pittsburgh dominated Philly. Philly's defensive front seven is not a championship squad. They're all undersized and they get beat up when the other team commits to the run. They get pushed around and winded rather quickly, and it'll happen again and again unless they make a serious committment to the run on their offense. They HAVE to win the TOP battle, because quite frankly, their defense can't hold against the better offensive lines in the NFL.

Maybe, but I'm just not buying it. I have no doubts that the Eagles could, quite possibly, run over the NFC. But my main problem with your argument is that you said they could run over the AFC, as well. I think New England and Pittsburgh both could stop them, even at full strength. And I know for a fact that both offenses could dominate their defensive front 7, which is a huge problem for the Eagles.

The Eagles have always had an above average running attack, though. Some guy named Duce Staley has been behind McNabb for several years, and it hasn't made a lick of a difference. They've always been a pass heavy team, and to think that they were gonna run it thirty times against the Steelers had Westbrook been healthy is purely disingenuous. They bracketed off TO and made the other recievers beat them. The Eagles couldn't do it. Game over.

Man, there are a LOT of ex-Steelers on the Jags.

He, himself, said that the injury was a bruised rib. He, himself, said it wasn't even that serious. He got the ball a few times in the first half and was ineffective. They tried running it up the middle with a thicker-bodied runner -- Levens -- as a result. They knew that the only way to exploit Pitt's run D is to take advantage of the fact that Casey is out for the year. They failed because their O-Line wasn't up to the task.

The Steelers do NOT need another running back. Fast Willie Parker is eventually going to be a stud, and Duce will be fine. Bettis should retire after this season. As far as the secondary goes, they need a third corner. But that's it. Townsend should be replaced by Couclough in a few year's time, and Taylor should be able to replace the Williams/Scott mess. The safeties are both all-pro caliber, and that should be fine. They need a replacement for Hartings' creaky knees, and they need another good tackle, as was said before. I'd like to see them keep both recievers, but it ain't gonna happen. I expect Ward to be the one who walks, though, due to the rapport Ben and Plax are working up. And Jimmy correctly pointed out that since Kendrell will probably walk (I just wish he'd have been healthy... he could've been something), we need another MLB to go beside MVP Farrior.

He wasn't still injured against Pittsburgh. He was ineffective because the Steelers render cutback runners ineffective.

I'll let you, and the city of New England, stay overconfident about beating the Steelers. I'll just say that the Steelers match up better against a healthy Patriots team than you're giving them credit for.