chococoke

I'm not saying hide a potentially serious injury from coaches. I mean playing through an injury and not going HEY EVERYONE I'M PLAYING WITH AN INJURY. To us non-Steelers fans, it looks ridiculous. To you, it makes him look tough. I'm not saying he isn't a tough QB because the man is huge and can take punishment, but he loves letting people know that he's playing hurt. Take a guy like Gronk's replacement, Martellus Bennett. He's been playing through a high ankle sprain since week 5. That's about as serious an injury as you can try to play through without serious time off (Lacy tried to and ended up needing surgery.) Bennett has been asked about his ankle and refuses to tell anyone it's affecting his play. Also, Ben hasn't exactly been 100% honest about his injuries. Remember last year when he allegedly had a serious shoulder injury (playoffs I believe?) and then went and threw 60 yards downfield ON THE FIRST PLAY. Look, I'm not trying to convince you that Ben is a drama queen. But it's also not a stupid idea nor an opinion only held by Raven and I

Playoffs so far this year: blowout, blowout, blowout, blowout, blowout, blowout, close game!, winner doesn't score a TD, blowout, blowout Pats only play close games in Super Bowls though so don't worry. Also re: Big Ben drama queen, what Raven said is basically my opinion on the matter. Most competitive players would go out of their way to conceal their injury. Ben goes out of his way to make it known he's playing hurt. This was comically underscored to me when he showed up at his press conference after the Miami win in a boot and basically said "donno what happened but I'll be out there next week!" I know he got rolled up on or whatever but COME ON with that nonsense

I think Bill O'Brien is a pretty good head coach, too. The guy is basically the only successful Belichick disciple to make it has a head coach. His teams haven't been spectacular, but he's also had utter dog crap at the most important position in the game. I think a rough top 5 of coaches for me is 1) Belichick 2) John Harbaugh 3) Carroll 4) Billy O? Uh, this is getting tough. I think I'm gonna just make it a top 3. I don't know if there's ever been a more underwhelming group of coaches in the league. Even the coaches for perennial playoff contenders have deep flaws (Reid, Tomlin) and the others who are long-tenured have ugly marks on their records. Ironically, Jim Harbaugh would've made my list at 2 or 3 if he didn't get fired by the 49ers

Honestly, I think the Falcons have a better than 50-50 shot at winning LI. Their offense has too many options to be effectively limited, and the combination of Freeman/Coleman will be the ultimate X factor in that game. Bill likes to change his game plan but the one thing that almost always hold true for his defense is he will allow you to check down to your RB. 2 explosive RBs that are factors in the passing game? Yikes

I agree captains made it slightly more watchable. I hate the Pro Bowl though and haven't bothered turning it on in like a decade

Tomlin has also always had a top 5 QB and a (usually) decent/good defense. I've always questioned his in-game decisions (the ones I've seen, anyway. I don't watch the Steelers too often.) Reading Tomlin's comments on Ben, though, it certainly seems like there's a bit of friction between the two of them

Why do you like Tomlin, though? Do you think he's a good coach?

So, I don't actually believe he's going to retire. I also don't believe he made those comments because of the game against the Pats. It seems more likely that he's trying to get some kind of shake up, likely at the coaching level. I'm not saying he wants Mike Tomlin fired, but the fact that the Steelers still use the same defense against Tom Brady (who has NEVER had trouble with that scheme) is a huuuuuuge red flag in the NFL, where it's essentially adapt or be forgotten. Also, Ana, my earlier post was sarcasm. Feel free to criticize my opinions at your leisure. That's why I post them :)

True. I'll take a lap

Towelie perspective

OMG Ana, can you just leave me alone? Why are you calling my ideas stupid?! You always come after me whenever I post! STOP

Sorry Slade, but Tom is going to retire with at least 5 rings. Also, if you have tangible proof that cheating led to any of the past 4 rings, I'm all ears. Btw, Pats have done well past 3-4 years? Did you just start watching the NFL? Big Ben said he might retire, LOL. Dude must really hate playing the Pats. Except he's really just a drama queen that loves attention

What's mean spirited about that? YOU'RE the one calling my team assholes for no reason. Do you understand what injury Bell even sustained?

How are you gonna call the Pats assholes when Bell strained his groin? That's a bit silly this game is awesome tho. Steelers are still giving 8-9 yards of cushion to our WRs when it hasn't worked for the past decade+. I don't understand that also YEAHHHHHH WE BACK IN THE SUPER BOWL BABY! Malcolm Butler shut down AB pretty easily all game, the Steelers defensive game plan was crap, and the killer B's are soft. BRING ON ATLANTA

To me, the move to LA further underscores that the NFL doesn't give a rat's ass about fans and only cares a kit revenue streams. I mean, for fuck's sake, the Chargers are going to spend the next 2 seasons playing home games at an arena that seats 30k. The hell?

I love that Joey Porter got arrested yesterday after the Steelers won. Is there a more Joey Porter move than that?

Apparently Ben showed up to his press conference with a walking boot and said he didn't know what his injury was... this dude srs?

It would've though. Pittsburgh would've had to actually respect Tannehill's arm instead of stacking the box to stop the run every play

They also gave up a few free third downs via penalty. If they were gonna win today they had to fire in all cylinders. They shot themselves in the foot quite often

BEATING THE DOLPHINS IS WORTH CAPITAL LETTERS?? WOW I MISSED THAT MEMO HAHAHA. Seriously though the Dolphins are a clown squad. They've put on a clinic on how to not play a playoff game

Lol I was referring to when you post in all caps about him, which happens quite often

Not trying to encourage you to continue posting obnoxious all-caps love for AB, but getting burned by him doesn't necessarily make you bad. That said, Peters is the type that likes gamble on certain scenarios, and is willing to live with the consequences, for better or worse. Malcolm Butler really should've been first team All-Pro over him

The Chiefs definitely have the best defense in the AFC, but I'm not too high on their secondary. I think Marcus Peters is overrated and has a tendency to get burned. KC certainly has the best pass rush of any AFC team, but our tackles have played remarkably well. I think Marcus Cannon allowed 1 sack after week 1. The improved play from our offensive line coupled with Brady being a system QB and knowing where the hot reads are has neutralized most pass rushes this season. Also, don't sleep on the addition of Michael Floyd. When Gronk went down, many people around here freaked out - and for good reason. But the offense really hasn't missed a beat between the 20's. His absence is most felt when the offense reaches the red zone. Michael Floyd will help immensely there. If you don't agree, just watch his TD catch from last week. He fights through 5-6 tacklers to score

As much as I would love for the Giants to make it to the SB this year, I'm putting my money on Green Bay from the NFC. As for the AFC, well, it's really cute that all of the other AFC teams are bothering to show up, but the Pats have a double bye this year and there aren't any AFC defenses that can slow down Tom Brady

YAY FOR FINALLY HAVING GOOD HEALTH ENTERING THE PLAYOFFS AND A COMPETENT RUN GAME AND A TOP DEFENSE AND ANGRY TOM BRADY