A lot of people put the heat on Mike Tomlin to beat the Patriots, but when Tom Brady is the opposing QB Ben Roethlisberger is 2-8 against them.
Brady may well be the GOAT, but at some point Ben needs to flex his HoF stuff when Tom Terrific is on the sideline.
It’s hard. It may not be fair. But that’s what needs to happen on Sunday. There's only one way Pittsburgh is going to win the game.
It ain’t going to be with the defense making plays and taking the football away. It’s not going to be with the field goal kicker hitting six through the uprights. They’re probably not going to be able to run the football. They couldn’t against Oakland’s last ranked rush defense.
Ben’s had some great games in his career where he carried the team to victory. He once had 6 TD’s against the Colts and Ravens in back to back weeks. He threw for 500+ yards against the Packers and found Mike Wallace for the game winner as time expired. He can put a team on his back.
He’s never needed to do it more than right now.
I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that in order for the Steelers to win this game, they need to score 40+ points. In this league, sometimes scoring that much is a necessity. That’s the reality in 2018.
The Pats had to beat the Chiefs 43-40. The Rams had to beat the Chiefs 54-51. The Chiefs beat the Steelers 42-37. The Steelers needed more than 33 points to beat the Chargers.
We’re seeing an uptick in defense around the league because of the weather. But sometimes you have to win an old fashioned shootout.
This is one of those times.
And as bad as the Steelers defense is, the Patriots may be worse. Which means Big Ben needs to come up HUGE.
The Patriots are one of the worst teams in football at creating pressure on the QB. They’ve got just 24 sacks on the season. The Steelers have only allowed 18 sacks on the year. Ben should have time.
New England has the 22nd ranked total defense in the league. You think the Steelers are bad? They’re 7th. New England’s pass defense is 23rd in the league. Their rush defense is 15th. All of those numbers are worse than the Steelers defense, and we all know the Steelers defense hasn’t been good in 3 weeks.
This is Ben’s time to shine. Put up or go home. If the Steelers want to make the playoffs, they have to earn it now.
I don’t trust the defense. I don’t trust the special teams. I don’t really trust the coach right now.
I do know that Ben can ball out. It may take him being perfect, but that’s the only shot they’ll have to vanquish the monster.