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September 24, 2005

Early Sunday Musings

Some weeks, you get an immediate sense of what's going to happen with the Patriots in their upcoming game. Other weeks, it's tougher to get a read.

I've had a hard time trying to get a read on today's game between the Patriots and Steelers probably because of the shoddy display by the Pats last week against Carolina.

It's been hard enough figuring out where that performance came from; I hadn't even really deciphered what I thought New England would try to do against Pittsburgh's defense.

Eating dinner Saturday night and reading my Sporting News, I got a clue.

Bill Belichick spent the week lauding all the Steelers but he really praised safety Troy Polamalu.

In this week's issue, Ravens coach Brian Billick said of Polamalu, "You need a really good tight end to neutralize him because open space is not his forte. He is good at coverage but it is not his forte. If you have a good tight end it forces their safeties to pay more attention to the passign game and he can't play near as much near the line.That gives your running game a better chance to succeed and that's how you have to attack the Steelers -- running it and using your tight end."

The Patriots have two good tight ends and Pittsburgh hasn't seen one of them -- Ben Watson. Now, Watson didn't have a great week against Carolina -- few guys did -- and one of the problems was at least one misread on a sight adjustment in the second half that made Tom Brady have to reload and throw where Watson was, not where he was supposed to go.

Still, it makes sense for the Pats to try to occupy Polamalu. They went after him early last year in the AFC Championship, exploiting his aggressiveness in the running game by throwing over his head. Look for them to use Watson and Daniel Graham in his area to try to jump start the running game and keep him from crashing the box.

All that said, I still have a hard time seeing New England taking this one. I think Willie Parker's going to be a handful and the Pats running game will have to wait another week to get untracked.

*****

Tyrone Poole, Randall Gay, James Sanders and Andre Davis did not make the trip to Pittsburgh...Here's a good event I'd like to see people get behind -- Larry Izzo is presenting "Karaoke With Larry Izzo and the New England Patriots" to benefit U.S. Troops and their families . It will be held Monday, October 24 at Avalon on 15 Lansdowne Street in Boston. Izzo, Tom Brady, Tedy Bruschi, Willie McGinest, Mike Vrabel, Adam Vinatieri, Ted Johnson, Troy Brown, Drew Rosenhaus and others are expected to perform. Call Ticketmaster (617-931-2000) for tickets which go for $50 and will -- of course -- go to the troops and their families. ...Lastly, with all the talk about the Colts improved defense being their ticket to Detroit in February, folks are forgetting -- it's not their defense that keeps ending their season. It's the offense which has put up 17 points combined in the final games of the Past two seasons (24-14 in the 04 AFC Championship and 20-3 in last year's Divisional playoffs both at New England).
Flying out at 9:30

Posted by   at 10:12 PM | Permalink

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