A 500-pound porker sitting in the corner
Cold, Hard Football Facts for the week of Jan. 20-26, 2005
New England enters the AFC title game with a long list of obvious and irrefutable advantages over Pittsburgh: coaching, quarterbacking, big-game experience and offensive production to name the four most notable.
In the cruel, unforgiving world inhabited by the Cold, Hard Football Facts, digesting that data would normally be enough to energize the analysts. But in this instance it?s not. As the vast community of fans, ?pundits? and angry trolls gather 'round the communal water cooler of the airwaves and cyberspace to discuss one of the biggest games in NFL history, there?s a 500-pound porker of a Cold, Hard Football Fact wallowing in the corner of the room.
It looks like this: Pittsburgh 34, New England 20.
Slice it into bacon and grind it into sausage. It's still hard to swallow.
***
New England coach Bill Belichick is the undisputed best in football and, just to gain some certification from the notary public of pigskin, the Cold, Hard Football Facts, a win on Sunday will tie him with Vince Lombardi for best postseason coaching record in NFL history (9-1). Pittsburgh coach Bill Cowher is attempting to toss King Kong off his back, win just his second AFC title game at home in five attempts and make his first Super Bowl appearance since Barry Switzer (yes, Switzer) was the king of pro football coaches.
New England quarterback Tom Brady is also the undisputed best in football and, just to gain some certification himself, a win on Sunday will give Brady the record for most consecutive playoff wins (8-0) by a quarterback to start a career. A win will also position Brady for a potential third Super Bowl victory/MVP award. Pittsburgh rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was asked this season to hand off the ball more and throw it less than any other QB in the league.
New England?s big-game experience is second to none. The team is playing for its third Super Bowl appearance in four years. Five very key Patriots take the field Sunday battling for the right to make the fourth Super Bowl appearance of their careers (Brown, Bruschi, Johnson, McGinest, Vinatieri)
New England?s offense averaged 27.3 points per game this season, fourth best in football and No. 1 among the four remaining teams. (Philly, 24.1 PPG; Pittsburgh, 23.2 PPG; Atlanta, 21.2 PPG).
Even in certain areas where the pigskin public thinks the Steelers hold obvious advantages over the Patriots, they do not.
Take Pittsburgh?s vaunted running game. No team in football ran the ball more often than Pittsburgh and only Atlanta ran for more yards. But New England ballcarriers average 4.1 yards per attempt; Pittsburgh ballcarriers average 4.0 yards per attempt.
Corey Dillon averaged 4.7 yards per carry; Duce Staley averaged 4.3; Jerome Bettis averaged 3.8. Dillon rushed for 1,635 yards; the firm of Staley & Bettis ran for 1,771 yards.
On the defensive side of the ball, a mere nine points divided the two teams over the course of the season (Pittsburgh, 251; NE, 260). But if we include the playoffs, New England now surrenders an NFL-low 15.5 points per game. Pittsburgh gives up 15.8 points per game. Yes, Pittsburgh?s defense was marvelous against the N.Y. Jets, holding their offense to just 3 points; but New England did the same against the fifth-highest scoring offense in NFL history.
***
But all those Cold, Hard Football Facts mean nothing compared with this one:
Pittsburgh 34, New England 20. Record 21-game win streak? Over.
Pittsburgh proved it was more than a one-hit wonder the following week when it thrashed 7-0 Philly, 27-3. It was Philly?s most lopsided loss since a 35-13 defeat against Indy two years earlier.
The Steelers became the first team in NFL history to beat undefeated teams on consecutive weeks so late in the season. Their dominance in those two games was awe inspiring: The Steelers rushed for 473 yards and surrendered just 28. Pittsburgh held the ball for a total of 84 minutes, 47 seconds. New England and Philly? Just 35:13. The Steelers, of course, have won every single game they've played since.
New England's loss to Pittsburgh was a day in which the wheels literally fell of the 21-game win-streak wagon. The Patriots played without their best runner (Dillon), best receiver (Deion Branch), top fullback (Patrick Pass) and starting offensive tackle (Tom Ashworth). Ty Law was lost for the game, and the season, in the first quarter. New England?s other starting offensive tackle, Matt Light, went down, too.
And, of course, the Patriots committed four turnovers. They gained none. No matter who you are in the NFL, you lose almost every single time when you?re -4. In fact, over the last two years, the Patriots have lost just four games. They turned the ball over four times in each loss. New England could not beat lowly Miami committing four turnovers. They certainly had no shot against Pittsburgh coughing up the ball four times.
Since that day, though, the Patriots returned to form and have been the most dominant team in football. They are 9-1 in the 10 games since and have outscored their opponents by better than a 2-1 margin (28.9-13.9; +15.0), the best margin in football over that period. Pittsburgh has bested the opposition by an average 22.2-13.4 (+8.8) margin over the same 10-game period.
The signs are all good for New England. But they may mean nothing when all is said and done. After all, PIttsburgh 34, New England 20 is one roly-poly snorting porker of a Cold, Hard Football Fact to have on your side. Even a master pigskin butcher like the Cold, Hard Football Facts has trouble carving up that one.
Cold, Hard Football Facts for the week of Jan. 20-26, 2005
New England enters the AFC title game with a long list of obvious and irrefutable advantages over Pittsburgh: coaching, quarterbacking, big-game experience and offensive production to name the four most notable.
In the cruel, unforgiving world inhabited by the Cold, Hard Football Facts, digesting that data would normally be enough to energize the analysts. But in this instance it?s not. As the vast community of fans, ?pundits? and angry trolls gather 'round the communal water cooler of the airwaves and cyberspace to discuss one of the biggest games in NFL history, there?s a 500-pound porker of a Cold, Hard Football Fact wallowing in the corner of the room.
It looks like this: Pittsburgh 34, New England 20.
Slice it into bacon and grind it into sausage. It's still hard to swallow.
***
New England coach Bill Belichick is the undisputed best in football and, just to gain some certification from the notary public of pigskin, the Cold, Hard Football Facts, a win on Sunday will tie him with Vince Lombardi for best postseason coaching record in NFL history (9-1). Pittsburgh coach Bill Cowher is attempting to toss King Kong off his back, win just his second AFC title game at home in five attempts and make his first Super Bowl appearance since Barry Switzer (yes, Switzer) was the king of pro football coaches.
New England quarterback Tom Brady is also the undisputed best in football and, just to gain some certification himself, a win on Sunday will give Brady the record for most consecutive playoff wins (8-0) by a quarterback to start a career. A win will also position Brady for a potential third Super Bowl victory/MVP award. Pittsburgh rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was asked this season to hand off the ball more and throw it less than any other QB in the league.
New England?s big-game experience is second to none. The team is playing for its third Super Bowl appearance in four years. Five very key Patriots take the field Sunday battling for the right to make the fourth Super Bowl appearance of their careers (Brown, Bruschi, Johnson, McGinest, Vinatieri)
New England?s offense averaged 27.3 points per game this season, fourth best in football and No. 1 among the four remaining teams. (Philly, 24.1 PPG; Pittsburgh, 23.2 PPG; Atlanta, 21.2 PPG).
Even in certain areas where the pigskin public thinks the Steelers hold obvious advantages over the Patriots, they do not.
Take Pittsburgh?s vaunted running game. No team in football ran the ball more often than Pittsburgh and only Atlanta ran for more yards. But New England ballcarriers average 4.1 yards per attempt; Pittsburgh ballcarriers average 4.0 yards per attempt.
Corey Dillon averaged 4.7 yards per carry; Duce Staley averaged 4.3; Jerome Bettis averaged 3.8. Dillon rushed for 1,635 yards; the firm of Staley & Bettis ran for 1,771 yards.
On the defensive side of the ball, a mere nine points divided the two teams over the course of the season (Pittsburgh, 251; NE, 260). But if we include the playoffs, New England now surrenders an NFL-low 15.5 points per game. Pittsburgh gives up 15.8 points per game. Yes, Pittsburgh?s defense was marvelous against the N.Y. Jets, holding their offense to just 3 points; but New England did the same against the fifth-highest scoring offense in NFL history.
***
But all those Cold, Hard Football Facts mean nothing compared with this one:
Pittsburgh 34, New England 20. Record 21-game win streak? Over.
Pittsburgh proved it was more than a one-hit wonder the following week when it thrashed 7-0 Philly, 27-3. It was Philly?s most lopsided loss since a 35-13 defeat against Indy two years earlier.
The Steelers became the first team in NFL history to beat undefeated teams on consecutive weeks so late in the season. Their dominance in those two games was awe inspiring: The Steelers rushed for 473 yards and surrendered just 28. Pittsburgh held the ball for a total of 84 minutes, 47 seconds. New England and Philly? Just 35:13. The Steelers, of course, have won every single game they've played since.
New England's loss to Pittsburgh was a day in which the wheels literally fell of the 21-game win-streak wagon. The Patriots played without their best runner (Dillon), best receiver (Deion Branch), top fullback (Patrick Pass) and starting offensive tackle (Tom Ashworth). Ty Law was lost for the game, and the season, in the first quarter. New England?s other starting offensive tackle, Matt Light, went down, too.
And, of course, the Patriots committed four turnovers. They gained none. No matter who you are in the NFL, you lose almost every single time when you?re -4. In fact, over the last two years, the Patriots have lost just four games. They turned the ball over four times in each loss. New England could not beat lowly Miami committing four turnovers. They certainly had no shot against Pittsburgh coughing up the ball four times.
Since that day, though, the Patriots returned to form and have been the most dominant team in football. They are 9-1 in the 10 games since and have outscored their opponents by better than a 2-1 margin (28.9-13.9; +15.0), the best margin in football over that period. Pittsburgh has bested the opposition by an average 22.2-13.4 (+8.8) margin over the same 10-game period.
The signs are all good for New England. But they may mean nothing when all is said and done. After all, PIttsburgh 34, New England 20 is one roly-poly snorting porker of a Cold, Hard Football Fact to have on your side. Even a master pigskin butcher like the Cold, Hard Football Facts has trouble carving up that one.
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