More Thoughts on How the Patriots Can Be Beaten

In August, when we published our Preseason Preview Issue for our PossessionPoints.com subscribers, we predicted the Patriots would go 15-1 with one loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Now, since that time, we have had our doubts that this would occur because the Ravens have not lived up to their potential or their 2006 performance. However, this week proved that if a team like the Ravens does perform, they can beat the Patriots even without help from referees.

The essential ingredients in the formula for victory over New England are: a strong offense who can carry out long, time-consuming drives; a good to excellent running game; a hard-hitting defensive secondary to intimidate and throw the Patriots’ receivers off their routs; and as we mentioned before, a strong wind to curtail the aerial attack of the great and talented Tom Brady; and some ability from the defensive line to put pressure on Brady so he doesn’t have all day to find a receiver.

If you watched the Baltimore – Patriots game this week, you would have seen how big a role the wind played in Brady’s performance. Granted, the Patriots did adapt and New England put together a heck of a running and short passing game with Laurence Maroney as a key player, but you could tell not having Brady’s long passes did affect the confidence of the Patriots’ team.

So, are the Steelers this week capable of pulling out the ultimate victory? They could be as they have a few weapons in their favor, and to be honest, the Patriots have not looked either unshakable or unbeatable in the last two weeks. A few breaks their way was the difference between New England posting a “W” or taking home their first loss.

In Pittsburgh’s corner, we have Willie Parker at Running Back and Troy Polamalu, a hard-hitting strong safety. A problem may arise in that Polamalu has been injured and missed last week’s game against the Bengals. Another problem is that the Steelers have performed erratically this season especially in three of their losses and one of their wins. Their offense seems to be a little out of sync and having a hard time finishing their opponents off. If they are to beat the Patriots’ this week, they will most likely need a zero-turnover game and a top performance by Parker and a few objective refs would help.

PossessionPoints ranks the Steelers defense at number one against New England’s offense which is ranked number one. The Steelers offense comes in at number three and the Patriots’ defense at number 10. This could be an exciting match, but we think the Patriots are homesick for those quiet games where they just tore everyone apart. Those days may be done as the season’s grows closer. Everybody wants to be the team to take down the king and beat the unbeaten. Anyone have a weather report for Foxboro this weekend?

If you haven't read it already, be sure to read our first article on this topic: "The How, When and Where of the Patriots’ First Loss".