AFC Divisional Playoff- New England Patriots 45 Denver Broncos 10

[Colts01]

January 14,2012 8pm ET
Line- Pats -14

[Colts01]

How did the steelers lose to that team

[BuckeyeRidley]

How did the steelers lose to that team

Good point. Like my Saints winning in the Dome, it was the Home Effect. I think it's enough to garner a win. Sometimes it means you get too comfortable, like what Bill Parcells said, or in this case you can win a playoff game. If the Home Effect is the cause, that will separate when playing on the road.

[RSConn5]

Although it came to halting stop today, the Broncos and Tebow were the story of the year this season. I watched every second of the Broncos season once Tebow took over and I have never been more amazed or had more fun watching a team. In my opinion, I think Tebow earned the right to be the starting QB at the beginning of next season regardless of who Elway decides to bring in or whatever happens in training camp/preseason. I am extremely interested to see how he improves as a QB with Elway working with him in the offseason and how the Broncos coaching staff can evolve by studying the spread offense more and bringing in personnel that match the system. I'm not sure if what the Broncos did this year can be a long term thing but I hope that it is.

[Trumpetbdw]

How did the steelers lose to that team

Emotion of being at home, played their A game compared to Pittsburgh's D effort, terrible defensive game plan by Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh, the bulliers, were exposed this year as a team that can be bullied. Injuries are an easy answer too, but I don't think they played nearly the key role that many others do. Pouncey and Clark were the biggest impact losses, and they should have been overcome. And despite all that, they were one first down from attempting a game winning FG that would have been missed, sending the game to OT anyway.

NE was ready with their A game. Denver followed their emotional game 6 days later on the road with a should-have-been-predictable D effort. But when you have an inexplainable QB at the helm, it's easy to ignore the tea leaves and think there's a bigger picture, when on the football field, there rarely is.

[Trumpetbdw]

Although it came to halting stop today, the Broncos and Tebow were the story of the year this season. I watched every second of the Broncos season once Tebow took over and I have never been more amazed or had more fun watching a team. In my opinion, I think Tebow earned the right to be the starting QB at the beginning of next season regardless of who Elway decides to bring in or whatever happens in training camp/preseason. I am extremely interested to see how he improves as a QB with Elway working with him in the offseason and how the Broncos coaching staff can evolve by studying the spread offense more and bringing in personnel that match the system. I'm not sure if what the Broncos did this year can be a long term thing but I hope that it is.

I agree. I think there are two teams that thought they may be QB-less going into next season that now have a QB they can trust going forward. Tim Tebow has earned the right to prove he is their answer, and Alex Smith has officially proven that he's ready to be a legit winning NFL QB.

[mikesteelnation1]

Emotion of being at home, played their A game compared to Pittsburgh's D effort, terrible defensive game plan by Pittsburgh, and Pittsburgh, the bulliers, were exposed this year as a team that can be bullied. Injuries are an easy answer too, but I don't think they played nearly the key role that many others do. Pouncey and Clark were the biggest impact losses, and they should have been overcome. And despite all that, they were one first down from attempting a game winning FG that would have been missed, sending the game to OT anyway.

NE was ready with their A game. Denver followed their emotional game 6 days later on the road with a should-have-been-predictable D effort. But when you have an inexplainable QB at the helm, it's easy to ignore the tea leaves and think there's a bigger picture, when on the football field, there rarely is.

I agree trumpet, at no point were we bullies. I have my own hypotheses to the cause, and have a post planned for the post season. We brought our d game, and would have been an f game were it not for Isaac redman, and Ben in the hurry up.

Here's what I feel were the 3 main causes of the loss.

1. Pittsburgh showed up not ready to play. Passion, aggressiveness, game plan. Denver swept us in those 3 aspects.

2. Pittsburgh was out coached on both sides of the ball. Offense sucked in the red zone, and was totally inconsistent unless operating from the hurry up. 2 horrible gaffes that cost this game on offense. On defense we got spanked time and time again. Bad scheme, or poor execution of the one laid out. I'll address the gaffes on both sides of the ball in #3.

3. In opposition trumpet, the major deciding factor was not having pouncey or Clark. Shouldn't have been but it was. The high snap by legursky, the protection issues late that led to the fumble sack. All on pouncey not being able to be 100%. It is what it is, but if were pointing out root causes this is 1b. No high snap, and better protection with him healthy. Issue 1a is no Clark. Those uncovered routes don't happen with Clark. He's polamalus robin. He covers for his over aggression at times, and has the speed and knowledge to recover. Mundy doesn't. He's young. He's a good player, and may be listed as the back up for both safety positions, but he's a natural Ss. That's proven by his instinct to walk into the box in ot. He can't recover, and he wasn't trying to disguise. I'll call this the safety back up wild card principle. One stupid play after we crawl back after we shouldnt costs the game. I had visions of tyrone carter having his ankles broken by garrard years ago for another wild card loss. The system is predicated on both starting safeties doing what they do, knowing each other so well. To an obvious fault.

All I can say is I'm glad Denver got this beatdown instead of us. We would have made the score closer, but the Afc champ game participant from the game would not have changed.

[Pruitt]

Good luck to the winner of the Texans-Ravens game. This Pats team looks scary.